Dear Evan Hansen at New Wimbledon Theatre

When Dear Evan Hansen first hit the London stage a few years ago I heard good things about it and when this tour was announced late in 2023 the promotional blurb explained that it was "THE OLIVIER, TONY and GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING BEST MUSICAL". That attracted my attention.

My ATG+ membership gave me a great deal on the first night at New Wimbledon Theatre so in November 23 I paid just £29 for my seat Dress Circle A17. Friends and relatives were also tempted by the deal and I took bought the maximum four tickets allowed.

When we arrived at the theatre, just after 7pm, and joined the messy series of queues to get in we saw the "House Full" signs which boosted out expectations for the evening even further. Full of hope we took our excellent seats in the best part of the house and waited for the show to start.

I hated it. We all did.

The story was vaguely interesting and the set was very good, particularly the scene changes, but the characters were superficial, the music was  bland, all the songs sounded the same and the singing was only competent.

I struggle to find anything positive to say about it, other than it was better than Six.

Kingston Society: Trams and Trolley Buses

I have always been a heavy user and a fan of public transport so a Kingston Upon Thames Society public meeting on the local transport history was unmissable.

I was not entirely sure what to expect in terms of the range and depth of the topics covered and in the end I was slightly disappointed in both, we did not get much of an insight on when trams are a better option than buses and we did not see the details of the various plans for tram/light railway proposals that had been discussed over the years.

However, it was interesting to hear about the proposed schemes, some of which I had not been aware of previously despite my ongoing-interest in local issues over the last forty years or so.

The Q&A session was good too, bringing up topics (like trams v buses) and details of old routes that had not been covered in the main talk.

It also got me thinking more about trams and where they could be used locally and in doing so I thought a lot about Prague which has an excellent public transport system of buses, trams and metro (I lived there for a while so know the transport infrastructure well).

The speaker seemed to approaching the issue with the idea that all trams are good and we should have lots more of them but we need to think about where they could apply in London which has extensive Rail, Underground and bus networks.

The big advantage trams have over buses is that they run separate from other traffic while buses are in that traffic and run slowly with frequently delays as a result.  This puts trams in direct conflict with cars which is probably why politicians are against them.

Clearly trams provide the same sort of services as trains, for example when I go to Wimbledon (which is several times a month) I catch a train from Norbiton. I could catch a 57 bus but that is much slower. That means trams only really make sense where there is no equivalent rail or underground options and as these are both extensive networks in London that means the gaps to be filled need some work to identify.

These gaps are covered by buses, even if changes are required, so what we are looking for is routes that are busy enough to justify the capacity and long enough to justify a faster option with fewer stops.

I am not sure what information TfL has to help them to plan things like this as (as far as I am aware) they only count when people get on buses and so they do not know how long individual journeys are. For example, on the 65 route do they know how many people travel from Kingston beyond Richmond. 

The obvious place to look for gaps in the network for trams is radial routes where these do not currently exist. TfL is obviously aware of this and the Supper Loop bus is part of their solution.

Looking closer to home, I am struggling to find a need for trams in Kingston which, thanks to an accident of history, has a radial route of sorts that goes to places like Richmond, Twickenham, New Malden and Wimbledon.

North of Kingston is a different story but while I might like an easy route to places like Hayes or Wembley I would be surprised if there were enough people like me to justify laying tracks.

While this speculation is fun there is very little prospect of any significant transport projects in Kingston because there is no real problem that needs solving.

Picture You Dead at Richmond Theatre

I have never been a reader of detective fiction and rarely watch it on television these days so I had no idea (before I looked it up just now) that Picture Your Dead was the eighteenth Roy Grace story by Peter James but it looked interesting enough to go to see a stage adaptation.

As usual I went on the opening night to take advantage of the ATG+ offer of Dress Circle seat A23 for £36. 

I did not take a picture of the set, a mistake in retrospect, which worked like I've seen TV sets work with all the locations, more or less, on stage at the same time with the action moving between them. 

