Friday, June 05, 2009

Bernhard plays Leicester Square


Try and forgive the crummy photo, taken on my phone, but this is one gal you do not want to upset by pointing flashing objects at her more than, say, once during a two-hour show, to snatch a guilty souvenir. Plus I was almost certainly shaking from laughter at the time -- good excuse, right? She had me at minute two, milking a promo interview on Richard and Judy with this duly puzzled and utterly perfect description of Judy Finnigan: "A jittery lady... with slightly burnt cleavage". I practically sprayed beer over the row in front. ITV's Loose Women weren't let off the hook either -- "Someone told me they were like these hellraisers, flinging themselves around the set. What's up with that? They seemed so... demure." Way to nail the London showbiz scene, Sandra. Come back soon!

6 comments:

NicksFlickPicks said...

I'm sure this was delicious! Does she still end this show with "Little Red Corvette," or is this an update more than a reprise?

I got to see Holly Hughes perform a piece last night about her Supreme Court trial as one of the NEA Four in 1990, so across the Atlantic, queer women's comic-testimonial performance carried the day!

NicksFlickPicks said...

On a totally different note: I note the "F" for Beyond the Fire on your sidebar, which intrigued me enough to see what that film is. The tagline and the plot thumbnail on IMDb sound hilariously egregious. Fun-bad, or just unbearable?

tim r said...

To reply to both of these at once: I now can't remember exactly what song Sandra closed with, but it wasn't LRC. At least half the show was updated, I'd say -- and it was really the contemporary stuff I enjoyed the most. I've been planning to dig out that VHS you sent me and put the rest in context, since I was a virgin to this material.

As for Beyond the Fire, be very, very afraid. I was (relatively) tactful in my tiny review, because it's part of a Brit-cinema season at the ICA that I feel I ought to be supporting, but fuck, it's terrible. Does the plot synopsis mention that she was raped and he abused by a priest in childhood? It's beyond absurd, and the opposite of fun. At the ICA, as we know from Un Lac, no one can hear you shudder.

NicksFlickPicks said...

No, the summary just says, "From tragedy comes a burning love, but can passion survive the torment of a sinister past," which I'm pretty sure I've seen printed across the bottom of one of the darker-lit karaoke screens in the bubble-tea joint down the road.

tim r said...

Amazing. The Cannes marché all over again. I hear they considered "From bum-rape comes something so gentle and nice, like a blossom", but decided to go with the sinister past.

M__ and I used to have this book of Engrish lying around the flat: it contained such gems as "Nothing tastes like coffee when you're naked with your family". On a genuine advert.

NATHANIEL R said...

i'm so pleased you got to see this. I had such a ball but I so appreciated that she didn't make it a mothballs nostalgia only affair. Loved all the new material inbetween the greatest hits packaging.