London one-way!

Last night we went and saw “In Celebration”, a new West End musical starring none other than the Orlando Bloom, in his debut theatre performance. 

Jasmine got the tickets for free, and so very nicely passed them on to us. An opportunity no way was I going to miss. Well, I had to pick the tickets up at lunch time but that was fine cos it got me out in the sun shine for a while and I got to see where the theatre was. There are so many around, but this one was nice and easy to get to – just up from Trafalgar Square or across from Leicester Square. 

When Lija and I got there, there was a big crowd around the theatre blocking the door, with heaps of photographers just standing there clicking, and young daft girls screaming out “Is it Orlando?! Oooaaahhh”.

Well, we got the security guards to push us through to the doors and let us in, just after several people were rushed inside from a nice car. We didn’t think it was anyone big, and then I turned around and saw, yes, better than Orlando – James Franco i.e. Spiderman’s best friend gone sour in the last film, with what looked like his girlfriend and her mother (mutton dressed as lamb). Will double check with the tabloids today. 

Anyway, the little immature girls who somehow got tickets to the play were standing there taking photos zoomed into James’ face. Wow, a picture of his ear. Lija and I were just like, that is so lame. Although I have to say my heart skipped a beat when I happened to glance over right when he looked directly at me and we both smiled at each other. Aaaahhhhh. 

No really, James seemed like a really nice down to earth kinda guy. And I can’t complain cos then we got to go in and watch Orlando. I have to say for his stage debut he wasn’t playing a particularly difficult part, but I admire his spirit – he does drama well.

It’s the first stage production I’ve seen, well that I can remember anyway, that hasn’t been a musical. Well, apart from one that I reviewed for the Canberra Times last year. But I only got to watch 5 minutes of that one. 

The play was a family drama based in the late sixties. The father was a miner and gave his sons more choice in life by educating them properly and the story is about their lives. Orlando plays one of the sons, but my favourite character was Andrew, played by Paul Hilton, the second of the three sons. Hilton was definitely the comedic, flamboyant, brother.

The accent was northern, so I found it a bit difficult to understand a few times, but the jokes were mostly hard and fast – apart from the bit where Steven (Bloom) was lying on the bed crying himself to sleep. His acting abilities were mostly shown in the facial and postural movements rather than actual dialogue. He was dressed like an old man too, cardigan and moustache. Not bad to look at, but not the sexiest either!

The Guardian gave it 4 out of 5 stars, and the Independent’s review was slightly so-so.

But we had a great night so that’s all that matters.

Thanks again to Jas for the tickets!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 8:54 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.