Slice of Death: Murder and Cannibalism are on the Menu in this Tasty Production of Sweeney Todd

So a bald man with a family is on a rampage, killing people as he attempts to settle scores with those who have wronged him. No, it's not Walter White, the middle-aged meth cooker who, sadly, has baked the blue for the last time on Breaking Bad.

This play instead is about Sweeney Todd, the middle-aged, razor-wielding barber in 19th-century London. And this Great Lakes Theater staging of Stephen Sondheim's raucous and muscular musical is a bloody fine ride.

Even with some small wrinkles, the propulsive energy of this production catapults you into this nightmare tale, timed perfectly for the Halloween season (yes, it is a season now, not just the evening of October 31).

The operatic, plasma-drenched thriller, which first opened on Broadway in 1979, has many spurts of dark comedy. And both the chills and chortles are orchestrated with precision by director Victoria Bussert.

When the barber Benjamin Barker (under the alias Sweeney Todd) returns to London from an unjust incarceration, he learns that the corrupt judge who sentenced him has raped and destroyed his wife Lucy and claimed as a ward his daughter Johanna.

So the barber breaks real bad, deciding to slit the throat of the judge, along with pretty much anyone else who meanders into his second-floor tonsorial salon. On the plus side, this eliminates the need for investing in return-visit punch cards.

His partner in crime is Mrs. Lovett, the downstairs baker of the "worst (meat) pies in London" who has always been attracted to Barker/Todd. Slyly misleading him as to the fate of Lucy, Lovett proceeds to woo Sweeney. Soon, they bond over a plan to dispose of the bodies Todd is manufacturing by chopping them into pie filling.

This process leads to the Act 1 capper "A Little Priest," in which the duo cavort through Sondheim's clever lyrical litany of how certain professions of victims result in pies of a particular quality (piccolo player pies are piping hot).

Of course, it is mandatory to have a strong actor playing the slasher Sweeney, and Tom Ford fits the bill most capably. With his burnished bald dome gleaming (an homage to WW?), Ford quickly establishes a fierce and uncompromising presence.

And his powerful voice pops goose bumps in "Epiphany," as he plots to wreak vengeance on the corrupt rich and save the poor from their miserable lives—all through homicide. Don't you just love sociopathic reasoning?

As Lovett, Sara M. Bruner is a slim and hot-wired presence, slicing rats in half and tossing them into her popovers. While she doesn't have the strongest voice in all registers, Bruner generates plenty of laughs amid the carnage.

Todd's daughter Johanna and her young lover Anthony are well sung by Clare Howes Eisentrout and Zach Adkins. Jodi Dominick scores as the beggar lady with a past. And as Tobias Ragg, Chris Cowan triggers some feeling in the lovely "Not While I'm Around."

On the minimal downside, Mark G. Hawbecker is a particularly uninteresting Pirelli, the rival barber who turns out to be a con man. Fashioned as a cross between a steam-punk rocker and a vision out of a Tim Burton wet dream, this Pirelli is a one-note screech-fest. And as the Beadle, M.A. Taylor doesn't do much with his character or songs, outside of a well-turned glower.

It all begins on a curious note, since there is a coffin set up center stage before the singing starts. Sure, there is a cute special effect to come, but you hardly need a coffin when all the corpses are being turned into BLTs (that's brains, livers and toes). Of course, if it's just a way to mirror the coffin that is on stage in the same position at the start of Richard III, which is playing in rep at GLT, it's an inside joke that's a bit too far inside.

Nevertheless, this Sweeney latches on to the Grand Guignol style that Sondheim intended, and delivers it with gut punch energy. "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd?" Indeed, you should.

View the original article here

Cliff Morgan death: Broadcasting and rugby legend dies aged 83 after long illness

Cliff Morgan was one of the greatest every fly-halves during playing careerHe went on to become a vastly respected commentatorHe famously commented on 1973 Barbarians v All Blacks matchUntil his death, he lived with wife Pat Ewing on the Isle of Wight

By Alasdair Glennie

PUBLISHED: 22:42 GMT, 29 August 2013 | UPDATED: 00:49 GMT, 30 August 2013

Legendary rugby international and broadcaster Cliff Morgan has died after a long  illness at the age of 83.

One of the greatest ever fly-halves during his playing career, Morgan went on to become a vastly respected commentator.

After a distinguished career at the BBC, however, he was sacked as presenter of Sport on Four in 1998 on the grounds he was too old-fashioned and sentimental about sport.

