[Tintin]

I wish I could say that I enjoyed his show at the Duke of Yorks theatre, but I am afraid I was very disappointed. Having seen him in Sunday In The Park With George, and been very impressed with his performance in that show, I was really looking forward so much to it. But I felt there was too much about this one that I disliked. I did not mind the drab, cluttered stage, bereft of scenery, with a black painted back wall, but seeing MP coming onstage dressed casually all in black, with white trainers, did not exactly raise the spirits for me.

I found his idiosynchratic style of singing, with a lot of high pitched, often loud, screeching, with his body often in very peculiar postures, began to get on my nerves after a while. It was not long before I started looking at my watch, having wished I had not committed myself to the two hours without a break that lay before me. Some of the songs seemed so distorted and sounded as if the man was in great pain.

Horror of horrors, the Jolson imitation of the ghastly Sonny Boy, without accompaniment began the evening. My heart sank.

I could have done without all the continuous gushing praise of Obama, that was always followed by immediate loud applause, especially when he told us that he was also born in South Chicago. Is that some kind of achievement, I wonder? And I found it very irritating that some of the Sondheim songs were followed by "Thank you Stephen Sondheim" and later on there was "Thank you Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim". Enough was enough. And I loathed the constant milking of applause, with my pet hate, encouraging the audience to clap in time to the music, and to join in on some of the lines. Ugh! Find me the sick bag somebody, please.

However, I must have been in a minority, because the packed Saturday night audience were quite ecstatic, with the whistlers, bravo brigade, clapping high above the head showoffs, and standing ovation practitioners. Behind me sat a fat laughing hyena who laughed out loud at every single, not always very amusing, line, and clapped louder and longer than anyone else, while coughing every few seconds.

One thing I did appreciate though. The latecomers got a nice ticking off from MP, as did two women who walked out during one number, to go to the "bathroom", as they put it when questioned on their return. Is it significant that they were all from USA? Is that normal behaviour over there?

Altogether it was very long, tedious two hours.

[Laughingmonsta]

Id agree with virtually everything you said - although I did love his rendition of Frankfurter Sandwhiches

[Tintin]

What a relief to know that I was not alone in my feelings about this show. The audience around me were ecstatic throughout, which left me feeling bewildered.

[bananafrit]

The audience around me were ecstatic throughout, which left me feeling bewildered.

The night I was there the audience was VERY American.... which may have been the point.

To me, it was a hugely self-indulgent night of rubbish.