Something For The Weekend

Any Dream is the Word?

“Lee looks like a Hobbit” was just one of the many opinions that popped into our Grease vs Joseph inbox when we asked what people think about the current, raging battle of theatrics. It’s a ratings war that’s gripped the nation – a television search for the future stars of two of our best-loved musicals – Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat, and Grease. But no matter which one you’ve been following (or both if you’ve been recycling the old VHS tapes) - on Saturday, Britain will finally crown its very own Joseph, Danny and Sandy. And only time will tell whether the chosen few can tread the boards before millions, as well as that makeshift studio stage before his Lloydship and celebs of mountainously high esteem such as… Sinitta?

Here’s the word on the street:

ON JOSEPH:

“Lee must be the winner…. he has the haircut of a West End Star. That perm must cost a fortune….oh yes and he can sing and dance, although his body self obsession and constant meat eating is a touch over the top. Oh those creative types are so extreme.”

“Keith will be the runner up…. He’s guaranteed the Scottish vote which is a powerful force in TV voting these day. Looks far too young though - when he dances with those “sexy” JOSEPHETES it simply does not work. Looks like he is a child that has managed to get a date with Mrs Robinson, and Mrs Robinsons does not look so pleased!”

“Lewis will be the first to fall. He is almost from the land of Billy Elliot, although my feeling is he lacks Billy’s grit and talent. Mind you, the fact he is still alive having chosen to do dance as a child and lives in Middlesbrough makes him my spiritual winner. I guess he can probably run fast!” – Simon Thompson

“Who needs a real social life when one can just live vicariously through tv people!

I have to say that Joseph is by far the best - the Grease one is rubbish and that Lloyd Webber seems to have a repertoire of fascinating/terrifying facial expressions. I have loved musicals since I was little and am rejoicing in the fact that they are now(semi) cool!

And next they should do west side story...I’d love that.” – Susie Bould

ON GREASE:

“I’ve only been watching Grease lately…the winner has to be Anthony aka Kavanah – he’s luuurvvly and all the ladies love him, although the other guy can sing better.
And the blonde girl has to win a) because she’s blonde b) because she can sing and c) because the other one is too much like Maria (from How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria)
- Alexa Jeggo

Koulla hits the town (and her tastebuds)...

Nicely tucked behind the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus is lively restaurant The Club Bar & Dining, on Warwick Street.

The street level is a shared space between the restaurant at the front and a buzzy bar at the back. Antique candle arbores and exposed bricks give the place a classic and rustic feel.  The three huge mirrors are also cleverly used as specials boards.  The lower level hosts the ultra sexy bar - picture comfy leather sofas just perfect for cuddling up to a date, and space to work off your delicious meal with some dance moves should the mood take you!

The restaurant serves modern British dishes with some very interesting options and a European twist.  You can actually order a whole suckling pig or lamb, which was an option we didn't take advantage of, but I'm sure it would be great for a special occasion! There are plenty of scummy options on the menu - I found that the ingredients used in many of the dishes were good old faithful’s but presented in a fresh and interesting way. For example my starter was Buffalo Mozzarella, Broad Beans and Valencia almonds with a zesty tomato vinaigrette. It was a really great and different way of serving Mozzarella and the flavours really worked.  It went down excellently with the fresh, warm Rosemary foccacia. 

The main was duck breast with roasted onion and fig balsamic dressing. The flavours worked well with the duck and the creamy mashed potato was amazing.  Better even, than mum used to make, (sorry mum!) Then to my favourite part of the meal…dessert. I went for baked Lemon Cheesecake with poached Mango.  It was very creamy and light with the right amount of lemon.  The wine list is also very extensive and the champagne cocktails were delicious…the peach and almond cocktail was so yummy I had to have two!   

The service was absolutely brilliant; there was always someone on hand to look after us and the team were very friendly. Not too dangerous on the wallet, it's good food and reasonably priced. 

The restaurant had a real mix of people, so it would definitely be a really relaxed place to come after work or to celebrate a special occasion. The music is funky too - almost as funky as the crowd! 