His treatment provoked a huge national outcry from outraged listeners.

National idol: Cliff Morgan (pictured, left, in 1956) has died at the age of 83 after a long illness. One of the greatest ever fly-halves during his playing career, Morgan went on to become a vastly respected commentator (right)

Writing in today’s Mail, his friend and former newspaper editor Donald Trelford, 75, describes his reaction to the affair: ‘[It was] one of the most stupid decisions ever made by an organisation renowned for its long record of blundering ineptitude .?.?. [it] makes a nonsense of platitudinous tributes put out yesterday by BBC spokesmen .?.?. As a friend and admirer of Cliff over several decades, it made me want to yell, “If he was that good, why on earth did you get rid of him?”?’

And, indeed, yesterday’s reaction from the corporation made no mention of the affair.

Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: ‘Cliff Morgan was not only a superstar in rugby, but also a pioneer in sports broadcasting and an inspiration to so many of the great voices of BBC Sport.

'He was a scholar and a wordsmith, who had a wonderful understanding of the use of language in broadcasting.’

Rugby legend: Welsh rugby union fly-half Cliff Morgan is tackled while playing for the British Lions against South Africa at Johannesburg in August 1955

Morgan appeared on the BBC’s Question of Sport before becoming head of sport and outside broadcasts, supervising coverage of football World Cups, Commonwealth and Olympic Games and royal weddings.

He famously commentated on the 1973 Barbarians v All Blacks match in which Gareth Edwards scored what many consider the greatest try ever. Morgan won 29 caps for Wales.

His most famous moment on the field came on the 1955 Lions tour of South Africa as he helped his team win 23-22 for the first time since the Second World War.

Morgan suffered a life-threatening stroke aged 42. Before his death, he contracted cancer of the vocal cords. Commentator Des Lynam said he had ‘one of the best broadcasting voices of all time’, but the disease eventually left him unable to speak.

Until his death, Morgan lived with his wife Pat Ewing on the Isle of Wight.

Star: Cliff Morgan in action in a 1958 Five Nations Rugby Union match between Wales and France

How the Mail's late great IAN WOOLRIDGE brilliantly captured Cliff Morgan in this 1996 review of his autobiography

This morning, as on most Saturday mornings these past nine years, the Voice of Trebanog will be introducing the BBC’s Sport on Four. It’s a little gruffer now from all those Silk Cut, but the unmistakable cadences of the Rhondda link us through arguably the most sensible programme on radio sport. There is no striving for Burtonian resonance or Dylan Thomas rhetoric. Clifford Isaac Morgan is no professional Welshman.

The second Christian name is no surprise when you know a little of his boyhood. There were no ball games on the Sabbath and even the Sunday newspapers lay unopened until Monday.

It was classic valley culture: chapel, choir practice on Wednesdays, the zinc tub by the living room fireside when Dad came back from the mine, fish and chips if the housekeeping ran to it on the eve of pay day. The home reading syllabus was the Bible, Shakespeare, David Copperfield, Pears Cyclopaedia and the Western Mail. It was a frugal, very happy home.

Sports team: Cliff Morgan, left, with David Coleman, Frank Bough and Tony Gubba at the 25th anniversary party for Grandstand in 1979

To this living room one morning came two men bearing ?5,000 in large white fivers and a post-dated cheque for a further ?2,500.

Cliff Morgan had never seen a ?5 note. Now 1,000 of them would instantly be his if he signed to play professional rugby league with Wigan. The cheque could be cashed after he’d stayed with Wigan for six months. At the property prices of 1952 he could have bought eight cottages down his street.
Cliff’s mum cooked the visitors bacon, eggs and black pudding for breakfast and said Cliff wasn’t going anywhere.

Well, he was but it was to play for glory and no money as an amateur for Cardiff, Wales and the British Lions as the most brilliant international outside-half of his generation.

Presenter: Cliff Morgan's rise in broadcasting was phenomenal

When, eventually, the reflexes slowed and the cheering died, he was a national idol. And financially broke.

Desperation was the springboard to such a remarkable career in public life that his autobiography Beyond the Fields of Play is not only obligatory reading for the rugby union players who can now run Porsches and domestic staffs but parents who remonstrate when their kids get a good clip round the ear when they run amok at school.

The Rhondda taught resilience and, by heavens, Morgan has needed that.

He chose freelance journalism, a precarious field at the best of times, sheer quicksands when you have less business sense than a parrot on a stick. Morgan has no business sense at all.

