The end of itsonitsgone.com

With updates to this blog slowing down in 2010 and coming to a complete halt in 2011, the time has come to admit that I no longer have the time to devote to updating this little corner of the Internet.

Since I started the site back in 2008, the number of Edinburgh entertainment sites has grown, with most of them latching onto the same events and shows and trying to cover them in their own way, to varying degrees of success. Quite whether the paying public is as interested in our reviews as we are is a subject worth debating.

Increasingly I’m looking for original features, interviews and other coverage of plays or films rather than yet another 350 word review, but those are few and far between.

So, I’ll keep writing for the Edinburgh Evening News for the moment, along with film site ReelScotland and my Twitter feed over at @jon_melville, and I’d love to see some of you there.

If you’ve read any of the reviews or previews on this site over the years then thank you, if you’ve enjoyed them then that’s even better. I’ll leave the site online as a kind of archive, and perhaps it will return in some format or other in the future, but for now, itsonitsgone.com is, well, gone.

Edinburgh Secret Society’s Lafayette Seance

Tickets for next Edinburgh Secret Society event – The Lafayette Seance – on sale now! http://edinburghsecretsociety.wordpress.com/

Tags: Theatre Previews

Event Preview: Slapstick 2011, 27 – 30 January 2011, Bristol

With appearances from Rob Brydon, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, Ian Lavender and Paul McGann, Slapstick 2011, Bristol’s annual silent comedy festival, is shaping up to be even more of a special event than 2010′s.

Beginning on Thursday 27 January with silent cinema expert Kevin Brownlow’s presentation of once-lost Charlie Chaplin footage, there’s also a chance to see former-Bonzo front man, Neil Innes, with his latest solo show before the weekend really hots up with a comedy gala on the Friday night.

There’s more Chaplin on the Saturday, the same day Dad’s Army star Ian Lavender introduces a tribute to the great Buster Keaton and Rob Brydon interviews Barry Cryer about his top comedy moments.

Tags: Slapstick

Theatre Review: Mother Goose, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh

★★★★★

Fully embracing the tried and trusted panto formula – the knowing recycling of a classic fairytale with a familiar riff on tried and tested jokes giving them momentum – Brunton Theatre may not be reinventing the wheel in 2010 with its staging of Mother Goose, but when something works this well, why change it?

A distinctly Scottish flavour is added to the Mother Goose story, as Prince Jack (Gerry Kielty) looks to revive his crumbling castle with the proceeds made from selling a golden egg. A spanner is thrown into the works when the evil Vainglorious (Edward Cory) decides he wants to marry the bonniest lass in Musselburgh, Jill (Julie Heatherill), resulting in various mishaps and kidnappings involving Jill and the egg.

Helping (or is that hindering?) Jack are Mother Goose aka Gertie Ga Ga (Craig Glover, back for a second year as Dame) and her jester, Muddles (Aaron Usher), as romance blossoms and evil threatens the land.

One-liners, convoluted plot summaries and ludicrous set pieces are the name of the day here, the whole endeavour hanging together thanks to the sheer enthusiasm of the performers and an audience willing them on.

The central pairing of Glover and Usher is the heart of the show, Usher revelling in the corny jokes and banter with the crowd. Now in his tenth Brunton panto, there can’t be a permutation on the role of “daft laddie” that Usher hasn’t covered, yet he’s still fresh as ever, no doubt egged on by Glover’s gloriously OTT performance and even more OTT costumes.

Throw in songs spanning the last five decades, a few nods to reality TV and Doctor Who (even the recent Doctor Who Proms are referenced, proving nothing is too obscure) and more than a few mentions of Musselburgh itself, and this is a show with something for grannies, grandchildren and most family members in between.

The rather abrupt wrapping up of plot threads and hasty ending aside, this is yet another triumph for the Brunton and a reminder that it’s worth braving the snow and ice when the entertainment is as much fun as Mother Goose.

