'Selly telly' show opens

12 July 2011 Last updated at 12:33 GMT By Andrew Butler BBC News Parts of the play are broadcast live on shopping channel Ideal World "He was drinking tea, but there was no monkey. Where's the monkey?"

Before this play, Johnny Vegas may have thought he was destined to forever be remembered as the PG Tips 'monk-eh' man.

But those who witnessed the opening night of And Another Thing... will probably remember the comedian for squeezing himself into some Bridget Jones-style control underwear.

The play follows the trials and tribulations of fictional shopping channel presenters Bryan Chadwick and Lindsay Gibson, played by Vegas and co-star Emma Fryer.

"It's about things breaking down in their lives but how they can hold it together when they are selling," said Vegas.

Holding the whole thing together is their floor manager Andy, played by Kevin Eldon.

Parts of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) show are broadcast live on TV as the Johnny Vegas teams up with shopping channel Ideal World.

Incredibly convincing

The live element is something that the St Helens comedian handled really well, according to Sally Jacks of Bid Up TV.

"I thought Johnny Vegas was particularly good whilst live on Ideal TV, I actually think he could be a really good shopping channel presenter."

"If I'd have been there with my colleagues we would have been wetting ourselves."

The presenter said she thought the show would really turn people on to "selly telly".

"I can guarantee anybody who's never watched shopping television before will be straight home and flicking through the channels," she added.

The audience gets to see both sides of the characters and how their off-air and live personas differ.

Ideal World's live audience gets the unexpected and unpredictable experience of Vegas and Fryer selling a range of items.

'Laugh-a-minute'

John Robb, lead singer of Manchester based Goldblade, felt Vegas' alter-ego was "incredibly convincing".

Sally Jacks said Vegas would make a good shopping channel presenter

"If you were watching Ideal World and they popped up on it, would you be thinking 'What's Johnny Vegas doing on the shopping channel?'

"But he actually looked different enough from Johnny Vegas for you not to think that."

The show has come at a time when shopping channels have been the particular focus of celebrity news.

Both Ronan Keating and Peter Andre have appeared on QVC, trying to promote their new singles, before performing them live on air.

Like those appearances, the play also got a strong reaction.

One person in the audience described it as "a laugh-a-minute" while another was disappointed.

"I came expecting great things because it's Johnny, but it's absolute rubbish."

Mr Robb felt Emma Fryer almost stole the show: "The performances were really good, Emma's particularly. She almost upstaged Johnny, which takes some doing. She was so deadpan and just... weird."

However, just like the tea Johnny was drinking (without Monkey), it was not to everyone's taste.

And Another Thing... is showing at the Pavilion Theatre from 11-17 July at 21:30 BST.

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Bjork opens Manchester festival

1 July 2011 Last updated at 07:18 GMT By Ian Youngs Arts reporter, BBC News Bjork gave the first full performance of the songs from her nature-themed concept album Biophilia A musical lightning generator and four harp-playing pendulums were among the custom-made instruments unveiled by Bjork as she opened her world tour.

The Icelandic singer performed the first date of her Biophilia tour on Thursday to launch the Manchester International Festival.

The festival specialises in staging music, theatre and art premieres.

Bjork's concert also involved a 24-piece all-female Icelandic choir and a voice-over from Sir David Attenborough.

With voluminous ginger hair and a purple robe, Bjork gave the first full performance of songs from her forthcoming album Biophilia.

It is a concept album about nature with songs inspired by such themes as DNA, tectonic plates and crystals.

The concert's opening song Thunderbolt featured two Tesla coils - electrical columns that shoot out small bolts of lightning to generate musical notes.

The "sharpsichord" was among the bespoke instruments made for the tour

Four "gravity harps" were made from 10ft (3m) pendulums that plucked strings as they swung back and forth during a song about gravity.

Other newly-invented instruments included a "sharpsichord", a large cylinder with protruding pins that played a harpsichord as they were turned, and a "gameleste", a kind of piano that had been adapted so glockenspiel-style bronze bars were struck as notes were played.

