Frankie Fever

Recently, I've been infected with Frank Sinatra fever, which I have subsequently passed onto The Cat. One of the symptoms of this fever is that we have spent the last four weekends watching Frank Sinatra films. Not the whole of each weekend (I'm not sure there's that many) but one a week. I've also just finished reading a big fat tome on Frank. The combination of these things makes me appear pretty unhealthy. Oh, and the other symptom is, obviously, breaking out in songs from the films, which is highly infectious, so there's been a few cases of duets of New York, New York and My Kind of Town happening in our household.

Another type of Frank Sinatra fever, back in the day (Image source)

The film-watching started with Anchors Aweigh, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. One of the extras on the DVD was a preview for On the Town, which advertised itself as 'Twice as gay as Anchors Aweigh!' Our excitement at this prospect was palpable. On the Town became the following weekend's essential viewing.

And, oh boy, was it twice as gay! Actually, that was an underestimation, it was more like ten times as gay! So. Much. Fun!

It was rather a ridiculous film, I'll be the first to admit, with light plot and a whole lot of silliness and singing. But sometimes that's just what you need. It was, of course, in fabulous Technicolor, and it looked pretty damn spiffy, particularly the ladies in their lovely, bright outfits. Here's just a few screen shots to whet your appetite, should you be looking out for a film for a night in, particularly as Autumn draws in.

I'm actually in love with the green dress below. It was definitely my sartorial highlight of the film. I was in love with it even before she started dancing and I caught a glimpse of the matching lining to the skirt... Do you think I could duplicate it? Perhaps that should be an Autumn project for me, to crack out the sewing machine... between watching more Frank Sinatra films, of course.

I rather liked the yellow, black and white ensemble below too. Well, if it's good enough to impress Frank Sinatra (he's not singing to her, he's obviously singing to the dress) then it's good enough for me.

The costume designer was taking full advantage of the wonders of Technicolor, with bright yellow, pink and green (even if the sailors had to stick to white).

So, if you're not going 'on the town' tonight or tomorrow, then why not settle in with this fabulous film? You may well find yourself inspired to go out after watching it, embracing the following 24 hours in the manner of these sailors on shore leave. How can you not be roused by this song?

Anything Goes

Recently, I was offered tickets to see a production of the musical Anything Goes by the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. It's part of their spring season of performances and one of the final shows of their third year students.

The production poster had me tempted before I even
read the synopsis...

I didn't know anything about the play until I got the invite - I didn't even know the title song, which surprised a few people - but was immediately interested when I read the description. It's based on a story by P.G. Wodehouse - whom, as I discovered last year, I rather enjoy - and the music is by Cole Porter. So The Cat and I headed along to northeast London last Tuesday night for the performance.

And you know what? It was excellent! I figured that, given the students would have been training and learning the art of theatre performance for the last three years, and were set to soon be released into the big bad world of professional theatre, that it would be of at least decent quality. But both The Cat and I were super impressed. Those kids (I'm allowed to call them that, being not so far off 30...) had some great voices, amazing energy and fabulous dance moves. Sure, the sets weren't as sparkly and shiny as you might get on a West End production but does that really matter when the cast's performances are so stellar?

The cast of Anything Goes in action

So, we were chuckling away, tapping our feet all the way through, nudging each other when one of the characters started singing I Get a Kick Out of You (having one of those 'so that's where the song's from' revelation moments) and humming Anything Goes all the way home. I may not have known the song before but it's so instantly catchy and fun that it immediately lodged itself in my brain.

Mountview are also doing a production of Guys and Dolls over the next few weeks, and I'm almost tempted to head back out there for that... Either way, going to see their show certainly reminded me of one of the great alternatives to West End theatre. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on them for future productions and looking up other reputable theatre schools.

And, in the spirit of the glamorous cruise ship setting of the show, I will leave you with some wonderful pictures of real cruise ship passengers of old...

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