Wicked

After our burgers at Eva Pub, we went along to St James Theatre to see Wicked. This musical has been around for 20 years, and has finally come to Wellington! It’s a lavish production, so we went along to see it. 

Before staring we headed along to Eva Pub for a burger, then made our way to the theatre. This is a sell-out season, and by the time I got around to looking for tickets the only ones still available were up in the nosebleed seats. Fortunately we were in the front row of a section so had leg room in front of us. Even so, the seats at SJT aren’t the most comfortable, and the first half of the show went on for 1½ hours before a break, by which time my bum was thoroughly numbed!

The show is the back story of the witches of Oz, and focuses on Elphaba, the green, so-called “wicked” witch. Along the way it fills in the backstory of all the things in The Wizard of Oz that never get explained, i.e. where the tin man, lion and scarecrow came from, flying monkeys, the wizard himself. I haven’t actually watched TWOO for a few decades, so I’m a bit rusty on the details, but it always seemed a bit vapid. This story packs far more of an emotional punch as the actual characters and their motivations are filled in.

It doesn’t quite end up “happily ever after”, but all the loose ends get tied up, and you end up knowing much more about TWOO than the original film ever gave you.

Barbacoa Madness

We were on our way to see Wicked, and decided that we’d try a burger at Eva Pub, on Eva Street, as it is reasonably close to St James Theatre. I haven’t been to Eva for quite a while, but it hasn’t really changed – it’s a bustling city centre pub.

Their Burger Wellington offering is called Barbacoa Madness, and is described on the WOAP website: Beef patty, with marinated slow-cooked beef brisket, shredded lettuce, grilled pickled onion, red salsa, cheddar cheese, and secret mayonnaise in an Arobake milk brioche bun, with Salsero white and blue corn chips with birria broth and guacamole.

It looks like this: 

The Garage Project beer match is Dirty Water: Cherry Peach. This is a seltzer, which I’m not a fan of, so I went for a Panhead Supercharger instead.

There’s a lot going on here: firstly, this is a stacked burger, so I went in straight away with cutlery. The burger was juicy, and on top the brisket was tender and not chewy. I’ve had bad experiences with brisket before, as it can be chewy if not slow-cooked for a good few hours, but this was really good. Also, in previously years there was a sudden craze for smoked brisket, most of which tended to be oversmoked and therefore totally overpowered the whole burger…not the case here, there’s no smoking. The other ingredients were also present. Onto the accompaniments: the corn chips were good, although I could’ve used a more generous helping of guacamole – I know, I know, the cozzie livs and all that. Overall, this was a good burger, and one of the best I’ve had this year. I scored it a 9/10.

 

Brioche ‘n’ Gravy

I was at a volunteer event at Zealandia in the morning, so instead of coming straight home I decided to stop off in town for another burger. My selected venue was Pickle & Pie, Wellington’s premier purveyor of pies, and indeed, pickles. We’ve been there occasionally in the past. Unfortunately, I hadn't booked, so I turned up on the chance that they would be able to accommodate me. The place was pretty full, but the maître d' told me that they’d have something available within 10 minutes, so I waited. And, as usual, this was expectation management by them, as it was actually only a couple of minutes before I was seated.

The Brioche ‘n’ Gravy Is described on the Burger Wellington website like this: Double smash patties with gravy-dipped brioche, ballpark mustard aioli, cheese and pickles in a Dough Bakery brioche bun, with crinkle cut fries. It looks like this:

 

The Garage Project beer match was – surprise! – The Devil’s Lettuce, and – double surprise! – that’s what I ordered.

OK, this is a proper burger, no messing. The patties were definitely smashed, as evidenced by the irregular shape. The bun was a double-decker style, with the middle bit between the two patties soaked in gravy. This, along with the aioli and lettuce, made it a slippery customer indeed, and an initial investigation into its pick-up-ability revealed that this was going to be a knife and fork job. The crinkle-cut fries were crispy, but were clearly catering-pack style. But that’s a minor cavil, as the rest of the burger delivered in spades: nothing fancy, none of those unwanted additions that some places have included (which actually detract from the burger experience), just good, honest, burgeration. I scored it 9/10. Home-made fries, or an accompaniment with just a little more effort, would have lifted it to perfection.

 

Public Service Announcements

Every three years, New Zealand holds a general election (I know!), and every three years, to mark this, Circa Theatre puts on a show called Public Service Announcements, in which they generally poke fun at the whole party politics and electioneering process. As part of Nicola’s ushering duties, we went along on a Thursday night to see what it was all about. 

