Mrs P and I went to see Piaf last night, lured by the rave reviews and the fact it stars Elena Roger as Piaf. Maybe something was lost in the move from the Donmar to the Vaudeville, but it was so awful we walked out.
The play itself was beyond awful, but some of the reviews had said this wasn't a problem - the point of it was to see Ms Roger as Piaf. But it was so cringe-making in its cliched writing, constant use of 'fuck' to be oh-so-daring, and hilariously bad dialogue that we both found it impossible to separate her performance from what was happening around her. (And that includes the truly dreadful acting of the rest of the cast - you see better acting on Coronation Street than the rubbish we witnessed.)
But that's by the by. Worse than anything was the theatre itself. It's far from an original point, but the West End - generally - is truly awful. For some reason the theatre didn't open until fifteen minutes before curtain up last night, so the foyer became an unbearable crush. I suspec this was a deliberate ploy to boost the bar takings, as there were repeated announcements that the bars were open and people could escape the crush in them.
