In this atmosphere of awkwardness the sex scenes are both truthful and paradoxically a threat to this weird otherworldly London

In this atmosphere of awkwardness, the sex scenes are both truthful, and, paradoxically, a threat to this weird, otherworldly London where a gay French bartender dispenses wisdom on life and the supporting characters appear to be reading from phonetic cue cards.Either way, the sex doesn’t fit Not that I’m being prim. Like many others, I misspent youthful afternoons at London’s now defunct Scala Cinema watching Curt McDowell’s 1975 camp classic Thundercrack! (you can always spot people who are slightly guilty about having enjoyed this hardcore sex comedy, because they call it a camp classic) Nothing in that shocking picture was faked. I bet even the scene where a woman’s wig falls into the toilet while she’s vomiting, only for her to retrieve it and replace it on her head, was for real.But as a rule, real sex rarely enriches a movie. Better all round to make it “like a robe pontifical,/Ne’er seen but wonder’d at” – a line from Henry IV Part One, which you will recall has no erections or penetrations, and is none the worse for the lack thereof.’Intimacy’ is released on 27 July.

The actress and singer Ute Lemper has become the latest star to be forced off the West End stage by illness. The actress and singer Ute Lemper has become the latest star to be forced off the West End stage by illness.
Lemper – who made her name as the star of the musical Chicago – was forced to abandon her one-woman show Naughty Baby at the Savoy Theatre on Wednesday night after collapsing during an interval.She is the latest high-profile casualty in the West End of London. Martine McCutcheon has been repeatedly absent from her leading role in Trevor Nunn’s production of My Fair Lady, and in the same production Jonathan Pryce had to miss several performances last month because of a back injury.Earlier this summer Ian McShane had to withdraw from The Witches of Eastwick at the Prince of Wales and Anna Friel was forced to miss several performances of Lulu at the Almeida because of a back injury.On Wednesday night, Lemper felt dizzy during a dance movement but managed to make it to the interval before collapsing, it was reported. A suspected inner ear infection was thought to be the cause.Members of the 800-strong audience were told that she could not continue with the show and an appeal was made for a doctor to go backstage to treat her. Last night’s performance was cancelled but the theatre hoped the show would continue tonight.The Time magazine theatre critic, James Inverne, was in the audience and said: “I have been told she was feeling ill from the start, but it certainly did not show. She was singing and dancing with her usual all-guns-blazing style. Then after the interval we were told she had collapsed.”Naughty Baby, which has had disappointing reviews, is meant to launch the latest album of the singer whose reputation is built on her recordings of Kurt Weill, and her Olivier award for performing as the murderess Velma Kelly in Chicago.

The show opened on Monday and is scheduled to continue until 14 July.Concern over the physical ability of Martine McCutcheon, a former actress in the television soap opera EastEnders, to maintain the hectic schedule required for her role as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady has led doctors to order her to scale back her appearances.She has agreed to reduce the number of shows from eight to six a week when the musical reopens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 21 July after transferring from National Theatre.McCutcheon has been absent more times than she has been on stage and even her understudy, Alexandra Jay, had to be replaced by the understudy’s understudy Kerry Ellis for five performances because of illness.. After months of tap classes, Sylvia still doesn’t know her left from her right, Rose can’t turn around without nearly falling over, and Dorothy dances as if trying to knock herself senseless with her kneecaps. Will they get it together in time for the local charity show? If you’ve read this far without moving your lips, you shouldn’t have trouble with the answer.Richard Harris’s mysteriously popular play of 1983 is set in a Leeds church hall, but nothing else suggests why it should be put on at a serious venue by a serious director (Ian Brown). Harris is one of those men who says, “I do actually enjoy the company of women.” In practice, this means he likes women who have only one character trait each and continually express it in a few snappy words.
Maxine is the sarcastic member of the dance class, alluding resentfully to her teen-age stepson, “Wonder Boy”, and fretting, when he has friends round, “God knows what’s happening to my Dralon.” Sylvia, meanwhile, directs her moans at her thighs and uncooperative feet. Rose, while also moaning about her figure, is a jolly Caribbean lady who makes earthy wisecracks, stretching her lips back to her ears and laughing, “Hee hee hee!”Andy, even deeper into self-hatred, prefaces each rare remark with an apology and flaps her hands in a constant distress signal, locking her arms against her sides.