REVIEW: COAL (Curve Leicester) ★★★★
The UK tour of COAL visited Curve Leicester last night. This production is an opportunity for audience members to peer through the looking glass into the upbringing of artistic director Gary Clarke who, in his own words, aspires to “capture a time in British history that seems to be being forgotten.” This production is sweaty, […]
REVIEW: SHIT-FACED SHAKESPEARE (Leicester Square Theatre) ★★★★★
Take six classically-trained actors, ensure they learn a cut-down version of Shakespeare‘s ‘Much Ado About Nothing‘, and perform it with one of the members brilliantly intoxicated – there is simply no better way to liven up the Bard! As beloved as Shakespearean works are, no one can deny that the modern spoken word has travelled […]
REVIEW: AUDRA MCDONALD (Leicester Square Theatre) ★★★★
It’s one thing to be able to sing like an angel, but to possess the ability to completely captivate an audience is an extraordinary skill. Six times Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is a rare talent who exudes an exultant eminence and in a series of intimate shows at the Leicester Square Theatre this week, […]
REVIEW: GHOST (Liverpool Empire) ★★★
It’s impossible to hear Unchained Melody without envisaging Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore at the pottery wheel in the 1990 movie of Ghost. The musical adaptation first took to the stage not far down the road from its current home at the Liverpool Empire, when it opened in 2011 in Manchester, before storming into the […]
REVIEW: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (Wilton’s Music Hall) ★★
There’s a song in Act Two when the protagonist, J. Pierrepoint Finch (Marc Pickering), sings out to the audience, motivating himself by proclaiming, ‘I Believe In You’. Sadly, it was hard to believe in him or this production of the nine-time Tony Award winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. With music and […]
Out of Blixen (Print Room at the Coronet) ★★★★
Karen Blixen is quite well known, mainly because of Meryl Streep’s impressive portrayal of the Danish author in Sydney Pollack’s Oscar winning film “Out of Africa”. Robert Redford played Denys, the English big game hunter whom Blixen fell in love with. Karen Blixen, writing under the pen name of Isak Dinesen, was considered several times […]
REVIEW: MACBETH (Jack Studio Theatre) ★★★★★
On a barren heath, three strange and malevolent witches tell an ambitious Scottish nobleman, Macbeth, that he is destined to be King of Scotland. Thus begins a series of dreadful events leading to the death of the King, and of Macduff Thane of Fife’s entire family and many more. From ambitious dreams to terrifying nightmares […]
REVIEW: POSH (Pleasance Theatre) ★★★★★
Laura Wade’s Posh is a widely celebrated and respected play (also known by its film adaptation title, The Riot Club), well known to many. I have seen countless productions of it and yet Cressida Carré’s interpretation breathes a new life into this phenomenal show. The all-female cast is filled with talented and passionate actress’s. The […]
REVIEW: SUBLIME (Tristan Bates Theatre) ★★★
Sophie is in serious trouble and needs her brother Sam’s assistance. She has been living in Italy, and has remained out of contact with Sam for two years, but now, unexpectedly, she is back and needs to rekindle their previous criminal partnership. Sophie walks into a dark apartment carrying a torch. When Sam returns, he […]
REVIEW: MISS NIGHTINGALE (The Vaults) ★★★★
The fifth production of Miss Nightingale since its conception in 2011 and has set up home at The Vaults in Waterloo. The venue could not be more perfect for a war-time musical where bombs are dropping in the streets. The old vaults with bare brick walls and cold musky smell, make you feel like you […]