So what did you do in the lockdown? The actor Giles Terera who was aplaying Aaron Burr in the london production of Hamilton found himself out of work and living in Soho. What he did was write and compose this 60 minute concert, song cycle, testimony to survival, call it what you will. He recorded it Crazy Coqs, London's celebrated cabaret club and it has been beautifully filmed. He accompanies himself on the guitar and also on the piano and is as impressive a player as he proves an interpreter of song.
The songs are angry – the opening number London Bridge is falling down should give audiences a few things to ponder, and the rest are reflections of what that happen in the street where he lives, some sentimental, some thoughtful and all impeccably performed. There is the one about the two black brothers passing by the wine bar across the who who step in when a girl is being harassed by her boyfriend only to have her throw a glass of wine over them and the police on the scene to make the assumption they are accused these days of all too often making. Fortunately the one welcoming spring, another about taking one step after another when things get you down and one meeting a girl in a coffee bar after the theatres have shut and meeting and meeting and meeting again until maybe the girl he calls “Pasadena” might be the one. Spending an hour with Terera is as good a way of spending an hour as one could imagine.
It is on line from 24 to 31 March 2021
www.fane.co.uk/giles-terera
Tickets £12. A spellbinding hour and cheap at the price.