In a piece of unintentional but spectacularly good timing I was up in my home town of Oban this Easter at the same time as it had the visiting sperm whale in the bay. After days of walking in and out of town, seeing lots of folk scanning the bay for it, and not seeing it I finally did. Managed a few photographs the best of which I've attached.
Happily after a few days Easter break in the town the whale swam safely back out to sea.
I'm on stage with SIMADS production of Annie next week at the Burgess Hall in St Ives, playing Warbucks. The show is on at the Burgess Hall in St Ives from Tuesday 23rd to Saturday 27th April. The matinee is already sold out, but there are some tickets left for all the other performances. Full details including the ability to book online are on SIMADS website - at www.simads.co.uk
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon a popular comic strip Little Orphan Annie (from which the title of this post derives) with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow" and "Hard-Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers.
Those who know the story might spot some resonances with today's economic troubles amongst the story of the 11 year old orphan. The story takes place during the recession - and during one scene President Franklin Roosevelt holds a cabinet meeting. Warbucks joins him along with Annie - who sings to him and inspires the "new deal". Perhaps I should send a personal invitation to George Osborne? If he can't make it perhaps he'd like to watch the video below as inspiration for his next budget?