Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ third collaboration ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, — a satirical absurdist comedy musical from 1964 — is set in a small town where the corrupt local politicians wield influence over absolutely everything from the local mental asylum to the narrative around ‘miracles’ (which are used to bolster tourism and fill City Hall’s coffers).
Samuel Clifford, Teddy Hinde, Renan Teodoro, Marisha Morgan, Jensen Tudtud, Jordan Broatch, Nathan Taylor, Kathryn Akin, Shane Convery, and Hana Ichijo, in Anyone Can Whistle at Southwark Playhouse. Photo Danny With A Camera.
One of the more perverse and unexpected impacts of the pandemic lockdown, has been the reduction in workforce within many sections of the arts, including those departments which support the back office functions for institutions like the Royal Opera House. The hard pushed and over-stretched Press Office team managed to miscommunicate dates for the opening of La Traviata to this particular reviewer, so rather than waste my journey into Covent Garden this past Saturday, I accepted their offer of a house seat to review the ballet triple bill aimed at highlighting the talents of some of the newer bright lights of the dance fraternity. As is usual with such contrived amalgamations, it was an enjoyable but fairly mixed offering, where humanity flirted with death in a three-sectioned, mildly post-apocalyptic pas de deux.
The Courtyard Theatre (English National Opera’s former rehearsal and workshop space in Hoxton which was itself a former public library) hosts a short run of Matt Littleson’s new single-hander play One Night With Robbie Williams.