The show has a plot, sort of, revolving around Chloe Swarbrick’s defection to Te Pāti Māori. Mostly it’s about the jolly japes of party politics, with a few contemporary references thrown in. Without knowing the minutiae of New Zealand politics, it’s difficult to explain why James Shaw is being presented as the sensible one of the Green Party, or why waka-jumping* is such a heinous crime (in the eyes of some). Ginger Chris (or Chris With Hair), zooming about the stage on a skateboard, is portrayed as being mates with Bald Chris; and there is Judith CollinsGPT as an AI bot. Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters also get walk-on parts.

It's a bit hit-and-miss, with lines being thrown out left, right, and centre in the hope that some of them stick, rather than being funny all the way through. There’s the traditional digs at the in-fighting of the Green Party, Te Pāti Māori, and the minor minor parties. In the end, it’s all a laugh, if only in parts. Don’t take it too seriously.

 

 

* Known as “crossing the floor” elsewhere, i.e. joining a different political party.

The Dave

We were looking for a burger in the local area, and decided that Café Polo was a likely candidate. Their standard burgers are good anyway, so their Burger Wellington offering must be worth a try?

It’s called The Dave. I don’t know who Dave is*. It’s described thus on the website: Harrington's pork, beef and sage sausage meatloaf patty, with a crispy Zany Zeus ricotta and potato fritter, caramelised onion, and green pea salsa, in a housemade milk bun with chunky chips and beef gravy. It looks like this:

The Garage Project beer match was again The Devil’s Lettuce, which is a tasty drop. It still hasn't made it onto GP's website so whether it will be continued after Burger Wellington remains to be seen.

Basically, what we have here is a sausage burger, and a tasty one. Caramelised onion – tick. Green pea salsa was more like mushy peas. Just as an aside here, New Zealanders can’t do mushy peas; they use garden peas instead of marrowfat, which doesn’t work, the texture’s all wrong. The chunky chips were good, and the gravy, served on the side, was delicious – chips and gravy is a rare delicacy! You can tell there’s a “but” coming, though, can’t you? Yes, indeed: it’s the ricotta and potato fritter. It may have been crispy at some stage in its life, but it wasn’t by the time it reached the table. So what you had was a layer of mashed potato on top of the patty. Ricotta isn’t a strongly-flavoured cheese, and diluted with mashed potato it was barely discernible. All this did was add an unnecessary layer of carbs, which unbalanced the whole burger. Overall, I scored this a 7/10.

* The vegetarian option is called The Chas. Mystery solved! 

Rossini

We had an appointment in town, so decided to combine this with a trip to Capitol, who are now open at lunchtime in Thursday and Fridays. Still not at the weekend, which is a pity, as their brunch offerings used to be delicious.

What they are offering, however, is a burger, called Rossini. It’s described on the Burger Wellington site thus: Grilled Wagyu patty with duck liver pâté, truffled crispy-fried leeks and Madeira demi-glace in a Pandoro ciabatta bun, with hand ripped and thrice-cooked agrias. It looks like this:

 It should look like this: 

Quite a difference, no?

The pâté had completely melted. The leeks (in which no truffle was discernible) were under, rather than over the patty. Looking like this, there was no way that this could be eaten with the hands, so it was straight in with knife and fork. Here, another feature of the burger manifested itself: lack of integrity. This is something I usually complain about with the bun, but in this case, it was with the patty itself. It was of a loose consistency, and basically meant that what I was left with was minced beef on toast. Very nice minced beef, but nonetheless, it was a sub-optimal burger experience. The thrice-cooked potatoes were nice and crisp, and lived up to their billing. And at $46, this is above the normal price range for Burger Wellington, so I felt doubly let down by Capitol. The rating I’m giving it is a disappointing 4/10.

 

Deer In Dough

Tuesday night is quiz night at The Old Bailey, and we usually dine there when quizzing. As they’re also participating in Burger Wellington, this is a good opportunity to try their offering, Deer In Dough.

It described on the WOAP site as: Venison patty seared in duck fat, with crunchy red cabbage and fennel slaw, and plum and cherry chutney on a Brezelmania charcoal milk bun, with crispy skin fries and aioli.

And it looks like this: 

The Garage Project beer match is Good Shout, but they don’t appear to be promoting that at all. Anyway, I had my usual Black Dog Chomp.

