99 YEARS OLD AND STILL EMBRACING THE UNKNOWN...

TODAY’S piece of unsolicited praise is on behalf of PYNHO, the organisation spreading the good word about People You’ve Never Heard Of ( now amalgamated with PYPNHO – the organisation for people you’ve practically never heard of).

I have long been very dubious about our so- called celebrity culture, if only because so many of our celebrities seem to me to be very uncultured, but in the last few weeks I have, on three occasions, come to realise just how excellent our non- celebrities can be.

The first of these was a play called Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is showing until May 18 at the Lyttelton Theatre on London’s South Bank. Written by August Wilson ( of whom I had practically never heard), it is set in Chicago in 1927 and is based on the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey and her struggles against the exploitative and often racist people running the music business in the USA at the time.

It’s intense and funny and is performed by a hugely talented cast, none of whom I’d ever heard of. Indeed, I could not even tell whether they were musicians who could act or actors who could musish. Talking to the cast afterwards, I saw they were not only talented but were very thoughtful and educated. It all added up to a fine evening’s entertainment as good as anything I’ve seen by famous names.

My next revelation came with the cast change at Guys and Dolls at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s Charing Cross Road. When the production started I had been told it was full of big names but I’d heard that the new cast was even better. I hadn’t heard of any of them but they put on a magnificent ensemble effort that earned rapturous applause. I think it is not going too far to describe them as the Leicester City of musical theatre: unknown but magnificent.

Finally, but by no means least, came an extraordinary show put on by the young Greek composer/ song writer/ performer Giannis Christodoulopoulos last week at St James’s, Piccadilly.

He has been a star in Greece since winning a contest to compose the theme for the Athens 2004 Olympics, but is still largely unknown over here. Combining classical music and jazz, his piano compositions show simplicity, great energy and the accessibility of powerful film music.

He calls the show Cathedrals, for unexplained reasons, but when he was joined by the soprano Katerina Mina, I began to get an inkling of what may have been behind it. Singing from the pulpit, her crystal clear voice exploited the acoustics of St James’s perfectly, soaring through the building, down the aisles and up to the high ceiling. The church may not be a cathedral but the singing was heavenly.

Giannis ended with a highly unusual piece of audience involvement when he improvised compositions suggested by words they offered to indicate their emotions from melancholy to madness. Future dates and venues in his Cathedrals tour have yet to be announced, but it’s worth keeping an eye out and an ear open for them.

This has certainly been a good period for non- celebrity unknowns.