The Last Ship and other events

So, as well as the Punk boy's Senior Prom (see previous post) and high school graduation, I've had my mother staying for five weeks and having a birthday while here, as well as Little Guy's birthday and two Candian cousins visiting. Very busy month.

A couple of highlights were seeing Eddie Izzard's Force Majeure tour on June 9th - just love that guy. He was on top form as usual. Incidentally, did you know that on June 6th he performed three shows in three different languages (French, English and German) as a tribute to those who fought in the Second World War, and the profits went to charity.

The next night I took my mother to see the opening of Sting's new musical "The Last Ship". It's set in Wallsend, Tyne & Wear where I was born and where my mum grew up. Sting's not in it and all but two of the cast are American (Equity rules) so the Geordie accent was a bit wobbly at times. However that was a trifling matter and something that us Geordies are used to as it's a hard accent even for Brits to get right. The songs are beautiful, the singing are great and my man Jimmy Nail (Geordie extraordinaire) was on top form as Jackie White, the lead man.

I'm not a big fan of musicals - I don't buy people breaking into spontaneous, shouty songs, - but this was believable and most of the singing was restrained and unshouty.

It plays here till mid July and apparently they've already tweaked it quite a bit. (I got that from one of the show's actresses with whom I am now Tweeting! Get me!) I might have to go and see it again. It goes to Broadway in the fall/autumn, and as yet, there aren't any plans to take it to the UK. It would be a shame not to, but in all the interviews I've seen or read with Sting, he seems very undecided about that.

Mother went back yesterday and, as usual, her departure was not without stress and drama. This time it came in the form of torrential rain and thunderstorms before the flight, a tornado warning at the airport and a second cousin FB'ing about being evacuated to the tunnels below the concourse. Fortunately the storms abated as I was driving to O'Hare, although the drama continued when I found the exit ramp to the airport closed and very, very confusing detour signs. There's nothing worse than getting lost when you're trying to make a flight. Thank goodness for GPS/sat nav.

Anyway, I have done very little today - taking a well earned rest!