REVIEW: MOTOWN THE MUSICAL (The Bristol Hippodrome) ★★★
More than 60 truncated hits feature in ‘Motown the Musical’, the show written by Motown records founder Berry Gordy, which debuted on Broadway before arriving in London’s West End in 2016. I’m a big fan of the kind of straight forward fun offered by a jukebox musical, and a lover of Motown – so I […]
REVIEW: In Conversation with Graham Norton (The Hope Theatre) ★★★★
In Conversation with Graham Norton was first staged at The Hope Theatre in September 2018 for a short, sell out run. The debut play by Simon Perrott, directed by Joseph Winters, is back at The Hope Theatre for a longer run this month with Jay Parsons returning to the role of Mark for this one […]
REVIEW: SINATRA RAW (Live at Zedel) ★★★★★
Frank Sinatra died in 1998, his last performance was in 1995 and he gave many final farewell performances over his long career. Richard Shelton recreates a late night in 1971 around half way through his singing career when he performed in the Purple Room in Palm Springs to an audience of friends, as a warm […]
REVIEW: Pinter Five / Pinter Six (Harold Pinter Theatre) ★★★★
First and Last Things are brought to light in the newest instalments of Jamie Lloyd’s epochal season presenting all of Harold Pinter’s short plays. Pinter Five and Six take us from the unsettling claustrophobia of Pinter’s first play, 1957’s The Room, through to the satirical exasperation of his last, Celebration, from 2000. The complex violence […]
Review: TRUE WEST (Vaudeville Theatre) ★★★★
Unsettling dialogue and sibling rivalry reign supreme in acclaimed playwright Matthew Dunster‘s revival of Sam Shepard‘s iconic American play True West, which opened recently at the Vaudeville Theatre in the heart of London’s West End. The play stars Game of Thrones legend Kit Harrington as Austin, the successful screenplay writer who is burdened with existential […]
REVIEW: THE DAME (Park Theatre) ★★★★
“My armour, my war paint, the battle out there: it’s all I’ve ever known.” The Dame transfers to the Park Theatre after a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe. This one man show stars Peter Duncan and was written by his daughter, Katie. Katie was inspired by the idea of a lonely entertainer wandering along […]
REVIEW: CATS International Tour (Rai Theater, 2019) ★★★★
If you asked a room of theatre- goers what their favourite musical was – I doubt many (if any) would say it was CATS. It’s not got the fan-base that so many of the shows that are touring at the moment have. CATS is also one of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s more tame shows, in comparison […]
REVIEW: Snow White (Towngate Theatre) ★★★★★
Last year, I called the Towngate Theatre production of Aladdin ‘Possibly the best panto I have ever seen’ and so I went along this year with very high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed. Simon Fielding’s production of Snow White has everything a great panto should have. A hilarious script (that manages to never crosses the […]
REVIEW: Peter Pan (Richmond Theatre) ★★★★
I have yet to meet a single Scrooge in life who doesn’t love the story of Peter Pan and the wondrous place that is Neverland – who hasn’t thought about what it would be like to fly, be completely free from rules and never grow up? Certainly nobody sane! This year, Richmond Theatre have chosen […]
REVIEW: SWEAT (Donmar Warehouse) ★★★★★
Lynn Nottage’s gritty and emotional drama has been brought to the Donmar Warehouse by former Resident Assistant Director Lynnette Linton and is the perfect antidote to anyone who has had enough of the traditional Christmas fare. Sweat won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama after it’s debut in New York in 2015 and it is easy […]