Beyoncé - The Mrs Carter World Tour Show - The O2

For the second time this month I have gone to a concert where I have little or no points of reference.  Admittedly I do know a few tunes by Beyoncé and have seen the relevant videos to know some of the dance moves.

The O2 was packed, largely with adoring female fans.  The noise when 'Mrs Carter' appeared was ear splitting!  And for the next 2 hours she kept us entertained - fast, heavily choreographed dancing, songs of varying tempo, fireworks, flares and even a zip wire across the O2.  The latter was a clever move as it took the show to the other end of the arena and gave the people there a chance to get (a bit) closer to their idol.

I enjoyed the faster, up-tempo stuff more than the ballad-y bits.  She can move, she makes her dancers work hard too.  And the band was very tight.  All female, something I haven't seen since Prince, many years ago!

A Hawk & A Hacksaw at The Lexington Kings Cross

Let no-one say I don't try new things when the chance arises......my friend Val had a spare ticket recently for A Hawk & A Hacksaw at the Lexington in Kings Cross so I went along.

A duo, rather than a band - comprising Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost.  Jeremy mainly plays the accordion and drum (as well as an intriguing Eastern European stringed instrument, you can tell I am no expert).  Heather plays violin - and a cracking violinist she is too. 

The music is very jolly and you want to clap along to most of it.  It has the feeling of party music for parts of Europe steeped in a folk tradition.  It does however become a tad repetitive.  I felt that I had had enough when they finished the set - playing amongst the crowd in front of the stage.

 <http://ahawkandahacksaw.net>

Rite of Spring & Petrushka - Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre - Sadlers Wells

To mark the 100th anniversay of the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Sadlers Wells - <http://sadlerswells.com> - has commissioned a series of three events.  The first of these opened last night - 11.4.13 with The Rite of Spring and Petrushka by the Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre - <http://http://fabulousbeast.net>

I saw Michael Keegan-Dolan's Rite when it first opened in 2009 as I love the music.  At that time I was somewhat underwhelmed by the production.  I don't know what it was....was it too hard to work out?  Was it the masks?  The strange extra characters?  The dancers stripping off and putting on pretty print dresses?  I don't know, I just felt that it didn't live up to the music.

This time round Keegan-Dolan seems to have tightened it up.  Certainly the company is smaller.  The bits that irritated me before worked much better.  Perhaps I was channeling my Irish heritage more this time!

Last night was the first night of his new version of Petrushka.  I haven't seen Petrushka for years and years and years.  I remember it (vaguely) as being sad and full of emotions - the puppet with feelings.  Keegan-Dolan's version isn't as clear as that version in its narrative, but it does fall into similar sections.  Last night the 'first night gremlins' were out in force.  It was hard to tell if the lighting was playing up but the house lights would come on and the stage lights would go out, then it would be the opposite.  Technical blips or clever lighting design - not very clear!  However, it was most certainly a blip when all the dancers froze on stage and a figure jumped on stage and introduced himself as Michael Keegan-Dolan!  He said we were indeed victims of world premiere problems and that (after a quick discussion with the stage manager) could we be patient for two minutes for the problem to be resolved.  After the two minutes (or so) he came back on stage, joined one of the characters at the side, sang a snippet of a folk song and cued the dancers back in.

As it was we were almost at the end of the show, we were only waiting for a ladder to appear from above for 'Petrushka' to climb and end the show.

Petrushka has more dance than theatre when compared to The Rite.  Some of it is very good, some of it looks a bit clumpy and ugly.  But overall, I enjoyed the evening immensely.

Both pieces were expertly played by the  concert pianists by  Lidija and Sanja Bizjak.  The effect of four hands on one keyboard was wonderful!  And they even entertained us for part of the interval and whilst the technical hiatus was overcome.  What troopers!