- Koulla Joannou

Book 2 courses at the Club Bar and Dining for £14.50

feeling floaty light...

I finally did something constructive with my bank holiday weekend, aside from scrubbing my kitchen and bathroom floors until my arms ached. OH YES - I cleaned!  No,... aside from that,  I went to 'floatworks' and used the voucher I was given for Christmas. It was about time.

Basically it's a floatation tank experience - a 45 minute slot in a big plastic podule that looks like something Mulder might have discovered when investigating a government conspiracy somewhere beneath the Navajo desert in the X Files. It's filled with 700lbs of salt, which means that when you step inside (completely starkers, mind) you just float.  Well, not straight away. Obviously it's not so strong that it takes one foot and lets you hover upright on the water Jesus style, but once you're on your back, legs and arms in a star shape, the lid comes down like a sealer on a tupperware lunch box and you float. Just like that.

Of course, there was the obligatory pan pipe music for the first 10 minutes, for relaxation purposes. I never was too sure about that, though. You know the type, you hear it in those weird hippy book shops, usually accompanied by the smell of incense and a knowing smile from a bloke with a beard so long he could actually carpet the shop with it if he wasn't so stoned that he couldn't even move. But anyway, before I could imagine the witches and warlocks and talking cats on broomsticks it faded, the lights went out, and I drifted deep into an almost dream-like state, feeling my mind wander far away from the stresses of London. (And cats on broomsticks).

It was bloody brilliant actually - and definitely a well-deserved, relaxing end to a hectic weekend of... well,... doing sod all, really. It's quite weird how your mind just switches off without you actually falling asleep, but it's so peaceful and serene. You're in your own locked room too, with a shower of course - (you'll come out as crusty as a French baguette, thanks to all the salt that sticks to your body) - so it's a really personal experience and I'll definitely be doing it again. Well, it's a good diversion from cleaning my flat, at least!

-Becky Wicks

Book your own floatworks session, now 2 for 1

come to our FREE Spring Fling on June 13th...

We love this time of year. The little lambs are bleating in the fields, the cockerals are crowing on the rooftops and all the little piglets are oink oink oinking on the farmyard, basking in the joys of Spring.  Of course, in London everyone's just as miserable as ever, which is why we're here to cheer you all up, with a party!

Our lovely friends at Doon in Trafalgar Square (beneath the restaurant Albannach) are hosting a Spring Fling next Wednesday night, for all you lovely boys and girls to celebrate a brand new season.

It's free to get in, everyone gets a free pink cocktail on arrival, oh and did we mention that it's free to get in and everyone gets a free pink cocktail on arrival? We really are full of the joys of spring.

If you're single, it could be the perfect night for a fling - you'll have the chance to play our cupid love-match game. As you enter the bar, write your name and drop it in the baskets by the door, labelled either girls or guys. At 8pm, everyone who wants to play will pick a name from the basket of their chosen preference and the night is yours to seek out your match. Here's hoping you strike it lucky!

The event starts at 6pm and you can claim your free cocktail till 8pm. So take your gladrags to work and get changed in the bogs if you have to - just don't miss this sensational, sexy night on the town.

Click here to sign up to our newsletter and get yourself on the guestlist

win a weekend in The Cheltenham Chase Hotel

The Cheltenham Chase Hotel in Cheltenham has just undergone a fantastic £4.5 million refurbishment and is now a luxury 4-star hotel, having been upgraded and beautifully modernised. We’re offering a great competition prize for two people – a weekend stay on a bed and breakfast basis.
Sorry, this competition is now closed.

Each of the hotels’ 122 en-suite bedrooms has undergone total refurbishment with every detail designed for comfort, including the installation of air conditioning throughout – we will need it eventually, once summer arrives, we promise. The Cheltenham Chase Hotel has been given the feel of a cosy country lodge through the use of natural materials, such as stone, slate and rough hewin timbers, emboldened with autumnal colours.

The refurb also means that, luckily for the visitors who crave total relaxation, there’s been a total re-build of the health, leisure and beauty facility ‘Reflections’, which is set to be one of the finest facilities in the area. Reflections has been equipped with state-of-the-art Technogym facilities and offers a selection of Decleor beauty treatments and relaxation therapies.

