London Archives - Page 18 of 149

Maiden Voyage – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

29Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Maiden Voyage – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Maiden Voyage, a new musical with book and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Carmel Dean, tells the story of the 1989-1990 Round the World Whitbread Race Maiden crew, an all-female sailing team that broke barriers in competitive sailing and made history in the worldwide race. The scope of this story is pretty narrow despite the globality of its setting, and the writers choose to focus almost exclusively on Tracy (Chelsea Halfpenny), the crew’s young skipper and navigator. Tracy builds the team up from her personal and professional circle into a solid chorus for her sea ballads. Halfpenny is an able performer and is well supported by the surrounding cast, but she is not particularly well served by the story itself, which doesn’t go very far in exploring its characters’ emotional dep...

Extraordinary Women – Jermyn Street Theatre

26Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Extraordinary Women – Jermyn Street Theatre

In post-First World War Italy, a multi-national group of women are enjoying a bohemian lifestyle on the fictional island of Sirene off the coast of Naples, with new-found freedoms and relationships. The island's calm is maintained by a group of four sirens who watch over the island and its inhabitants. It's an idyllic set-up, until the arrival of the penniless Rosalba upends the island's serenity. Flirting with everyone, manipulating relationships, and enjoying creating chaos and mayhem, she causes distress and jealousy to her lover Aurora, who has sunk her money into buying a villa as their intended home. Friendships and relationships are formed and shattered as Rosalba romps through the group like a human Vesuvius, egotistically declaring how extraordinary she is. Every...

The Daughter of Time – Charing Cross Theatre

26Jul

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Daughter of Time – Charing Cross Theatre

It must be the ultimate cold case: the investigation of the reputation of Richard the Third and his involvement in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. This is the task which Inspector Alan Grant sets himself when he is laid up in bed convalescing from an injury in M Kilburg Reedy's new play, based on the renowned book by Josephine Tey. The setting is Grant’s rather spacious hospital room, where nurses are encouraging their reluctant patient to undertake the necessary exercises to ensure his full recovery. His interest in King Richard is stimulated by a portrait provided to him by a friend. Using his police skills and assistance from a number of friends and acquaintances, he obtains as many contemporary accounts as he can to try and uncover the truth behind the life of Ric...

25Jul

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

101 Dalmatians – Eventim Apollo

A well-known Disney classic retold in musical form, showing at the Hammersmith Apollo. This big production has spared no expense in its flashy lights, big stage and a few well-known faces. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hit you quite the same way as it may have in your childhood. This retelling is scatty, nonsensical and just basic. Photo: Johan Persson We begin with meeting Pongo, one of our central characters and told through puppetry. The stage is mostly filled with beautifully designed puppets, moving very effectively and breathes so much life into this story. Eventually met with Purdy before birthing 15 adorable puppies. After this, the story goes a little bit diagonally- Cruella played by Sydnie Christmas, a fashion idol is looking for her big hit for London’s fashion week and has h...

25Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

For the Lack of Laura – Shaw Theatre

I have medals in Irish dancing. My Dún Laoghaire-born father busks in Borough Market with a fiddle, and my youngest sister plays jigs on a penny whistle, so one might say the Emerald Isle is in my blood. This cultural heritage led me like a lilting leprechaun to a musical by Kurt Rosenberg called For the Lack of Laura. It’s billed as, ‘a new Irish fantasy romance musical with Celtic and classic musical theatre-inspired songs. That’s a lot to live up to and a risky mixed grill to say the least. Thankfully, this project is in highly skilled hands. Over 26 songs, using a 12-person cast and a couple of hours, the show conjures up a charming and often dazzling dose of entertainment. Kurt Rosenberg is a multi-award-winning composer, lyricist, filmmaker, and theatre creative who hails fro...

24Jul

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Echo – King’s Head Theatre

I’d never been to the King’s Head Theatre before, which is criminal considering its proximity to where I’ve lived for the majority of my life. It prides itself, and rightly so, on being the longest running theatre pub in London, having been established in 1970 and recently moving to a new home, just around the corner. It’s a fantastic space with friendly, welcoming staff, and the perfect setting for an intimate and atmospheric production. And so does Suan Eve Haar’s Echo (previously titled Saugerties and performed as a one act titled Paper Dolls) begin, with Jen and Roge celebrating their tenth anniversary in a quirky B&B. Their exchange is heated and at times somewhat confusing – emotions are constantly at 11 out of 10 and the two swing between love and hate at an alarming rate. Th...

The Winter’s Tale – Royal Shakespeare Company

23Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Winter’s Tale – Royal Shakespeare Company

Yes yes yes yes yes yes! This is the type of production that makes you doubt the play has ever been better performed in the 400 years since it was written. A text often relegated to reluctant decennial repetition by repertory Shakespeare theatres, this “problem play”—only partially redeemed and abashedly esteemed for its “strong female characters”—is here staged so boldly that it not only asks but demands audiences to answer: what actually is so problematic about female strength? Why are men made so uncomfortable by powerful women? And what on earth are women supposed to do with that dangerous discomfort? Directed by Yaël Farber and dripping with the seductive intrepidity that coats her directorial tongue, this production is unmissable and unmistakable. It is contemporary not in the sen...

23Jul

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

By Royal Appointment – Richmond Theatre

The late Queen’s view on almost all topics is famously unknown. She rarely made public statements or gave interviews, and all her speeches were carefully drafted. On the other hand, she was also the most photographed woman in the world. So, exploring the use of her outfits as a way expressing her views upon the world and its events is an interesting idea, which lies behind Daisy Goodwin's new play at the Richmond theatre, part of a UK tour. The play starts and ends immediately after the Queen's funeral and in between is a series of vignettes of periods in her life, starting in 1969 and proceeding chronologically until her death 53 years later. The setting is the sumptuous interior of a royal residence, we are never quite sure which, with long drapes in glorious colours, a few well-chose...

Alice in Wonderland – Marylebone Theatre

22Jul

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Alice in Wonderland – Marylebone Theatre

This new adaptation of the classic novel by Lewis Carroll (and a couple of his other works) is described as an attempt to reimagine the story as “a vivid, immersive dreams cape bursting with colour, shape, and play.” Writer Penny Farrow and director/designer Nate Bertone have developed a charming and chaotic story that intrigues from the moment you see the set of playing cards, mushrooms, and unusual shapes. Alice (Charlotte Bradley) finds herself in a mad world populated by talking animals and a larger than life Queen of Hearts (Daniel Page with his best and most scary pout on). Her changing size is conveyed by the switch of ever-growing drink bottles, and her encounters with the familiar characters crackle with contemporary jokes and impersonations to amuse adults while entertainin...

19Jul

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Don’t Rock the Boat – The Mill Sonning

The Mill at Sonning is an 1800 circa flour mill converted into a professional theatre and restaurant. Located on an island in the River Thames at Sonning Eye. The environment offers guests dinner and theatre and a welcoming greeting by the Director of Don’t Rock the Boat, Sally Hughes. Sally Hughes decided to keep Don’t Rock the Boat this 1990’s play to its original prose billed as a comedy but beneath the surface “there are some sharp and family themes” that unfold throughout. This play features two quite different families, the perfect and the chaotic who spend a weekend together on ‘The Bunty’, a barge situated on the River Thames. Everything is not quite how it seems, as the families grapple with ideologies of morality, bribery and political differences. Thes two seeming...