COMMITTEE... (A NEW MUSICAL)

In COMMITTEE... (A NEW MUSICAL), the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall's Relationship with Kids Company at the Donmar - make of that what you may - Paul Flynn MP is played by Anthony O'Donnell.

Flynn and O'Donnell both went to school at St Illtyd's; just like me and my brothers.

Still doesn't make the alma mater Eton, or Tony O'Donnell Eddie Redmayne ..... read on.

Abdul Abulbul Amir

Considering geopolitical tensions and and a resurgent Russia flexing its muscles by the Black Sea, it strikes me that Percy French's 1877 lyric serves as a reminder from popular culture that there is little new under the sun.

The sons of the Prophet were brave men and bold
And quite unaccustomed to fear.
But the bravest by far in the ranks of the Shah
Was Abdul Abulbul Amir.

Now the heroes were plenty and well known to fame
In the troops that were led by the Tsar.
And the bravest of these was a man by the name
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

One day this bold Russian had shouldered his gun,
And donned his most truculent sneer.
Downtown he did go, where he trod on the toe
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.

"Young man," Quoth Abdul,"Has life grown so dull,
That you wish to end your career?
Vile Infidel, know, you have trod on the toe
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir."

Said Ivan, "My friend, your remarks, in the end,
Will avail you but little, I fear."
"For you ne'er will survive to repeat them alive.
Mr. Abdul Abulbul Amir."

"So take your last look at sunshine and brook.
And send your regrets to the Tsar.
By this I imply, you are going to die
Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar."

Then that bold Mameluke drew his trusty skibouk.
With a cry of, "Allah-Akbar!"
And with murderous intent, he ferociously went
For Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

They fought all that night, 'neath the pale yellow moon.
The din, it was heard from afar.
And huge multitudes came, so great was the fame,
Of Abdul and Ivan Skavar.

As Abdul's long knife was extracting the life —
in fact he was shouting "Huzzah!"
He felt himself struck by that wily Kalmyk,
Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

The Sultan drove by in his red-breasted fly,
Expecting the victor to cheer.
But he only drew nigh to hear the last sigh,
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.

Tsar Petrovich, too, in his spectacles blue,
Rode up in his new crested car.
He arrived just in time to exchange a last line,
With Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

There's a tomb rises up, where the blue Danube flows,
Engraved there in characters clear:
"Ah, stranger when passing, oh pray for the soul
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.

A Muscovite maiden her lone vigil keeps
'Neath the light of the pale polar star
And the name that she murmurs so oft as she weeps,
Is Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.

Anthony O'Donnell was Abdul in the 1980's Worthington ad version; small world.

Green and Gold

Paul Flynn MP

Last night I met Tony O'Donnell.

It was a riot of rushed words, shared memories of mutual friends plus gratitude from me for Anthony's playing of me at Donmar Warehouse Theatre. He wore a wig for the show which he sadly dumped for the photograph. Otherwise the resemblance was convincing.......

Following the show Anthony joined me in singing our old school song-Green and Gold. We were both at St Illtyd's College Cardiff. I was there is the late forties Anthony in the early sixties but we share many friends-especially from the Splott area of Cardiff. We will have another get together to catch up on many events.

See Icons passim.

More I cannot wish you

Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre last night. It was great. The immersive production works a treat. While I remember though, there was - as so often these days - a daft virtue signalling inexplicable gay moment in it that served no purpose aside from confusing the plot.

St Illtyd's Anthony O'Donnell was Arvide Abernathy in it, a mere 37 years on from me seeing him in Giordano Bruno's Candelaio for the RSC in the Barbican in 1986.

I also saw him, excellent as the poet-baker Ragueneau, in Stephen Rea's Cyrano de Bergerac at the National in 2014.

It is good to catch up every 17 or 18 years.

A Very English Scandal

Anthony O'Donnell (Icons passim) played Leo Abse (Icons passim) in  the tremendous A Very English Scandal tonight.

Too much perspective.

The Actor Prepares

I did my MBA in the days before the City University Business School metamorphised into the CASS Business School and moved into swish new premises.

In those days the school was spread over a couple of floors of the sprawling Barbican Centre which was also, in those days, the Royal Shakespeare Company's London home.

A year or so into my studies the RSC put on a production of a deeply obscure sixteeth or seventeenth century Spanish play in "The Pit", their small Barbican theatre. It was, and indeed remains, so obscure that I can't remember what it was called, but I went to see it because an actor called Anthony O'Donnell - an Old Illtydian like me - was in the cast.

At the end of the performance, I applauded, got up and walked straight to my regular post-lecture pub. The Barbican can be a confusing labrynth but as I was attending it three times a week I knew it like the back of my hand and flew like an arrow to the bar.

When I got there several members of the cast - who moments ago had been on stage in full make up, false beards, ruffs and full Elizabethan rig - were already there washed, changed and drinking happily. Outstanding. It made me wonder if "Exit; theatre to pub" was perhaps available as an advanced course in RADA.

Guys, Dolls, Family and Cardiff

Rave reviews for Nick Hytner's new Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theatre. (Five stars in the Evening Standard (here)  par exemple, chosen at random from the galumph of what sounds like deserved fawning. Fellow Illtydian Tony O'Donnell is in it (Icons passim).

Peter - family, Illtydian, director etc. - was taken to the first UK production, he tells me, in London in 1953, as a treat do rare and special it was almost "combined Christmas and birthday present."

My impersonation of Marlon Brando in the film is unsurpassed.

I last saw Guys and Dolls on my birthday in 2005 (Icons passim).  Ewan McGregor as "Sky Masterson", Jane Krakowski as "Miss Adelaide", Douglas Hodge as "Nathan Detroit" and Jenna Russell as" Sarah Brown."

The time before that was in 1983 at the National. My brother Vince and his friend and Anthony Brookman visited me in London and we went along to a Sat Mat. Paul Jones as "Sky Masterson", Imelda Staunton as "Miss Adelaide", Trevor Peacock as "Nathan Detroit" and Fiona Hendley as "Sarah Brown." as I recall. Don't quote me.

Was I too hasty yesterday (passim) ruling out more theatre until after Streetcar? It is good to get along to a fresh take on "Guys and Dolls" every twenty years or so don't you think?