Rendezvous With Marlene - Ute Lemper - Club Cumming Prods. Click here to watch November 25th at 1am UK time and December 5th at 7pm UK time Ute Lemper is NOT Marlene Dietrich. She’s better. She’s a better singer, a better actor, she’s more versatile than Marlene was, and she’s a lot nicer. I saw Marlene herself in cabaret when I was very young and, even then, I recognised that although she was extraordinarily magnetic, a true star, in that you couldn’t take your eyes off her, everything she sang was in the same monotone. I observed then, and I’ve had no reason to change my opinion since, that Dietrich had no interest in anyone outside herself, certainly not her audiences. Ute Lemper, on the other hand, in this marvellous biographical film about Dietrich, which she has written and co-produced with Alan Cumming, sings all the famous songs and tells all the stories of the richly lived life of one of the most famous women of the 20th century, a woman who knew everyone who mattered in show business and politics, slept with nearly all of them, made a courageous stand in World War Two, and died alone and friendless in a Paris apartment. There are only two more showings of this film, on Nov 25 and Dec 5, and if you have any interest in the history of the woman or the century, you mustn’t miss it. The Last Five Years - Southwark Playhouse November 26–29 Click here to watch Molly Lynch and Oli Higginson are the entire cast of Jason Robert Brown’s Drama Desk-winning musical about a relationship told both backwards and forwards. Not as complicated as it sounds, one partner tells the story from their first meeting, the other from their breakup. This show has a fine score as you’d expect from Jason Robert Brown and I’ve heard great things about this Southwark Playhouse production although I haven’t seen it myself. Eric and Barbara - 72andsong: From our Home to yours! Click here to watch Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano are a married couple of New York cabaret stars who are currently unable to perform in their natural habitat – Manhattan’s famous Birdland – because it has been closed for months due to coronavirus. I miss my favourite city so much and Eric and Babs are SO New York. So ever since the start of the pandemic these two have been keeping me cheerful by singing a song every day online on their YouTube channel from their living room on West 72nd St – Broadway show tunes and gems from the Great American Songbook. I don’t know what I’d do without Babs and Eric. When you’re feeling blue, they’re the best 4-minute pick-me-up I know. Death of England: Delroy – Royal National Theatre Nov 27 at 2pm UK time and then available for only 24 hours. Click here to watch This is a free stream of the new play that was running in the Olivier Theatre at the National when lockdown hit, and filmed during its final performance on November 4. There are plans to bring it back to the theatre when (if) they reopen. Death of England: Delroy was written by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams and directed by Dyer. It explores what it is like to be a Black working-class man in Great Britain today. The role of Delroy is performed by Michael Balogun. My Last Supper - Jay Rayner November 28 at 18:30 UK time and then available until Dec 4th. Click here to watch Imagine you have just one meal left. What are you going to have? Restaurant critic, food writer, broadcaster, jazz musician and all-around good guy, Jay Rayner, investigates our fascination with last suppers and tells the stories of the killer dishes that would end up on his table: how he was introduced to oysters by his late mother, how he almost burnt down a hotel because of his love for snails in bubbling garlic butter, and of the many ways by which the mighty pig has fed him over the years. You’ll have to shell out £20-plus for this lovely show and a signed copy of the book that goes with it, but it’s worth it. All the money goes to charity - The Food Chain, which provides good nutritional advice and support to people with HIV. Did I say it’s worth it? Trust me. The Kanneh-Mason Family in Concert – Barbican Nov 19 - Dec 2 then available to watch for 48 hrs from first stream. Click here to watch The Barbican is back in business with a wide variety of online offerings including a series of classical and contemporary concerts including this one with all seven siblings of the Kanneh-Mason Family displaying their talents as both soloists and chamber musicians in works spanning Mozart to Eric Whitacre. All gifted instrumentalists in their own right, here is the opportunity to hear them together live. in different combinations, taking on a wide-ranging programme of their favourite music for piano and strings from the last 300 years, before coming together for a Fiddler on the Roof medley, arranged by the siblings themselves. National Gallery – Rokeby Venus – One Painting, Many Voices Click here to watch This is another in the National Gallery’s closer looks at some of its most famous paintings. Here, Curator Letizia Treves is only one of the many knowledgeable and interesting people with something to say and share about Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus. This, for me, is eleven minutes of sheer pleasure, looking at a painting I’ve passed by many times and never really seen. I Wish to Die Singing – Finborough Theatre Nov 1 – Dec 31 Click here to watch Written by the Finborough Theatre’s Artistic Director Neil McPherson, this is an important documentary drama from a small theatre about the Armenian genocide of 1915-16, which was perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government against the Armenians, a Christian minority in a Muslim state. Up to one and a half million people died, but all past and current Turkish leaders still deny that it ever took place. I Wish to Die Singing includes eye-witness reportage, images, music, poetry from Armenia's greatest poets, and verbatim survivors’ testimonies from one of the greatest historical injustices of all time. Not a cheerful evening but a riveting one. Falling Stars November 22 – 29 Click here to watch Falling Stars is the charming story of a lost songbook; hidden away in an antique shop until its discovery unlocks the refrains of a bygone era. Written by the actor, Peter Polycarpou, and performed by him and Sally Ann Triplett, both West End and Broadway stars, this show is an homage to the composers of the 1920s, who created some of the greatest songs of all time. Here are songs by Charlie Chaplin, Irving Berlin, Buddy de Silva, Ray Henderson, Vincent Youmans, Arthur Freed, and Meredith Wilson and they were all composed following the last pandemic – the flu epidemic of 1918-19. Directed by Michael Strassen. £15 plus £3 ‘transaction fee’. Within the Golden Hour – Royal Ballet Until December 13 Click here to watch Here is a treat from the Royal Ballet, especially for regular readers who’ve been complaining that I don’t include enough dance. The programme begins with a varied selection of excerpts and set pieces and concludes with Christopher Wheeldon’s dazzlingly beautiful Within the Golden Hour. This is one of his finest works and the dancers, who clearly love performing this ballet, really rise to the difficulties inherent in the choreography. The dancers include two of my favourites - Fumi Kaneko and Sarah Lamb – the others are pretty good too! In fact, of course, all the dancers are more than up to the highest international standards. Tickets are only £10, a bargain, if you ask me, but the Royal Opera House never makes it easy for you. There’s a lot of faffing about with creating an account. It’s all fairly straightforward so have patience, this is a lovely film. Shakespeare’s Sonnets - The Shows Must Go On Nov 23-29 Click here to watch Starting today, we can hear all of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, read by a cast that includes David Tennant, Dominic West, Stephen Fry, Kim Cattrall, and more. I could give you a full list of all the famous actors who will be reading the sonnets but then there wouldn’t be room for anything else. I promise you’ve heard of all of them. Available online free for one week except that it’s a ‘pay what you can afford’ for another excellent charity – The Actors’ Fund.
2 Comments
Pamala McDougall
23/11/2020 04:38:33 pm
Oh Ruth - you have surpassed yourself with these sparkling choices!
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Kate Martin
28/11/2020 04:58:07 pm
Hi Ruth and Jay Rayner fans - I just got a ticket for the Last Supper for £13 , you don’t have to buy the book!
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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