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On the Town
Apr. 8th, 2005 01:09 pmYesterday, woke up to find message on answerphone from Jo on whether I wanted cheap tickets to On the Town, a stage version of the Gene Kelly-Frank Sinatra movie of sailors having 24 hours shoreleave in NYC and them trying to find dates. You may know the song of 'New York, New York, It's a Wonderful (helluva) Town' from said film. I have seen about thirty seconds of this film, but it was cheap (£5) and it was Jo-time.
So, first, pouting because the dumpling inn on Gerrard st was closed, so we tried elsewhere - and found one place of decent prices and, we discovered, massive helpings. Good food, shall definitely try there again.
Went to ENO and sat in balcony seats (I swear, I've never been up so high in a theatre - last time I went to the ENO it was Circle seats, which is about two levels down) Still, could see everything, so not really a problem.
The play is... well, it's jaunty, the songs are cute, especially the Cab song, but intensely confusing, since it was made up of a teensy bit of dialogue and songs (that were more high-tone than the original jazzy) interspersed with long bits of ballet. Which were immensely pretty (an important Jo factor) but could not see the point of at all. Especially the one in the second act which seemed to be an allegory of 'what happens to the girl when a sailor marries her' and we couldn't figure out the reason for at all. It was kind of thrown in between getting to Coney Island like a dream sequence - except we couldn't tell who wa suppose to be having it or why. Audience spent a lot of time going 'errrr... what just happened there?' *Loved* Madame Dilly, the song tutor, who had a small part but the best lines. Girl playing Hildy is apparently a great study of Ann Miller who played the part of the cab driver originally, and she was seriously fun, playing the NYC girl who basically chews the side of her mouth when she speaks, a la Joan Cusack, so got immense Jo approval. Everyone else was fun, but like I said, the play had too much ballet to make much sense.
Jo is tempting me to go see Billy Elliot.
So, first, pouting because the dumpling inn on Gerrard st was closed, so we tried elsewhere - and found one place of decent prices and, we discovered, massive helpings. Good food, shall definitely try there again.
Went to ENO and sat in balcony seats (I swear, I've never been up so high in a theatre - last time I went to the ENO it was Circle seats, which is about two levels down) Still, could see everything, so not really a problem.
The play is... well, it's jaunty, the songs are cute, especially the Cab song, but intensely confusing, since it was made up of a teensy bit of dialogue and songs (that were more high-tone than the original jazzy) interspersed with long bits of ballet. Which were immensely pretty (an important Jo factor) but could not see the point of at all. Especially the one in the second act which seemed to be an allegory of 'what happens to the girl when a sailor marries her' and we couldn't figure out the reason for at all. It was kind of thrown in between getting to Coney Island like a dream sequence - except we couldn't tell who wa suppose to be having it or why. Audience spent a lot of time going 'errrr... what just happened there?' *Loved* Madame Dilly, the song tutor, who had a small part but the best lines. Girl playing Hildy is apparently a great study of Ann Miller who played the part of the cab driver originally, and she was seriously fun, playing the NYC girl who basically chews the side of her mouth when she speaks, a la Joan Cusack, so got immense Jo approval. Everyone else was fun, but like I said, the play had too much ballet to make much sense.
Jo is tempting me to go see Billy Elliot.