What can I say about it? Venison is a tricky meat as it can be a bit dry, due to its leanness. The black burger is, well, a gimmick really. I found the whole thing fitted the name a little too well – it felt quite bready and doughy to me. I was able to pick this one up and the bun maintained integrity until the end, despite the slaw and chutney filling. The fries were their usual, no sign of crispy skins on them. Overall, this felt a bit like they’d phoned it in. I scored it 5/10.

 

Tainted Love

We went to Te Papa for a talk about shore birds, and particularly bar-tailed godwits, and their migration to North Korea, on Monday. Sounds like an odd subject, but there are compelling reasons why the tiny New Zealand Pūkorokoro Shorebird Centre should be influencing North Korea’s government policy.

Afterwards, we went for lunch at nearby Fork & Brewer – the venue I’d been trying to get to last Friday. On a Monday, and past the normal office lunch hour, it was almost deserted…but, importantly, still open, and serving food. We settled in for their Burger Wellington offering, The Tainted Love.

It’s described on the WOAP site like this: Randwick Meats Wagyu and pork patty, with a Fork & Brewer Tainted Love juniper and passionfruit sour glaze, cabbage and daikon slaw, Kewpie mayonnaise, shichimi togarashi and tamarind infused tomato sauce, in a La Linda sesame milk bun, with crispy onion rings.

It looks like this: 

And how was it? Tasty! The patty was OK, despite being well-done. There is a conundrum here: if you include pork mince in your patty you need to cook it well, but the pork and the wagyu ensure that the burger doesn’t dry out and become chewy. Also, the coleslaw makes for a slippy-slideyness to the burger as whole, so I didn’t even attempt to pick this one up, it was straight in with the knife and fork. I couldn’t really notice the additional flavours of the ketchup, they’re lost in the overall mix.

The Garage Project beer match is again The Devil’s Lettuce, and this time, I tried it. The devil’s lettuce is a slang term for marijuana, and, sure enough, the ingredients listed contain terpenes, which are the type of compounds found in Mary Jane that give it it’s effects. It doesn’t specifically say it’s made with cannabis, because (I guess) laws and shit. Anyway, it was a pleasant enough IPA.

This was better than the souvlaki burger, and I quite liked this one, so I’m scoring it 8/10.

 

Ailments

It seems like an age since we last saw Hayley Sproull live on stage. A quick glance back through my blog reveals that it was 2018! Since that time, Hayley has been, well, busy! She’s starred in Golden Boy, Educators and Funny Girls, hosts her own show HYBPANZ, co-hosts New Zealand Bake-Off and ZM Radio’s breakfast show, is a regular on shows such as Seven Days, Patriot Brains and HYBPAA, and is generally everywhere. No wonder she doesn’t have time for standup!

 But she’s managed to make a hole in her schedule to return to her home town, Wellington, and perform her new show, Ailments. This is a musical show about, unsurprisingly, her ailments. And there are a lot of them! After doing a quick lap of the auditorium to say hello to everyone, she starts with a song (with a very long intro – so she can get her breath back) which basically lists all the things that are, or have ever been, wrong with her. This is a rich source of comedy as she shares, and overshares, her number of kidneys (below the accepted average), the shape of her uterus, and the effects that her recent diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has had upon her body, including weight gain which has led to her having proper boobies at last! Yay! But also bingo wings (boo!); hair growing everywhere, except upon her head, where it falls out instead. She throws light on the treatments for hair growth and how there’s always “extras” added to the bill…like you’re going to leave your toes hairy after doing your legs. Yup, that costs more. She interspersed her musings with a handful of songs, and left us wanting more. It’s an our-long show but feels like it’s longer. Definitely worth the wait, don’t leave it so long next time!

 

I Should Be Souvlaki

And they’re off! Yes, the Burger Wellington part of Wellington On A Plate kicked off on Friday. Due to the increasing popularity of this section of WOAP, it has now been completely separated from the rest, as there was just too much competition for the WOAP dollar and restaurants were finding that their non-burger offerings were being spurned in favour of meat-filled (or otherwise) buns.

We attempted to join in the fun on the opening night, but due to a cock-up on my part I’d reserved a table for the wrong night, so tonight’s was the first of this year’s offerings. We were heading out to see Hayley Sproull, and decided to stop in at Little Beer Quarter, a bar which specialises in (you’ll never guess!) beer! They also do wine as well, so Nicola was able to have a glass of rosé .

