Posts Tagged ‘theatre’

Recently Richard Dawkins spoke at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. He is flogging his new book, My Life in Science, which is a second book of memoirs. It was ably chaired by my friend Chris Hassall, who made a natural choice as a biology lecturer at the University of Leeds.

The format was a 20-30 minute conversation in which Dawkins told a few anecdotes and read a few things out. Some of them very funny, though Elina felt the obscurity of the subject made them less enjoyable. The second half was Q&A which eventually drifted off religion but was mostly a bit dull.

Overall, the event was enjoyable though it could have been a lot better. Some of it was a bit boring and Dawkins actually taking about something interesting rather than re-hashing anecdotes and answering unimaginative questions would have been a lot better.

I recently went to see Book of Mormon, the musical by creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

It was pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good. I was a little disappointed that it was not about Joseph Smith, though Elina points out that it would have been difficult to do it about that for a wider public audience.

If anything, I think I was a little disappointed by the audience. The best jokes were often missed while the rather racist bits such as mispronouncing an African girl’s name, were lapped up.

Some of the songs were pretty catchy at least. The theatre was also pretty good; you were able to get a drink at the bar with reasonable speed.

Last month, we went to see the new musical Loserville, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. While the play itself was very entertaining, I have to say that I’m really not comfortable about them making a musical about my life without offering me any royalties, or even asking my permission.