While others like Lyn Gardner in The Guardian and The Stage’s own indefatigable team have been putting in the legwork up in Edinburgh for the past week, trawling through a relentless schedule of shows that they see so we don’t have to, I’m only finally going up today – and five nights is all I can take. Mind you, I’m down to see at least 26 shows (so far) over the next five days, so I’m not planning on exactly slacking.
Those who can’t stand the heat, of course, are always told to get out of the kitchen; and I have to confess that I don’t much like cooking, so I’m happy to do so once I’ve had a bowl of cereal and cup of coffee and let others confront the Edinburgh monster for the undigested feast it has become.
But then I’ve looked back over the last month of my diary before heading up to Edinburgh, and I realise that I’ve had something of a feast myself back home, but without getting the indigestion that is an inevitable fact of life in Edinburgh.
This time last month I was flying home from the US, where I’d just spent ten days in San Francisco, New York and Provincetown. In the space of a day less than a month since I landed on July 11, I have been to the theatre 23 times (seeing 22 shows in all – one I saw twice!) in London; saw two more shows in the Manchester International Festival; two more at Blackpool; and attended three concerts or cabarets (Streisand at the O2, Barb Jungr at the Almeida, and the Kronos Quartet at the Barbican). In addition, I have seen four films at the cinema, and I have also had a day out at Brighton Pride when I went to no theatre at all (though I did check what was playing at the Theatre Royal just in case!).
But beyond those cultural activities and the day job of reporting on them, my work over the last month has also entailed hosting a week-long series of daily seminars on London theatre with a group from the University of Berkeley, that involved talking to them about the show they had seen the night before then hosting a live Q&A interview with someone from the show, so that week alone I interviewed actors Sam West, Dale Rapley and Susannah Fielding, plus directors Anna Mackmin and Lucy Bailey in front of an audience. Last week, I also did a post-performance onstage Q&A with the entire cast of In Celebration, so that’s seven more actors I spoke to. I have also had private one-on-one interviews with David Suchet, Paterson Joseph, David Ian and Jude Kelly for interview profiles I’ve had to write. And outside of all of these, I have also had separate individual lunches with Nick Hytner, SOLT chief executive Richard Pulford, Shaftesbury Theatre executive producer James Williams and Trestle Theatre Company’s new artistic director Emily Gray, and breakfast with New York press agent Adrian Bryan-Brown.
Phew! I’m suddenly realising that Edinburgh might, in fact, be a break after all that. But then there’s not much of a break either in the next two weeks. No sooner do I get back from Edinburgh next Wednesday evening than I will drive up to Stratford-upon-Avon to stay the night, ready for the Thursday 10.30am kick-off for the all-day press day of the final three instalments in Michael Boyd’s latest RSC History cycle. I’m then home on Friday, before going to New York tomorrow week – this time to interview Chita Rivera ahead of her London season at Wyndham’s next month. I get back home on Wednesday August 22 – just in time to get to Manchester the next day for the press opening of the Take That musical Never Forget, which also coincides neatly with the start of this year’s Mardi Gras the next day, so I’ll stay an extra night to catch the beginning of the festivities, which is the start of the bank holiday weekend…. when, on the Sunday, I am guest of Elaine Paige’s Radio 2 show, selecting my Five Essential Musicals!
