REVIEW: FAME THE MUSICAL (Sunderland Empire) ★★★
Fame, for me, evokes a wealth of nostalgia. I watched the TV show in the 80’s and the the 1980 Alan Parker film (which introduced me to the Rocky Horror Picture Show). I have fond memories of sleepovers with my best friend Melanie and listening to her sister Dawn singing the songs of the Kids […]
REVIEW: WHERE IS PETER RABBIT? (Theatre Royal Haymarket) ★★★★
On a rainy and grey afternoon I was delighted to take my 5 year old niece Amy to watch this magical interpretation of some of the best loved characters from the world of one of our most celebrated children’s authors, Beatrix Potter-conceived over 100 years ago. As a child I read all 24 of her […]
REVIEW: TOAST (The Other Palace) ★★★★★
Growing up, nine year old Nigel Slater was content. He often helped his beloved mother with the baking, and she even taught him the ingredients for mince pies off by heart (measurements included!). But tragically Slater was left motherless, after her asthma became increasingly bad, and, in the end, fatal. His father soon met another […]
REVIEW: VICTORIA (Curve) ★★★★★
Northern Ballet’s Victoria pirouetted its way into Curve last week. The subject matter needs no explanation as it is centred around our second-longest reigning monarch. When Queen Victoria is portrayed in modern day culture, the story often follows her journey from princess to the ascension to the throne, to the death of her beloved Prince Albert. […]
REVIEW: MOUTHPIECE (Soho Theatre) ★★★★
Kieran Hurley’s Mouthpiece comes to Soho Theatre following a sold out, critically-acclaimed run at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2018. The production is directed by the former Artistic Director of Traverse Theatre, Orla O’Loughlin and has Neve McIntosh and Lorn Macdonald reprising their roles. Mouthpiece is set in Edinburgh and takes a look at an unlikely […]
REVIEW: The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre) ★★★★★
We find ourselves in 1950’s Minneapolis, at what appears to be the worst-run bank in the U.S. of A. For some reason, a Hungarian prince has decided to entrust bank manager Robin Freeboys (Leonard Cook) with looking after his precious diamond, worth half a million dollars, and recent jailbird Mitch (Gareth Tempest) is planning a […]
REVIEW: SCARY BIKERS (Trafalgar Studios) ★★★★
When former teacher Carol (Jane Thornton) suffers the loss of her husband, Rob, she’s in pieces. Finding it hard to move on from the pain that his brain tumour caused, and crying every day, months after his death, she crosses paths with retired miner Don (John Godber OBE). Don’s recently said goodbye to his wife, […]
REVIEW: MICHAEL STARRING BEN (London Palladium) ★★★★
The King of Pop was kept well and truly alive at the London Palladium on Saturday. Ben Bowman, the UK’s leading Michael Jackson tribute act, lit up the West End stage with his powerful and accurate renditions of MJ’s classics. Bowman grew up in the Isle of Sheppey, and was first drawn to Jackson aged […]
REVIEW: GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (Milton Keynes Theatre) ★★
The world of selling is a brutal one. It’s fast-paced and competitive. Not everyone is cut out for it. In Glengarry Glen Ross, salesmen of the 1980’s come under the microscope. Each month the top salesman wins a Cadillac. But the boss has a new idea… if you’re not in the top three? You’re out. […]
REVIEW: CLUB TROPICANA (New Victoria Theatre) ★★★★
A Guilty Pleasure….. Being of a certain age, Club Tropicana is everything you expect a Musical of the 80’s to be, It is big, bold and boisterous and so over the top it could compared to Alexis Carrington-Colby’s Shoulder Pads. The show centres on the antics and capers of both guests and staff alike, at […]