So, I was in Ireland for the weekend - where I was scared silly by the news coverage of the pandemic. On Monday, I was booked for Soho Theatre again: this time, for the opening night of Tom Rosenthal's show, Manhood. But Soho Theatre got ahead of the curve by cancelling that show's entire run, of which they informed me while I was sitting on the plane, waiting for takeoff, and hadn't yet put my phone on flight mode. I checked, but Meetup didn't have great alternatives - so I said, sod it, why not come back a day later? So I cleared it with the boss, and managed to change my flight to Monday for less than £10 - the airlines are being quite accommodating about flight changes, these days.
Yesterday was, of course, Paddy's Day - and like last year, I booked with the Irish Centre in Camden. And again, they had arranged a St. Patrick's Night Special - I booked my ticket early. But earlier on Friday, they informed me that they were cancelling all of their Patrick's Day festivities. Undaunted, I searched around for something else appropriate to the day - and came up with something from my (original) cheap ticket club - they were now advertising a Patrick's Night event in the Phoenix Arts Club, with an acoustic male choral group called The Four Harps, followed by their regular entertainers, The Islanders. So I booked that instead - it sounded better than what I'd originally picked.
Now, on Monday, Boris finally decided that popular opinion had shifted enough for him to change his opinion (as he always does), and advised people to start staying at home. And all of a sudden, London venues started to close. They needed government backing first, for insurance purposes, you see. What with that, after a weekend of horror stories, and working from home yesterday (indefinitely), I felt kind of uneasy about heading out last night. But oh, did it feel good to be out! And the deserted city is certainly good for taking public transport - my bus fairly flew there, with less traffic than usual, and fewer passengers to hold us up.
It was sad, around the West End, seeing the theatres' lights still on, but knowing that they're closed indefinitely. And I've been fairly mithered with emails from them, begging me to donate the price of my cancelled ticket - several have mentioned that 80% or more of their income comes from ticket sales, and I'm pretty sure there will be theatre closures over this. So I did - and do - feel good about the few venues that are staying open, and I can go to. No-one will be more devasted than I will if theatres go under.
No ticket checks at the door - I went straight down, to a pretty deserted room. Well, I was early - I wanted to eat as well.
So, I ordered food - chicken kiev and orange tart, as I had before. Got to say, the tart was as lovely as I remembered. The chicken, however, was something of a disaster - smallish and burned. And the tart was served with something called "non-dairy" ice cream.. I don't recommend that. Not as cold as regular ice cream, and tasteless, it also had the curious characteristic of not melting - it was hours before my plate was collected, and it sat on the plate all that time, looking pretty much as it had when it arrived. Ugh.
When it came time for the performance to start, instead of a quartet, we got - eh - one man at the piano. His name, it seems, is Ryan Gibb - and he played a blinder, entertaining us for three hours and more (including breaks), taking requests, and generally playing the part of the "piano man" perfectly, with a talented performance and a nice line in banter. He made everyone in the room feel included - well, that's quite possible when there are fewer than a dozen there! It was a good thing that a table arrived to liven the place, though - complete with zogabongs, one pair of which they gamely donated to our performer!
Beautiful singing voice, and a deft pianist and all-round entertainer - he kept us all amused for the whole evening. Despite my less-than-enticing dinner. And although it was bad of the venue not to advertise the change in artist (I believe The Islanders were stuck in Spain, and maybe they did advertise the change, for people who'd bought tickets direct from them), and although I probably wasted the money I spent on the ticket - as one didn't seem to be needed - it was still a good night. It was live-streamed on Facebook, here. And who knows how many live performances I'll get to over the next while? I did leave before he finished - had to be up for meetings this morning, and who knew how long he was going to go on for?
Tonight, I was supposed to be back with Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) for Be More Chill, at The Other Palace. My only Meetup this week! But of course, that got cancelled too - the theatre is closed until further notice. I've already been refunded. With so little else happening, I thought I'd go for film instead - indeed, I may catch up on a lot of films with all this! Not that it proved easy to get a film showing, either. But I persevered.. although most cinemas are closed already, I discovered that Rich Mix is staying open - for film, at least, although they've cancelled another, live, event I was to attend, next month. And they're showing Portrait of a Lady on Fire! which I've been interested in for a while now - the trailer looks excellent. And it's walking distance from me. Planning to go to that tonight. Happy days.. I may survive this yet!
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