My only theatre trip of the week was to see Privates on Parade, but a very good trip it was. A mix of play and musical, because it is about a concert party in Malaya just after the war. Bawdy humour to the fore, but really enjoyable stuff. Think a much more subtle version of It Ain't Half Hot Mum (which was written about the same time. The lead, and undoubted show-stealer, is Simon Russell Beale as the outrageously camp middle-aged officer leading the concert party. He is just such a good actor and this role, not in his usual canon, he carried off with great aplomb. His Marlene Dietrich impression has to be seen (well, you can see - below).
I can't remember having front row seats at a West End theatre before. An odd experience. Sometimes when actors came to the front of the stage one was pretty much looking up their nostrils. We were that close. Not ideal, but not such a bad perspective either.
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