Peter Kinnock, Author at North West End UK

14Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Les Misérables – Birmingham Hippodrome

Theatre critics can sometimes be very useful. Take Sheridan Morley, for instance, who, in the mid eighties, was almost the only voice amidst a tsunami of naysayers to have something nice to say about Les Misérables. Nearly every other critic slammed it with lines like "a witless and synthetic entertainment”. The show proved them wrong and continues to prove them wrong and at 38 years it is undoubtedly one of the most successful theatrical achievements in world history. I hadn’t seen the show since 1986 but it has been with me ever since so reuniting with it last night at the Birmingham Hippodrome was like meeting a long lost friend and a long lost friend who looks and sounds a lot brighter and vibrant than the passing years would suggest. It really is a stunning price of work. The plot tri...

3Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Cher Show – Birmingham Hippodrome

35 smash hits - one pop goddess screams the strap-line for “The Cher Show” and, I think, they may well be right. Cher is an iconic goddess descending from pop heaven to regenerate herself both artistically and physiologically many times over her astounding life on earth. She may not be able to claim to be an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) but she has accumulated an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar - you can work out the acronym yourself. From stepping into producer Phil Spector’s office in 1962 and saying “Hi” to stepping off the Abbacopter in 2018 and saying, “Mes enfants, je suis arrive!” it has been a rollercoaster career in all manner of media from film to TV to music to stage. A career many may think too implausible to capture in a simple stage musical. Well, they’d be wrong… Not one, n...

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – The Alexandra, Birmingham

20Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – The Alexandra, Birmingham

Across the eons of time the bleep-bleep-bleep morse code theme tune familiar to millions of viewers from those old three channel TV days comes wafting into the very hot and sticky auditorium of the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham taking every single audience member back to their childhood. “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” was an iconic show set in the heart of middle-England sit-com land which not only gave television a number of breathtaking stunts, but a number of producers a number of headaches and any number of impressionists a regular income impersonating its star. No impressionist of the 70’s was worth their show biz salt without donning a beret and saying in a slightly camp way, “Oh, Betty!” Anyone could do and everyone did. It was a show which seared itself into our s and the theme tune ...

30Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Waitress – Wolverhampton Grand

As far as I can see, Waitress has been a huge success internationally with various runs on Broadway, West End and around the world and it was undoubtedly loved by the audience last night who greeted it like an old friend, laughing and cheering in equal measure at appropriate moments. Everyone seemed very familiar with the piece - apart from me. Nope. Never seen it, never heard of it. Didn’t recognise a single tune. This is no bad thing when accessing a new piece, but I did have an unsettling feeling of missing out. All the pieces fitted together - great performances, great music, great production, but beyond the clear professionalism of all concerned it didn’t quite touch me. I was, however, in a minority. Based on Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 movie of the same name it has now evolved, seemin...

Singin’ In The Rain – Birmingham Hippodrome

8Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Singin’ In The Rain – Birmingham Hippodrome

This famous water-logged Hollywood icon splish, splash and sploshed its way into the Birmingham Hippodrome last night dripping with joy, fun and a fountain of hummable, singable and danceable numbers which have woven themselves into our consciousness over the last 70 years. “Singin the Rain” burst onto the big screen in 1952 with the iridescent Gene Kelly, the avuncular Donald O’Connor and the endearing Debbie Reynolds a trio of triple threats whose unique talents Jonathan Church’s production comes very close to emulating, but all three are very hard acts to follow. Sam Lips and Charlotte Gooch, make fine attempts at the leading roles of Don Lockwood and Charlotte Gooch, with great comic support from Ross McLaren as Cosmo who bashes himself into a comic maelstrom during “Make ‘em Laugh” an...

5May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Mamma Mia – Birmingham Hippodrome

Stephen Fry once compared ABBA to a bottle of coke. It wasn’t because their bubbling pop music was sweet and saccharine. It was because the original glass bottle was so well designed - becoming a design classic - it could withstand a hundred times more pressure from its contents than it needed to. A case of over-design. Just like ABBA. Their work is so well designed, so perfectly engineered and far, far better made than it ever needs to be - that they too have become classics. If Benny and Bjorn had created songs half as good they would still be some of the most outstanding pop music in the world. And “Mamma Mia”, that staggeringly successful stage show, stands testimony to the words and music of those talented Swedes and their well-designed pop classics. The auditorium of the Birmingha...

Akram Khan’s Jungle Book Reimagined – Birmingham Hippodrome

1May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Akram Khan’s Jungle Book Reimagined – Birmingham Hippodrome

Beyond reclaiming a colonial text, character names and a pun on the words “urban jungle” there is little to connect “Akram Khan’s Jungle Book - Reimagined” with “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. It is very inventive, though, but with a kind of invention usually the preserve of student shows and the fringe. Card boxes, which were plentiful, were gainfully employed in various roles and made for an intriguing Kaa, but my heart sank when I saw yet another company wafting a large sheet on stage to portray the sea. It had great intentions. It was a noble attempt to use the original story as a metaphor for the present ecological crisis and if you don’t clock that then Great Thunberg’s voice will undoubtedly confirm its credentials for you. The scant and surprisingly spartan set was supplem...

25Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Madam Butterfly – Birmingham Hippodrome

With all the characteristic style and élan we usually associate with Welsh National Opera, “Madam Butterfly” wafted decorously and gracefully into the Birmingham Hippodrome last night, alighted with panache and, once her work was done, flitted off on the thermal undercurrents of a warm and adoring audience and was seen no more. It was a delight. A crowded, expectant and semi-masked audience sat entranced as the tale unfurled of Captain Pinkerton’s child-bride, Madam Butterfly who, after providing him with a home life and a child, is deceived and betrayed by her thoughtless husband and commits the act which all deceived and betrayed wives seem to commit in opera, but I’ll not inflict a plot-spoiler so early in proceedings suffice to say the denouement arrives inevitably but shockingly an...

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Birmingham Hippodrome

7Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Birmingham Hippodrome

If you have an idle moment, Google Mike Holloway. Like Doctor Who, you always remember your first Joseph. He was mine. Pre-Covid, pre-Millenium, pre-pretty much everything, Mike Holloway was the Joseph of the eighties. He was preceded by Jess Conrad who is now in his eighties. On and off I’ve been watching Joseph since 1985 and the show forever proves itself joyous, wholesome and nice. Very, very nice. Starting as a short oratorio for school kids way back in the late sixties, it evolved and grew into a neat and hugely popular stage production from Bill Kenwright (starring the aforementioned JC). Then Andrew Lloyd Webber took it back and mounted an extraordinary production at the London Palladium with Jason Donovan in the title role and now Donovan once more dons Egyptian garb and finds him...

Dreamboats and Petticoats – The Alexandra, Birmingham

22Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Dreamboats and Petticoats – The Alexandra, Birmingham

“Petticoats and Dreamcoats’” first incarnation arrived in theatres over eleven years ago and happily and squarely hit their target demographic straight in the bulls’ eye. It was preppy and fun and joyous and brought back many memories for those who lived through the years portrayed. This latest re-incarnation is ten years on as is its target audience and perhaps a little less eager to jump to its feet. This is a show holding great memories for those who were there - particularly Butlins’ and a youth club - but holding little else for the rest of us. The plot is scant and characters merely cyphers - but what holds it together is the music and, though the choices are not the most memorable of the period, there are a few great tunes to bop to. If you can still bop. “Lipstick on Your Collar...