alinewaites

WONDERFUL TOWN

Music by Leonard Bernstein

lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green

From the play ‘My Sister Eileen’ by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorovants

and short stories by Ruth Mc Kenney

The Rose and Crown musicals proves that it is possible to put on a bit musical comedy in a room above a pub – of course it helps when the pub belongs to the producer and musical director of All Stars. But they perform positive wonders in that small space.

Here is yet another example of what enormously successful musical theatre can be made in a small venue with an ensemble company. Of course, to have an ensemble that works, the actors all must be able to sing and dance as well as play drama and comedy. And director Tim McArthur always manages to find the pick of the bunch. This is a rich mix of fantastically talented performers.

The story concerns two sisters, Ruth and Eileen from Ohio trying to make their way in New York – the Wonderful Town of the title.

The two girls are perfectly cast. Lizzie Wofford and Francesca Benton-Stace both beautiful but different in temperament. Eileen wants to be an actress and flirts and falls in love with every man she sees – much to her victims’ enjoyment. Lizzie Wofford plays Ruth, the intellectual who outshines every man she meets and sings ‘One hundred Easy ways to Lose a Man’ , Wofford is quite wonderful and gets better every time I see her. She carries a lot of the comedy with her would-be publisher Aneurin Pascoe but there are also villains, idiots, prostitutes – all human life is there in Christopher Street and all are seriously weird.

The plot is a bit of a mess. But enjoyable nevertheless.

However, I have a problem with all ensemble shows these days. Just too much choreography. I long for someone to come on and just sing a song without the rest of the cast jigging about behind them. There are some delicious songs in the score. ‘A Little Bit in Love’ which Eileen sings about every man she meets. The love song ‘It’s love’ the kind of number that stays with you for days afterwards and the hilarious ‘Conga’

My personal favourite which unaccountably brings tears to my eyes is ;The Wrong Note Rag’ which is played beautifully by the MD Aaron Clingham. I would have liked him to have that moment to himself but of course there is a chorus of frenetic dancing going on all the time.

It could be just me, but I do wish they would occasionally stand still.

Nevertheless, whatever I say, this is a great show to go and see. Take the trip to Walthamstow before it comes off., Don’t miss it.

“BOTTOMLEY”

a musical comedy

by Aline Waites and Robin Hunter

Horatio Bottomley 1860 -1933 was one of the most extraordinary characters ever to grace or disgrace British public life in the past hundred years or so.

National hero, exposed swindler, crook, compulsive cheat, Member of Parliament, resident of Maidstone prison.

Founder of JOHN BULL; for a time the most successful publication of its kind in the UK

Racehorse owner, fearless and compulsive gambler, champagne guzzler, beloved man of the people.
.
Womaniser – with a host of petite red haired mistresses established in apartments all over London

Brilliant courtroom advocate, witty, amusing, ruthless, foolish, a touch crazy.

At the end of his quite astonishing life he appeared, pathetically on stage at the Windmill Theatre – a lost and forgotten man. He collapsed on stage after a few performances and died shortly afterwards. His one true love Peggy Primrose was with him to the end.

Optimistic as always , his last words to her were “Goodbye and God bless you. I’ll see you tomorrow”

It wasn’t until four years later, when ill and living in poverty, that she managed to scrape together the cash to collect his ashes and scatter them over the gallops of Alfriston on the Sussex Downs.

MAN OF THE PEOPLE
a film
On the life and times of Horatio Bottomley
1860 – 1933
(a one page concept)

WHO WAS HORATIO BOTTOMLEY?
A boy from the orphanage who aspired to the highest office in the land and ended up as a diversion between the nude acts at the Windmill Theatre.

WHAT WAS HORATIO BOTTOMLEY?

POLITICIAN – member for Hackney – tipped as a future Prime Minister

PRESS BARON – Founder of John Bull = precursor of the tabloid.

BRILLIANT LAY LAWYER – who single handedly won every case but the last – and as a result spent five years in Maidstone prison.

LOVER – with dozens of red haired mistresses stashed all over London and one true love PEGGY PRIMROSE a one time gaiety girl.

