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With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
Babbo
Film
This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection
Bright Star
Theatre
Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off
Seize The Day
I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd.
I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre.
I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto
London,
Fiona Mountford's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Thom Southerland, Christopher Peake (musical director).
Cast: Union Theatre
Description: The company presents a production of the comic two-act operetta.
Trains: Tube/BR: Southwark/Waterloo 
Phone: 0207261 9876
Website: www.upandcoming.webeden.co.uk
Topsy-turvy: The Mikado incorporates mock-Japanese silliness
Here's a delightful how-de-do. The tiny Union is onto its fourth musical - and second all-male production of Gilbert and Sullivan - in a year and it's simply getting better and better.
The noise the chorus makes is the loveliest I've heard for months and would be the envy of most West End shows. This production team is going places.
The first place it's off to is the wonderfully topsy-turvy realm of Titipu, a world of mock-Japanese silliness, where demotions, revelations and executions tumble gaily through the plot.
The musical numbers could easily be mistaken for the running order on a G and S Greatest Hits album, and the 13-strong cast attack them with relish.
In every respect musical director Christopher Peake is a one-man band, but what he lacks in colleagues he more than makes up for in commitment, providing assured piano accompaniment for every song.
The three little maids have marvellous falsettos - and, in Vanessa Fenton's subtle choreography, nifty parasoltwirling skills - with a fluttering Martin Milnes giving the turn of the evening as Yum-Yum.
Director Thom Southerland could add a little more pep to some sections of dialogue, especially when they're establishing for us "Titipudlian" arcana. But anyone who gets group numbers sounding and looking like this is doing a whole lot right.
Surely such a treat shouldn't just be confined to Southwark?
Until 16 August (020 7261 9876, www.uniontheatre.org).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