The investment has also extended Hardy’s restaurant, giving it a warm, soft and modern feel with stunning views of the Cotswold Hills through the addition of a conservatory. Another new source of excitement for the restaurant is the ‘New York Sunday Brunch’ – what a great taste to climb out of bed for. And the new menu is in no way an imitation; General Manager of The Cheltenham Chase, New Yorker Tom Fromm, has brought the authentic Sunday Brunch menu straight over from Manhattan to Cheltenham.

To win a weekend stay at the Cheltenham Chase Hotel on a bed and breakfast basis. Enter the competition now.

nothing to 'wine' about at Butlers...

It doesn’t take much to lure us away from our laundry piles and out into town on a ‘school’ night, really. So when Koulla, Claire and I were invited to the luxury four star deluxe Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel for a food and wine pairing dinner in their award winning restaurant, Butler’s, we couldn’t get out of the office and onto the tube fast enough.

It’s not often we get to dine in Mayfair, and the Chesterfield’s Conservatory (the setting for our meal) was a brilliant end to a stressful day, flooded with the remains of what little natural daylight our lovely country had to offer on that dreary day. We could just imagine it in summer, set against the backdrop of the garden and fountain – how positively “English garden!”

Around one large table sat 20 guests, who were only too happy to chatter throughout the meal. Some visiting American’s commented that they’d arrived from Texas that morning and had promptly been invited to dinner. The whole thing felt a lot like being invited to a dinner party, by friends, and we could see through to the equally gorgeous restaurant where more couples and groups were dining from separate menus of Table d'hote to a la carte. Apparently, Butler’s serves the "best Dover Sole in London" – something to remember for another visit!

On this occasion, Executive Chef Andrew Fraser created an amazing, seasonal line up, pairing each dish to a Chablis wine brought over from the South of France by our host and owner of Domaine des Malandes, Lyne Marchive, and poured by our professional Sommlier, Tara O'Leary. We loved the chicken soup with oysters and wild chicken with tarragon. The cheese board went perfectly with our wine and the dessert was to die for. Conversation flowed as freely as our wine round the table until it was time for coffees and goodbyes, and quite frankly it’s a wonder the tube doors could open wide enough to fit us all in on the way home.

I think we all decided to come back and try the a la carte menu next time the sun shines through those huge bright windows. As far as hotel restaurant’s go, Butler’s has got it all just right. In fact, if we didn’t have to head straight to work the next morning, we might have even been tempted to stay over, just so we could feast on breakfast the next morning!

Book 3 courses & wine at Butlers for just £19.50

win a night in the City Inn, Manchester...

With its massive malls and even massively popular musicians, Manchester might well be one of the best and most exciting cities in the world for truly living it up. And now there’s a perfect place to stay to complete your trip. The City Inn, winners of the “Best Business Hotel Brand 2007, 2006 – Business Travel World Award” are set to unveil their new Manchester hotel this month. Better still, we’ve teamed up with them to offer one lucky couple a night’s stay, when you enter this great competition.

City Inn Manchester is ideally located opposite Piccadilly station, close to all the central nightlife and shopping district and within the new Piccadilly Place development. This fabulous new hotel, with contemporary design throughout, offers 285 guest rooms, including six suites and an amazing split level penthouse overlooking Manchester. Each room is equipped with a computer including the latest in-room entertainment system, complimentary WiFi, CD and DVD library.   

The Sky Lounge on the 11th floor is the ultimate experience for a private dinner with panoramic views of the cityscape. However if you are looking a party buzz with sophistication, try the cocktail bar Piccadilly Lounge. You will love the cocktails, tasty light bites and list of champagnes, wines and whiskies.

City Inn also present the critically acclaimed restaurant brand City Café, preparing British and European favorites as well as concept dishes prepared from locally “sourced” ingredients. The al fresco terrace adjoining to City Café is the perfect place to soak up the sun and enjoy a mouthwatering summer menu and seasonally selected champagnes and wines.