ORATOR – who sent millions of young men to their deaths in the first world war by the forcefulness of his recruiting speeches.

CROOK – who cheated the British public out of millions

COUNTRY SQUIRE, GAMBLER, RACE HORSE OWNER, PHILANTHROPIST

EVERY BODY LOVED HIM, EVERYBODY TRUSTED HIM

A man with a golden voice an irresistible charm, an enormous potential for greatness but with one fatal flaw

HE WAS A COMPULSIVE SWINDLER

HORATIO BOTTOMLEY
MAN OF THE PEOPLE

This amazingly charismatic figure is the subject of our play. He was short, stout with great sexual charm. The secret was in his voice. As an orator he was apparently unsurpassed. During the Great War he had only to appear at a recruitment drive in any town in the Country and thousands would enlist to fight in the trenches. He always claimed that this was his patriotic duty. In fact, he charged large sums of money for these stints. One of the scams that eventually led to his downfall.
In court, where he spent a great deal of his time, the voice and the manner could and did convince the jury and judge of his innocence in spite of the damning evidence laid against him . For years he lived a charmed life in the dock.
After his first “Great Escape” THE HANSARD TRIAL, The judge actually presented him with his wig and gown which was mounted in the great hall at the DICKER his country house in Sussex. Frank Harris became his ardent admirer and would never miss a Bottomley appearance in court. F E Smith, later Lord Birkenhead, one of the greatest advocates of his time was a devoted fan, as too was Marshall Hall.
The man could do no wrong. Although the proof of his criminal and at times ruthless wrongdoing was presented over and over again to the Great British Public, they refused to belief it. He was Horatio. He was the Man of the People. He was John Bull!

HORATIO BOTTOMLEY –
MAN OF THE PEOPLE

But of course, he had his enemies. His main nemesis was the wonderfully named Reuben Bigland, a former colleague of Bottomley’s, thought himself hard done by when his friend refused to invest in a scheme to turn water into petrol. He resolved to bring the man down, and after an extraordinary series of trials, mistrials, smear campaigns, managed to do just that. At the age of 62 Bottomley was sentenced to seven years for fraudulent malpractice. He appealed to the jury “ How can you convict me?” but finally they did. His luck had a last run out. Sewing mailbags in Maidstone prison some years later a former parliamentary colleague spotted him “Sewing Bottomley?” he enquired “No reaping milord” was the reply.

His life and career, the rise then the fall of this quite exceptional man we believe could and should be the subject of a quite exceptional Musical. Horatio Bottomley

Horatio William Bottomley was an English financier, journalist, editor, newspaper proprietor, swindler, and Member of Parliament. He is best known for his editorship of the popular magazine John Bull, and for his patriotic oratory during the First World War. His career came to a sudden end when, in 1922, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
en.wikipedia.org · Text under CC-BY-SA license

•

THE BOOK CLUB by Roger Hall
at the Kings Head. ***

Performed by Amanda Muggleton as Deborah Martin.

Amanda Muggleton began her career at the Kings Head after her Guildhall Training. Recently she has been working mostly in the Antipodes – it is a great pleasure to see her back to do this often funny one woman show..
Apparently in the past ladies used to get together at Bridge clubs. I actually remember as a child, our house being taken over by card tables and chairs for Whist Drives for the benefit of various charities. There was a great deal of baking involved on these occasions. Nowadays it seems that it is the Book Club that has taken over from the card games.
In Deborah’s book club, the guests are asked to bring something sweet and something dry. In other words desert and a bottle of wine. Each of the characters brings the things that characterises them. The rich woman who brings cheap wine, the sexy one brings Prosecco etc. They all talk about their book choice obviously laughs about Fifty Shades of Grey.
The characters are diverse and all are performed by Amanda Muggleton which gives her an opportunity to use her undoubted talent for dialect and characterisation. She does the Welsh, the Greek and the The farting dog etc.