Mother Goose runs until 31 December, details on the Brunton Theatre website.

Tags: Brunton Theatre

Theatre Review: Jack and the Beanstalk, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

★★★★★

As the year draws to a close, and I look back on the last few months of blog posts and realise I’ve spent far too little time at the theatre recently, it’s good to know that a bit of fun has been injected back into Edinburgh with the arrival of panto season.

Last week I went along to Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre to see the new Allan Stewart/Grant Stott production of Jack and the Beanstalk, this time with an added dash of Andy Gray, who returns to the city after three years in Glasgow panto.

Making a stunning entrance as Dame May McTrot, Stewart drops effortlessly back into the role of panto matriarch. It’s one he’s honed to perfection over the years, the actor a safe pair of hands in a production which tries to get bigger and flashier every year but which really just needs a bloke in a dress to work.

Andy Gray is also on fine form as King Crumble, sizing up to Stewart on more than one occasion as the pair try to outdo each other in the fluffed and forgotten lines stakes. It’s hard to know where the ad-libs and improvisation start and end, both of them falling in and out of character as they wait for their next line, but it all adds to the entertainment.

Grant Stott is also on good form as the evil Fleshcreep, doing the work of the evil giant (a semi-successful animatronic prop which dominates the stage for an over loud and overlong period of time), but it’s easy to lost track of quite why the giant is being so evil. There’s some fluff about unpaid taxes requiring the kidnap of Crumble’s daughter, Princes Apricot (Jo Freer), but none of it makes too much sense in all the rush.

Freer makes for a perky princess, most of her scenes taking place opposite romantic lead Andrew Scott-Ramsay, who does well with the pretty thankless role of Jack McTrot. Scott-Ramsay replaces Johnny Mac this year in the role of Stewart’s son, with the 2010 version a more serious portrayal. The part of the bumbling oaf is instead given to Gray, leaving Scott-Ramsay with the occasional one-liner.

References to reality TV and shiny floor shows abound, and if you don’t know your Wagner from your Gillian McKeith you’ll be slightly left in the cold. The appearance of Gray as one half of Stavros Flatley (Britain’s Got Talent) does redeem this situation somewhat, a sketch which proved to be one of the highlights of the evening.

Throw in a few song and dance routines and a bit of business with audience members, plus obligatory references to the Edinburgh trams, and this is a tremendous evening’s entertainment which won’t disappoint.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs until Sunday 23 January 2011. Visit the King’s Theatre website for more information.

Tags: Allan Stewart, Andy Gray, Edinburgh, King's Theatre

Event Preview: Doctor Who Live, 16 & 17 October 2010, SECC, Glasgow

Just a short reminder for the Doctor Who fans in the audience that Doctor Who Live materialised in Glasgow today and remains at the SECC until Sunday.

Nigel Planer stars as intergalactic showman, Vorgenson, who travels the galaxy with his minimiser containing many of the Doctor’s foes. Matt Smith stars on the big screen as things begin to go awry for his biggest fan.

A few trailers and the odd unofficial video have arrived on YouTube, so take a look at what you could be seeing if you head to the event this weekend:

And one video which isn’t quite officially approved:

Nor this one:

Tickets can be bought over on the Doctor Who Live website.

 

Tags: Doctor Who

Theatre Review: Sunshine on Leith, 12 October 2010, Edinburgh Festival Theatre

★★★★★

In the midst of TV schedules filled with broadcasters’ attempts at spoon-feeding viewers with Z-list celebrity reality shows, while supermarket shelves buckle under the weight of countless Jennifer Aniston DVDs, it’s easy to dismiss populist entertainment as a Very Bad Thing, a wasteland where “entertainers” are only as good as their current marketing mix.

One place where populist isn’t a four letter word is in musical theatre, the demand for larger-than-life spectacle as strong as ever. This was evidenced last night by the large crowd who turned up at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre to see the latest Dundee Rep production of Sunshine on Leith, the musical based on the songs of The Proclaimers, as it rolled into town.

