REVIEWS Archives - North West End UK

6Jan

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Jack – Courtyard Theatre

Having celebrated previously successful runs, ‘Jack’ (the musical) arrives in London with a gothic-electro music fusion bringing the vibes of Victorian London crashing into the modern day. This is an intriguing and exciting concept, based around the story of “Jack The Ripper”, and within Sahar Malaika’s storytelling there are moments of genuine promise, but the execution of this production ultimately falls well short of the standard expected on a professional stage. At its core, the ‘Jack’ suffers from a lack of cohesive artistic vision from Co-Directors Rosie Sutton and Sasha Ranawake. Casting choices feel under-baked and poorly considered, with very young performers presented to the world without a clear or consistent aesthetic. Facial jewellery, modern bleached hair highlights, m...

Magic Awareness Society – The Royal Scots Club

1Jan

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Magic Awareness Society – The Royal Scots Club

Set in the exuberant class of The Royal Scots Club, the highly esteemed Magic Awareness Society has gathered to instil the law - magic is banned and has been for decades. In this meeting we are informed on the dangers of magic, the tricks magicians historically used, and the ways in which we could be coerced by them today. Ironically being performed on the final night of the Edinburgh International Magic Festival, it is soon revealed to us that this meeting is a ruse. In fact, this meeting is a resistance - we are here to oppose the ban on magic and once again be filled with wonder. Leading this show is Tim Licata, accompanied by his right-hand man Dan Bastianelli. Both magicians are clearly very well experienced, dedicating a large amount of focus on the perf...

Jamie Leonard, Wonder Boy – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

1Jan

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Jamie Leonard, Wonder Boy – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

As my final show in this year’s Edinburgh Magic Festival, Wonderboy brought energy, charm and an undeniable sense of youthful confidence. Performed at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Jamie arrives fresh from a successful 2025 Edinburgh Fringe run and clearly comfortable in front of an audience. This boy unquestionably knows his way around a stage. There’s a strong theatrical instinct at work here, allied to a rubber-faced expressiveness that plays very effectively to a mixed crowd. At just 17, his confidence is impressive, and he leans into his age with a stream of schoolboy humour and routines that feel knowingly pitched rather than apologetic. It’s a sensible strategy, and one that allows him to sidestep the trap of pretending to be more seasoned than he is. That said, ...

Insane Christmas Magic – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

1Jan

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Insane Christmas Magic – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

There’s always a faint risk with festive spin-offs that the tinsel overwhelms the craft. Happily, Insane Christmas Magic avoids that trap entirely. This is not novelty magic with baubles glued on, it’s proper, high-grade conjuring, lightly dusted with Christmas spirit and delivered by three performers who know exactly what they’re doing. The trio, Cameron Gibson, Elliot Bibby and Luke Osey, are no strangers to Edinburgh audiences. Gibson and Bibby in particular have been round these parts many times before, and it shows. There’s an ease to their stage presence that can’t be faked, relaxed, confident, and quietly assured in a way that instantly settles an audience. No visible nerves, no frantic patter, just a sense that you’re in safe hands. Magically speaking, that’s always a good ...

Tricky Ricky, Jingles All The Way – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

1Jan

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Tricky Ricky, Jingles All The Way – Edinburgh International Magic Festival

There’s a particular challenge to the Christmas morning family show: you’re dealing with excitable children, coffee-deprived adults, and a room that’s already humming before you’ve said a word. Jingles All The Way, Tricky Ricky’s festive offering at the Scottish Storytelling Centre as part of the Edinburgh Magic Festival, meets that challenge with confidence, warmth, and a good understanding of its audience. Ricky pitches his comedy in broadly Shrek-style territory, knowingly silly, fast-moving, and deliberately aimed across the child–adult divide. For the most part, it works. The jokes come thick and fast, the tone is inclusive rather than condescending, and there’s a sense that he’s genuinely comfortable working a mixed-age crowd. That ease is hardly surprising: Ricky has spent many y...

