Loading ...- Category:
- Soap Box
- Author:
- Phil Scott
- Posted:
- Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Saturday. I’m in the campest restaurant I’ve ever seen: Les Trois Garçons in East London. It’s a refurbished pub, owned by three French queens, and it’s like eating in a taxidermist’s showroom.
Towering over our table is a (real) stuffed crocodile, wearing a tiara and holding an orb and sceptre. At the other end of the room, a giraffe’s head gazes over the diners.
A large mobile, hanging on wires from the ceiling, is made from women’s handbags. What are they trying to say?
The food is brilliant. The problem is the service. We’re rushed, so that they can fit in an extra sitting. Since Kate Moss started eating here -” like she eats! -” it has become popular and they’re squeezing in extra patrons.
The bill arrives. I search among the stuffed animals for a wounded bull. They certainly charge like one.
We go to a trendy bar -” Loungelovers. It’s pretty gay too. I wonder if there are any heterosexuals left in the world. I meet two Spanish guys, Juan and Juan, who married three years ago in Madrid. Apparently the marriage is in trouble, owing to the insertion of a third party into the arrangement. I think of the obvious gag, There’s always room for another Juan, but am not drunk enough to say it out loud.
We get home as the sun rises. This is England, so I guess it must be about noon.
Tuesday. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert The Musical opens tonight with a big bash afterwards. The critics, however, were in last night. The show started early so reviews could appear online by midnight, indicating how carefully thought through they were and, of course, totally unreliant on preconceived notions. (Excuse my sarcasm.)
London theatre critics are renowned for Australia-bashing and The Independent’s critic Michael Coveney keeps up this fusty tradition. He didn’t even like the costumes. (If he thinks Priscilla is over the top, he should check out Les Trois Garçons!) Coveney’s review will keep the snobs away, but that’s no bad thing.
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard can be bitchy, but gives us a huge thumbs-up. (De Jongh wrote a play about homosexual persecution in the 1950s. Hmm.)
The Times and particularly Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph are also positive. Spencer’s readership is our target audience, so all is well. Plus there’s a great review in the free paper handed out to peak-hour train commuters.
Early Wednesday. The party takes place at the Hippodrome, a vast venue on one corner of Leicester Square. It was a disco club in the ’80s and ’90s, known for stabbings and similar nightlife activities.
Tonight it’s packed with party people, expatriates and even a few people who saw Priscilla. Charlene, whose hit I’ve Never Been to Me is in the show, performs it at the party -” as she did two years ago in Sydney. And she’s probably sung it somewhere else in between.
Tags: Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, East London, Leicester Square, Les Trois Garcons, Loungelovers, Madrid, Michael Coveney, Nicholasa de Jongh, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical, the Evening Standard, the Hippodrome, The Indpendent, The Times
