Wonderville

There is a lot of talk about the sequencing of work. Recently, I seem to have spent a long time working on—and describing—what sequence things happen in. Some of the team like a clear list of actions, while others prefer diagrams showing relations between pieces of work. I don’t like making these kinds of diagrams because I don’t think visually for that kind of thing. Bizarrely, when it comes to how something should work, then I love to see it represented as a sequence diagram.

Tuesday is also planning day—a large chunk of time in my calendar that is rarely used. In theory, it gives me an opportunity to have some additional uninterrupted time to work on things. I ended up making tea.

PY and I met up in central London to see The Finellis Musical at Wonderville. It’s a strange venue: the former Planet Hollywood turned into a cabaret-style theatre. It seems there were very few alterations made to the venue when it ceased to be an overpriced burger place, as I walked towards where I thought the toilets were, only to find it was a black curtain covering the kitchens.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t very busy. We were almost the first through the door and so secured a table at the front. We had a glass of wine and settled in. The producer came onto the stage to explain that the actor playing one of the lead characters had left the show at short notice, and his replacement was still learning lines and would, therefore, be performing off-script. In truth, he didn’t really use the script, but it is an odd thing to observe. Eventually, my mind went to the story, and I forgot about it.

It transpired the producer is also a main performer. It was kind of strange seeing him exit in producer mode after making the casting announcement and then reappearing in a key role.

The central story revolves around Tony Finelli, who has just spent 15 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit in order to protect his family. But there are odd tangents featuring a dementia storyline and an assault—both worthy of plot exploration—but done in a single song with almost no reference to the events again.

Nonetheless, it’s a fun show with great performances and wonderful vocals. It does need trimming, tightening, and injecting with a bit of clarity, but don’t let that put you off: every musical starts somewhere, and you’ll see the potential and watch great singing. If anything, it feels big for the venue, but go and say you saw it there.

Afterwards, there was a discount offer on cocktails at the bar. We opted for it, although several of the cocktails were not available. Gradually, we became aware that only one other couple from the audience had stayed, and everybody else was cast, or friends of the cast. The producer came over to talk to us, so we got a lot of the backstory. It seems they’ve been trying to get the show into London for a while. A fun evening.