REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Lyric Theatre) ★★★
A good piece of theatre should have a grounded narrative, such that it doesn’t rely on supplementary information for an explanation. Skilled actors should be able to convey the narrative, and reveal a new story to an audience. Unfortunately, the anticipated Broadway debut of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child troubled me in this sense. […]
REVIEW: CRAZY FOR YOU (Curve Leicester) ★★
Winding down its lengthy UK tour at Curve this week, Crazy For You is publicised as a “high energy, high kicking and gloriously glamorous” production, but unfortunately it feels like anything but. With music and lyrics penned by the Gershwin brothers, this production stars Tom Chambers as Bobby Child, Claire Sweeney as Irene Roth and […]
REVIEW: MEAN GIRLS (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Based on the 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls has become a modern day cult classic, with fans around the world celebrating ‘Mean Girls Day’ on October 3rd (a famous reference in the film). So when on this day in 2016, it was announced that a Musical adaption of the film was in the […]
REVIEW: The Cabaret Collective – Pizza Express (Live)
This was my first experience of Pizza Express Live in Holborn. The downstairs of the restaurant has been turned into a cabaret venue with about 80 seats, including an eating bar around the small stage. Unfortunately in trying to create a cabaret atmosphere, the lighting is so low it is impossible to read the menu […]
REVIEW: SHREK (New Victoria Theatre) ★★★★
Once upon a time…………. I’m sure most of us have watched the film “Shrek” with Donkey, Princess Fiona and their band of weird and wonderful Fairy Tale Characters, but for those that don’t know the story, it is based around an ‘outcast’ green ogre called Shrek and his ‘noble-steed’ and sidekick ‘Donkey. Reluctant at first […]
REVIEW: INTO THE WOODS (Cockpit Theatre) ★★★
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods is one of the juggernauts of musical theatre. Premiering on Broadway in 1987, it won several Tony Awards including Best Actress in a Musical, Best Score, Best Book and led to Bernadette Peters becoming a household name and musical theatre royalty. Since then the musical has been […]
REVIEW: SOMETHING WONDERFUL – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution
Rodgers and Hammerstein are one of the most well known Musical Theatre composers of the twentieth century having written shows like Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound Of Music, in what was considered the golden age of Musical Theatre. Released in April 2018, Something Wonderful, by Todd S. Purdum takes […]
REVIEW: TARTUFFE (Theatre Royal Haymarket) ★★★
Perhaps the most famous and celebrated of all French plays, Tartuffe swoops into the Theatre Royal Haymarket this summer. A production that hauls the play from the 17th century and deposits it into the modern day, mixing together French and English dialogue, this is a reinvention of Molière’s classic. In the verdant hills of Los […]
REVIEW: TriOperas (Peacock Theatre) ★★★
The world premiere of Pamela Tan-Nicholson’s TriOperas comes to the Peacock Theatre in Holborn. The show is subtitled: ‘Turandot, Butterfly, Carmen Reimagined’. Three operas, each with a woman at the centre of the tale: a Chinese warrior-princess, a Japanese Geisha and a Spanish gypsy girl. Each opera has been compressed into 30 minutes, keeping the […]
REVIEW: THE RINK (Southwark Playhouse) ★★★★★
The tenth musical collaboration by the team behind mega-hits Chicago and Cabaret, The Rink first premiered on Broadway in 1984. Even though this original production starred Broadway royalty Liza Minelli and Chita Rivera supported by a young Jason Alexander and future director/choreographer Rob Marshall, the production received mainly negative reviews. However, in the UK The […]