REVIEW: KINKY BOOTS (Blackpool Winter Gardens) ★★★★
I had a vague knowledge of the real- life story behind Kinky Boots, from watching a BBC documentary ‘Trouble at the Top’ many years ago. Now a hit musical with book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, the show sashayed into Blackpool Winter Gardens this week. As the show opens, we learn […]
REVIEW: The Elixir of Love (Kings Head Theatre) ★★★★★
Brilliant, beautiful and bloody funny – the King’s Head theatre have delivered a fantastic production, which rates as one of the best things I have seen this year. Donizetti’s comic opera L’Elisir D’Amore is transported from 18th century northern Spain to 1980s Barry Island and is delivered here as the Elixir of Love. I am […]
REVIEW: Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre) ★★★
A stark production of the Scottish Play that will please aficionados but could leave Shakespeare novices scratching their heads. Director Paul Miller has teamed up with John Simm, ten years on from their production of Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible. Simm has said that they have a three-play-plan and will team up again in the […]
REVIEW: MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE (Curve) ★★★★
The curtains have opened on Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette at Curve. Originally an 80s cult classic film, Kureishi has worked with Curve to repurpose his masterpiece for the stage. Set in the heart of the big smoke during Thatcher’s reign, two old school friends – Johnny and Omar – reconnect and find themselves on […]
REVIEW: WEST END MUSICAL BRUNCH ★★★★
As hybrid concepts go, I expect that a West End sing-along combined with the now ubiquitous ‘bottomless brunch’ is already stoking the internal fires of most avid Wilma readers. On paper, it’s a winning idea: lock a bunch of musical fans inside a slice of prime West End real estate (in our case, the shabby-glam […]
WICKED THE MUSICAL at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre ★★★★★ (2019)
“According to the Time Dragon Clock, The Melting occurred at the thirteenth hour…” and in honour of the thirteenth year of Wicked in the West End at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, the show celebrated with a gala night this week. The great and the good were invited to rejoicify in style and there was a […]
MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY at London’s O2
Created by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! The Party is a new and unique entertainment experience that puts guests in the heart of the action. Over the course of about four hours, the audience enjoys a spectacular show, a four-course gourmet Mediterranean meal and an ABBA disco, all in one unforgettable evening. Mamma Mia! The […]
REVIEW: ZEUS ON THE LOOSE (Fire Nightclub) ★★
I saw Vicky Vox last year in the Regent‘s Park Open Air Theatre’s tremendous production of Little Shop of Horrors, in which she absolutely shone. I was delighted earlier this year when I arrived at the What’s On Stage Awards to find that she was co-hosting with Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who she rendered speechless regularly throughout […]
REVIEW: THE LIFE I LEAD (Wyndham’s Theatre) ★★★
“When I think of an English man I picture you” was Mr Disney’s remark to David Tomlinson’s individual brand of quirky wit and upper class oafishness as the quintessential Edwardian Mr Banks in the beloved family film, marking the career transfer to the silver screen for Dame Julie Andrews in ‘Mary Poppins’. Starring comedian Miles […]
REVIEW: CALL ME FURY (The Hope Theatre) ★★★
Call Me Fury, a play about the hysteria surrounding witchcraft worldwide, written by Sacha Wilson is a seventy five minute piece of musical dramatic storytelling, it works because of the four actresses telling the stories. They are challenged to play multiple roles, switching between them by the simplest of costume changes and while occasionally we lose the […]