A night of theatre

After a long day at Kew Gardens yesterday I took it rather easy, just walking around a bit before a scheduled call with a couple for whom we'll be cat-sitting next month. That done, we headed for the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre to see Stephen Schwartz' musical The Baker's Wife. We walked to the tube only to find that because of service disruptions the queue to get into the station was enormous. There were literally thousands of people packed into the station waiting to get to the turnstiles, and that mass of people continued up the stairs and onto the pavement. We thought we'd opt for the bus instead, but apparently so did a few hundred other people. After a bit of online research, we walked the half mile or so to Sloane Square to get a different train.

Loved the backpack on this guy - was it his daughter's or did he just have a great sense of whimsy?

Our first choice restaurant being fully booked, we had reservations at a Peruvian restaurant called Miraflores. Their photos on their website were quite enticing.

Because of the train issues we ended up 30 minutes late. No problem, the restaurant was almost empty. This should probably have been a tip-off. We were going to order cocktails from their vast cocktail list, but were told by the very enthusiastic waiter that it was happy hour and only the cocktails marked HH were available, as drinks were 2 for 1 during happy hour. We said that we'd happily pay full price for the drinks of our choice, but were told that no, only HH drinks were available. Okay. Our two passionfruit mojitos, happily, turned out to be excellent. We ordered four small plates, one of which, a sashimi-style ceviche with Leche de Tigre de Rocotto, was excellent. The Peruvian chicken tequenos were very good. The traditional ceviche was okay, but not the lovely refreshing dish I had hoped for. Bruce's pork belly was barely edible. Since the theatre had specified that no one would be permitted to enter late, we asked for the check when the food was served and our now less-than-enthusiastic waiter complied.

We walked the short distance to the theatre, got there in time, and made our way downstairs. We had seen Pacific Overtures at this theatre last year and loved both the production and the way the theatre had been designed to take us to 19th century Japan. Tonight the configuration of seats and stage was completely different. The whole place had been transformed into a little French village. (My phone was low on power so the photo is courtesy of Bruce.)

As we found our seats, some of the actors were onstage playing petanque. They would occasionally invite an audience member to play. It was quite charming, but the room was "atmosopherically smokey" and very, very warm. The show was good and it was nice to revisit songs which I remembered from years ago. The cast was excellent, particularly Josephina Gabrielle as Denise and Clive Rowe as Aimable. Lucie Jones as Genevieve was outstanding - what an incredible voice! Judy Dench's daughter, Finty Williams was excellent as the abused wife. It wasn't a large role, but she conveyed so much more than the text with her body language. My only complaint about the show was that the sound engineering was awful. There were times when the orchestra was so loud that it completely overwhelmed the singers, sometimes even when the whole cast was singing. Surely, in a musical, hearing and understanding what is being sung and said is of paramount importance. I'm puzzled why stage managers and directors don't put their collective feet down about this. It happens so often, even on Broadway, so perhaps it's expected that one will listen to the score beforehand and be so familiar with the music that understanding it "en place" doesn't matter. It made a delightful evening at the theatre slightly less delightful.