Concert: Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber

Today - middle of the day, for once - Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS) was watching this weekend's offering by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This time, it's his 50th birthday concert, featuring a famous cast singing his most famous numbers at the Albert Hall. And I was delighted to be able to join them, for once!

I started early, to give myself a little break before the chat afterwards - I'd never used Jitsi before, which they use for chats, and thought it might be good to give myself some leeway. You can watch through Andrew Lloyd Webber's own website - or through his The Shows Must Go On channel, on YouTube, as I did.

And goodness, I was in seventh heaven with this concert - it's glorious! It was filmed in 1998, mind, which explains why you see some oddly young-looking famous faces. Donny Osmond reprising Joseph and the Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat, anyone? Or Sarah Brightman! (I agreed with comments afterwards about how artificial she looks - in comparison with other female singers in the show.) It was fun, guessing what would come up next - and most of the big numbers are there. And there are some real surprises - Antonio Banderas, Glenn Close - and what on earth were Boyzone doing, plonked in the middle? Ronan Keating gives Michael Ball a cheeky wink for the finale. My personal favourite - probably Elaine Paige, singing Memory to end the show.. she smashed it. Available for a few more hours at time of writing, and highly recommended.

Sadly, the Jitsi call afterwards was underwhelming - it just couldn't cope with my internet connection, even with my video turned off. Others had trouble too. I've never had these problems with Zoom - it's a pity this group always uses Jitsi. Ah well, who knows when I'll next be able to join them for a chat? It was good to see them, anyway.

This evening, they're back with Hampstead Theatre for The Arrest of Ai Weiwei. I was thinking of watching it too - but it didn't take me long to realise I'd seen it before! Seven years ago.. my first time ever there, in fact! I think this is the last of their online broadcasts, sadly - available until 10pm. I guess they expected to be open again, after that.

And damnation, I keep forgetting to mention that I'm attending storytelling on Wednesday! Yes, I intend to skive off for an hour - one of my favourite storytellers, Nick Hennessey, is hanging out for an hour on Facebook.

Now, Friday is a bank holiday (VE Day) - so I'll need something to do that day as well. And I was thinking I'd follow UITCS' lead from earlier in the week, and have a look at a livestreamed Showstopper! show, filmed in the Lyric a month ago without an audience (!), now available on Facebook..

..and then they advertised Antony and Cleopatra, screened by the National Theatre from that day. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okenedo. Now, that does sound interesting..