SOUNDS AND SORCERY: CELEBRATING DISNEY FANTASIA (The Vaults) ★★★
Disney’s Fantasia is a monumental film for The Walt Disney Company. It was the third animated feature film that Disney made, it was released during WWII and is one of the top 25 highest-grossing films of all time in the U.S.. Even though it’s a film for all ages, it’s a fantastic platform for classical […]
REVIEW: HONEY (The Cockpit) ★★★
Honey – a production from Reaction Theatre Makers, comes to The Cockpit Theatre for short run. Along with The Slip and Fishead, Honey makes the Earth Mind Trilogy of plays that examine mental well-being and our changing environment. Honey tells the tale of a community in the Welsh mountains, a remote location with connections to the […]
REVIEW: END OF THE PIER (Park Theatre) ★★★★
Park Theatre’s latest starry offering is End of the Pier, a new play by Danny Robins. This dark comedy stars Les Dennis, Nitin Ganatra, Tala Gouveia and Blake Harrison. The play explores the world of comedy from the mostly male stand ups of the 1970s and 80s to the present moment where Twitter gives everyone […]
REVIEW: MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN ★★★★
Ten years on, the juggernaut of commercial success that is Mamma Mia continues to assault our senses with feel good codswallop, schmaltz and cheesy singing for singing’s sake but with an unexpected complexity of emotion that rendered not a dry eye in the house..an exploration of genuine maternal love and familial relationships that many can […]
REVIEW: Bugsy Malone (Royal & Derngate)
A classic film from my childhood, I’d actually never seen the stage version, so was interested to see how it would work in the theatre. I’ll admit, I was a little sceptical about it, as that many children on stage with American accents can be absolute chaos. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this youth […]
REVIEW: WHEN THE CURTAIN FALLS (Carrie Hope Fletcher) ★★★★
A few months ago I went to Carrie Hope Fletcher‘s debut album launch with the CD titled the same as her upcoming novel ‘When The Curtain Falls‘. On the night of the launch I was given an advanced copy of the new novel which has now just been released. When The Curtain Falls tells the […]
REVIEW: An Officer and a Gentleman (Milton Keynes Theatre) ★★★★
It’s always a risk adapting a popular film into a musical, especially when the soundtrack is so iconic. Sister Act is a classic example of a fantastic film that falls short (in my opinion) in musical form, because the original soundtrack was already perfect. An Officer and a Gentleman on the other hand takes many […]
REVIEW: The Muppets Take The O2 ★★★★★
Describing a gig at the O2 featuring hit singles and a star-studded list of surprise guests implies a Taylor Swift concert; – in reality, it was the Muppets who ‘took the O2’ last night. Written by Kirk Thatcher, Jim Lewis, Andrew Williams and Matthew Barnette, it is a follow-up on the trio performance at the […]
REVIEW: IT HAPPENED IN KEY WEST (Charing Cross Theatre) ★★★
It Happened in Key West tells the story of a man who has spent his life searching for love, only to find it in Elena, who happens to be married and terminally ill. It certainly is a love story, albeit an unusual one. The show opens with the protagonist in a prison cell telling his […]
REVIEW: AS YOU LIKE IT (Open Air Theatre) ★★★★
The first time I saw a professional production of “As You Like It” was as a teenager – the all male Cheek By Jowl production with Adrian Lester as Rosalind and Tom Hollander as Celia no less- it had a great impact on me in the early nineties as an aspiring actress, and this production […]