Samantha Collett, Author at North West End UK

27Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Guys & Dolls – Frinton Summer Theatre

The arrival of the big blue tent on Frinton Greensward can only mean one thing: it’s the finale of the Frinton Summer Theatre season! No big top by the beach would be complete without a West End musical and this year it’s ‘Guys & Dolls’. Set within the colourful and gritty New York gambling scene of the 1940s, this show is about the hustlers, the showgirls, the bid for salvation and love – in all its incarnations and complications. Nathan Detroit (Fabian Soto Pacheco) is a gambling man. He’s broke and in need of a place to host his craps game (a dice game where players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice), but Lieutenant Brannigan (Barry O’Reilly) is hot on his tail. Also, his doll Miss Adelaide (Josephina Ortiz Lewis) is getting angsty after a 14-year engagement...

20Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Duet For One – Frinton Summer Theatre

Watching a play about someone struggling with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is not the first thing you think of when you go to the theatre, but then this is the beauty of the medium: at times, it is challenging. I’m sure most people would agree MS is a terrifying illness. There is, as yet, no known cure for this chronic autoimmune disease which affects the central nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord. In ‘Duet for One’ we watch as Stephanie Abrahams (Coco Azoitei) struggles to come to terms with her diagnosis. Her MS symptoms mean her illustrious career as a concert violinist have been cut short in her early 40s, and now she must try and find new meaning in her life. Dr Alfred Feldmann (Alan Cox) is the psychiatrist who has taken on this unenviable role. You w...

13Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Two Into One – Frinton Summer Theatre

There’s nothing like a silly scrape to raise a smile, and Ray Cooney’s ‘Two Into One’ farce, is Frinton Summer Theatre’s latest offering to spread laughter this season. The premise of the story is quite simple: Richard Willey (Harry Ludlow) an MP wants to have a secret liaison with the Prime Minister’s secretary, Jennifer Bristow (Phoebe Shepherd). Of course, this being a farce, it means a much more complicated arrangement (they’re both married) and involves an array of characters (including their spouses!) telling half-truths and a whole catalogue of misunderstandings and misdemeanours. As you would expect with a classic farce, there’s a lot of door action (opening, closing, slamming and the like). And Juliette Demoulin has cleverly thought out the set design for maximum aesthetic a...

Present Laughter – Frinton Summer Theatre

6Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Present Laughter – Frinton Summer Theatre

Life can be impossibly challenging, especially when one is a celebrity. With adoring fans who know no boundaries, and friends and staff who make up their own, life is never dull. Welcome to the chaotic comedic world of Garry Essendine, an actor at the top of his game – who everyone wants a piece of! ‘Present Laughter’ by Noel Coward is a masterpiece in scripts that have stood the test of time. First staged in 1942, this production is as charming as it is action-paced and witty. Set in the week before Garry (Nicholas Murchie) is off on tour in Africa, his world collides into what can only be described as a farcical, very funny mess. The number of people, plots, subterfugical shenanigans and ironic intrigues is genius, but then this is a play celebrating Coward’s sparkling wit. W...

30Jul

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

God of Carnage – Frinton Summer Theatre

We probably all know how thin the veneer of civility is, but when you put two sets of parents together to work out what to do about a child’s wayward behaviour, the gloves really come off. In Yasmina Rema’s award-winning ‘God of Carnage’ – which has been a commercial triumph in both the West End and Broadway, this is really tested to the limits. If you’ve ever watched ‘White Lotus’ (or a programme of such ilk), you’ll understand the concept: all characters are awful, and you hate everyone. However, the point of enduring such unpleasant characters, is that they can be toyed with and held up to satire and mocking for their views and ways of being. The story is this: 11-year-old Ferdinand has knocked out 11-year-old Bruno’s two front teeth in a fight at a posh school in France. T...

Calendar Girls the Musical – Frinton Summer Theatre

23Jul

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

REVIEWS

Calendar Girls the Musical – Frinton Summer Theatre

I never expected to cry at ‘Calendar Girls the Musical’, but 20 minutes in and I had tears rolling down my cheeks. Such was the emotional poignancy of the story that prompts the Women’s Institute (WI) to make a nude calendar to raise funds. You may have seen the 2003 hit film, but this stage show by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, and directed by Emily Raymond, is a complete step above when it comes to pulling on the heart strings. The story is: Annie’s husband John gets sick and dies of cancer. Her fellow members of the North Yorkshire WI try best to support her, but her grief is raw. In a bid to do something positive in John’s memory, Annie comes up with the idea of raising funds for a settee for relatives at the hospital: a nude WI calendar in typically WI poses (think plum jam and bun...

16Jul

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

REVIEWS

Educating Rita – Frinton Summer Theatre

It’s a tale as old as love itself – older man falls for younger woman’s charms, but ‘Educating Rita’ is about so much more. Rita (Hannah Traylen) is a hairdresser, with what her working folk would call ‘ideas above her station’. She enrols on an open university course in English literature because she wants to expand her mind and see the world differently. Her tutor, Frank (Jonathan Clarkson), is a failed poet and disillusioned drunk. The scene is therefore set for the tensions to erupt and the hearts to unfold – which they do. Two-hander plays are notoriously difficult to pull off (and still keep the audience entertained), but the casting of this duo is stellar. Hannah is an absolute firecracker of a performer and Jonathan does a good job at dowdy, with occasional sparks of l...

11Dec

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Barbican

In the last four hundred-odd years, since Shakespeare first wrote ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, there have been a myriad of incarnations and reincarnations. Every age injects the words with meaning pertinent to the day. Cue the Royal Shakespeare Company’s director Eleanor Rhode, who brings to the stage possibly the deepest, funniest, most immersive, inventive, creative and multi-layered version of the play, yet. The story is in brief: a comedy chemical romance. Hermia is refusing to marry Demetrius because she is in love with Lysander. If she disobeys her father’s wishes, she will either be put to death or live as a single woman in a nunnery for the rest of her life. Hermia chooses option C - to run away with Lysander so they can escape the rule of Athenian law and be together. Ala...

Come Alive! – Empress Museum, Earl’s Court

17Oct

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Come Alive! – Empress Museum, Earl’s Court

As a fan of ‘The Greatest Showman’ I was excited to see ‘Come Alive!’ Simon Hammerstein’s new creation to the world: circus meets musical theatre. ‘Come Alive!’ literally explodes in a blaze of riotous colour, big vocals and circus acts from the opening beat. It is a gorgeous assault to the senses and not one for those looking for a quiet night out. The acts in the 700-seater Big Top are daring and jaw dropping. With everything from acrobatic performers defying logic with their stunts in the sky, to chewing gum torso bodies twisting and tumbling across the stage to fire eating, tight-rope walking and so much more. This is a celebration of fun and madness. From the outset, the hit songs (‘This Is Me’, ‘Rewrite the Stars’, ‘A Million Dreams’) are in abundance and the soundtrack carr...

The Lehman Trilogy – Gillian Lynne Theatre

11Oct

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

The Lehman Trilogy – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Many people only know of the Lehman Brothers name on account of their failure. The Great Financial Crash of 2008 sent economic shockwaves through the world. Why then, one may ask, would anyone want to watch a three hour play about banking? The answer: it is possibly the most epic outstanding production you will ever see, and it is about so much more than banking. The stage is a rotating glass box. The backdrop is a digital screen. There are three actors. One pianist. Several cardboard boxes. On paper it shouldn’t work, but it is the magnificence of every key element and the outstanding direction by Sam Mendes which elevates this production to something you rarely witness in the West End. The story starts with Henry Lehman (Leighton Pugh), a Jew, making his way across the sea from Bav...