Within seconds of the curtain going up we’re introduced to Davy (Billy Boyd) and Ally (Michael Moreland), two soldiers fresh out of the army and back on the streets of Edinburgh (sorry, Leith) as they look to rebuild their lives.

Safe in the bosom of their families, the lads are soon fully paid up members of the rat race, women, jobs and football replacing the harsh realities of the desert. As the pair try to follow the path their parents took, looking to settle down and raise families, it becomes clear that even thirty years of marriage isn’t without its traumas.

Writer Stephen Greenhorn may pepper his heavily-colloquialised dialogue with such hits as I’m On My Way (as Davy and Ally make their way down an alternate universe Leith Walk, one inhabited by dancing grannies and drunks hanging out of wheelie bins (actually, that last bit might well be fact)) and Life With You (as various men explain how they want to spend their lives with their women), but this highly literal odyssey manages to avoid tying itself up in knots just to get to the next well-staged dance routine.

Tags: Billy Boyd, The Proclaimers

Theatre Preview: Sunshine on Leith, 12 – 16 October, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Quite a last minute warning this one, seeing as the show begins this evening, but as nobody was probably expecting me to post anything today anyway, I can just about get away with it. I think.

Yes, Sunshine on Leith, the stage show adapted from the music of The Proclaimers, returns to Edinburgh tonight for just seven performances.

According to the Festival Theatre website, “Sunshine on Leith follows the highs and lows of Ally and Davy as they return home from the army. Families, relationships and life in Leith are not all plain sailing in this truly exceptional love story about everyday life in Scotland.

Featuring over 20 hits such as I’m Gonna Be (500 miles), I’m On My Way and Letter from America, I’m looking forward to trying this one out this evening.

The review will be up soon after.

Tags: Sunshine on Leith, The Proclaimers

Theatre Preview: Summer On Stage 2010, 23 & 24 July, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

The Lyceum Youth Theatre returns to the Lyceum stage on 23 and 24 July as part of Summer on Stage, with a double bill of contrasting pieces: A Vampire Story by Moira Buffini and The Musicians by Patrick Marber.

In A Vampire Story by Moira Buffini, directed by Steve Mann, two young women who travel to a small British town they don’t state their ages or names, are they sisters? Or are they vampires? Or just two lost girls and very much human?

In Patrick Marber’s The Musicians, directed by Xana Marwick, the Ridley Rd school orchestra has travelled to Russia to give Tchaikovsky’s Forth Symphony to an invited audience of the great and good only one problem….they have no instruments but when you have Alex and Alexi The Who and a broom these problems soon disappear. A warm play that shows you that Rock n Roll is truly the answer to all life’s problems.

Comedy Preview: John Cleese’s Alimoney Tour, 10 June 2011, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

It’s been a while, but finally normal service is being resumed here on itsonitsgone.com. While I’ve been away trying to safely bring reelscotland.com into the world, big things have been happening in the rest of the Arts here in Edinburgh, not least the announcement that John Cleese is hitting town in 2011 with his one-man show, The Alimoney Tour.

Though the term “legend” is overused these days, the fact that the press release for the tour labels him as one is actually fine with me as he’s done more for British comedy than Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and anyone who’s been on Eight out of 10 Cats put together.

According to Basil Fawlty himself, the evening will be “full of well honed anecdotes, psychoanalytical tit-bits, details of recent surgical procedures, and unprovoked attacks on former colleagues, especially Michael Palin.”

Hopefully you don’t need me to tell you that this is a must-see show and that we probably won’t get a chance like this again in Scotland, certainly not for a very long time – head over to the Festival Theatre website to book your tickets.

Theatre Preview: Any Given Day, 29 May – 19 June, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Never one to give its actors or audience an easy time of it, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre promises a “searing, poetic and hard-hitting new play” in the shape of Linda McLean’s Any Given Day, running from Saturday 29 May until Saturday 19 June.

