Six, the Musical

Tonight, I finally went to Six, the Musical! Based around the story of the six wives of Henry VIII (very loosely), it's playing at the Vaudeville and I heard good things. Cheapest tickets from Leicester Square Box Office.

Several buses could take me within spitting distance - I took the first direct one that arrived. Along the way, passed the same protest that had passed my flat - not once, but twice during the day!

Anti-fossil fuels, apparently. I can only assume the all walked or cycled there.. When I got off the bus, had to walk up Strand - and as I did, I thought, why don't I try the Lyceum? They have a dining room upstairs. Up I went, discovered that the tables had numbers but no menus - they were in a pile on the bar, looking underused. Well, I picked a table and - as instructed - placed my order at the bar. Got a large white wine while I was at it.

I had it practically drunk before my order arrived. I mean, I'd ordered a starter as well - garlic bread - but they treated it as a side, and I literally got nothing to eat for 45 minutes. I even overheard the girl behind the bar checking with the kitchen that they hadn't forgotten my pie, as a pie had also gone out with a couple of other dishes in another order.. I was worried about making my show, until I checked the ticket and realised it wasn't until 8! First thing I did when the food arrived was to get a refill. And if they were cooking it from fresh, they needn't have bothered - I had a pie whose crust was like cardboard, and the garlic bread was tough as well. I doused the whole lot in the gravy supplied - so different from last night! The whole thing was edible - but bland. Obviously, by the time I'd finished that, I didn't have time to check whether dessert was the same. I wouldn't eat here again - service is friendly, but the food isn't worth the horrendous wait.

At the theatre, of course, I was in the highest level, up a ridiculous number of stairs - the usher who greeted me as I came off the stairs asked whether I was OK. Happily, when I went in, I didn't have far to go - I was in the second row from the back, where I entered. At the end of the row, in the interests of legroom.

So. All six wives appear simultaneously in spangly outfits, perform dance numbers - and each gets a chance to outdo the others in the misery of her story, as told in song. I was right, it's not historically accurate - but at least it distinguishes among them. The songs are catchy. And, eh, that's all I can find to say about it. I'm not into the rap style they use, you see. And, would you believe.. when they've all finished their story.. that's it! 70 minutes runtime. For goodness' sake - at least I got home early! Booking until 2 April next year. For those interested. 

Tomorrow, back with Civilised London, who are off to the opera at the Southbank Centre. The show in question is The Paradis Files. On Thursday, I'm back to Ireland for Easter - but left it so late to book, I could only get an afternoon flight - no problem getting the day off work though!

Now, the cinema listings are finally out for Ireland for the next week. Four films I might be interested in, and only one showing in the Omniplex in the afternoon. So I've booked that one for Sunday - it's The Lost City, and stars Channing Tatum, Sandra Bullock, Brad Pitt, and Daniel Radcliffe in another of those lost-city-in-the-jungle capers.

The other three only have afternoon showings in Ennis - so, it's there I'm bound. They charge for booking, so I haven't. I have six days in which to see them - watch this space as to when that'll be. In descending order of rating, they are:

The Northman, a Viking caper about a young prince whose father, the King, is murdered, so it falls to the lad to avenge him. Nicole Kidman is the Queen, and it also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Björk.

Operation Mincemeat stars the ever-dependable Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, and Penelope Wilton in a comedy based on the true story of how, during WWII, they put the Nazis off the scent by handcuffing a case of fake "secret" papers to a corpse, and letting it be found. They've made a play about this too, you know!

Finally, Morbius is another of those superhero things - an antihero, rather. Jared Leto is the hapless biochemist who accidentally turns himself into a vampire - with all the powers that entails. Also stars Michael Keaton.

Well, my friend got back to me - they're away in the middle of next week, back on the 21st, so the most sensible thing to do seemed to be to visit on the 22nd, which I've now arranged with her. Happily, my boss was also fine with me taking that week as holiday. Anyway, I'll fly back to London on the 24th. And on the 25th, I'm off to The Corn is Green, at the National.