Carole Gordon, Author at North West End UK

22Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Alice in Wonderland – Riverside Studios

Neon-bright, fast-paced and generally faithful to Lewis Carroll's original, Penny Farrow's version of Alice in Wonderland is a joy. It's somehow simultaneously fresh and modern while remaining a classic. There are very convincing puppets for some of the characters (think Avenue Q meets the Muppets) but director Nate Bertone has not been tempted to shoehorn in any of the current theatrical gimmicks like digital screens and steadicams to distract from the action. All the favourite characters of this beloved tale show up, portrayed by a terrifically talented ensemble who give it their all and then some, with on-point comic timing. Bored Alice is feisty, curious and played with the perfect degree of sweetness by Ailsa Erskine. When she chases Clare Brice's energetic ...

12Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Shanay Holmes in Concert – Cadogan Hall

Shanay Holmes' first solo concert proved to be a considerable success, her powerful voice presenting a repertoire of well-known musical theatre classics and the songs that have formed part of her own theatrical story. From Oliver! which garnered her the Best Female Lead award in a Musical at the Black British Theatre Awards, to Rent, Annie, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Miss Saigon and Sweeney Todd, Holmes' clear soprano created an entertaining evening. She hasn't appeared in all these shows, but has chosen songs which she loves and been moved by, as well as those she's performed. And mostly these are great choices which perfectly match her impressive range. Initially slightly nervous, she quickly settled into the roles and the emotional characters in the songs, interspe...

Hot Mess: A New Musical – The Other Palace Theatre

2Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Hot Mess: A New Musical – The Other Palace Theatre

Young, blue-green and beautiful Earth is desperately looking for her one true love. The newly evolved single-celled organisms don't do anything for her and T-Rex meets an untimely end before the relationship can even take off. It's a few billion years of waiting impatiently, then Humanity turns up and sweeps her off her feet. Their relationship starts sweet before becoming passionate, fiery and chaotic. Humanity is ambitious, sees potential in what Earth has to offer him and throws himself into discovering fire, inventing the wheel, and then finding Earth's deepest treasures to exploit. Earth warns him of the dangers of exploiting her resources, but the downwards spiral into a hot mess of a break-up is inevitable. Will Earth and Humanity endure, either together or separately or are they he...

25Jun

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Monarchs Anonymous – The Other Palace

"We live in our own timeline and are judged by the next" What happens when a group of royals, transported from various periods of history, join a therapy session and talk about their feelings? The massive egos of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, Charles II, Sophia Duleep Singh and Mansa Musa inevitably clash, resulting in jousting matches and fist fights. They reluctantly do the therapist's exercises, all trying to outdo one another. When the existence of the Monarchs' Anonymous sessions are leaked to the press, the group find themselves having to put their egos to one side to work together, revealing some deep truths and traumas of their lives in the process. On its surface, Monarchs' Anonymous, written by Nadia Devereux, Joshua Poole and Lyon Devereux, is a jolly surreal r...

12May

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Company – Bridewell Theatre

Stephen Sondheim's Company won six Tony Awards for its original 1970 US production. Its witty and innovative format of a series of vignettes, focusing on the central character Bobby, stunned audiences then and continues to delight with a message that's as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. It's Bobby's 35th birthday and he's reluctantly at a surprise party thrown by his friends. Surrounded by married and single friends, ex- and current girlfriends, Bobby witnesses the swirl of emotions, the joy and the heartbreak of being in relationships of all types. As the drink, weed and emotions flow, Bobby's married friends set him up with dates and try to persuade him that he needs to be married. But Bobby isn't wholly wedded to the idea of commitment, and it seems his married friends are ...

Should I Still Be Doing This? – Soho Theatre

26Apr

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Should I Still Be Doing This? – Soho Theatre

Susan Harrison's parade of weird and wonderful characters was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's not hard to see why. This hilarious mixture of stand-up, improv and character comedy is sharp, original, and best of all, funny. Depressed Sindy is a particularly brilliant and original skit, as the doll looks back on her life of always being negatively compared to her more successful American counterpart, Barbie. Angry panda from Chester Zoo makes cogent observations of how people view zoo animals and intrude on their private moments. Over-the-top “influencer” Fleur is recognisably cringe-worthy. Harrison also takes a deep dive into the surreal with her girl stuck in a well inside a woman - a bizarre alter-ego but strangely believable which even draws the...

30Mar

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Old Ladies – Finborough Theatre

Rodney Ackland's The Old Ladies is set in an unnamed English cathedral city in 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression. As with many people at that time, the three old ladies in this piece find themselves in difficult circumstances with dwindling savings. May Beringer (Catherine Cusack), Lucy Amorest (Julia Watson) and Agatha Payne (Abigail Thaw) are living in separate rooms in a dingy house, finding what little pleasure they can in a limited and uneventful life. These are three women who in any other circumstances would likely never have crossed paths and now have only an uneasy relationship of necessity. When the potential for an infusion of a substantial amount of money unexpectedly enters the picture, greed takes over, provoking a degree of malice that can only end in tragedy....

4Feb

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Boxes – Soho Theatre

The titular boxes of Shona Bukola Babayemi's one-woman play chart the character's life from child to adult, the boxes holding Christmas presents and keepsakes, reminders of a life past and present. Referenced only as "biological guardians", her parents may have initially tried to provide a secure, if poor, family setting but this all disintegrates as she moves from the UK to the US and back to the East End of London. Relationships and friendships come and go; she finds herself homeless and sofa surfing and ends up living in a basic hostel and working a nightshift in a soul-less warehouse. Throughout her difficult life, she somehow stays positive, never giving up and occasionally finding fleeting friendship and help from strangers who show her kindness. All the while, the bits and pie...

Guess How Much I Love You? – Royal Court Theatre

24Jan

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Guess How Much I Love You? – Royal Court Theatre

As a young couple wait in a hospital room for the results of a 20-week pregnancy scan, they chat happily, the possibility of a wonderful future stretching in front of them. Baby names are discussed and discarded, dreams of happy family holidays shared. This picture-book future comes crashing down as the results of the scan send their world into torment. They have to make a decision that clashes with their upbringing and societal pressures. The decision feels like a no-win situation, only arising because of advances in medical science that check regularly on the development of the pregnancy in a way that wasn't possible years ago. But they do choose, then have to live with the impact of what they have decided. Luke Norris's drama follows the couple from their initial joy to the depths of...

The Christmas Thing – Seven Dials Playhouse

4Dec

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Christmas Thing – Seven Dials Playhouse

Tom Clarkson and Owen Visser have returned with their anarchic Christmas show, The Christmas Thing. The vague title is perfect for a show that veers wildly between songs, slapstick, games and skits. It harks back to the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials of the 1970s, with music, sketches, slapstick, cracker jokes and a bit of topical satire thrown in - if that legendary duo had been high on magic mushrooms. The set-up is a live TV studio, with members of the audience offering up their party pieces as they become the show's "special guests". So in between songs and sketches, audience members gargle the National Anthem or do the splits or hunt for a missing box of Christmas cheer. The frenzied pace is interspersed with some whizzy and technically clever video pieces introducing ...