Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks Musical

So day two in London begins and me and Ma Beezie had a fun night in the Belgrave Hotel near King’s Cross. As this is not a blog about hotels I have stayed in I will not dwell on the night in hand – it was not the best hotel I have stayed in. However we had a fun night and we even dragged me up; see my alter ego Facebook page (Erica!) currently named Erica Shon but thinking of adapting my name to Mis Sogynistic (comments welcomed). This is a work in progress and one day I will be as big as Ru Paul (LOL!). Anyway we start the day by going to visit ZSL London Zoo – I do love a zoo and love wildlife and the natural Kingdom. It is crazy to think that a zoo is in the middle of London and right next to Camden Town. There were some gorgeous animals there and some really really cute babies such as the baby gorilla and baby monkeys.  I prefer ZSL Whipsnade Zoo but the London cousin is still impressive although I would like some of the enclosures to be a little bit bigger and one lizard tried to escape! The eventful part of the visit was by far the giraffes. Well what seemed like a mating ritual the two giraffes were obviously in love and wanting a little giraffe in 15 months. We were not sure if they were displaying mating and courting behaviour (after a Google search on the way home we confirmed some of it was and some was new behaviour undocumented). Well I wish the giraffes of ZSL London Zoo all the best for their future. But the funny part of the visit was the parents explaining what the animals were doing: “Oh they are cuddling each other”, “maybe they are mother and daughter”, “the girl is kissing the boy giraffe”. BE HONEST WITH YOUR CHILDREN – THEY ARE MAKING A BABY AND IT DON’T INVOLVE NO FLYING STORK. Anyway wherever me and ma Beezie go there is always a drama LOL!

 

So I will move onto the second show we saw, Sunny Afternoon on Tuesday 28^th July 2015 at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Again this is not a theatre I have been to before and I love it. A small theatre tucked away just off Haymarket. It is so beautiful inside with baby blue and gold decor it really is a spectacle and I hope to visit this theatre again in the future. The stage comes out into the audience and some of the seats are set up like being in a little cocktail bar with seats and a table (and of course the Prosecco). I am not sure if this was only for this production but it was certainly effective. Anyway I only wanted to see this show as it won the 2015 Olivier Award for Best New Musical so I thought if it wins that it has got to be worth seeing. Watching ‘Made in Dagenham’ and ‘Beautiful’ (both nominated for the same award) earlier in the year (and unfortunately before this blog started) I was expecting great things as these shows were amazing and after seeing them I thought they deserved the award. Well Sunny Afternoon definitely deserved the award and Ray Davies has definitely a success on his hands which I hope runs for a long time as I would definitely see it again. If you are not sure of the story of Sunny Afternoon it follows the development and career of the famous band The Kinks. From their start up, difficulties keeping royalties and giving their managers way too much, from dynamics in the band going from good to bad to break up and also the relationship and love of Ray Davies with his wife Rasa. I absolutely loved this musical and would recommend all to see whether you are a fan of The Kinks or not.

 

Any fan of a rock concert and a musical will feel very at home seeing Sunny Afternoon. It incorporates the big productions of some of the famous Kinks songs alongside some dancing, gorgeous costumes and some comedy; where can it go wrong (it doesn’t). I am a big fan of actors on stage playing the instruments themselves (‘Once’ is another good musical where this style is used and succeeds in every manner). All the actors on stage play an instrument at various points of the performance. As I said it is like going to see a rock concert so if you struggle with loud noises take some bloody ear protectors. Some of the great songs such as ‘Lola’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and ‘You Really Got Me’ all feature in the musical and delivered in a unmistakably Kinks finesse; which if you closed your eyes would feel like one of the albums was being played. I also love a bit of confetti falling from the heavens of the theatre and if this ever happens I get some as a souvenir from my visit to the theatre – in my programme now I have a handful of red, white and blue confetti.

 

John Dagleish who played Ray Davies was amazing – he interacts so well with the audience and portrays Ray with ease. His voice is great and as said previously definitely could leave the Harold Pinter Theatre and start up his Kinks tribute band and live quite happily off the profits. Dagleish deserves his 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. The other band members Edmund Derrington playing Pete Quaife and Adam Sopp as Mick Avory also give an outstanding performance. The role of Dave Davies is usually played by George Maguire who won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical. The performance I was at Dave was portrayed by understudy Ryan O’Donnell and he definitely will go far in his musical theatre career and would be the ideal replacement if Maguire decides to leave the show. Elizabeth Hill plays, at parts of the performance, Mrs. Davies the mother of the brothers and her performance is definitely of comic value and I wish I was sat in the seat where she interacts with the audience member when The Kinks are on Top Of The Pops. One more mention of a part is to Tam Williams who plays Grenville Collins – because he was gorgeous and his accents are to die for – grand job. So if you want to go see The Kinks, a West End Musical and get up and have a dance I suggest going to see Sunny Afternoon (KINKS!) as this will kill three birds with one hell of a gemstone.