REVIEW: SILK ROAD (VAULT Festival) ★★★★
Silk Road is a new one-man play which captures the sinister beauty of the anarchic dark web. Through an effective combination of visual metaphors and poetic monologues, our protagonist Bruce takes us on a white-knuckle tour around this brave new world. Following the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road and self-appointed “Dread […]
REVIEW: THE GRIFT (Bethnal Green Old Town Hall Hotel) ★★
We are welcomed into the Old Town Hall Hotel, a grand establishment which often acts as a superb setting for performances, particularly immersive ones such as writer and director Tom Salamon‘s ‘The Grift‘. We are given a comical introduction from the charming Mark Oosterveen, who explains that we about to take part in “a practice […]
REVIEW: ORANGES & ELEPHANTS (Hoxton Hall) ★★★★★
One of the big revelations of modern times is that quite a lot of what we think we know in history is bollocks. The history of facts fell to ‘interpretation’, history’s version of #fakenews. Slanted and repossessed by people with their vested interests cloaking the truth. His-story is dull men in action slacks leading us […]
REVIEW: JERSEY BOYS (Milton Keynes Theatre) ★★★★★
Four Seasons. Four boys. Four stories. Unlike many ‘Jukebox musicals’ Jersey Boys doesn’t attempt to weave a fictional story around the songs of a famous artist or band; instead it focuses on the real story of the musicians in their road to fame and beyond. From the streets of New Jersey to the Rock and […]
REVIEW: THERE OR HERE (Park Theatre) ★
Special Relationship Productions brings There or Here to the acclaimed Park Theatre for a run which lasts just under a month. The play follows a couple scratching at the surface of an American Dream. Robyn (Lucy Fenton) has cancer, which was not scheduled into the life plan for her and husband, Ajay (Chris Nayak) when […]
REVIEW: AUSTEN THE MUSICAL (Mirth, Marvel and Maud Theatre) ★★
Musical Austen is a concept that I love, most ardently – so it’s a shame Rob Winlow’s interpretation of our eponymous heroine reduces her to a pitiful singleton with an almost accidental side hustle in literature. Despite the frequent centre-staging of Jane scribbling at her desk, what’s actually placed at the heart of the show […]
REVIEW: LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN (Vaudeville Theatre) ★★★
Following on from the very dated A Woman of No Importance, the second instalment in the Vaudeville Theatre’s Oscar Wilde season sees Kathy Burke take the reigns as she directs an all-star cast for Lady Windermere’s Fan. But just like its predecessor, despite some great performances, it all just feels a bit too old hat. […]
REVIEW: NOTES OF LOVE EP (The Songs of Oliver Boito) ★★★★★
Leading West End talents Oliver Savile (Wicked), Siubhan Harrison (Guys and Dolls), Rob Houchen (Les Miserables), Sharon Sexton (Bat Out Of Hell), Stuart Matthew Price (Rocky Horror Show), Jodie Steele (Wicked) and Sooz Kempner (Get On With It) sing a collection of original Musical Theatre ballads by Oliver Boito, ranging from the epic to the […]
REVIEW: SUNSET BOULEVARD (New Victoria Theatre) ★★★★★
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to catch Andrew Lloyd Webber’s touring version of Sunset Boulevard on its opening night at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. For those of you not familiar with this show it is based on the Billy Wilder film of the same name about faded Silent Screen star Norma Desmond and […]
REVIEW: EDWARD II (Greenwich Theatre) ★★★★
After the success of Lazarus Theatre’s production of Edward II at the Tristan Bates Theatre last year, the company decided to kick off their yearlong residency at the Greenwich Theatre with the Marlowe epic. The classic play, adapted by Ricky Dukes, lends itself to the larger playing area well and although you lose some of […]