Four Magicians – Edinburgh Storytelling Centre

30Dec

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Four Magicians – Edinburgh Storytelling Centre

Fit like, loons and quines? If floundering in the fog of ‘Betwixmas’ the answer will have been overwhelmingly positive after 80 minutes in the company of this engaging quartet from the north-east. Tricks, illusions and mirages lurked within a pleasant, easy-going evening of chat and mild comedy, the odd well-aimed barb (mostly at a recently de-frocked prince) adding a note or two of spice. Especially amusing in a self-effacing, Corbett-style manner was Jeff Burns, making the most of his diminutive stature. Clearly the audience volunteers are bigger these days, to boot. All are members of or connected with, the Aberdeen Magical Society. Smith & Burns (Jeff Burns & Ivor Smith) are sometimes known as Fifth Dimension and have a track record in dispelling the tedium of business confe...

30Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Secret Room – Lauriston Castle

Perched on the edge of the Firth of Forth, Lauriston Castle is one of those Edinburgh buildings that seems to exist slightly out of time. Parts of the structure date back to the 16th century, though what we see today is largely the result of a late-19th-century transformation, when the castle was remodelled into a richly furnished Edwardian home. Passed to the city in the 1920s, it survives as a carefully preserved domestic time capsule, its rooms dense with objects, stories, and a quietly uncanny sense of lives once very fully lived. I’ve also seen performances here as part of the Edinburgh Horror Festival, and the building proves just as effective for horror as it does for magic, lending both genres an atmosphere that feels earned rather than applied. That quality is central to The Se...

Kevin Quantum ‘Christmas Special’ – Church Hill Theatre

30Dec

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Kevin Quantum ‘Christmas Special’ – Church Hill Theatre

Renowned Edinburgh Magician Kevin Quantum is joined by Taylor Morgan and Rebecca Foyle for an evening of showmanship, finesse, and artistry in Kevin Quantum ‘Christmas Special’ as part of the Edinburgh International Magic Festival. Founded by Svetlana McMahon as well as Quantum, the Edinburgh International Magic Festival has been around since 2010. Now being its fifteenth year running, the festival still continues to bring something fresh and exciting from the world of magic for its audiences. The lineup is certainly star-studded, with Morgan having recently represented Great Britain at this year's Magic World Championships and Foyle impressing with her versatility, using multiple disciplines to complete her act. Of course Quantum himself is a highly regarded magician, ha...

30Dec

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Boys in the Buff – Golden Goose Theatre

The history of nudity on stage is a rich, epic and often hilarious subject. It is also a bit tawdry and sporadically ugly. From the semi-nude stationary women in 1950s Soho clubs, posing in ‘Classical’ tableaux to handfuls of dirty old men, to the “theatrical Viagra” of a naked Nicole Kidman in the Donmar’s production of The Blue Room, bare titillation for cold cash remains a consistent hot potato. Bond hopeful and Happy Valley star, James Norton got naked in the harrowing stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara ’s A Little Life. Despite the play’s relentless themes of suicide, self-harm and paedophilia, audience members sneaked snaps of a nudey Norton and posted them on social media. Live nudity has potential to be fire. This is its undeniable power, and also it’s filthy flaw. The na...

22Dec

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

The Highgate Vampire – Omnibus Theatre

Based loosely on real events, The Highgate Vampire is a dark comedy play which follows the occurrences surrounding reported supernatural sightings near Highgate Cemetery in the late 1960s. Alexander Knott plays a Mark-from-Peep-Show-esque, self-serious, uptight Catholic priest/exorcist. James Demaine contrasts as a flamboyant psychic investigator with a flair for the dramatic. Together, they deliver a lecture on how they supposedly defeated the Highgate Vampire, although with the psychic investigator’s showy influence the lecture ends up more like a theatrical play, replete with props, costumes, and lighting effects. Even as the characters butt heads, there is good chemistry between the performers, both comedically and in the more tender and sincere moments. Knott makes for an excellent...