Not Gene Kelly

Today I had a meeting with Nick (at work) regarding my return to the Science Museum. He started off by telling me he had some bad news and then started telling all of this good news. Finally, after a good deal of riding around the subject he told me that I could no longer enter information on MIMSY; that London would be falling in line with the other museums in the group. He thought I’d be devastated.

I asked if I’d still be researching the ship models. He said yes, of course, I’d just be putting the information in an upload file which would then go into MIMSY. I suggested that this would make it easier because I was always doing double the work with spreadsheet and MIMSY anyway. I think he was very pleased that the change didn’t bother me. I understand and, while I’m a bit upset that I won’t be able to update the database directly anymore, at least I can still do the stuff I love. And it’s not personal.

After that we agreed on a date for me to start back.

I’d planned for our meeting this afternoon because I was meeting Mirinda for dinner and the theatre. I almost didn’t make it because Nick wanted to walk around a new exhibit featuring the stored ship models complete with crates and plastic wrap. It’s hard to describe but looks very ethereal.

Anyway, we were halfway round when one of the guys responsible for the exhibit came up and started chatting. We then met up with the other guy who worked on it. I had to excuse myself in order to get to the restaurant. A pity because I was enjoying the chat.

I managed to get to the restaurant in under half an hour – South Kensington to Goodge Street (which includes a change at Embankment) and a walk to Charlotte Street – which at peak hour, has to be a record.

Unusually Mirinda was there ahead of me.

We had decided to go to Roka, a Japanese restaurant that just happened to pop up on the Facebook feed the other day. While I don’t, as a general rule, do things on the say so of Facebook, I am so glad we did this time. The food was fantastic – we had the taster menu – and beautifully presented. There were lots of delicious courses.

The only slight glitch was the fact that, while they appeared to have an entire wall made out of plum wine, they insisted that they didn’t have any. And the non-alcoholic drink (because of antibiotics) I ordered couldn’t be made because, according to our waiter, they’d run out of Kiwi fruits…although we had one with the dessert. Go figure.

Still, we ate and were away in time to take our seats at the Dominion Theatre for an incredible night of musical entertainment.

A while ago Ben suggested to Mirinda that we should go and see An American in Paris. She said that he raved about it. When she told me to buy tickets all I could think about was how his last recommendation had gone for me (Jesus Christ Superstar at the O2) but, I figured I’d risk it. I am so glad I did.

The show was fantastic. There were lots of great Gershwin songs, terrific dancing and an amazing set. I would find it difficult to find anything to fault about the whole show. It was just superb. And it looked like the cast were loving it, which always makes a big difference.

Cast-wise, while not Gene Kelly (who, of course couldn’t sing), Robert Fairchild was an excellent Jerry Mulligan with the added advantage of being a terrific singer as well as a dancer. If I had a favourite (apart from the amazing set design) it would have to be Leanne Cope who was a delight as Lise Dassin. In the ballet sequence at the end, Leanne and Robert owned the stage. For someone who isn’t that keen on dance, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Utterly brilliant and highly recommended, An American in Paris is what musical theatre should be.

By the way, one of the things that concerned me regarding not having been at the museum for so long is that I’d miss the opening of the new V&A Exhibition Road entrance. Well, I can announce that it isn’t finished yet so I might yet get to see it!