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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Terry Johnson, Nigel Lilley (musical director), Lynne Page (choreographer).
Cast: John Barrowman, Simon Burke, Tracie Bennett
Description: A comic musical by Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein, based on Jean Poiret's play in which two middle-aged male lovers find their lives complicated by a moral crusader. Directed by Terry Johnson.
Times: Mon-Sat 7.30pm, mats Thu, Sat 2.30pm (extra mats Dec 22, 28, 30, 2.30pm, no eve perfs Dec 24, 31, no perf Dec 25), ends Jan 2
Price: £17.50-£58.50
Trains: Tube/BR: London Bridge 
Phone: 0207907 7060
Website: www.menierchocolatefactory.com
Extra info: Pub, Food
Lovers: drag queen Albin (Douglas Hodge) and Georges (Philip Quast)
Even in our age of civil partnerships, with homosexuality acceptable in high places, Jerry Herman's farcical musical comedy from the 1980s wrestles alluringly with a dilemma that could induce shudders of gay anxiety today. How do you face meeting the morally intolerant parents of the girl your son (Neil McDermott's Jean-Michel) wants to marry? For while you are discreetly gay yourself, you bear the burden of an effeminate drag queen of a lover, Douglas Hodge's Albin, who has perfected a song-and-dance act at the night club you own.
Obviously you insist Albin will not show his painted face, lurid wigs or any other embarrassing bits of himself at this difficult encounter. Such a stand, however, reckons without the drag queen scorned, who stages his ingenious revenge by appearing disguised as Jean-Michel's mother.
At least this second-act confrontation, which takes far too long in arriving, goes with a fine, farcical swing as Iain Mitchell's Dindon, from the Tradition, Family and Morality party, clings to his reputation by his finger-nails and thanks to the dress he dons.
Instead of putting a contemporary gloss on Albin, whom book-writer Harvey Fierstein portrays as a temperamental, golden-hearted queen of the semi-stifled sulk, Terry Johnson's old fashioned production, staged amidst the gawdy tackiness of David Farley's set and an eloquent little band on the side-lines, settles for the soft option of derisive burlesque.
Hodge could have updated Albin, emphasising his courageous determination to be himself, making him at once attractive and transvestite-inclined, camp and feminine to his finger tips as he belts out his big numbers on stage.
Instead Douglas settles for flouncing, flaunting grotesqueries: he adopts a throttled metallic and nasal voice, hunched shoulders and a dyspeptic expression redolent not of love lost but petulance found.
In a production that revels in the sentimental romanticism of The Best of Times and that defiant, gay anthem I am what I am, Philip Quast cuts a wooden figure. His Georges beautifully delivers Song on the Sand but betrays scant serious feeling for an equally distant Albin.
It is in the drag queen numbers, with tap dancing and whirling of fans in small-time imitation of Busby Berkeley that the amusing male transvestite dancers, particularly Nicholas Cunningham's long-legged Hanna, make La Cage aux Folles swing.
• Until March 8 (020 7907 7060).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I saw La cage Aux Folle at the end of January,soon after Graham Norton had joined the cast,i enjoyed it so much that i returned to see it on March 19th matinee.Lots of positive comments from members of the audience as i left the theatre on both occasions.I overheard one lady saying,"I enjoyed that so much,i could stay and watch it all over again", MY sentiments exactly,it was and is FABULOUS,and i loved it.The cast's energy and boundless enthusiasm will stay with me for a long time to come.Would love to see it again,so maybe i will.
- Sandra Smith, sussex England
The intimacy of The Chocolate Factory was just right. This production was wonderful and the close proximity of the cast made the shoddy nightclub seem a reality. The in -you- face greasepaint and wafts of perfume completed that illusion. It was frothy and fun but with a really touching finale. Terrific. Thoroughly worth the seat price. Well done all involved.
- Anita Philpott, Leigh on Sea
Having read Nicholas de Jongh's review, the sourness stings my tonque. Sitting in the front row of the Press review last night, I had no cause to spin round and check which critics were in - I was having too much fun watching the "flounce" on the stage. Douglas Hodge delighted and surprised my crowd, 4 queens aged from 25 - 60 who don't give a jot for its political significance - we loved the camp of it all and the fun to be had. Updating it? Surely some mistake? It was perfectly dated, tacky and moving.
- David Parker, London
