Being On the Town

Kevin and I want to watch every movie made by Hal Ashby, the director of Harold and Maude. Sunday night, we watched his penultimate film, Being There [trailer]. I had vague memories of seeing it before in Brasil, as a child, but I didn't take much from it back then. The movie is, in many ways, like Harold and Maude -- about age, happiness, the meaning of life -- but it's also an allegory on the role of the buddhist in the modern world. Buddhism, or religion in general, is never mentioned; but the main character's lack of past and family, and his simple home truths and lack of engagement with the real world made me think of the Buddha. The last line of the film, as Chance (as he is called *wink wink, nudge nudge*) walks over the water, is "life is a state of mind".

Last night, Mark scored Ricardo and I some tickets to see the musical On The Town. Ricardo wore a beautiful Italian blazer, with a silk shirt underneath (being new to London, he thought everyone dressed up for the opera.) I looked positively scruffy in comparison. We had a few beers in a pub on St Martin's Lane, where we discovered the bar staff were from Brasil (and gayer.) I think Ricardo will find a boyfriend in this city in no time.

Mark, Natalia and Ian joined us for a quick beer before the show. It was the show's press night; it was also the biggest musical I ever saw on stage. The grandmother from Absolutely Fabulous played a drunk music teacher, eliciting the biggest laugh when she said: "Art and sex don't mix. If they did, I would have shot straight to the top." Nothing like a drunk old lady with a loose mouth to get the Coliseum smiling.

The show had a hot sailor called Gabey (pronounced Gay-be), a taxi that nearly drove into the orchestra, a giant dinossaur, and a typical New York apartment (including those outdoor fire escape stairs that many New Yorkers use during Summer heatwaves - or so I imagine.) The stage was constantly filled with dancers and singers; a suspended piano played songs in the Konga Bar; and it was only a shame that the three main sailors didn't take off their uniforms during one of the songs. The perils of sticking to a musical's 1940s roots. Production images here.