Mary Poppins

As part of Annette's 40th birthday celebrations we went to Plymouth yesterday to see 'Mary Poppins'. As we had booked the matinée, we combined the trip with some shopping and, despite my general hate of shopping, it turned out to be a very good day out. Fortunately for me, Annette did the driving and I was left in the back of the car to snooze!

The show was excellent; it has a number of differences to the film with some new songs but still included the big show numbers i.e. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time". There was also some impressive "flying" with Mary flying up over the audience and ending up disappearing over the top of us as a finale; we were in the Upper Circle so a real treat for the many schoolchildren in the audience. Bert, with a better cockney accent than Dick van Dyke (who hasn't?), walked up the side of the stage, across the top upside down and still singing, and down the other side - very impressive. For those who were watching closely, Mary did slide up the bannisters on one occasion. All in all it was a very entertaining show with a splendid cast, including two very engaging children playing Jane and Michael, and I would recommend it to anyone, except very young children.

We drove home afterwards and then we all ended up at Annette's for tea/supper. We hope that today, which is Annette's birthday, will be equally good. As I write this, the weather looks beautiful so here's hoping for the best.

SHOUT

Last night, Maria & Me, together with friends Dot & John, went to the Hall for Cornwall to see "SHOUT", a musical featuring some of the songs of the 60s and starring Claire Sweeney and Su Pollard. The consensus of opinion in our group was that the best singer was a young girl who played the part of Betty. I am afraid that I don't know her name but she was very good indeed. The most surprising was Su Pollard; although, for the most part, she sounded exactly the same as Peggy in Hi-De-Hi, she has a tremendous singing voice and also the ability to act out the words as written in the song. The outstanding performance featured Su and "Betty" singing a duet including "You're My World". It made the hairs on my arms stand on end. The total cast was six women and one man; he played a variety of parts in many guises, which largely consisted of speaking the TV adverts that were in vogue during the sixties; not PC these days; "You're never alone with a Strand" comes to mind. Anyway, there wasn't much of a story line but the music carried the show through and all the performances were good. In between the songs there were plenty of comic moments and I would say that the whole audience thoroughly enjoyed themselves, not that we could see many of them since we were in Row B and right in the middle.

New Year Update - Part 1

Having failed miserably to keep this Blog updated, this post is an attempt to briefly tell of our “doings” since the Queen Mary trip.

01 Dec 2006 - Plymouth.
Maria, Annette, Clive and I travelled to Plymouth on Friday to go to the Theatre Royal to see Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” starring Craig McLaghlan (ex Neighbours) and Ken Kercheval (ex Dallas) among others. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and, as we had booked a night at the Holiday Inn on the Hoe, it meant that we didn’t have the 55 mile drive home late at night. The ‘down’ side was that we woke up in Plymouth on Saturday morning and that meant - shopping. Never mind, Maria chose her Christmas present and we did manage to get home in the afternoon.

08 Dec 2006 - St Ives
It was time for the Annual Serco Christmas Party, held once again at the Tregenna Castle Hotel at St Ives. Once again it was a great evening and we didn’t manage to spend a penny thanks to Serco’s generosity. We did have to pay for the accommodation, which, for us, was an outside cabin with loads of room and a shower each. On Saturday, we left after breakfast, did some shopping and then came home for a rest.

15 Dec 2006 - Bordon
On Friday afternoon, Maria and I set off to play Father Christmas to three of our four grandchildren who now live in Bordon, Hampshire. We got there safely and spent a hectic evening and Saturday with Nick, Karen, Charlotte, Curtis and Connor before driving home on Sunday ready for work on Monday. A visit to the local Forestry Commission Park and School Swimming Pool were fitted into Saturday and we did the baby-sitting whilst Nick and Karen went out to a ’70s’ Party.

Nick & Karen in 70s mode

That’s all for now; part 2 will be written sometime.

All Shook Up

As the result of a notice at the Podiatry (why do we have to go American) Clinic in Newquay, Maria, Annette and me, along with another three girls, went to the Lane Theatre in Newquay to see “All Shook Up”, which was a production put on by the Pyramid Theatre Company that dealt with the problem of Type 2 Diabetes. The cast of three played a total of eight characters who were involved in one way or another with diabetes. The play centered around Frank who was a 45 year old lorry driver by day and Elvis impersonator by night. It was incredibly well done and I think that everyone in the audience learned something about diabetes, including the two health professionals present. The shame of it was the size of the audience, which cannot have been more than 15. For a free evening’s educational entertainment, that was a great pity. I learned later from the cast that they had had audiences as low as 4 in number. I guess that a combination of indifference to a serious health problem and lack of advertising was to blame. It also occurs to me to wonder just how many people in this country have ever visited a theatre to see a “Live” production of anything. Perhaps TV should bear some of the blame. Now I’m rambling again so well done to Pyramid and I hope the tour to the Hebrides went well even if you won’t be reading this. If you get a chance, go and see this - it is very important and there is plenty of humour as well.

Oh Boy

Prior to our holiday, we had booked seats at the Hall for Cornwall to see “Buddy” once again. This is the third time if my memory serves me correctly. Saturday night, there we were, second row from the front, in the middle, having a great time. I think that this production was very good and the guy who played Buddy’s part was excellent. The Big Bopper was very good too and this was the best Richie Valens that I have seen; in fact the whole cast put on an excellent evening’s entertainment which makes me want to get out my collection of Buddy Holly songs again.

The King and I

Last night, Maria and I had a night out at the Hall for Cornwall where we thoroughly enjoyed the TAODS version of The King and I. I was slightly worried to start with because the basic story, although it has many light moments, is quite serious and the definitive King played on screen by Yul Brynner is a hard act to follow. As the story progressed however, it became obvious that this was a really good production with splendind singing from the lead characters. The children were wonderful and the fact that the younger ones had a habit of looking to the audience at odd times (presumably searching for their families) was very endearing. I thought it a shame that the younsters could not take the curtain call because it was too late for them to be on stage. I understand the reasoning but I am sure that they would have got an outstanding reception.
There were many young children in the audience and I would imagine that they struggled at times to make sense of it all but the support for friends and family is always important in Amateur productions and that support was certainly evident on the night - Well Done TAODS

Call Up The Groups

A belated post to say that last week Maria and I went, with some friends to see “Call up the Groups” at the Hall for Cornwall. The groups involved, with some of their original members, were “Marmalade”, “Fortunes”, “Barron Knights” and “Tremeloes”. It was a good night, perhaps a little loud for my taste especially considering that the four lead and some of the secondary vocalists had very good voices which I found somewhat spoiled by the excess volumes employed. I especially enjoyed the rendition of Duelling Banjos (nasty film - great tune) between the lead guitarist of the Tremeloes, on Banjo, and one of the two lead guitars from the Barron Knights. There was also a rendition of the William Tell Overture by the four lead guitarists which was extremely well received. We got about 2½ hours of music for our money and we thought it good value.