Culture Tiger

Bold and elaborate costume design exhilarates me. When I’m low on energy, I google images of Bob Mackie creations instead of buying chocolate as a little pick-me-up. What A Way To Go!, a star-studded dark comedy from 1964, is the visual equivalent to a freakshake-induced sugar rush. Shirley MacLaine stars as small-town girl Louisa May Foster who desires a simple life. But Louisa ends up marrying men - played by Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum and Gene Kelly - who become incredibly wealthy overnight. The success, greed and vanity of the husbands kills them in outlandish ways leaving Louisa re-widowed, richer and sadder. With costumes designed by the legendary Edith Head, MacLaine’s character is frequently reinvented as she moves from one doomed spouse to another. Before money enters Louisa’s world, she is as sweet as apple pie in frills and red polka dots. With each husband comes a different lifestyle as well as a more sophisticated image. Living in bohemian Paris, with Paul...

Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade, written by Patrick Dennis (one of Edward Everett Tanner II’s many pen names), was published in 1955 and became one of the biggest American bestsellers of the twentieth century. Sixty three years later and the flamboyant Mame continues to capture hearts. In Italy, following a re-release, this comic novel topped Corriere della Sera’s general fiction list in 2009. Technicolor cinema fans, such as myself, would have instantly ordered a copy after watching the alluringly hilarious Rosalind Russell in the 1958 movie adaptation.       The novel begins in 1928 where an orphaned (and fictitious) 10-year-old Patrick is sent to Manhattan to stay with his only living relative - aunt and bachelorette Mame Dennis. Despite the wish of the child’s late father for his son to have a rigidly conservative upbringing and education, Auntie Mame has more colourful ideas. The shy Patrick is thrust into a decadent world of larger-than-life cha...

Richard Bean’s The Mentalists returns to the London stage for the first time since its 2002 debut at the National Theatre. In this revival on the other side of the Thames, comic and producer Stephen Merchant (The Office, An Idiot Abroad) is given his first theatrical outing as the frustrated and excitable suburban middle manager Ted. Joining Merchant is Steffan Rhodri (Gavin & Stacey) as Ted’s entrusted friend hairdresser Morrie who repeats fantastical stories about a multi-talented father and sexual prowess with women. Set in a basic Finsbury Park en suite hotel room, Morrie sets up a camera while Ted leaves a phone message to a woman, who he unconvincingly claims is his secretary, lying about his whereabouts. The potential seediness of it all quickly erodes when Ted changes into a suit and frets over forgetting to pack socks which may be noticed by potential thousands who will watch the eventual video. The video being produced is Ted presenting his vision of a disciplined utopia ...

Pedro Almodóvar’s 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown has the ingredients for a great musical theatre adaptation - love, passion, heartache, drama, humour and strong complex characters. Transferring a highly revered cinematic modern classic onto the stage has its risks as a balance has to be met between being true to the soul of the original yet allowing new interpretations to come through.   Both Almodóvar fans and theatregoers less familiar with his work will not be disappointed with the musical production currently in its final week at the Playhouse Theatre. Set in a colourful and vibrant Madrid going through a post Franco cultural and sexual explosion, the story follows actress Pepa who struggles with her lover Ivan’s unceremonious leaving. On top of the personal hurt and confusion Pepa crosses paths with Ivan’s bitter unstable wife, his shy put-upon grown up son and snobbish uptight future daughter-in-law. There is also Pepa’s best friend Candela who finds...

Valentine's Day produced a little crisis - I wanted to do “something” with my significant other which was not depressingly and cynically marketed (overpriced bland set menus served with the elbows and awkward conversations of strangers? No ta) . So I booked tickets for Dirty Fan Male at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club - an evening of love letters to soft porn stars read out with musical accompaniment. This is how you do romance properly. Dirty Fan Male is presented by Jonny Trunk, founder of Trunk Records, who recalls his past job managing his glamour model sister’s fan club along with their mother who had left her job at the National Trust especially. This eventually led to handling huge volumes of fan mail for several other models in the soft porn industry. Over the years, Trunk collected fan correspondence full of an incredibly wide and colourful range of sexual and romantic desires. www.trunkrecords.com With keyboard accompaniment, actor and impressionist Duncan Wisbe...

I mprov, unscripted and unrehearsed theatre, is currently underrated. I have had long conversations attempting to describe improv to which I eventually get the exclamation of ‘You mean like “ Whose Line Is It Anyway? ”!’ - a 90’s Channel 4 hit which sadly is not trendy nostalgia.