According to the website, this is a big day for Sadie and Bill; their favourite person is coming to visit. They’ve gone to great lengths to prepare for the occasion.

It’s an even bigger day for Jackie; and not one she’d anticipated. Should she should make the most of it? She doesn’t know if she can any more; too many people depend on her.

Exploring our fear of the unknown and our guilt and responsibility towards ourselves and others, the play stars Kate Dickie (Red Road), Kathryn Howden, Lewis Howden and Jamie Quinn.

Full details are available on the Traverse Theatre website now.

Site news: Film coverage on itsonitsgone.com

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that updates, in particular film updates, have decreased in recent weeks – but it’s not just because I’ve been watching too many DVDs.

I’ve just set up a brand new website, ReelScotland, which takes elements of this site and adds a whole lot more, with more interviews, reviews, previews and articles about cinema events around Scotland.

I’ll still be adding theatre and the odd film event to this site, but if you’d like to broaden your Scottish cinema horizons even further, please head over to www.reelscotland.com to find out more – I hope you enjoy it.

Theatre Preview: The Cherry Orchard, 16 April – 8 May, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

The legend that is John Byrne (Tutti Frutti) returns to Scottish theatre this month as his brand new adaptation of Chekov’s political comedy The Cherry Orchard is given a Scottish makeover.

Relocated to northern Scotland in the late 1970s, Byrne’s play tells the story of a once-grand family brought low by the changes of time and tide.

The Ramsey-Mackays are not used to struggle, but as their debts mount and the vultures begin to circle, they must face losing their ancestral home and the cherry orchard that goes with it.

Intermission: Remembering The Great Lafayette

Employees at the Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre are appealing for information on the world-famous illusionist Sigmund Neuberger, better known as The Great Lafayette, ahead of the 100 year anniversary of his death.

Believed to be the highest paid magician of his time, The Great Layette met his untimely death in a fire whilst performing at the old Empire Theatre – now the Festival Theatre – on 9 May 1911.

To mark the 100 year anniversary of his death, staff at the venue are planning to hold a series of events and exhibitions and are asking for members of the public to come forward with information on The Great Lafayette or any of the other victims who lost their lives on that tragic night.

The story goes that the theatre was full to its 3000 seat capacity when disaster struck while the Great Lafayette was performing his signature illusion “The Lion’s Bride”. As the world-famous magician took his final bow a stage lamp fell and ignited part of the elaborate stage set.

The audience, thinking that this was part of the illusion, did not evacuate until the theatre manager signalled the orchestra to play ‘God Save the King’. The fire took three hours to put out and ten members of The Great Lafayette’s company perished, although all 3000 members of the audience walked to safety.

According to an eyewitness account published over on JK Gillon’s website:

Reports claimed Lafayette had escaped but had returned in an attempt to save his horse. A charred body, dressed in Lafayette’s costume, was found near the stage, but a further search of the basement revealed another body, this one with the diamond rings which Lafayette always wore. The first man was one of the doubles that Lafayette often used in his act.

To add to the mystery, days before Lafayette’s death he buried his much loved dog Beauty – a gift from fellow-illusionist Harry Houdini – in Piershill Cemetery. Edinburgh council only allowed this on the condition that The Great Lafayette would eventually be buried alongside his cherished pet upon his death.

No one could ever have guessed that he would be joining Beauty just four days later…

Please email suggestions on how this important date should be celebrated, or any information on the Great Lafayette to kim.mckenna@eft.co.uk.

Image copyright JK Gillon

Tags: The Great Lafayette

Theatre Preview: I Was a Beautiful Day, 14 – 17 April, Tron Theatre, Glasgow

A freshly staged and newly revised version of I Was a Beautiful Day opens at the Tron on 14 April, running until 17 April.  First commissioned by the Traverse Theatre in 2005, the play has been called funny, moving and utterly compelling.