LBQ’s offering is called I Should Be Souvlaki (see what they did there?) and is described as follows: Ground Preston's lamb patty, with whipped Zany Zeus feta, rocket, pickled zucchini, and herbed tzatziki mayo, topped with beer-battered fries in a housemade soft sesame lagana bun, served with zucchini fries. I failed to stop and take a picture of it, so here’s the stock picture from the WOAP site:

 

The Garage Project beer match was The Devil’s Lettuce, but I’d already ordered something else by then so I didn’t try it.

How was it? Well, the lamb patty was tasty and cooked pink, and fitted the bun size well. I found it a little dry, and despite the addition of tzatziki mayo, the whole thing was a bit dry. It was also carb-heavy, with the chips included inside the burger…I’d have left them out, myself. The zucchini fries were good though. The bun maintained integrity throughout, always an important feature. Overall, pretty good, and I scored this burger a 7/10.

 

The Simon & Garfunkel Story

We went to see a show called The Simon & Garfunkel Story. This is the story of Simon & Garfunkel, the world’s most successful folk-rock duo. Yes, they had to be that specific to be the worlds-best something, and that’s what it turns out to be. Who’s the second-best? Is there a trio who were more successful? Who cares?

We had planned to start our Burger Wellington journey on this night, but it turns out someone had booked a table at Fork & Brewer, our chosen venue, for the wrong week. We turned up there and it was absolutely jampacked, so no chance of getting a table without a booking. It being a Friday night in Wellington, Cin Cin and Concord were both similarly full. Highwater, however, could fit us in if we didn’t mind sitting at the bar, so we did that instead.

Then we crossed the road to the Michael Fowler Centre for the night’s entertainment. This consisted of two Simon & Garfunkel lookalikes and soundalikes playing the songs, more or less in chronological order, from the earliest Tom & Jerry (the name they originally recorded under) and other early material; the big songs from The Graduate, Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water. In between, they narrated the story of the band, where they were, who they were with, what they were doing etc. Unlike, say, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, whose story was dramatized as Jersey Boys, Simon & Garfunkel just aren’t that interesting. There was nothing really to dramatize, so they just…narrated. Once they’d split, they followed some solo careers, but didn’t play any music from that; then they reformed to play a gig in Central Park, and then went on a world tour. The show finished up with the Everly Brothers’ Bye Bye Love, their traditional gig ender.

…but wait! They’ve not played The Boxer or Bridge Over Troubled Water! Guess what? They came on and played an encore of those two songs. That was really the end of the show.

Dirty Work

Indian Ink, aka Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis, are back with a new show. We’ve seen them a few times before, with The Pickle King, Mrs Krishnan’s Party and Paradise, or The Impermanence Of Ice Cream. We picked a matinee show on Sunday afternoon at Te Papa’s Soundings Theatre, to go and see the new show, Dirty Work – An Ode To Joy.

 

The show is set in an office, and the main characters are Joy, the office cleaner; Neil, the office manager; and Zara, his assistant. The office workers are members of a local choir, and a different choir is used for each performance. The choir haven’t read the script, so have no idea what’s going to be happening. They’ve just been asked to learn some songs, and the cues for when to sing them. Sounds fun!

It’s a big day in the office, and as cleaner Joy is doing her rounds, she’s interrupted by the staff arriving very early to complete the papers for a board meeting later that day. Unfortunately, they quickly discover that their computers aren’t just down…they’re out! Yes, all the PCs have been removed, supposedly for an upgrade. They’ll have to calculate all the accounts by hand. The big boss of the company, based in India, Zooms them to find out where the papers are; Neil, the office manager, says he doesn’t have the authority to do the work, so he is immediately promoted to CFO. Problem solved!

The drama and music continue as problems arise, and are resolved. There’s also a birthday party woven into the plot, which of course give rise to more singing and dancing. There’s social commentary and critique of how economics and work traps people in different roles.

A trademark of Indian Ink’s work is that at least one character will be wearing a prosthetic of some kind. In this case, it’s Joy, and she has a massive set of false teeth to contend with…although she seems to manage, and talk and sing her way past them without any problems.

It’s another jolly romp from Indian Ink, a contrast to the serious plot of Paradise. But, as ever, thought-provoking. The New Zealand tour is just winding up, but their work is being increasingly seen overseas as they tour festivals in Australia, the US and Europe. If they come anywhere near you, take the chance to go and see them!