. But the book club is only the first part of the play. It is just to set up the middle class element of the woman Deborah. She worries about her daughter who is having an affair with a married man. The daughter who thinks of her mother as a dull housewife ‘How can you solve a problem that can’t be sorted by bleach?’ But Deborah likes to clean and to cook. She will cook dinners for her husband and later she will also cook for the writer she meets who is in the middle of Work in Progress. This starts the most interesting part of the play .Deborah has an extramarital affair. This is entertaining and very funny as we follow her journey through guilt and pleasure. He is a man who makes her laugh…a writer separated from his wife and living in squalor, which she finds rather exciting Lovely lines about her lying on the floor and looking at the dust under the bed. She doesn’t know what to say – her thought is ‘Michael where do you keep your vacuum cleaner’
Amanda has performed this many times before but not in England. I must admit to being a little surprised at the audience’s happy response to the book club jokes. I found them difficult to enjoy. A distinguished member of the first night audience said ‘I hate book clubs’ maybe I do too. The play is written by New Zealand author Roger Hall. Directed by Nadia Tass

Here’s to the next time
I hate endings
Lighting a fag after a meal
Extends the pleasure
Stops it from ending too soon
Chewing gum doesn’t have the same effect
But it’s better for your teeth.
Here’s to the next time
Henry Hall’s Guest night
I don’t remember much about it
Except the beginning
“This is Henry Hall
And tonight IS my guest night”
Even then I thought it was a curious inflection.
Here’s to the Next time
Always made me cry
I don’t want to wait until the next time
I want it to go on being this time
I still feel tearful when I hear it
I suppose it’s just
Because I hate endings
Oh well
Here’s to the Next time

Aline Waites June 2008

1 Comment

1
Nigel Leach

AUTUMN

Summer’s gone

So now what?

Crisp dry air

Don’t forget your hat

Leaves

Crunching like cornflakes

Slippery when wet

“Dangerous when wet” starred Esther Williams

Way back in the Spring

Now

Prepare for the Fall

Dangerous when Slippery

Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely story and a great read, and who can ask for more than that?
By Terry Eastham on 28 May 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book has two things that really appealed to me. The first was the style of writing. it was easy to read and the mixture of present day and past life stories worked really well to explain the personality and spirit of Joe Tully. He isn’t your everyday literary hero, but is a normal man. The years may have aged him, his family may have deserted him ,but he is an old trooper and never loses his sense of who he is and what he wants.

The second factor is that Joe, and most of the other characters, are all involved in the theatre, which is one of my own loves. The author brings all her experience and love of the theatre into her writing and it really shows through. Her description of the play in the back room of the pub was perfect and is still as true today, where some fantastic work is produced in fringe pub theatre venues, as it was in Joe’s day.

4.0 out of 5 starsJust Joe
By W. Russell on 11 Mar. 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Joe is a musician, a man who plays in the pit at West End shows, composes music, fancies his chances and makes the wrong one, living to regret it. We meet him in his old age dumped in a retirement complex by his daughter and awful son in law after he has accidentally set fire to his flat. Joe may be down, but he is not out. The books takes us back to why he got where he is, and springs some splendid surprises about where he will end up. Aline Wates paints a lovely picture of 1960s London, a vanished world, and Joe is a beguiling if infuriating character who encounters some equally entertaining and not too well behaved people along the way. Great holiday reading – if that is not an insulting thing to say. I almost read it in one go, and that was only because I ran out of time on the first attempt to read it. Could easily be an in one go book.

4.0 out of 5 star musicians `jammed` into the wee small hours in basements in tin pan alley and people loved, laughed and drank their lives away
By Stewart Permutt on 21 July 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
Actress-producer Aline Waites` debut novel is a delightful nostalgic trip into sixties and seventies London, where theatres above pubs were just emerging, musicians `jammed` into the wee small hours in basements in tin pan alley and people loved , laughed and drank their lives away. It also shows quite movingly how time takes its toll on the central characters through a series of vignettes from past to present. An easy but satisfying read.

4.0 out of 5 starsA very entertaining read.
By Angela Mowforth on 11 Sept. 2016
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Joe is a musician and a wonderful character – stubborn – infuriating but such a charmer!
His story is a joy to read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Joe is good
By Londonjerez on 18 April 2016
Format: Paperback
A thoroughly enjoyable read.

