REVIEW: Katie Piper – What’s In My Head (Duchess Theatre) ★★★★
Katie Piper – What’s In My Head at the Duchess Theatre A glamorous figure walks on to the stage, smiling broadly and waving at the audience, thanking us with genuine appreciation for attending the evening. This is Katie Piper: philanthropist, motivational-speaker, charity-owner, wife, mother – and the survivor of a horrific chemical attack in March […]
REVIEW: HAIRSPRAY (Wycombe Swan) ★★★★
I have always avoided Hairspray the musical. The edgy, hilarious 1988 Jon Walters film was a particular favourite of mine as a teenager and when I heard it had been remade as a musical with John Travolta taking the role made famous by the indescribable Divine, I was horrified. The current touring cast of Hairspray […]
REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL (New Wimbledon Theatre) ★★★
Ever since ‘Jersey Boys’ scored a hit on Broadway (and around the world) in 2005, producers have seen the documentary-style jukebox musical as a surefire path to success. All you need is an artist or group with a great back catalogue, a good creative team and kerr-ching, you’re in the money. From Tina Turner to […]
REVIEW: FROZEN (Broadway Cast Recording)
Back in 2013 a blizzard made its way around the world when a little film called Frozen opened at cinemas and featured the song Let It Go performed by ex Wicked Elphaba Idina Menzel which would go on to become a worldwide hit. So when it was announced that the film would be turned in […]
REVIEW: BROKEN WINGS (Original Concept Album) ★★★★★
I had very low expectations for the Musical Concept Album, Broken Wings. A musical about the life of a Lebanese poet who I had never heard of before? Sounded like a snooze to me on paper and not the kind of thing I’d be interested in but as it had West End performer Nadim Naaman […]
REVIEW: The Tiger Lillies: Devil’s Fairground (Wilton’s Music Hall) ★★★★
The violence and vulnerability of the darkly appealing songs of cult cabaret trio the Tiger Lillies are evocatively set off among the faded glamour of Wilton’s Music Hall. In a two-week residency, the group is performing a mixture of favourites from their long career and their new album Devil’s Fairground. These stories of sordidness and […]
REVIEW: FLEABAG (Curve Leicester) ★★★★
Following the BAFTA award-winning BBC series, DryWrite and Soho Theatre brings the acclaimed stage production of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s cult hit, Fleabag, to Curve Leicester this week. Fleabag is stumbling through her twenties in the Big Smoke. She’s just lost her mum, her sister is anorexic, her best friend and business partner recently killed herself and […]
REVIEW: Crazy for You (New Victoria Theatre) ★★★★
The plot – New York banker Bobby Child is being sent to the outback’s of Deadrock, Nevada to close its rundown and ramshackle theatre but instead finds himself falling in love with local lass Polly – The only girl in town. Child tries to win Polly’s affections by trying to arrange a big musical show […]
REVIEW: A Sockful of Custard (Pleasance Theatre) ★★★
Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was a complex genius driven by a mania forever on the edge of collapsing into darkness. On the centenary of the comedy legend’s birth, this new two-hander by Chris Larner and Jeremy Stockwell follows the same tense line. A Sockful of Custard is an affecting, warm, heartfelt tribute, at times uncomfortable, edgy […]
REVIEW: SOAP (Underbelly festival) ★★★
Sudsy puns abound in the previous round of reviews for SOAP – a bathtub-based cabaret show taking place as part of the Southbank’s Underbelly festival. Apparently it’s already ‘made a splash’ internationally, and it is brought to the capital in its current guise by the German ensemble Base Berlin. The cast is prodigiously talented – […]