Bjork approached Sir David Attenborough to take part after drawing inspiration for the album from his natural history programmes. She recently said he was her "rock star" when she was growing up.

The singer watched hundreds of video clips from his landmark shows to get inspiration for her songs and concert visuals.

The story of so-called zombie snails, which are invaded by parasites and were seen in Sir David's Trials Of Life series, has been incorporated into one song.

The Graduale Nobili choir accompanied Bjork on stage

Footage of three-foot worms and carnivorous starfish feasting on a seal carcass at the bottom of the Antarctic, from the Life series, was shown on screens during the show.

Sir David recorded his introductory voice-over hours before the concert on Thursday. "He's been a constant source of inspiration for the project," the Biophilia project co-ordinator James Merry said.

The concert took place in front of 1,800 fans in a Victorian former fruit and vegetable market, which has more recently been used to store a Spitfire aeroplane and other items from the Museum of Science and Industry.

Bjork has said she wants Biophilia to be a multi-media experience combining music, technology and nature.

As well as a standard album and tour, the project involves a series of iPad and iPhone applications that let fans play with and create their own versions of the songs.

The apps also include a brand new system of musical notation devised by Bjork as well as academic essays explaining the ideas behind the tracks.

She will now play two shows a week at Campfield Market Hall for the next three weeks before taking the show to eight cities around the world over the coming two years.

Thursday's concert opened the third Manchester International Festival, which aims to put the city on the global cultural map by hosting new works by respected performers.

The festival began in 2007 and takes place every two years.

This year's other highlights include an opera by Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn. Dr Dee, which tells the story of 16th Century alchemist, astrologer and spy John Dee, opens on Friday.

Victoria Wood is staging a new musical play about a 1920s Manchester children's choir, while performance artist Marina Abramovic and theatre company Punchdrunk are also showcasing original productions.

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Spider-Man musical finally opens

15 June 2011 Last updated at 09:31 GMT Reeve Carney stars in the lead role in Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark Troubled Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark has officially opened to mostly harsh reviews.

Although critics agreed the latest reworked version was clearer, most blasted the show.

The Hollywood Reporter called the show a "bloated monster" while The New York Times branded it "a bore".

The musical had been delayed six times after being plagued with technical hitches and injuries to the cast since it first began previewing in November.

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney said mostly "cosmetic improvements" had been made to "this significantly overhauled but still terminally clunky reworking".

"In terms of narrative clarity and character definition, the show is sharper.

"But while the emergency surgical team has injected fanboy humor and self-conscious acknowledgements of the production's rocky gestation, they have not located a heart in this bloated monster," he wrote.

Ben Brantley from the New York Times echoed the sentiment, adding the show had gone "from jaw-dropping badness to mere mediocrity".

The Washington Post's Peter Marks admitted that while the new show was "a definite upgrade" to its previous version, "this effects-driven musical is still situated a wide canyon's distance from good".

While Entertainment Weekly blasted the score, composed by U2's Bono and The Edge "a mostly lacklustre collection of forgettable tunes that play like B-sides".

Score composers The Edge and Bono from U2 along with original director Julie Taymor attended the opening

"The lyrics are a consistently baffling, mumble-mouthed mush... they sit there, advancing neither character nor story," it said.

However, critics generally praised performances from lead actors Reeve Carney, Jennifer Damiano who plays Mary Jane and Patrick Page as the Green Goblin.

Rooney said Carney and Damiano's voices "blend well" while The Telegraph's Charles Spencer noted their "confident performances".

The Associated Press summed up its opinion by saying: "It may not be the best thing in theater, but it is far from the worst show in Broadway history."

Despite its negative publicity since first opening in preview, the $70m (?43m) show has been selling out at New York's 1,928-seat Foxwoods Theatre.

Among the celebrities on hand for opening night were former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, actors Matt Damon, Steve Martin and Liam Neeson, rapper Jay-Z, director Spike Lee, Lord Lloyd Webber and former tennis player John McEnroe.

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