Culture Vulture.

For the past few days the marvelous lady that is Mrs. H. has been in London to visit. Not just to visit the city, but to visit me as well.

Mrs. H. is my mum but is generally known among my friends by the former.

Mrs. H. is also a guru. She knows everything and is full of excellent advice. I wouldn’t mind following her example, although she did tell me off for acting like a 60 year old woman in Ikea!

Her mere presence in London paved the way for some rather cultural activities…

Guys and Dolls.

Following a delicious meal at Tuttons in Covent Garden – the crab cakes were amazing – we graced the West End with our presence.

I’m a huge fan of musicals and ‘Guys and Dolls’ is one of my favourites, along with ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Chicago’, so I was really excited about going to see the show.

On arriving at the theatre however, my excitement soon turned to disappointment.

The dishy Nigel Harman no longer appears in the show, and Patrick Swayze was apparently ‘indisposed’ for the night’s performance.

Personally I think he let us down in order to attend the opening of ‘Dirty Dancing’ on the same night. The fiend.

His understudy for the part of Nathan Detroit wasn’t too bad, although I couldn’t help but notice the slightly annoying lisp he had when he sung.

Norman Bowman, who played Sky Masterson, was no match for Brando. Nor how I imagined Nigel Harman to be in the role.

Also, the understudy playing Sarah Brown wasn’t a particularly great actress in spite of her impressive singing.

I think that a few of the numbers would have benefited from more cast involvement, such as the eponymous song of the show which was a little flat with only two voices to carry it.

Despite this, ‘Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat’ was stupendous – by far the highlight of the entire show!

Samantha Janus was also brilliant as Miss Adelaide, which really surprised me.

Even for the parts which let me down, ‘Guys and Dolls’ was a highly entertaining show and worth going to see.

The Victoria and Albert Museum.

I love that fashion constantly repeats itself.

This autumn/winter I’ve fallen head over heels in love with shift dresses and visiting the 60s fashion exhibition at the V & A wasn’t so much like stepping into a time-warp as it was stepping into Topshop or H & M.

I must find where Biba had reopened – for posterity of course – and I also must find more vintage clothing shops!

We also managed to take a look at the medieval religious ‘art’ while at the V & A.

These pieces are so amazingly beautiful and intricate – they take my breath away just thinking about them.

But I think it’s a shame that many of the objects in the museum seem to have been removed from various churches around the world – they should remain in their ‘homes’.

Also, the Asian pieces on display, as glorious as they are, should be returned to their particular countries.

The National Portrait Gallery.

To be honest, I’m not a massive fan of David Hockney but Mrs. H. loves him and I think I upset her a little because I couldn’t be bothered to wait in the queue at the V & A to see the Da Vinci exhibition.

To be fair though, the queue was probably about 50 miles long!

Despite my general dislike of Hockney however, the exhibition was really good.

His use of colour in certain paintings and simpler sketches is remarkable.

In particular drawings he uses red and blue ink which creates a really unusual but intriguing effect.

Definitely worth a look.

After exhausting Hockney, I quickly dragged my mum to the upstairs of the gallery before we left.

I was desperate to see the portrait of John Donne, the melancholy lover, as he is my favourite poet.

I’d really like to see the full Tudor portraits exhibition at some point, but Mrs. H. had a train to catch.