THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Ah, London at Christmas time! The festive feeling, the expectations of figgy pudding and Christmas Carols and Dickensian charm.
What is it to spend a Christmas in London as an American? Is it to watch Trafalgar Square and the rest of the metropolis drain down the power grid and entice you into Fortnum & Mason, or to sit home with successive mugs of tea and biscuits cookies watching Richard Curtis films that emphasize a severely outdated but comfortingly saccharine heteronormative narrative with a perpetually dependable Rickman performance?
I embarked on a quest this season to pioneer all things Christmassy and discover how to get into the Christmas spirit in this city. Turns out, it's mostly about East London. From Dickens to Cabaret and everything in between, all things nice and some things very, very naughty. Welcome to this year's Christmas London journey.
A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic
Staple London theater The Old Vic's annual presentation of Dickens' most famous story, done faithfully to the same script by playwright Jack Thorne for the last seven years, is a firm family favorite. It features a different great British actor each year (this time John Simm, most famously the Whovian villain The Master during David Tennant's tenure as the titular character – try saying that five times fast on a gallon of eggnog!), with the same fantastic feeling of being immersed in the very best elements of Victorian charm and the redemption of a thoroughly loathsome character whose essential kernel of goodness in his long frozen heart is unearthed through spectral intervention. I never keep a dry eye past the introduction of Tiny Tim, and nor should you. Best production yet this year and still on until January 4th. For my longer summation of this show, click here.
Pinocchio at Theatre Royal Stratford East
It is a lamentable pity that many view the Great British pantomime with contempt. They would do well to read the French writer Charles Baudelaire, who revered it above all other forms of humor, calling it, 'the quintessence of comedy.'
And it really, really is.
This year, on their 140th anniversary, The Theatre Royal Stratford East, only about 20 minutes east of Central London on the Central Line, has gone all out with this year's panto, Pinocchio. Visually lush with glowing neon colors that brilliantly highlight and perfectly, sensationally, capture the festive spirit of the season in the glittering tradition of pantomime, this show is a feast for the eyes. Director Omar Okai has blasted through the manacles of budgetary constraints to create radiantly spectacular setting after setting, layering this narrative richly and fantastically, and whirling us from the wittily coined village of 'Stratty Ash' (most pantos pun on the locale in which they are performed) to a mildly debauched oversized casino, to an adult-free playland, and at one point to the belly of a ticklish shark.
I did find myself wishing they had spent a little more on the musical talent and the quality of the script. Tok Morakinyo is a gifted actor, playing a dozen parts including the fatherly carpenter Geppetto during this picaresque production, but was unable to match, and certainly not able to harmonize, with Dylan Collymore's virtuosic performance as the puppet who aspires to humanity at the center of it all, resulting in somewhat painful musical numbers that mar the barnstorming second half. It's on until January 4.
But bless them I do have to feel for any company putting on a pantomime in the same town as the Hackney Empire, just down the road west of Stratford...
Dick Whittington and His Cat at Hackney Empire
There really is nothing that beats this show. On the surface of it, you may think you are too old for a show with bright pastels and so much audience participation. Experiencing Dick Whittington and His Cat in the Empire will prove otherwise. Veteran 'dame' Clive Rowe takes his turn in the director's chair this year as well as strutting the stage as the effervescent Sarah The Cook. Performances are consistently flawless, innuendos fly as whimsically and liberally as the sweeties that Sarah the Cook chucks out at the audience halfway through the first act, and hilarity abounds. Who can argue with a charismatic talking cat and a deliciously fun baddie like The Rat King played with incredible poise and energy by Graham MacDuff? You will stomp. You will cheer and unbidden it will genuinely evoke what Baudelaire called, 'the comic explosion' of pure laughter. On until January 5.
The Basement Orchestra at The Big Penny Social
Even if you don't want to shell out the dosh (Moola! Spondulicks! You know what I mean!) for the theater, this season is a prime time to check out cool venues outside the normal touristy spots and to take in the sounds of groups who are doing things outside the norm as well. This year I was privileged to discover local venue The Big Penny Social, not far from Black Horse Road station about 20 minutes north of central London on the Victoria Line. Even better, I was treated to The Basement Orchestra, a group that in recent years has successfully challenged the perceptions of classical music and broken down the barriers and the stuffiness around such perceptions.
The Social is a cavernous yet welcoming space with several bars, a screening and performance space, and has played host regularly to markets, music and comedy. The Orchestra, though they will be playing no more gigs before Christmas, were utterly fabulous and are ones to follow closely in future. Accompanied by The Basement Choir, they deftly navigated through Christmas classics like 'O Come All Ye Faithful' (in which we were all asked to take part) as well as Mariah Carey's ever popular 'All I want For Christmas' and the 'Muppet Christmas Carol' theme, fostering an atmosphere of pure sonic comfort and joy! The Social will also be hosting events through Christmas, New Year's and beyond! And if you are still hankering for a carol service or the aural itch of that festive feeling there are still venues in the capital like St-Martin-In-The-Fields and The Barbican holding sing along carol services through December.
Seayoncé's Perky Nativitties at The Yard Theatre
I am 46 and I have finally been to my first drag show. I feel like that should have been a long ago liberal rite of passage but it's never too late: Seayoncé's Perky Nativitties. What a show though! Seayoncé and her sidekick, Leslie Anne, aka their real life alter egos Dan Wye and Robyn Herfellow are an utterly and absolutely side-splitting combination! It is one to avoid if you are at all precious or reverent about the traditions associated with Christmas, and it has some oddly and unexpectedly poignant notes about the standing of the queer community vs straight culture and the notions of the holy family vs one's chosen family. It's also unrelentingly debauched, but it is riotous and, too, captures Baudelaire's 'purely comic'. My stomach hurt by the interval and the second half was even funnier. More nervous to be called on than either of the pantomimes I had been to, get ready for some devious audience participation and be ready to revel because Seayoncé is channeling the spirit of outrageous seasonal entertainment! Loth to spoil with any details, I will say that her psychic powers do grace us with the presence of some big, Christmassy cameos onstage! It's on until December 21.
Samuel Johnson said that the man who is tired of London is tired of life, and seldom is that spirit of something hidden and rich from this city just around the corner or hidden in some nook or cranny of unpolished charm more manifest than at Christmas time.
Check out all or any of the above to embrace the mulled flavor of the season and God bless us, every one!
