Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

Piano Matinee: From Classical to Contemporary – St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh

6Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Piano Matinee: From Classical to Contemporary – St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh

Set in Scotland oldest purpose built concert hall, a handsome oval shaped room with an ornate skylight, dating from 1763, Russian-born pianist and composer, Olga Riazantceva-Schwarz, treated us to a varied exciting programme of piano recital. Kicking off with Debussy and Beethoven, played from heart, the award-winning pianist plays with extraordinary virtuosity and delivers a brilliant and moving interpretation of the sonatas. As a special feature, Olga Riazantceva-Schwarz then introduces us to Swiss composer Jean Paul Liardet, which she recently recorded. This concert is part of the album release tour and this is the Scottish Premier. The double-CD album contains a total of six piano sonatas composed by JP Liardet between 1971 and 2020. In halting English, Schwarz explains, L...

Better Days – Just The Tonic at La Belle Angele

5Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Better Days – Just The Tonic at La Belle Angele

A small tired-looking man pushes a brightly coloured piano down the street. A giant with the mean-eyed look of a pro linebacker dressed all in white with enormous fluffy angle wings negotiates his way carefully past a bus stop. It’s raining. Fish and chip from a posh van costs £15 and a small cup of watery cider £8. Yes folks its Fringe time again in Edinburgh. And kicking it off (for me) is this hedonistic fever dream lyric poem of the early nineties. This is Dylan Thomas, meets Trainspotting set in The Hacienda. Where ‘Better Days’ is actually set is a subterranean nightclub in the depths of Edinburgh’s Cowgate, at the slightly odd showtime of 13:30. It’s an interesting venue, maze-like and vast. Note to self to come back at 01.30! Ben Tagoe’s poetic story introduces us to Danny...

The Fleetwood Mac Story – The Space @ Symposium Hall

5Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Fleetwood Mac Story – The Space @ Symposium Hall

This was – A stunning and emotional performance. Welcome to this beautiful little intimate theatre, clean leather seats nicely spaced and on a steep rake, and with a brilliant acoustic, probably the comfiest music venue in all of Edinburgh - and not a bad seat in the house! An expectant and responsive full house attended this first performance and were certainly not disappointed. The standing ovation that ended this show was never in doubt. Hosted by the enormously talented Night Owl Shows duo of Hannah Richard’s and Alex Beharell, performing alongside the brilliant Night Owl Band who gave it their all this afternoon. Only their fifth gig of the day! There is a clever use of different band members to talk about the brief history of the band, which makes you feel really connect...

The Drowsy Chaperone – The Space @ Venue 45

5Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Drowsy Chaperone – The Space @ Venue 45

This is – Way better than you might expect from a school production – a hidden gem. I had to see this. Given that this is one of my all-time favourite musicals, and this is the only Chaperone on the Fringe this year, I had little choice! However, I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer quality of this American schools production, by Charter Oak High School, supported by AHSTF, WorldStrides The show's own history is more recent than you might imagine. It started as a small sketch format comedy in 1998 before emerging as a more starry and elegant Los Angeles production a year later. The buzz stirred up by that production immediately set the wheels in motion for its transfer to Broadway, and the rest as they say is history. We view each scene through the eyes of the narrator (th...

Bring It On: The Musical – Festival Theatre

30Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bring It On: The Musical – Festival Theatre

This was a blast! The Beyond Broadway franchise does it again; bringing together no fewer than 250 tinnies, teenies and young adults to the Festival Theatre stage following an intensive two week, acting, singing and dancing summer school. Can they pull off this huge and extremely challenging and technical show? Of course they can, and then some! Loosely based on the year Y2k American teen comedy motion picture of the same name, Bring It On: The Musical first saw the light of day in January 2011, where it opened to mixed reviews. Put together by such illuminated Tony-winners as writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q), Composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (In The Heights, Hamilton) and composer Tom kit (Next To Normal), this Musical certainly has a rich pedigree – but is not well known, and r...

20Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Haribo Wedding -Traverse Theatre

Established in 2009, Edinburgh’s Strange Town Youth Theatre has developed into something of an institution for theatrical experimentation in the City and is known for pushing the boundaries of what young people are capable of. Tonight is the turn of Thursday 14 – 18 group to strut their stuff, in the third outing of Strange Town in as many days, and it is good to recognise some already familiar faces on stage. The stage is set within the three-sided intimacy of the subterranean Traverse 2. On stage is a tableau of a wedding party, complete with the recognisable bride and groom, best man and bridesmaids, set like statues, or perhaps caught momentarily on camera, fixed in time. But as the lights drop and the action starts it is clear that this is no ordinary wedding, this is a fake ...

17Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Kind Complex – Traverse Theatre

Established in 2009, Edinburgh’s Strange Town Youth Theatre has developed into something of an institution for theatrical experimentation in the City and is known for pushing the boundaries of what young people are capable of. With no less than three separate plays kicking off at the Traverse this week, tonight is the turn for Tuesday night’s 14-18 year olds to show what they could do, and they certainly did not disappoint. The talented acting of this magnificent bunch, I counted twenty, combined with Isla Cowan’s thought-provoking futuristic script and Catherine Ward-Stoddart’s crisp direction, is certainly a very watchable combination. Although there is no choreographer or MD mentioned in the programme, the movement and music selection are excellent throughout, from the straight lines...

16Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Over The Waves – Traverse Theatre

Established in 2009, Edinburgh’s Strange Town Youth Theatre has developed into something of an institution for theatrical experimentation in the City and is known for pushing the boundaries of what young people are capable of. And like all experiments, perhaps not every project works or turns out exactly as planned. There is a feeling, in this hour long show of a great idea which has not been fully realised, and yet should nevertheless be applauded for its vision and its scale and its courage. The stage is set within the steeply banked Traverse 1 with a central great grey monolith carved with lists of faded names, reminiscent of a war memorial. At the front apron of the stage a chalk outline of a body suggests a recent murder. Around the stage buzz five characters questioning each ot...

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

18May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s longest running Musical theatre company, Southern Light Opera shine extra bright for this no-expenses-spared phantasmagorical production of the stage version of the much-loved 1969 MGM musical film. With one of the best special effects, I have ever seen on stage, this is one show you do not want to miss! The original film and subsequent stage adaptation is loosely based on the children’s novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming (better known as the creator of James Bond) from 1964 and adapted for the silver screen by Roald Dahl. The story follows recently widowed inventor Caractacus Potts and his two children and their love of an old ex-champion racing car, threatened with the scrap heap, but brought back to life (and then some!) by Potts. Chitty take...

Strictly Ballroom The Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

11May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Strictly Ballroom The Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

Based on Baz Luhrmann’s Australian 1992 award-winning worldwide film phenomenon, the show adapted for the stage is currently touring the UK and Ireland till July 2023. It lands in Edinburgh with a star-studded cast, including Kevin Clifton of BBCs Strictly Come Dancing fame and Faye Brooks of ITVs Coronation Street and Dancing on Ice, in the lead roles. If you are a fan of Strictly I expect you are going to enjoy this show (whatever I say) for Kevin, for the expert dancing, outrageous and pretty revealing costumes and heaps of glitz and glam. The bright and cheesy glamour of the ladies’ sequin and feather costumes marries up nicely to the intentionally badly made and hideously fitted wigs adorning most of the cast. The wigs take a bit of getting used to but are all part of setting the a...