Saturday 22 February 2014

Show Review - Drunk at the Bridewell Theatre

 One of the best things about being involved in Mill Hill Music Complex studios is that I get to find out about all manner of great bands, shows and other arts projects long before the rest of London ! Last month we had a fairly major studio booking from the McOnie Theatre Company. They needed a studio to sort out the music for a new show they were staging. As regular readers will know that one of my favourite hobbies is boozing, so imagine my excitement to find that the production was a musical dance show called "DRUNK". I was rather flattered that they should choose to make a musical about me! When I put this to Lucy Ockenden, the producer, she sadly broke the news that nope, they hadn't set my life to music, the show was an exploration of the various sides of the demon drink, brought to life by a highly talented cast of dancers.

Being a bit of a nosey git, I took the trouble to earwig on the band as they went through their paces in Studio 7. It was clear straight away that musical director and pianist Tom Kelly had assembled a fine band. The general feel of the music is swing jazz and it turns out that the music had been written by TONY nominated composer Grant Olding. Given the quality of the music, it was clear that it would be a good night out, for that alone.

So last night we secured tickets to see the show at the Bridewell Theeatre. I've not been there before, but it is a superb space and very convenient for those of us living in Mill Hill as it is only five minutes walk City Thameslink station, meaning that if I timed the trains right, the journey was less than half an hour. On my recommendation, a couple of friends met us for the show. For a show with such a title, it was only right and proper to meet for a beer first. I'd recommend "Ye Old Cheshire Cheese" on Fleet Street if you are going to the Brideswell. It is a lovely pub, claiming to be Londons oldest. It is also very reasonably priced and serves Sam Smiths ales. So after a quick livener, we made our way to the Brideswel Theatre.

As we entered the band were playing. They were going though their paces with some rather tasty Jazz improvisation. The theatre is an excellent space and there was a decent crowd. Then the show started. There were 21 interwoven pieces, with titles such as Happy Hour, G&T, Wine, Champagne and Vodka. Some were full on ensemble dance numbers and some were ballads & duets. The dancing was absolutely excellent, high energy and high on excitement. I was particularly taken with Anabel Kutay who played a very seductive Absynthe. Gemma Sutton as Ice has a great voice and Simon Hardwick was superb as the spurned "first love" as cider. The show built to a dazzling high energy Crescendo with Fruit Punch. We then had the bows and the final act was "Hangover". We've all been there haven't we !

I would highly recommend the show, if you want a night out that won't break the bank. The 80 minutes shot by, although having had a couple of pints prior to the start, I had a certain sympathy with the dancers who performed the number "breaking the seal".

Recommended

P.S for those of you looking to make a proper night of it, we took advantage of a £17.50 for 2 courses and half a bottle of wine offer at Grapolo off Fetter Lane and had an excellent meal.Well worth checking out.

1 comment:

John S said...

Not only that but the long term polling station at the junior school in Hartland Drive was closed and resisted to the new Labour government built school in Bushfield Crescent , without voters being properly informed.

I look numbers for Andrew Dismore that day and many Labour voters had gone to the wrong school to vote as did I at first. But they had time to find the new venue, the question is , how many votes were lost to Mr Dismore because people either did not have the time to attend the new venue. Or were to brasses off to bother because they like me and many others had not been properly informed of the change of venue.

I have long thought how could the election agent not ensure local people were properly informed about this change of venue, which in my mind contributed to us being lumbered with the lazy Offord when we could have continued with the hard working Diismore.