REVIEW: FOSSILS (New Diorama Theatre) ★★★
Fossils from award winning company Bucket Club gets its third outing at New Diorama Theatre following successful runs at Edinburgh Fringe and Brits on Broadway in New York. The show is inspired by British myths, a collection of toy dinosaurs and a man called Steve who has been watching for the Loch Ness Monster from […]
REVIEW: BLACK CAT CABARET (Underbelly Festival) ★★
With the knowledge that the Black Cat were of one of the resident cabaret shows at this year’s Underbelly Festival and having performed at multiple landmark cabaret venues in London, a high standard was to be expected with some of the best cabaret talent in the city. Unless I attended an off show, I’m puzzled […]
REVIEW: BUZZ: A NEW MUSICAL (Pleasance Courtyard) ★★★★★
Sometimes a musical comes along that is undeniably fantastic. The fringe is, a lot of the time, a soundboard for work that is in progress. Buzz however, was a polished piece of West End worthy theatre. Following the story of Angie (Allie Munro) post breaking up with her dead-end boyfriend turned rock star and her […]
REVIEW: TENDERLY (New Wimbledon Studio) ★★★★★
Sometimes there are jukebox musicals that are forced to fit. They shoehorn songs into a plot, or fashion a plot around some pre-written songs. It tends to make for a very makeshift and incomplete feeling show. Tenderly, is not one of these. Set in a doctor’s office, the show is Rosemary Clooney’s recount of her […]
REVIEW: THE TEST (White Bear Theatre) ★★★
The Test is a new play written and directed by Ian Dixon Potter and produced by Golden Age Theatre at White Bear Theatre in Kennington. Dora is a talented computer scientist; she has written a code that she believes will create truly conscious artificial intelligence. She wants to try it out; her boss is understandably […]
REVIEW: LEGALLY BLONDE (Churchill Theatre) ★★
UK audiences have been lucky to have had several brilliant productions of the musical adaptation of Legally Blonde with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Since it premiered on Broadway in 2007 we’ve had a wildly successful West End production along with a live cast recording, a UK tour and a Leicester […]
REVIEW: KINKY BOOTS (Adelphi Theatre) ★★★★★
The story of a young man who is reluctantly forced into his father’s shoes as the head of his family’s Shoe Factory, doesn’t exactly sound like a subject for a musical. Yet Kinky Boots has just celebrated it’s second birthday in the West End and there is no question as to why. The show is excellent, […]
REVIEW: The People vs Donald Trump (The London Theatre) ★
If there is any silver lining at all to the grimness of recent global affairs, it’s arguably the gift bestowed on political satirists. Sadly, that gift is squandered by ‘The People vs Donald Trump’, which is more screwball than satire and frustratingly low on wit. Written and directed by former US trial lawyer Max Lopert, […]
REVIEW: HOLDING THE MAN (Above The Stag) ★★★★
Based on the memoir of Timothy Conigrave, ‘Holding the Man‘ first takes place in 1970’s Australia, where the lives of teenage sweethearts Tim and John intertwine over the next 20 years together. Despite concern from both sets of parents that their sexuality would make their lives ‘difficult’, the pair are relentless in their mutual pursuits […]
REVIEW: Gate (The Cockpit) ★★★★
Gate is a new play by Artemis Fitzalan Howard brought to the Cockpit by Deadpan Theatre following previous success with Pre-Drinks/Afterparty at Edinburgh Fringe in 2016. If you’ve ever wondered about the admin at the pearly gates, Gate presents the bureaucracy behind deciding who goes ‘upstairs’, who goes ‘downstairs’ and what happens when it’s not […]