Confined to a hospital room, Dan obsessively maps the terrain of his island past. When a fellow patient hits crisis point, Dan is forced to acknowledge that life cannot be contained by lines drawn on paper.

Anne works for the Ordnance Survey. There is only one man in Scotland who can help her complete the map for a forgotten part of Lewis. But can she convince Dan to confront the terrible secrets of his past?

Music Preview: Hinterland, 3 April, City Centre, Glasgow

Hinterland is a multi venue arts and music festival which will take place in various venues across central Glasgow on 3 April, from 5pm – 3am.

For one day only Glasgow will play host to some of the finest up and coming Scottish bands and musicians whilst welcoming many musicians from the UK and International scenes.

Hinterland will showcase a line up of eclectic acts from many musical genres including indie, electro, rock, house and hip-hop.

Theatre Preview: Every One, 19 March – 10 April, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Photo by Tim Morozzo

Coming to Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum theatre from 19 March – 10 April,  Every One is described as “a beautiful and poetic look at how ordinary people deal with extraordinary tragedy”.

An everyday family, Joe, Mary, Kevin and Mazz, are at the centre of this tale. They are somehow aware their lives are being witnessed by a theatre full of people. But with nothing to mark them out as particularly unusual they are slightly puzzled by the attention.

All of this changes when Death comes calling.

Plunged suddenly into a situation where the things they considered ‘real’ can no longer be relied upon, Joe, Mary, Kevin and Mazz must reassess their lives.

Their different perspectives on life and on what it means to ‘live’ are altered forever- and the things that really matter are made painfully clear.

Film Preview: The Return of The Room, 27 March, Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh

It’s back. It’s the film they should have tried to ban, one so bad that cinema audiences  have been known to stage mass walk outs while those that remain wish they’d stayed at home. Yes, The Room returns to Edinburgh’s Cameo cinema on Saturday 27 March, and you really should be there.

As Ross Maclean wrote last month, “to call The Room bad is to do it a disservice. It transcends ‘bad’ to become an all-encompassing onslaught of ridiculous scripting, woeful acting, cringe-inducing sex scenes, frequent non-sequiturs, bad dubbing and over-earnest melodrama.” And he’s seen it five times.

Tags: Cameo Cinema, The Room

Theatre Preview: The Hobbit, 23 + 25 – 28 March, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Following three hugely successful national tours and two acclaimed capacity seasons at The Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End, JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit will be playing at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre on Tuesday 23 and from Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 March.

Bilbo Baggins, a quiet and contented Hobbit, has his life turned upside down when he is chosen by Gandalf the Sorcerer to join Thorin Oakenshield, exiled King of the Dwarves, on his quest to reclaim their kingdom and treasure.

With the aid of magic and illusion, audiences will join Gandalf as he leads Bilbo and his Dwarf companions on a frightening but magical journey, a journey from which they might never return! A journey to hunt for the powerful hidden treasure that simply must be found and given back to its rightful owners.

Travel with them through the Misty Mountains, through wind, rain, hail and thunderstorms narrowly escaping gourmandising Trolls, vicious Goblins, avaricious wolves, and spiteful Giant Spiders. Finally Bilbo must face the guardian of the treasure, the most feared and deadly dragon of them all, Smaug…

Tags: The Hobbit

Film Preview: Girls on Film, 10 – 14 March, Filmhouse, Edinburgh

Females in contemporary Japanese Cinema
 are the subject of Girls on Film, an upcoming season at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema, running from Wednesday 10 to Sunday 14 March.

As the cineam’s website notes, following last year’s Reality Fiction: Japanese Films Inspired by Actual Events season, this year’s Japan Foundation annual touring film programme looks at contemporary Japanese cinema made for, about, and in some cases by, women.

Women have continuously been at the centre of Japanese cinema, with notable examples being films by Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse, and even the animation works of Hayao Miyazaki. In the world of Japanese cinema, female characters embrace “more dramatic possibilities” since they have ìmuch stronger feelings than menî as Shochiku company president, Shiro Kido, once described.