While less celebrated ‘personalities’ would claim anything from ?1,000 to ?3,000 plus expenses to speak at a dinner, Morgan would drive to some outlandish rugger club after an exhausting working day to speak for nothing.

Memorial services, weddings, reunions, Cliff was your man. He once flew down to Sydney, Australia, to present some sportswriting awards and was back inside four days.

Cliff has great contacts. As chairman of London’s Saints and Sinners Club there was huge curiosity as to whom he would produce as his speaker for the annual lunch. He wheeled in Princess Anne, the only women ever to address this esoteric assembly.

All for no money, of course, but Morgan doesn’t bitch about that in his book. He simply admits he’s a man who can never say No. Only two days ago he gave the main address at the funeral of his great friend and Welsh rugby international colleague, Clem Thomas.

Celebrated: Kevin Keegan (left), Cliff Morgan and Sir Bobby Charlton following the funeral service of boxer Sir Henry Cooper in 2011

His rise and rise in broadcasting was phenomenal: BBC sports organiser in Wales, editor of BBC TV’s Grandstand, editor of ITV’s This Week, Head of BBC Radio Outside Broadcasts and, to crown everything, 11 years as Head of BBC Television’s Outside Broadcasts.

It wasn’t a smooth passage. When he took that last job he could hear the doors slamming against him as he walked down the corridor.

BBC TV is the original home of jealousy, professional intrigue and thwarted ambition, however warranted. Who was this bloody little Welsh rugger player, this miner’s son, who’d leap-frogged them all?

The pace throughout was so unrelenting that there had to be a price.

Illness: Morgan suffered a life-threatening stroke aged 42. Before his death, he contracted cancer of the vocal cords

On the way up Cliff Morgan was commentating on a rugby match in Germany when he had a stroke.

The left side of his body was paralysed and his speech was impaired. They were so broke that Nuala, his wife, had to borrow  the money for the air fare to reach his bedside.

The recovery was long and tough and that was when Morgan discovered who his friends were.

Among them were David Coleman and his wife Barbara, and Henry Cooper.

There was a letter from Richard Burton, then filming in Budapest, which concluded: ‘Should you need anything as mundane as money, you have only to ask.’

Jack Solomons, boxing promoter, sent a cheque for ?2,000 with the message: ‘You may need this  during the time you will be out  of work.’

Cliff asked Burton for nothing and never cashed the Solomons cheque. When the next cash crisis came it concerned the fees to maintain the private educations of their two children. Cliff sold his car and Nuala sold her engagement ring. Their son is now a surgeon and their daughter works in medicine.

A couple of years ago, parking his car outside his London home, Cliff was mugged, badly beaten and robbed.

He makes no mention of it in his book. ‘Never thought about it, really,’ he said yesterday. ‘I don’t suppose it would interest many people. You don’t want to go around whingeing all the time, do you?’

There is a lot of rugby in his book as well. But essentially this is the story about genuine family values, not those as projected by politicians. Cliff’s Mum must have been a terrific woman and his Dad a saint.

_taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'below-main-column'});_taboola.push({flush:true});

View the original article here

Reading festival death: Private schoolgirl, 17, may have had drink spiked in 'unexplained' fatal illness

Esme Blore taken unwell at last weekend's festivalDischarged from hospital but collapsed at home and died on Monday after being readmittedPolice investigating drug link to 'unexplained' deathEsme had been excited about going to the festival with friends for weeks before

By Inderdeep Bains

PUBLISHED: 00:43 GMT, 29 August 2013 | UPDATED: 01:01 GMT, 30 August 2013

'Unexplained death': Esme Blore was taken to hospital on Saturday

THE parents of a public schoolgirl who died after being taken ill at the Reading Festival have spoken of their ‘unbearable’ pain over her death.
Esme Blore, 17, had gone to the music festival with a group of friends and had tweeted excitedly about seeing her favourite bands.

But on Saturday she left the event early because she was feeling unwell and was taken to hospital. Esme was discharged but on Monday she collapsed at her family home.

She was taken to another hospital but doctors were unable to save her.

Police are treating her death as ‘unexplained’ and are investigating whether it could be linked to drugs.

There has also been speculation that her drink may have been spiked at the festival.
Esme’s devastated father, Sebastian Blore-Rimmer, said the family were in the dark about what could have caused her death.

