Musical: Reasons to be Cheerful

Today, I was back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) for another musical - Reasons to be Cheerful. It's also available on YouTube. Interestingly, for the talk after, we were supposed to be back on Jitsi again..! 

I was a little late starting, this time - stuff got on top of me, and I joined as soon as I could. Now, I don't know much about Ian Dury and the Blockheads, on whose music this is based - for a start, the title is taken from one of their hits. As the show progressed, though, I did recognise some. The performance was given at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, by Graeae, an acting group with disabilities - some missing limbs, or deaf. Interestingly, the name comes from Greek mythological sisters, who share one eye and one tooth among the three of them..

Anyway, they do an excellent job in what's basically a jukebox musical. The story is simple but poignant - the main characters are massive fans, but haven't managed to get tickets to the band's sold-out gigs. But fate intervenes - and it looks like they can get enough tickets to take along the main character's dad, who's dying of cancer. Turns out to be a memorable night..

Protest music, this. A little before my time - but still highly relevant. I was also living in another country at the time, and didn't have the exposure - but hey, I did know some of the songs, and they're all well performed and catchy. With a decent storyline, this does make for an entertaining session.

The talk afterwards wasn't entirely successful - I'd thought we had a Jitsi link, then it turned out to be Zoom - and our host had audio problems. Ditto when we switched to Jitsi - as someone remarked, wasn't the quality better at the start of lockdown?! So, not ideal - but still, it was good to chat to people, and to hear that everyone enjoyed it. Showing till the 3rd of August. Includes subtitles.

Tomorrow, thinking of film - Mubi's highest rated offering is still I Vitelloni.

London Literary Walks' music quiz is still running..

And next Saturday, back with the same UITCS organiser for - ooh! Matthew Bourne's production of The Nutcracker! Wow, delighted - I love Matthew Bourne, and haven't seen this. And hopefully, the audio issues will be sorted! That doesn't usually happen.