Another busy, busy day yesterday.
Strode purposefully through the rain (under an umbrella) to the Bath House at about 1pm for lunch with Lynda and Andy. We were joined by Chris, Melanie and Louise shortly afterwards. The occasion: proper grown-up entertainment.
The Willy Russell musical Blood Brothers was on at the Corn Exchange all week. We had tickets for the Saturday matinee. Theatrical know-nothing that I am, I had only the vaguest notion. Brothers, yeah, musical, yeah, Educating Rita bloke, yeah.
Apparently Linda “Yes, those Nolans” Nolan is one of the stars, but we got the understudy for her role. Good, actually: she was impressive. Belting set of lungs. Not so keen on the narrator, who was a bit too Vic Reeves Club Singer for me.
I enjoyed it a lot, despite occasional spoonfuls of sugar and slices of cheese. I suspect we’ll be mentioning “shoes on the table” and giggling for some time to come. I didn’t join in the standing ovation at the end; it felt a little forced, like feeling obliged to buy a raffle ticket when someone accosts you at the beer festival. But lots of clapping, yes.
Unexpected humour (a): the people in the row in front of us who were jumping in fright for the most unfrightening of things, like lighting changes, musical cues and naughty words.
Unexpected humour (b): a kid sitting not too far away from us, possibly a little young for the show, going “Eurgh!” in a romantic bit. I think he was giggling at the swearing too.
Unexpected humour (c): in a scene set in a classroom, the teacher is supposed to slam a desk lid on a student’s finger. Sadly the desk was the wrong way round in this performance; he tried to quickly rotate it but the game was up. A few cast members smiled at each other (maybe they did it deliberately to liven things up a little?)
Avaragado’s rating: a bag of gobstoppers
We had a post-musical cocktail at The Cow, joined incidentally by some members of the cast. Well, they were on another table. Chris shamefully failed to sing of shoes on the table within their earshot.
Then it was dinner at No. 1 King’s Parade. Yeah, not bad. I don’t remember the last time I was there – possibly a year or more ago – but I reckon the menu was longer. Food seemed about the same quality though.
Surprisingly, by 9:15 we were done and the others headed for taxis home. But.. but.. 9:15? On a Saturday night? Perhaps it was another caffeine kick from yesterday’s Espresso Martini (which kept me up until after 2am) but it seemed wrong to be going home when it was still relatively light.
So I texted RP. Turns out he was just leaving home for the Fleur, so I tagged along. Hadn’t been there for ages. Chatted to a few people with RP, had a few more drinks, then went home at a more sensible hour for a Saturday night.
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