 

NZIFF

The New Zealand International Film Festival has been in town, and we’ve been to see some international films. This is an opportunity to see some films that may not get a general release, particularly foreign-language films released outside their home country. 

We made our selections from the brochure and went along to see:

Asteroid City: the latest from director Wes Anderson, with an ensemble cast including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie; set in the eponymous desert town, it’s a play-within-a-play scenario that revolves around a youth astronomy awards ceremony. It’s suitably weird.

Paris Memories: a French film, where the protagonist is a survivor of a terrorist attack in a central Parisian brasserie. At first she has no memory of what happened, but with the help of a survivors’ group, starts to piece together what happened to her. Very well put together and moving.

Only The River Flows: a Chinese detective film noir, following the investigation into the death of a woman in a rural Chinese town. It started out reasonably well, but got a bit confused. The overall plot was weird, as there was no actual detective work involved – they just all pointed their fingers at the local madman. Why was he mad? Don’t know. Why did he kill? Don’t know. Ultimately confusing and a bit pointless.

River: a Japanese film set in a rural hot springs hotel, where the staff and guest get caught in a two-minute time loop. Their attempts to, firstly, understand what is happening to them, and secondly, find a way out, are amusing and frustrating in equal parts. They eventually figure out a way, and everyone gets to learn something about themselves and each other. Really enjoyed this one!

Mars Express: a French anime, where the protagonist is a female private eye investigating a computer hacker on Mars, and then a missing girl. The characters are human and robots, and they dig further into the underworld of Mars, including brain farms, robot prostitution, and secret code embedded in robots. Very strong visually, I wish there was an English-language version so I didn’t have to read the subtitles and miss what was going on on screen.

That’s all, folks!

 

Prima Facie

Prima Facie is a play by Suzie Miller that has made waves in 2023. Originally produced in Australia in 2019, the played was transferred to London’s West End in 2022; this production won the Olivier Award for Best Play and Best Actress, and the Broadway production won the Tony for Best Leading Actress. It’s on at Circa for a month-long, sold out run. We went along to see it.

The play deals with the thorny issue of court evidence in sexual assault cases. It is a one-hander, with Tess, the protagonist, being a barrister. She is successful, and has defended many clients against accusations of sexual assault. She is convinced that cross examination of witnesses in the courtroom is the highest form of evidence and that her skill at cross examination is the best way to reveal the truth.

Yeah, you can guess what’s coming, can’t you? She is sexually assaulted by a colleague, in dubious circumstances involving a lot of drink. It turns out that she and the colleague were being considered for the same, higher, position in the chambers system. The play explores not just the legal system, but the protagonist’s feelings and how the issue is dealt with by employers, the police, and the court system itself. At the end, she is less convinced about the purity of her calling, and the efficacy of the cross-examination system as a method of getting to the truth, as she faces the kind of court experience that she usually hands out to others.

Kinky Boots

I’ve been a bit wayward in keeping up with my blog. This post refers to an event that happened on 9^th July. No reason, just procrastination.

Another week, another musical. Kinky Boots has been around for a while, a musical based on a film based on a sort-of true story. The musical features songs by Cyndi Lauper. I thought this meant that I’d recognise some of the tunes, in the style of Mamma Mia! or We Will Rock You, but it turns out that it’s all original songs written for the production.

It's entering its final week now in Wellington, and Nicola was busy all the week before with string quartet week, so we went to a Sunday matinee performance instead. The show was on at the St James Theatre, which has recently been renovated, largely for earthquake strengthening. As I may have mentioned before, this didn’t stretch to replacing the seats, and they’re not the most comfortable.

The story is that of a shoe manufacturer based in Northampton. The company is in dire straits, as the cost of producing shoes in the UK is being undercut by cheaper imports. The owner, who inherited it from his father, is a reluctant shoemaker, and initially just wants to hand the factory over to someone else. However, the business is on its knees and unless he does something it will close, with consequent effects on the community that relies on it for work. Following an encounter in London, he becomes friends with a drag artist, who complains that none of the boots made for drag artists like her are of good quality, and cannot take the additional weight and stress needed. And so, an idea is born…

There are all the usual tensions required amongst the factory workers, old-fashioned attitudes, a fight, and an impossible deadline to meet (spoiler alert: they meet it). In the end, everything works out, and there’s a big song-and-dance finale.