'If you go down to the woods today...'

The top of my to see list over the next month is 'Into the Woods' at the open air theatre in Regents Park, London.

See how the set is built here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10942354

Others include;

~ Hayfever at the Rose Theatre in Kingston

~ Sam Mendes' production of The Tempest at The Old Vic

~ Whoopi Goldberg (who is meant to be sublime) in Sister Act at The Palladium

'In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play, the mother, the actor pregnant with the part, and the child, the role to be born.'

(Konstantin Stanislavsky, Russian actor who co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre and the method of theory acting in which the actor identifies with the role.)

'I'm off to see the wizard...'

I thought I'd mark the 71st anniversary of the 'Wizard of Oz' with a few interesting facts

~ The running time is 101 minutes - the original cut was 112mins - only test audiences have ever seen the cut 11.

~ Reports suggest each actor playing a Munchkin earned $50 p/w while Toto took home $125

~Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West was so frightening it had to be heavily edited and cut.

~ The original production costs were $2,777,000 with it only making $3m on release. It is subsequent TV screenings that have made it one of the most famous films in the world.

~ As for the ruby slippers? There were five pairs made for production and a subsequent pair were made in 1989 to mark the 50th anniversary- they were valued at $3m!

Top Designers re-create Dorothy's rub slippers... http://thedailypump.com/tag/swarovski

'Please Sir, can I have some more?'

In 27.5 years I had never seen Oliver.

As a HUGE fan of musicals I really should have. The 1968 film won 5 Oscars. The stage show has been performed in 22 languages but something always put me off. It's not the music- the songs are all wonderfully emotive (some massive, flamboyant romps; others heart wrenchingly magnificant solos.) It's not that it was unfamiliar - my friend Clare put on many a solo performance in her front room when we were children, singing along to the cassette tape of the soundtrack in full cockney accent; yet I still never sat down and watched it. In fact I've always avoided it. Why? Because I expected it to be depressing - the one thing musicals should never be. Surely it goes against their very point!

Plays can be depressing - they can rip at every emotion you have until you're bruised and battered but musicals? Surely there's no place for the heorine to be killed by her abusive lover here? Well in Oliver! there is. And 20 years after Clare's one person show, I've seen it. And it was worth the wait.

First off the stage at the Theatre Royal is gigantic! From the poor people's seats right up in the balcony you get a real sense for the depth of space yet the scenery, the huge chorus and throng of orphaned children that fill the stage transport you to 1838 in a whirl of colourful exhuberence and contageous energy. The cast were phenomenal - Russ Abbott is a playful, endearing but often short fused Fagin while Kerry Ellis is flawless as the flawed leading lady. Every song is a classic and even though Bill Sykes is possibly top of my list of on-stage baddies, he's supposed to be. Because the 1830s wouldn't have been an easy time for the poor, homeless or abandoned and characters like Sykes would have (albeit momentarily) thrived.

I can't fault this production. I loved the staging, i loved the costumes (the jewel colours throughout the underground den are a fantatsic choice) and god Kerry Ellis can sing! Oliver! was simply everything it could have been and more. It's just a shame it took me so long to see it.

Oliver! At the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Runs until the new year.

Some quotes to get us started

''I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.'' (Oscar Wilde)

''Theatre is life, film is art, television is furniture.'' (Unknown)

''Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage...' (William Shakespeare)