The book is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

The Counsellor says “Tell me all about it”

How can I explain the turmoil that is my mind?
I can say nothing coherent,
Just go on seeking remnants of my loss.
He was me and I was him,
He was the fact of my existence.
Since he has gone my world is fiction
Splintered
Veering between moods and experiences.
Nothing stable
Like walking on the rim of an earthquake
Shifting sands – nothing true.
How does one get re-rooted in fact?
How rediscover the balance in life?

In the gym you can stand on a wobble board
Dipping forwards, backwards left or right
Its conquest allows you to cross
uneven, treacherous land without falling
But a hole hidden by tarpaulin
made me crash to the ground.
outside the hospital

I can withstand the ups and downs of life
wobbles from front to back and side to side
But not the trip that was my downfall
Outside the Royal Free
Nor the death of the person
the one that used to be me.

.ALINE WAITES March 24th 2006
updated September 2016

An often  humorous, highly unusual love story combining laughter, betrayal, despair and death. Everything in fact that makes life worth living.

Joe Tully, indomitable and a staunch individualist, has spent an adventurous and somewhat hectic life around the world as a professional musician, accompanying vocalists both classical and jazz. Now he is seventy-five and had found himself back in London and pushed into sheltered accommodation by his unsympathetic son-in-law. He spends his time smoking pot, swearing at his cat and reluctantly getting to grips with modern technology. A chance encounter with an old friend recalls the turbulent romances o his youth in swinging London and  he is forced to confront and perhaps understand the events responsible for his current situation.

A Thing Called Joe explores our hero’s heady past and his hopeful present.

Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

IN THE BAR OF A TOKYO HOTEL

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

AT THE CHARING CROSS THEATRE

Despite the fact that this play is set in Tokyo we are still in Tennessee Williams country. Not a complaint, simply an observation.

It involves a Williams style love-hungry woman, Miriam who feels she has been sacrificed to the life chosen by her husband Mark. He lives for his art  – and that is something she is unable to share with him.

It is a painful play where we are not allowed to love the characters though they are incurably vulnerable. We can pity Miriam, trapped in her marriage to Mark, a successful painter who has recently discovered ‘colour’ and shows this by rolling naked on a paint sprayed canvas ( a reference to Jackson Pollack perhaps?) Luckily he does this in his hotel room – offstage!

Miriam is desperate and predatory. She constantly tortures Mark by disappearing at night to find her prey, arriving in the early morning to the bed of her husband.

‘But I never refused you’ she says even after a night of passion with somebody else

Williams, like his character, was himself setting out on a new tack, wanting to change his Western style and he took his ideas from a Japanese friend who taught him about the verse form of Haiku, where the ending is left unfinished and the reader has to complete the meaning. This results in clipped, short sentences which break off to allow the audience to fill in the gaps. This could be difficult for the actors to play and for the audience to watch, but given the expertise of the cast and director Robert Chevara, they make it work perfectly.

This happens throughout the play and even carries on to the final curtain line . .

Linda Marlowe is quite brilliant, she plays Miriam without ever surrendering to sentimentality. She is elegant, harsh, witty and ravenous especially when she is left with the attractive Japanese barman who she endlessly pursues throughout the play. It is a refreshingly charmless and highly intelligent reading of the character. The barman, Andrew Koji, is to be congratulated on the way he keeps his dignity under stressful circumstances.

David Whitworth plays Mark, he appears staggering and apparently drunk in his paint bespattered suit. But he is a really sick man, he is dizzy and collapses from the strain of this marriage made in hell. He cries out in agony at his rejection by his wife who he knows only stays with him for her comfort.

Miriam is wanting to go to Kyoto for a holiday but doesn’t want him with her so she sends for his agent Leonard (Alan Turkington) to come and remove him to take him back to New York.

The setting is stylish and beautiful, a masterpiece of ingenuity by Nicolai Hart-Hansen unrivalled by any in the West End..

Whether or not you are a Tennessee Williams fan it is good to see this. It is different. The performances, production values, and direction are outstanding.