Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, following yesterday’s bank holiday.

The village I live in held a coronation street party yesterday, but I stayed indoors. I also

missed Saturday’s Coronation entirely, as I was in Battersea Park at a 12-step meeting at exactly the point it was happening, then a matinee at the National (catching up with THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE, which I’ll comment on in my Week in Review(s) column this Friday).

But Michael Billington has usefully reviewed it for The Guardian (where for nearly a half a century he was its drama critic, and is now much missed): 

“A coronation is pure theatre. But how does one review it when there is so little to compare it with? I missed the 1953 coronation because my father, then an avowed republican, deliberately shunned it and took the family off to a rain-soaked county cricket match instead. Coming fresh to the crowning of Charles III, I was struck by how immaculately rehearsed it was as a spectacle and how momentarily moving as a dramatic event.

“There was indeed something Shakespearean about both the service in the abbey and the marches that surrounded it. By Shakespearean I mean there was a blend of pageantry, procession, music and mystery.”

Of course, it depends on how you feel about the monarchy in the first place: as Billington concludes, “I doubt it will have changed many hearts and minds. Staunch republicans will most likely dismiss it as irrelevant flummery. Ardent royalists will have loved every second. Speaking as someone who supports the Shavian argument that monarchy is a bulwark against dictatorship, I found it a dignified occasion and a reminder that, as a nation, we seem to be infinitely better at staging public spectacles than at governing the country.”

As ever with Billington, he combines the personal — so we know where his skin is in the game — with a much wider and very perceptive view of the world that informs the specific production under review. If only his successor at the paper was able to summon anything like the same level of humanity, humility and perception.

ABBA VOYAGE: WHAT A TRIP!

On Friday, a good friend took me to see ABBA VOYAGE  Like almost everyone I know, he’s seen it already — and was using me as a welcome excuse to see it again! And now that I’ve seen it, too, I’m totally not surprised, either; for once, believe the hype. This is every bit as astonishing as people have said it is.

The avatar ABBA’s are so life-like that it is hard to believe that they are not in the room with us; this is truly as close to being at an actual ABBA reunion concert as it is possible to be. The illusion is not only brilliantly sustained, it actually has the throb and thrust of a live gig thanks to many live elements, including a live band and live singers to augment the superb sound.

But most of all it is the sheer joy that the show radiates. The show is one giant dance party — particularly for those packed in the standing area at the front of the auditorium — while those like me, in the comfortable and raised tiered seating behind them, are dazzled and seduced by a constantly changing light show.

It brings to three the number of live ABBA-related shows you can catch in London right now, from MAMMA MIA!, now approaching its first quarter of a century in the West End, to MAMMA MIA! – THE PARTY, an immersive dining event in a bespoke space under the canopy of the 02 Arena. But this is the closest you get to Abba themselves; and I suspect it may just run forever. 

SHOWS AHEAD IN LONDON, SELECTED REGIONAL THEATRES AND ON BROADWAY

My regularly updated feature on shows in London, selected regional theatres and on

Broadway is here: https://shentonstage.com/theatre-openings-from-w-c-may-8-2023/

New openings this week include the West End arrival of cult fringe hit OPERATION MINCEMEAT (opening at the Fortune tonight), and Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of Amy Herzog’s 4,000 MILES, originally due to have been seen at the Old Vic in 2020, but postponed by the pandemic and then cancelled. Now Chichester have picked it up, retaining the planned star Eileen Atkins, but with Richard Eyre taking over directorial duties from Matthew Warchus. 

See you here on Friday

I will be back here on Friday with my Week in Review(s) round-up of the week’s news and reviews. If you can’t wait that long, I may also be found on Twitter (for the moment) here: https://twitter.com/ShentonStage/ (though not as regularly on weekends)