Bernadette Robinson talks about bringing Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and more to the West End stage
Bernadette Robinson’s critically acclaimed performances in multiple sell-out seasons of the one-woman musical play Songs For Nobodies and Pennsylvania Avenue have confirmed her standing as one of Australia’s leading singers/actresses. She is a familiar figure on Australian concert stages, having given sell out concerts at the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Festival Centre, the Melbourne Recital […]
Manchester’s Most Exciting Productions of 2019
With the news this week that legendary musical theatre composter Stephen Schwartz (Godspell/Wicked) will be doing a special one-off night of songs and chat about his work at the Hope Mill Theatre (which is staging hit musicals like Mame, Hair and Rags this year), it goes to show that there’s really one city that seems […]
Full cast announced for the UK Tour of ANNIE
Full casting for the forthcoming UK tour of “ANNIE” has been announced. Joining the previously announced Anita Dobson and Craig Revel Horwood who both star as ‘Miss Hannigan’ (Anita will play the role from 2 February – 27 April 2019 and Craig will play the role from 30 April – 6 July 2019) will be […]
Britains first actress of colour to play Cosette in Les Miserables says she doesn’t want to be seen as ‘a black Cosette’
Amara Okereke won ‘Best Actress In A Musical’ at the Stage Debut Awards in 2018, for her historic performance in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, where she made history as the first British actress of colour to play the role of Cosette. But in a week when on Broadway we are celebrating three black […]
REVIEW: ASPECTS OF LOVE (Southwark Playhouse) ★★★
Although not premiered until 1989, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Aspects of Love’ was first conceived in 1979, when he and Tim Rice were approached to write some songs for the movie version of the David Garnett novella. The movie was shelved but this initial spark began the ten year journey to the fully staged musical (with […]
REVIEW: Benidorm Live (Sunderland Empire) ★★★★★
The move from the beloved TV series to stage play has gone seamlessly for Benidorm, due in no small way to the brilliant writing of Derren Litten. He has given life to all the characters he knows so well. In the fine tradition of farce, the story is based on a series of misunderstandings. Posh […]
REVIEW: ANOMALY (Red Lion Theatre) ★★★★
Anomaly is the debut play from Liv Warden, showing at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Warden began writing at the Soho Writers Lab in 2016; this play was first conceived in conjunction with the National Theatre playwriting course and finished at the Arcola Theatre ‘Introduction to Playwriting’ course at the end of last year. Warden […]
REVIEW: ORIGINAL DEATH RABBIT (Jermyn Street Theatre) ★★★
Rose Heiney’s monologue performed by Kimberley Nixon as the eponymous Death Rabbit offers a warning for those whose lives are dominated by social media, where a “like” can briefly give you a false idea of being the most important person in the world but where an anonymous adverse comment can prompt a disproportionate feeling of […]
REVIEW: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (New Diorama Theatre) ★★★★
Isley Lynn’s unusual take on the HG Wells science-fiction classic The War Of The Worlds comes without any Martians but instead focuses of the mythology around Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast and links this to the supposedly modern phenonium of ‘fake news’. The team from Rhum and Clay then weave the 1930s story with a […]
REVIEW: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (The Union Theatre) ★★★
Phil Willmott‘s three play season at The Union Theatre under the title ‘Enemies of the People‘ has opened with Arthur Miller‘s 1950’s adaption of Henri Ibsen‘s 1882 play set in Norway called ‘An Enemy of the People‘. As Willmott did last year so brilliantly, when he moved the timing of The Cherry Orchard to post […]