Dan McNeil's Blog

Last night, I went to the theatre with some friends to see Knights Of The Rose.   We bought the tickets when we saw the song list and couldn't resist it.  But then as the day of the show grew closer I started to read reviews, and let's just say they weren't great.  In fact they were mostly awful. Well, let's be a little more specific; the reviews were universally terrible. I started to become concerned. The main concern of the reviewers seemed to be that the show was unknowing.  They suggested that whereas shows such as We Will Rock You and Rock Of Ages were ridiculous, they revelled in their own pomposity and broke the fourth wall to let you know that they were in on the joke.  No such fourth wall breaking here, and there was a clear thread in all the reviews that the show didn't know how silly it all was. But we had tickets, and so we turned up at the theatre and chatted beforehand about just how bad this could possibly be.  And we braced...

I've not written much in 2018.  I didn't write much in 2017 either, I don't think.  I guess the world has turned into the kind of place where there's no much fun to be found.  With Donald Trump and Brexit it's hard to find anything to laugh about, really. But you know, one has to keep waddling forwards into the future.  Face it with a grin. I'm never giving in.  And all that jazz. So, it's been sunny.  Too sunny.  The garden looks like someone's been out with a magic hoover and sucked all the green away.  The lawns are a torched shade of brown, although the hot weather has been great for this year's mulberry crop and the apple tree which collapsed last year has put on an astounding amount of new growth this year. It's hard to know how to keep cool in this weather.  I'm not someone who's comfortable going out and about in skimpy outfits, and so it tends to be polo shirts and jeans for me, which doesn't really help with the whole ...