Sitting In The Cheap Seats

There are a few signs that tell us here at  Sitting in the Cheap Seats  that spring has finally sprung. The trees and flowers begin to bloom, there are occasionally consecutive days without any rain and the surest sign of all… We find ourselves venturing to  Chichester Festival Theatre  for the launch of their summer season.

There’s a sense of anticipation that overtakes you when you just know the performance you are about to witness will be something special. I’ve been longing to see  Carlos Acosta  dance for some years now and when I discovered he’d be performing the very personal  On Before  at the  Mayflower  I knew I’d have to be in the audience.

Generally speaking if you go tosee a musical and the whole cast corpse midway through act 1 it can be seen as a bad thing… thankfully when the cast of  Spamalot  at the  Mayflower  did just that last night we were all in on the joke (I won’t spoil it in case he uses it again but suffice it to say it involves  Joe Pasquale  mentioning Janet Street Porter and McDonalds Fillet of Fish in quick succession)!

There’s not a lot to be said for Anything Goes that hasn’talready been written, but suffice it to say that for an 80 year old it’s certainly a sprightly show and this wonderful production, directed by  Daniel Evans  for  Sheffield Theatres  is a toe-tapping treat from first to last!

We loved this charming production when we saw it in Chichester’s intimate Festival Theatre, but will admit to having reservations about how well it would fit in at the vast Mayflower.  Emma van Kooperen  is our roving reporter letting us know just how unfounded our worries were…

Our friends at Shakespeare’s Globe piqued our interest when they announced  Jonathyan Pryce  would be playing Shylock in their production of The Merchant of Venice… well now they’ve hooked us once more as they’ve revealed the full cast!

I know it’s only March, but so far ‘Farinelli and The King’ at  The Globe ’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse has been far and away our favourite production of the year. Funny and poignant in equal measure and with a fantastic central performance from  Mark Rylance , the only downside was that with a limited run in the cosy Sam Wanamaker it deserved a much bigger audience than could possibly see it. Thankfully  Sonia Friedman Productions  and the Globe agreed with me!