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It doesn't perhaps sound like the best subject matter for a funny musical - the story, set in an oncology clinic, of a woman with cancer - but 'Happy Ending' met with great success in Israel, the home country of late writer Anat Gov.
This month an English translation of the musical premieres at Arcola Theatre. To find out more about the play, and the playwright, I sent some questions over to director Guy Retallack. You can read the interview here.
‘Happy Ending’ is on at Arcola Theatre until 7 Mar. See this page here for info and tickets.
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COMEDY: Bush Hall Presents... Miles Jupp | Bush Hall | 6 Feb
Miles Jupp - the kind-faced king (okay, knave) of understated stand-up - squares up to strong 'supporting acts' Simon Munnery, James Acaster and Aisling Bea in this first-rate case of Bush Hall's 'Presents' nights. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Alex Zhang Hungtai | Café Oto | 6 Feb (pictured) Having dissolved his last alias, the moodily lo-fi Dirty Beaches, in late 2014; Taiwan-born and now Canada-based artist Alex Zhang Hungtai is now back with a shiny new plaything in Last Lizard, for which fans have high hopes. Tonight he collaborates on a one-off basis with Osso Exótico icon David Maranha and the RED Trio's Gabriel Ferrandini. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Interpol | Roundhouse | 6-7 Feb Post-rock's OG doom n gloom salesmen Interpol grace the Roundhouse with two whole shows, which closely follow the release of the band's first LP after a four-year gap, the stately and cold-blooded 'El Pinto'. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Live At The Chapel w/ Paul Foot + Freeze! | Union Chapel | 7 Feb (pictured)
Oddball comic Paul Foot climbs into his silver zoot suit and dazzles as co-headliner of this Live At The Chapel presentation. He splits a bill with Tim Key and Tom Basden's ale-swilling foray Freeze!, highly smart character actress Sara Pascoe and MC-at-large Alex Horne. Details and tickets here. COMEDY: Milton Jones And The Temple Of Daft | Richmond Theatre | 7 Feb Last seen flexing his mass appeal via his 5/5-rated Edinburgh Fringe hit 'The High Road', wacky-dressing Radio 4 fave Milton Jones, now cracks the whip of whimsy in his latest enterprise, which - precedent indicates - will be a surrealist mix of his trademark one-liners and 'dad at a party'-style eccentricity. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Quantic + Hidden Orchestra | The Forum | 7 Feb Electronica label Tru Thoughts moves from Koko to the larger Forum for another of its unmissable parties; this one featuring artist, producer, DJ and long-time TT backbone Quantic, magpie jazzists Hidden Orchestra, and a face-off by dancehall/dub reggae rivals Ragga Twins and Wrongtom. Details and tickets here. |
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FILM: Reclaim The Rom-Com! | Genesis Cinema | 8 Feb With the first in a year of events the portrayal of women in film, the team at the Bechdel Test Fest try their bestest to take back the notion of the romantic comedy from the brink of sickly regressiveness with this day of ideas-sharing and screenings of some enlightened and pro-feminist films of a rom-com-like ilk. And they are: 'abortion rom-com' 'Obvious Child', and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant-starring movie of 1940 'The Philadelphia Story'. A panel debate will take place in the interval, led by Guardian writer Chloe Angyal, and featuring experts in the field like Alice Guilluy, Simran Hans, Craig Williams. And entry is free! Details here. THEATRE: Acqua Alta | New Diorama Theatre | 8-9 Feb Physical theatre company Nonesuch re-tell the story of Noah with a mythical twist; he's a cruise liner magnate who fills his latest flagship... erm, ship, with a menagerie of every animal. Apart from his least liked creature, the unicorn. And so the play, a pageant of remembered and imagined scenes, follows the strange fate of the unicorns as they find themselves trapped in a sealed container with little air. It's really pretty straightforward. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Happy Ending | Arcola Theatre | until 7 Mar (pictured) The English-speaking premiere of a life-and-death-affirming play by late Israeli writer Anat Gov, 'Happy Ending' centres on a theatre star receiving chemotherapy for cancer. "Despite what it seems", explained director Guy Retallack in his recent interview with ThisWeek London, "[it] is actually an incredibly witty and clever comedy that explores what it means to live and to die well". Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Rhys James Begins | Soho Theatre | 9-14 Feb (pictures) Fated to hit the big time any time soon, it's so-called 'pointy debutant' Rhys James, who in this, his first show of real significance, will tell jokes, recite rhymes that are relevant to his life, and then leave. The whole thing lasts around an hour, during which time RJ promised he won't check at his Twitter feed once. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Boa | Trafalgar Studios | until 7 Mar Real-life marrieds Dame Harriet Walter and Guy Paul star in this strictly limited stretch of Clara Brennan's 'Boa', the tender yet acerbic story of a 'lifetime in love' for its main characters, Belinda and Louis. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: How To Hold Your Breath | Royal Court Theatre | until 21 Mar The brilliant Maxine Peake and Christine Bottomley play sisters Dana and Jasmine, who discover the real cost of principles in Zinnie Harris' 'How To Hold Your Breath', a darkened window into how we live now. Details and tickets here. |
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MUSIC: Elbow | Hammersmith Apollo | 10-12 Feb (pictured) These days Elbow are an arena band in the UK, but following a tour of more mid-sized venues in the US last year they've decided they'd like to downsize a bit back home too. Multiple nights in Manchester and London minimise the number of fans missing out on these more 'intimate' shows, with the London run made up of three consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Apollo. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Ablutions | Soho Theatre | 10-22 Feb The recipient of a 4/5 review from TWL sister site ThreeWeeks at this year's Edinburgh Festival, FellSwoop Theatre's award-winning 'Ablutions' hits the Soho Theatre. Set in a dead-end LA bar, the play invites the audience to imagine themselves as the bartender, sipping whiskey, watching the clientele drink themselves into oblivion, and planning how to make their escape. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: Marching On Together | Old Red Lion Theatre | until 28 Feb The world premiere of Adam Hughes' examination of football hooliganism, 'Marching On Together' is set in Leeds in 1984 during one of football's most violent seasons and the West Yorkshire miners' strike. Former hooligan crew leader Macca is released from prison to find himself without a gang and faced with a city he no longer recognises. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: James Veitch - The Fundamental Interconnectedness Of Everyone With An Internet Connection | Museum Of Comedy | until 14 Feb The majority of email sent is spam, an irritation ignored by most and fallen for by some. In this show, James Veitch shows what happens when you start replying to the scammers and attempt to play them at their own game. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Gruff Rhys - America Interior | Koko | 11 Feb (pictured) Former Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys' 2014 'American Interior' encompassed an album, film, book and app. Now the live version of the project arrives in London for a performance at Koko in Camden. Details and tickets here. THEATRE: How I Learned To Drive | Southwark Playhouse | 11 Feb - 14 Mar Set in Maryland, USA in 1969, Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize winning 'How I Learned To Drive' tells the story of seventeen year old Lil Bit her Uncle Peck through a series of driving lessons, in this new staging by Fools & Kings and DEM Productions. Details and tickets here. |
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COMEDY: Kim Noble - You're Not Alone | Soho Theatre | until 7 Mar (pictured)
Aside from getting that song by one hit wonder Olive in my head, Kim Noble achieves many other things with this show. Blending theatre, film and comedy he takes the audience through a journey to escape the loneliness of modern life. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Drenge | Tufnell Park Dome | 12 Feb One of a number of shows taking place as a prelude to this years NME Awards, noisy twosome Drenge take to the Tufnell Park Dome. Support comes from The Bohicas and Menace Beach, which covers a good proportion of your quota for saying you've seen buzzy bands live in one go. Details and tickets here. MUSIC: Wagner's The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg | London Coliseum | until 10 Mar Noted wag Richard Wagner's operatic comedy 'The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg' (or 'Meistersinger Von Nürnberg', to give it its original title - though this performance in all in English). The ENO's new production brings Richard Jones' acclaimed staging come to the London Coliseum for the first time. Details and tickets here. |
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