Comedy today

The dogs were sent to the kennel, the house tidied for a viewing, my hair washed and face shaved and, finally, I was off to London to meet Mirinda for our monthly trip to the West End.

Today we saw the amazingly wonderful One Man Two Guvners at the Adelphi Theatre. It’s a modern reworking of the Goldini play The Servant of Two Masters and is hilarious. We laughed so much we thought we’d explode. I understand why tickets are so hard to get hold of.

I can also see why it transferred from the National after word on the street alerted the population to the fact that it is brilliant. It was on a limited run at the National but the theatre going public demanded more performances!

And not only that…it’s soon to transfer once more, this time to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. And if the performance we saw today is anything to go by (a matinee, completely full) then they could just run and run…except…

I think part of the reason behind the success of this play is the fact that James Corden is playing the lead role. He is excellent as Francis Henshall, the ‘man’ of the title, to the extent that I feel sorry for anyone who will not have seen him by the time his run has ended.

But I am getting just a little bit ahead of myself. As I reached the Strand, I realised there was a bit of a demo going on. I figured I’d have a problem crossing the road, thinking back over other demos I’d been caught up in. Zurich, Paris, etc – we’d always end up being on the wrong side of the road. So it was only natural that I was afraid I’d miss meeting Mirinda at our preordained meeting place.

I watched as the monstrous crowd of about 150 protesters marched by. It was a bit difficult to work out what they were protesting about except maybe the humanitarian efforts to save the pink bear from extinction.

Hippies, especially in pink bear outfits, should be avoided

After the police vans, which outnumbered the demonstrators by about five to one, I managed to easily skip across the road and meet Mirinda outside the Adelphi Theatre, which was just a heaving mass of humanity.

Which brings me back to the play! Which was brilliant…which I believe I’ve said. Mirinda claimed it was the best thing she’s ever seen (again). Very highly recommended for anyone who wants to ache from laughter.

As I said, James Corden really makes the stage his own and the play will be very different with a different lead but, like the transition from David Tennant to Matt Smith, we can only hope that the casting is sufficiently different to make it work.

I would just like to thank Ben, profusely, for insisting we go and see it. Boy, was it worth it.

After the play (during which we missed the horrendous downpour) we headed down to the ferry then took the slow boat to Canary Wharf where we rested up before our dinner date at Amerigo Vespucci.

Great food (lovely Italian), great service and great that it’s very close to the flat. Which is why we’d dumped the dogs at the kennel. You see, this weekend is not just our monthly going to London and watching a West End show type of thing…it’s also our living in the UK anniversary. 14 years. That’s how long we’ve been here. We drank a toast then carried on talking about Mirinda’s French lessons.

The meal was fine apart from there being too much calamari in the starter. Way too filling!

All in all, a lovely day. Tomorrow we’re supposed to be going to Greenwich…we shall see.

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2 Responses to Comedy today

  1. mum cook says:

    Sounds like a great night was had by you both and Happy anniversary for your 14 years in England that has gone really fast.
    love mum

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