Whatever you do with your City Inn Manchester experience, we know you’ll love being in the heart of this buzzing city and staying in such a fabulous new hotel.

Click here to enter the competition
Sorry, this competition is now closed.

note: comments in response to this blog will not be counted as competition entries

The Drowsy Chaperone

With a title like a Mills and Boon novel and not a single reality-TV reject gracing the cast, The Drowsy Chaperone had its work cut out when it returned to Theatreland this summer. The name up in lights is Elaine Paige, who’s returning to the stage after a seven-year breather. She’s famous for her roles in the original London performances of Cats and Evita – two of the sturdiest industry cash cows - so it’s interesting to see her in a much quirkier, more comical role. Her character is the lusty, boozy chaperone of a Hollywood starlet. The starlet is giving up her sparkling movie career in order to get married and her chaperone is supposed to stop her from seeing the groom on her wedding day.

Cue a great deal of slapstick tomfoolery and an assortment of spectacularly cartoonish stooges including a pair of gangster pastry chefs, a latin lady-killer, a dim-witted groom, a perpetually anxious best man, a confused old maid and her butler and a soul-sister aviatrix. If it sounds like the makings of a farce, that’s because it is – a specifically 1920s farce. The play takes all the classic foibles of musicals of that era and plays them loud and proud. It’s completely character led with each one taking a turn in the limelight with their signature tune. The plot is unabashedly silly, stringing one big song-and-dance number to the next and making no excuses for the flimsy stage-setting. In fact, the audience is invited to revel in the nonsense of it all.

With so much clowning, you might think that there’d be a lack of any real warmth or romance in the play, but the “real life” character of the narrator Man in Chair ties the whole thing together. He’s a middle-aged theatre enthusiast, listening to the soundtrack of this, one of his favourite musicals, in his studio apartment. His quiet, effeminate enthusiasm is completely infectious as he talks the audience through the show, freezing the action for little titbits of Broadway gossip. It’s not surprising that Bob Martin plays “Man in Chair” so well, though, given that he co-wrote the book and played the character in the US too. You’ll fall in love with the loveable agoraphobic to the extent that if you meet Bob Martin you might not be able to resist asking for a big cardigan-ey hug (though he’s probably more of a Ralph Lauren Polo man in real life).

Sara Sha'ath

Buy tickets for the Drowsy Chaperone from £10

a Sunday alternative...

She might look like your worst nightmate, but Joan Dairy Queen of Marvellous Fame invites you to the Marvellous Tea Dance this Sunday at Area (Vauxhall) from 6pm Ttil 1am

From the makers of Vauxhall's old favourite: Marvellous, this is the launch night of a monthly club. This night precedes 'Dorian Grey', which starts at 1am.

DJ's Lush (Lippy, Retro Bar, Marvellous), Felix (Marvellous, Trash Palace, Dorian Grey) and Rok John (Marvellous, Rocktronica) serve the eclectic brew!

Now don't panic, Joan will be hosting. To soften the blow she'll be armed with cucumber sandwiches.

Area - 67-68 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, (020) 7091 0080

Paradise Gardens in Victoria Park...

Free this weekend on Friday and Saturday from 1pm - 10.30pm, Victoria Park will come alive as it's magically transformed into a modern day pleasure garden for a weekend packed full of events and entertainment...

The second May Bank Holiday weekend will once again explode into life boasting off the wall street theatre and awesome outdoor spectacle, open air music stages, the best in urban dance performance, The Designer Village Fete, Carters Steam Fair, Side Shows, Circus Performances, a Desert Island, Specialist Food from around the world, Craft Markets, Spectacular Fireworks, and much much more.

In the Victorian era, parks were pleasure gardens with the most thrilling activities of the day were on offer for families to enjoy. For Paradise Gardens this idea is updated for the 21st Century, offering a dizzying array of artforms, stages and activities for audiences of all ages to enjoy.

Sat 26th & Sun 27th May 1pm – 10.30 pm

Paradise Gardens is a free event!
Bassline Circus performances are ticketed and cost £5 for all performances.

For more information head here