A to BUZZ

  The second year Musical Theatre students, leaving for places new after this, presented their final show as students of UCEN Manchester College this evening, and this was the musical, Bad Girls.  The musical is set in a women's prison in London and is based on the once popular TV series of the same name. With a book by Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus, and music by Kath Gotts, the musical never really truly feels as gritty and realistic as the TV drama did, and there has been some attempt at humour too, which seems oddly placed in this scenario. The stage setting was basic and obvious: a prison wing, with two cell doors and a staircase leading to the upper level. But that is where it stopped. The upper level was simply a black curtain and the sides of the stage were left with the black tabs which were insufficient to block the movement of the cast in the wings which we could plainly see. The other scenes and requisite set for them were brought in and out by cast as necessary;...

  I have seen 'Wind In The Willows' many, many times over the years, but have never, as far as I can remember, seen this particular version before. Adapted from Kenneth Grahame by Alan Bennett, this production, performed by the second year actors at UCEN Manchester College, focuses much more on Toad's love of motor vehicles and his escapades, addressing themes of class, pride, courage, friendship and belonging.  The stage set was a riverside walk at the rear with the forestage taking the form of river, wild wood, prison and everything in between. It was a nice idea which should have worked much better than it did in reality, since the direction was unclear at times and even placing both Mole's and Rat's homes on stage at the start, believing them both to be in the river, complicated comprehension of the narrative. The set required a few larger items such as a covered wagon (called a caravan here), a car, and house front, all working nicely, but my favourite was the ...

  Once again I visited a theatre last night to find that the company in question did not supply any programmes for their touring Musical, and they did not even have an online version either. I am truly becoming mightily fed up with this contemporary trend of companies abandoning the idea of producing programmes / playbills / cast lists, and there are some (like the company behind last night's show) who don't even bother with the "green" alternative by uploading one on the www and issuing the audience with a QR code to access it.  First, not everyone has the capacity, opportunity or ability to access programmes via QR codes - myself included. Second, far from discouraging the use of mobile phones in the theatre, QR codes are actively encouraging it. Third, programmes on QR codes cannot be read and referred to readily and easily during the evening of the performance in the same way a printed programme can, and so it really makes them a little pointless since members of ...

  A restaurant attached to an apartment / hotel, secluded and well away from the city hustle, inconspicuous, almost missable, but once inside it is light and airy with plenty of natural light and space to manoeuvre. Everywhere is extremely clean and the gender neutral toilets, spotless. Music is played, if anything just a little too loud to be counted as background, but it didn't truly interfere too much. The service is efficient and speedy - too speedy at times, not giving me the chance to have read the menu properly or have a little pause between courses, and considering the restaurant had only three other guests the whole time I was there, this seemed a little odd. The food was a mix of the very good and the not-so-good. In general I enjoyed the food, but was disappointed by some of it. The portions are hearty and the cuisine is basically British but with the odd dalliance here and there to other countries, including East Asia and Italy. For my starter I chose Salt And Pepper Sq...