Speaking at the family’s ?600,000 detached home in Stevington, near Bedford, he said: ‘At the moment we are in limbo. We don’t really know what to do until we find out how and why she died.

‘We just want to know the facts and at the moment we don’t know anything. Waiting around is just unbearable.’

Excited: Esme had been posting messages on social media as the Reading festival approached saying how much she was looking forward to going

Mr Blore-Rimmer, 48, added that he hoped that the wait for answers would finally be over after the post-mortem examination is held today.

‘We don’t want to pre-empt the results,’ he said. ‘Only then can we really comment.’
His wife Sharon, 44, said: ‘I could give all the tributes in the world, but nothing is going to bring my baby back.’

Esme, a pupil at the ?4,000-a-term Bedford Girls’ School, had gone to the festival with a group of her friends to watch some of her favourite rock bands including Don Broco perform.

She had posted messages on her Twitter page in the days running up to the event talking of her excitement. But on Saturday she fell ill and was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.
She was discharged and returned to her home where she collapsed and had to be taken to Northampton General Hospital on Monday.

Laugh and smile: Esme was attending the festival with a group of friends

Mr Blore-Rimmer was driving home so he could pack an overnight bag when staff telephoned telling him to return immediately. Esme’s condition had deteriorated and she died hours later.
Northamptonshire and Thames Valley police, along with the two hospitals, are working together to establish the circumstances of the death.

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said: ‘The investigation into the cause of her death is ongoing and as such we are unable to comment any further. Our thoughts are with her friends and family at this sad time.’

A Thames Valley Police spokesman added: ‘We are aware there has been a lot of speculation surrounding the cause of her death, and numerous rumours have been circulating.

‘All the relevant agencies are liaising closely with each other to establish if there is any risk to public health, which does not seem to be the case at the moment.’

The spokesman urged social network users to consider the family’s feelings when writing about Esme after a troll posted a distasteful  message about her death.

_taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'below-main-column'});_taboola.push({flush:true}); DM.BC.videoAdServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=8x8&iu=%2F7023%2Fdm.video%2Fdm_video_news&ciu_szs=&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&correlator=[timestamp]";if (window.ArticlePage && MobileUtils.isMobile()) {new ArticlePage();}

_cc991.bcp();

View the original article here

Scandal-hit Stafford Hospital is prosecuted over death of patient who went into diabetic coma

Gillian Astbury, 66, was not given life-saving insulin, an inquest heard
HSE will now prosecute Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust
A successful conviction could lead to an unlimited fine for under-fire trust

By Sophie Borland

PUBLISHED: 12:09 GMT, 29 August 2013 | UPDATED: 00:46 GMT, 30 August 2013

Prosecution: Gillian Astbury, 66, died at Stafford Hospital after staff failed to give her insulin. The Health and Safety Executive will now prosecute Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

The hospital trust at the centre of one of the worst care scandals in living memory is to be prosecuted over the death of a patient from neglect.

Mid Staffordshire is to be taken to court by the Health and Safety Executive after a 66-year-old woman died when nurses failed to realise she suffered from diabetes.

The NHS trust will be prosecuted as an organisation, meaning that individual nurses, doctors and managers will not face jail for their failings.

Hundreds of patients are feared to have died unnecessarily at Mid Staffordshire between 2005 and 2009, and earlier this year a damning report warned that many others had suffered inhumane abuse.

Gillian Astbury, who suffered from diabetes, was admitted to Stafford Hospital in April 2007  following a fall at home. She was put under the care of a team of nurses who did not bother to read her medical notes and failed to realise she was diabetic and needed regular doses of insulin. She fell into a coma and died ten days after first being admitted on to the ward.

Her friend and carer, Ron Street, said that when he went to visit her she was often in soiled bed linen and her meals would be left out of reach.

The HSE began investigating the death in April, having postponed its probe until after the publication in February of a major report following a public inquiry into the scandal.

Deaths: Up to 1,200 people died needlessly at scandal-hit Stafford Hospital

It has now concluded that there is enough evidence to charge the trust under the Health and Safety at Work Act, for failing to protect others against risks to health and safety.

The first hearing will be in October at Stafford Magistrates Court, but the case could go on for several months before reaching a verdict.

Peter Galsworthy, head of operations of the HSE in the West Midlands, said: ‘We have concluded our investigation into the death of Gillian Astbury at Stafford Hospital and have decided there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring criminal proceedings in this case.

