Last weekend I was in Manchester at a conference about patient how to give them a conceiage service. My wife and I stayed at this amazing hotel, The Palace. The rooms were hugh. The height of our room must have been nearly 20ft.
This is my flip video of the outside of the Hotel. It also happens to be right next door to the Palace theatre showing Mary Poppins. On the Saturday night we had a lovely meal at the Italian Pizzeria across the road from the Hotel. On Sunday we went for a walk along the canal and then the river. We came across a very derelict entrance to Granada Studios!
Last Saturday I was at the last night of Spamalot.
Spamalot was‘lovingly ripped off ‘ from the 1974 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I had already seen it on Broadway as well as London, both with Tim Curry playing the part of King Arthur. On Broadway it had David Hyde Piece, who played Niles Crane in one of my favourite comedies’ Frasier, playing the part of Sir Robin. The King Arthur for the final night was Sanjeev Bhaskar, from 42 The Kumars. He brought a sense of rough and ready charm and had the audience with him through the whole show. I think the best bit comes towards the end, when his servant Patsy reveals that he is Jewish, and Arthur enquires why he hasn’t said this before, Patsy replies “well it not the sort of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian”. The roars of laughter, caused by Bhaskar’s expression said enough – He had done a great job. It also brought out the madness of Python. All that remained was a rousing reprisal of “Always look on the bright side of Life”.
On the night before we had gone to see A Christmas Carol at the Old Ship Hotel in Brighton. This was very well done with a cast of 7 in a small room that could only accomadate about 100 people. It was a complete contrast from Spamalot as you had to use your imagination more to go to different places and different people. This was again a very enjoyable evening.