Paul Wilcox, Author at North West End UK

Merrily We Roll Along – EUSOG @ St Augustine

17Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

Merrily We Roll Along – EUSOG @ St Augustine

At the beginning of 2024 I was as fortunate enough to be in New York to see the Broadway production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ which eventually won 4 Tony awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Now Broadway comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with an excellent student rendition of this poignant commentary on the nature of friendship from EUSOG at Edinburgh University. On its initial run in 1981, ‘Merrily’ closed after just two weeks and was a commercial disaster for Sondheim and co-writer George Furth, critics at the time found the storyline confusing and the characters unsympathetic and audiences agreed. But, as with many Sondheim productions, a reassessment has happened in the intervening four decades and helped by significant changes in subsequent productions, modern audienc...

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads it First – theSpace @ Niddry Street

16Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads it First – theSpace @ Niddry Street

Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland are bringing their award-winning comedy back to Edinburgh this year with a reprise of ‘A Letter to LBJ….’ which is playing to sold-out houses on Niddry St this month. This is the first opportunity for me to witness their Absurdist clowning in the flesh, and I confess I was completely charmed and blown away by this moving take on the idealised 1960s American childhood. Ace and Grasshopper are two young Scouts, covered in mud and badges and on a self-proclaimed mission to see President LBJ’s train as it whistles through their town. Ostensibly this is a simple tale of boyhood, camaraderie and adventure but the setting of the timeframe in early 1960s America foreshadows the boys' later involvement in the Vietnam War and the horrors of Southeast Asia for the...

1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie – theSpace @ Symposium Hall

15Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie – theSpace @ Symposium Hall

‘History is written by the victors’, an aphorism ascribed to many political figures, has never been more apt than in the shaping of the narrative around Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. Now Slade Wolfe Productions give Richard the opportunity to set the record straight in this entertaining and informative hour which will leave you questioning your perception of the ‘Hunchback King’ Andrew Slade is the eponymous King, entering cloaked and crooked backed as in popular conception before subverting expectations to reveal himself as a handsome and erudite nobleman. Over the course of the next hour, Richard proceeds to debunk the mythology created around his reign - chiefly created by the arch Tudor propagandist William Shakespeare - who defamed poor Richard to shore up ...

13Aug

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Scotland

Mr Jones – Greenside, George St

The word ‘Aberfan’ may not mean too much to the world nowadays, but nearly 60 years ago in October 1966, it was the scene of one of the most tragic events in post-war British history. On that day 144 people - 112 of them children - died when a 150,000-tonne coal heap engulfed a school in that small Welsh mining village. Liam Holmes wrote and stars in this superb new piece of writing which avoids polemic political statements around blame and cause, choosing to focus on the effect that the disaster had on two young people intimately associated with the event. Steven Jones (Liam Holmes) and Angharad Price (Mabli Gwynne) are both on the cusp of life beginning, their late teens bursting with unfocused dreams; rugby stardom as fly half in the local team for Steven; escape to the bri...

12Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

Almost Everything – Alba Theatre

The number of people attending a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe is in no way indicative of the quality of the show—after all, there were only 13 people at The Last Supper. There were fewer than 25 in the audience watching ‘Almost Anything’, a modern love triangle. Despite excellent performances from the young cast, the show felt like it tried too hard to be an amalgamation of every young love story written in the last decade. There was no information available on the writer of this new piece, featuring Becca (Lauren Barrie) and Charlie (Ben McGuinness) as students sharing a flat in modern-day London and the complications that follow the arrival of Becca’s sister Emily (Imogen Eden-Brown) to their nascent romance. I would hazard that this piece was written by someone under the a...

After Shakespeare – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

10Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

After Shakespeare – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

An hour-long monologue from Lexi Wolfe giving a 21st-century spin on the motivations for, and reactions to, the fates that Bard wrote them. First up - Henry V (or Prince Hal as he’s known to his drinking friends), clearly suffering from PTSD following the Battle of Azincourt) and haunted by the ghosts of civilians and soldiers he had seen massacred. Then came Hamlet, marooned in Purgatory and still procrastinating whilst pulling apart the piratical plot holes in Shakespeare’s masterpiece, and adding a gay subtext with Laertes for good measure. Portia arrived swiftly to confess her cross-dressing. Balthazar had given her a taste for it, and she carried on after Shylock’s trial. And finally, a sinister Lady Macbeth who confesses her real motivation for Duncan’s death and her subseq...

7Aug

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North West

By Royal Appointment – The Lowry

The month of August in the world of theatre traditionally tends to be quiet, with eyes turned towards Edinburgh and the delights of the Festival and Fringe. It was therefore a surprise to see ‘By Royal Appointment’ drop into my inbox for review this month; a show with a stellar cast; fantastic director and written by a prominent television writer making her first foray into work on the stage. Unfortunately, the combined efforts of such talent merely result in a pedestrian, obvious and lacklustre production which reminded me of the description of the camel as ‘a horse designed by a committee’. Daisy Goodwin is no stranger to writing about the private lives of the Royal family, her ITV series ‘Victoria’ was a huge worldwide success, and she has chosen familiar ground with her first produc...

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – Hope Mill Theatre

16Jul

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – Hope Mill Theatre

As the recent heat wave finally broke in a deluge of Mancunian rain, we dodged the puddles to attend the opening night of ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’, a 1996 musical revue by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts now given a well deserved revival by 1974/Make Your Mark Productions. Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats is a perfect setting for this intimate, funny and sometimes touching exploration of relationships and modern love. ILYYPNC (as I will refer to it to save my word count), is structured as a series of (mostly) musical vignettes, using a cast of just four actors to play the roles of sixty-eight separate characters and exploring the subject of relationships throughout the course of life, from first dates through marriage, children and eventual loss. The writers employ a dizzying...

Through It All Together – Leeds Playhouse

29Jun

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Through It All Together – Leeds Playhouse

In theatrical circles stories from the world of football seem to be very much in vogue at present, already in 2025, I have reviewed “Red or Dead’ at Liverpool Royal Court and the smash UK touring production of ‘Dear England’ in Salford. Completing my personal hat trick is ‘Through It All Together’ a poignant and funny new play from local Leeds writer Chris O’Connor, which explores the subject of dementia through the lens of a family's passion for Leeds United and their manager Marcelo Bielsa. We join the action in the Summer of 2018 with Howard (Reece Dinsdale), Sue (Shobna Gulati) and their daughter Hazel (Natalie Davies) struggling to cope following Howard’s recent diagnosis with Dementia. Howard forgets little things, like where the milk is in the kitchen; he also constantly repeats ...

7Jun

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Wales

Tick, tick… Boom! – Theatr Clwyd

Everything is new at Theatr Clwyd, with a sparkling £50m refurbishment nearing completion and Kate Wasserburg installed as the Artistic Director, on a gorgeous Friday evening in June all feels very positive for the future of the creative industries in this beautiful part of North Wales. As the final touches were completed, the press night audience arrived to the sight of unfinished landscaping and the smell of fresh paint throughout the building, whilst in the auditorium Tick, tick… Boom! provided a joyous paean to the necessity of creativity in life and a cracking start to the new era at Theatr Clwyd. Wasserburg chose wisely with the first show of her tenure, Tick, tick… Boom! is a relatively easy show to mount, with a cast of three and minimal set and props required for its staging. I...