‘HSE will be charging Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

‘Gillian Astbury died on April 11 2007, of diabetic ketoacidosis, when she was an inpatient at the hospital.

The prosecution follows an investigation launched earlier this year by the HSE into Mrs Astbury?s death

‘The immediate cause of death was the failure to administer insulin  to a known diabetic patient. Our case alleges that the trust failed to devise, implement or properly manage structured and effective systems of communication for sharing patient information, including in relation to shift handovers and record-keeping.’

Families of the Stafford Hospital victims and union chiefs called for NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson to resign

If the trust is found guilty of the charge of a gross failure to provide basic care, it could be fined tens of thousands of pounds.

The HSE said it was not the first time a hospital trust had been prosecuted under the law but there have been only a handful of cases.

Although the proceedings are not being brought against individuals, two of the nurses involved face being struck off following professional hearings.

Last month the Nursing and Midwifery Council ruled that Jeanette Coulson and Ann King had failed to keep Mrs Astbury’s records up to date or carry out blood tests. The panel will decide on a punishment for the two nurses over the coming weeks.

Yesterday Mr Street, 79, said: ‘I am pleased that some action is being taken and I hope it will give some degree of consolation to other families whose loved ones died at Stafford Hospital.’

Maggie Oldham, chief executive at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We accept the findings of the Health and Safety Executive’s investigation. Our thoughts remain with the family of Gillian Astbury and we apologise for the appalling care Ms Astbury received at our hospital in April 2007.’

November 2007

Grief-stricken Julie Bailey creates the Cure the NHS campaign group following the death of her mother Bella, who died at Staffordshire General Hospital.

February 2008

Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, which runs Stafford Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital, is awarded foundation trust status - a supposed marker of excellence in the NHS.

May 2008

Health watchdog the Healthcare Commission launches an investigation into high death rates at the trust.

March 2009

Trust chief executive Martin Yeates and chairman Toni Brisby resign days before a Healthcare Commission report reveals that between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected at the trust between April 2005 and March 2008.

July 2009

Then Health Secretary Andy Burnham announces a second independent inquiry, chaired by Robert Francis QC, into what went wrong at the trust.

November 2009

The inquiry formally opens, but the hearings are held in private. In its opening statement, Mid Staffs apologises for ‘harm and distress’ caused to patients, their families and loved ones at Stafford Hospital.

February 2010

The report from the ?1.7 million independent inquiry is published. It concludes that patients were ‘routinely neglected’ at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. The trust was preoccupied with cost-cutting and targets, and lost sight of its responsibility to provide safe care.

June 2010

David Cameron announces a public inquiry will be held into the failings at Stafford Hospital, with Robert Francis as the Chairman.

October 2010

The Care Quality Commission (CQC)  - now the health regulator for England - says Mid Staffs is still falling short on 11 key standards set out by law to maintain quality and safety in hospitals.

November 2010

The inquiry hearings begin. In its opening statement to the inquiry, Cure the NHS claims the care offered by the hospital was so poor it infringed patients’ human rights.

October 2011

The CQC issues a warning to the trust after it finds low staffing levels could compromise patient safety.

December 2011

Stafford Hospital’s A&E department closes at night for three months due to staff shortages.

The closure coincides with the end of the 139-day public inquiry which heard from 164 witnesses, with an additional 87 witness statements.

December 2012

Lawyers reveal the trust has paid out more than ?1m in compensation for ‘inhumane and degrading’ treatment of patients.

January 2013

An independent investigation concludes the trust is ‘clinically and financially unsustainable’ and will not be able to provide safe care on a sustainable basis in the future.

Police launch a criminal inquiry after a four-month-old baby boy was found with a dummy taped to his face at Stafford Hospital.

February 2013

The bill for the public inquiry reaches ?13 million. NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar says the release of the report will be ‘one of the darkest days’ in the history of the NHS.

April 2013

Stafford Borough Council agreed to file complaints against former Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Martin Yeates, and chairwoman Toni Brisby.

May 2013

Care minister Norman Lamb announces that hospitals that give false information about death rates will face unlimited fines and promises an end to NHS's 'cover-up culture'.

_taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'below-main-column'});_taboola.push({flush:true});Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons.

DM.BC.videoAdServerUrl = "http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=8x8&iu=%2F7023%2Fdm.video%2Fdm_video_news&ciu_szs=&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&correlator=[timestamp]";if (window.ArticlePage && MobileUtils.isMobile()) {new ArticlePage();}

_cc991.bcp();

View the original article here