Where else can you get such incredible value for money? In the West End, top-price seats regularly go for £45 to £55 (I think the 'hottest tickets' such as Oliver! at Drury Lane are even pricier). Menier Chocolate Factory offers a 'meal deal' at £37 per person. You get a two-course pre-theatre dinner at its lovely restaurant (I had crayfish salad followed by meatballs with rice, and also stple a few bites from M's chocolate-and-pistaschio tart - DELICIOUS), then walk across the room to see the show. Yes, £37 for dinner plus a two-hour-forty-minute show - if you happen to come from any of the territories of the non-sterling major currencies, this is even more startling at the moment.
And what a show! I don't claim to be a Sondheim expert but I could immediately see why people say this piece is best realised/experienced in a chamber setting. MCF is one of those venues where they could justly claim 'every seat is a good seat', and we had the best of the lot, right in the front row. Only after we were 10 minutes into action did I suddenly realise 'A Little Night Music' was actually based on one of my favourite Bergman films, Smiles on a Summer Night. Everything about the production was commendable - the Scandinavian design poetic, the comical timings spot-on, the melancholic moments heart-breaking. The only exception to the otherwise uniformally excellent cast, for me, was Jessie Buckley who played Anne Egerman. Again, this wasn't a biased judgement: I had thought, after her first number, that both her acting and the singing voice were a trifle amateurish compared with the others. Only when I browsed through the programme book during the interval did I discover that she was the runner-up of one of those Lloyd-Webber talent shows making her professional debut (the bliss of not having a TV in our household!). It was a good effort, nonetheless, and she had a tough challenge for a debut facing off Hannah Waddingham as Desiree Armfeldt, whose rendition of 'Send in the Clown' was nothing less than a classic. Interval whispers we caught upon implied that the show was destined for a West End transfer, and I can't wait for the details to transpire so I can recommend it to all my theatre-loving friends. Even though they'll probably have to pay a bit more, and it won't come with the meatballs.
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