Stage left was a flat where a young couple lived, stage right was an artist's studio that morphed into a collector's private gallery and stage front was an undefined place where Roy Grace and another police officer discussed the case.

The only quibble was that some of the action was right in the front-left corner where the high numbered seats could not see, including mine.

The story was a good one with lots going on and going on quite quickly as things happen or were uncovered. And while most of the main thread was guessable, this was not a whodunnit more a willtheygetawaywithit there was plenty enough story to keep me fully engaged throughout.

Helping with the storytelling was an excellent ensemble cast with lots of strong believable characters played convincingly. 

The story, the staging and the acting made this an extremely entertaining and rewarding evening.

The icing on the cake was the double-twist at the end which changed the whole nature of the story and provided a good ending. The first of those twists was so unexpected and delivered so quickly that I am pretty sure from the overheard comments that some of the people behind me had missed, it was that good.

I had expected Picture You Dead at Richmond Theatre to be an "average" evening at the theatre, admittedly I have quite a high average, but it was much more than that. 

A Man for All Seasons at Richmond Theatre

My only previous exposure to A Man for All Seasons was being taken to see it at the cinema when at school, sometime in the '70s, so that I could learn some history from it. I never did well at history at school (except one term when we had a supply teacher, but that's another story) so I am not sure that worked.

While I was not particularly enticed by the play the draw of Martin Shaw was obvious so I was happy to give it a second chance.

The name was a big drawn, and possibly a big cost too, and the seats were more expensive that usual which drove me upstairs from my usual position into the Upper Circle where seat A10 was still £25 with my ATG discount. 

At that price there was little to lose and the view from up their is good, as the picture below proves.

Other people thought so too and a group of four of us went together; I am able to get four discount tickets per show and it is nice to be able to share the love of theatre with friends.

I remembered the bare bones of the Sir Thomas More story  but history has remained of little interest to me over the intervening fifty years and so knew nothing of the detail and was happy to have that presented to me.

I loved the staging!

The mood remained nicely dark and moody throughout while various props moved in and out briskly as the story moved from one scene to the next.

Martin Shaw was a dominant Sir Thomas More and easily lived up to his star billing.

Gary Willmot played "The Common Man" to good effect as a narrator, foil and modest participant.

Edward Bennett was might fine too as Oliver Cromwell, the main antagonist to Sir Thomas. In this he was the proxy for Henry VIII how made surprisingly few appearances in a story that was all about his claim to be the head of the Church of England.

And that hints at my problem with the play, the story did not really add up.  The ending was particularly problematic and might have spoiled the evening had not the production been so good in all other aspects.

Marcus Brigstocke at Landmark Arts Centre

Once upon a Time the whole family were big fans of The Now Show (Radio 4 comedy) and went to see recordings when that was an easy thing to do, and we did it with military precision to get seats in the middle of the front row. At its peak, The Now Show included John Holmes, Mitch Benn and Marcus Brigstocke.

Marcus Brigstocke also did a radio comedy programme called I've Never Seen Star Wars and we bagged best seats for a recording of that too and were rewarded by Brigstocke making fun of eldest son's long hair.

Our final encounter with Brigstocke in this series was when he and Phill Jupitus did some Edinburgh warm-ups at Jacksons Lane in 2012.

Then, out of the blue, the local Landmark Arts Centre, a mere 15 minutes walk away, announced that he would be bringing his latest show, Vitruvian Mango, to the venue. 

No thought was required to fork out £18 for an unallocated seat.

Lots of people had the same idea and the venue was all but full when I arrived about quarter of an hour before the show.

Just enough time to get a beer at to find a reasonable seat towards the back.

The show was a series of stories on what being a man means today. Many of these were personal and included trying to het to close to women when walking late at night and appearing on Celebrity MasterChef with Greg Wallace.

The stories were funny and also made a point, they were most definitely "woke" which the Radio 4 listeners of Teddington appreciated.

The delivery was very much as expected, and experienced before, with longish lead-ins and wry punchlines. That produced a steady stream of steady humour that lasted something like an hour and a half plus a break. That was a lot of good jokes in one evening.