London Archives - Page 51 of 94

Queenz: The Show With Balls – The Clapham Grand

17Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Queenz: The Show With Balls – The Clapham Grand

Following a very successful run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, ‘Queenz: The Show With Balls’ has strutted into London at the Clapham Grand before heading out on a UK Tour. Advertised as a trailblazing, life affirming drag extravaganza, the production features a cast of five phenomenally gifted, and sequin-clad divas who make up the ultimate ‘drag queen super girl group’. The five are fierce, and they clearly mean business, performing a jam-packed list of hits and the full spectrum of pop classics from across the decades, including The Spice Girls, Lady Gaga, Little Mix, Marilyn Monroe, Beyonce, and Shakira, as well as their own original remixes of show tunes and diva anthems arranged by Alex Turney (Musical Supervisor & Arrangements). The show offers up drag on a big sca...

16Sep

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

The P Word – Bush Theatre

Waleed Akhtar’s new play is sharp as it combines the warmth of friendship with the brutal reality of life as a refugee in the UK. The story follows two gay Pakistani men as we watch their lives unfold in London. Zafar is seeking asylum, fleeing from the danger he would face as a gay man in Pakistan. He attends counselling sessions and lives in a constant state of unrest as he waits to hear about his application. Bilal, who goes by the name Billy, has been brought up in London and as he enters the stage, we are given the lowdown on his Grindr status. The pacing is gentle and gradual as the parallels between their lives are established, assisted by Max Johns’ minimalistic stage design; it is a rotating circle platform split in two. Each character sticks to his own side of the circle, whi...

Antigone – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

15Sep

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Antigone – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre concludes its 90th season with playwright Inua Ellams' fiercely modern adaptation of Sophocles' Ancient Greek tragedy. This fresh version of Antigone explores family, faith, politics and power in 21st century Britain. Jointly directed by Max Webster and Jo Tyabji, the titular character (played by Zainab Hasan) is a British Muslim woman whose family faces a tragedy which tears them apart. Living in a politically divided world where her faith and identity are constantly scrutinised, Antigone rises up and decides to take matters into her own hands. Ellams draws on numerous real-life parallels in his adaptation, from xenophobia, political tensions and questions of religion, the famous heroine re-imagined as a determined young woman who runs a youth cen...

14Sep

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Heathers The Musical – The Other Palace

The wickedly funny, energetic and chaotic Heathers is back in the West End and for its second run at The Other Palace Theatre. Produced by Paul Taylor-Mills and Bill Kenwright, Heathers The Musical made its record-breaking box office debut in 2018 for a limited season. Re-opening in 2021, the show kickstarted the post-pandemic theatre recovery period. A high-school classic, Heathers stars Veronica Sawyer (Erin Caldwell), a girl simply trying to fit-in at high school and make it through to graduation. She joins the infamous Heathers, the school’s lead clique who are beautiful but impossibly cruel. When new rebel, Jason Dean/JD (Nathanael Landskroner) joins Westerberg High, Veronica find herself in a toxic whirlwind romance resulting in lies, deceit and much worse... The show begins w...

14Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Horse-Play – Riverside Studios

“Set in a dark sex dungeon, crime-busting superhero, the Stallion, and his intrepid sidekick, Butterfly, have been lured to the secret lair of their arch-nemesis: the dastardly Villainor…!” This all sounds very exciting and Hollywood-style cinematic, but in reality, this is not a play about superheroes at all, it is instead an incredibly camp, modern, and queer take on the traditional British farce, conceived and written by Ian Hallard. The play features two main characters Tim (David Ames) and Tom (Jake Maskall), a married couple of 10 years, seeking to spice up their sex life with a bit of superhero, spandex cosplay. It features a very handsome male sex worker and a room full of sex toys. Sounds like the perfect night out for our adventure seeking couple, however, when an unfortun...

14Sep

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Doctor Faustus – Southwark Playhouse

The plot of Doctorr Faustus is well trodden in the arts – character thinks s/he is getting everything they’ve ever wanted, turns out the small print doesn’t exactly chime with that. Spoiler alert - your heart’s desire may not be all it’s cracked up to be and/or comes with some undesirable side effects. But Faustus really should have known better – he knows he is quite literally making a deal with the devil and even back in the Elizabethan era should probably have known that might come back to bite him. The stage set up at the Southwark Playhouse (never been, would definitely return – front of house staff charming, drinks reasonably priced, delightfully air-conditioned space) is a little confusing. The setting is very 80s with a dial-up telephone and recording apparatus, yet the backdro...

Distinguished Villa – Finborough Theatre

14Sep

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Distinguished Villa – Finborough Theatre

"Refined" is the word around which Kate O'Brien's 1926 play hinges. Mabel Hemworth is unrelenting in her control of her immaculately cleaned suburban home and her downtrodden husband, Natty. A woman claiming permanent illness and anxiety, frigid and childless, she is constantly on edge and desperate not to attract the negative judgement of the neighbours on their quiet avenue in Brixton. Even her husband's singing along to a record she regards as outrageous due to what she considers to be racy lyrics. She has also ruled over the life of her sister, Gwen, a young woman seeking escape from this situation through marriage to the unremarkable John. Mabel represents the tied-down morals of the Victorian era, with even vague references to "issues of the night" causing her to have a fit of the v...

13Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Yellowman – Orange Tree Theatre

Written by Dael Orlandersmith, this beautifully written two-hander is a masterpiece in storytelling of epic proportions. Whilst incredibly simple in design, the work is also superbly complex and intricate in nature, as Orlandersmith has interwoven duologue, storytelling, and testimony to narrate, in a poetic style, the intricacies of love, hate, bigotry, loss and difference that has haunted the African-American communities for hundreds of years. ‘Yellowman’ tells the story of two childhood friends. Alma and Eugene have grown up together. Alma, a dark-skinned African American girl, with a gin-sodden mother and dreams of a life beyond the confines of their small town. Eugene is lighter skinned, mixed heritage, educated and from a wealthier background. The story is one of raw contrasts, a...

Gabriel Byrne: Walking With Ghosts – Apollo Theatre

13Sep

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Gabriel Byrne: Walking With Ghosts – Apollo Theatre

It would be fair to say that my approach to Gabriel Byrne’s show was cautious and slightly disdainful. Reading from a best-selling memoir is de rigeur for a book launch, but is it really theatre? As someone with three Irish parents (don’t ask), my blood pulses with Celtic pride, but I’m wary of romantic stereotypes, fuelled by sentimental Americans or Irish hustlers looking to make an easy buck. Walking With Ghosts brings Hollywood dazzle to London’s West End, but is this A-list glitter a symptom of celebrity mania, filling theatres with gawping fanatics? Gabriel Byrne has starred in more than 80 feature films and been directed by Ken Loach, David Cronenberg, the Coen Brothers and Wim Wenders. Those creative choices throughout his career suggest a thoughtful artist, rather than a red-c...

13Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Rehab The Musical – Playground Theatre

Inspired by the personal experiences of writers Grant Black and Murray Lachlan Young, ‘Rehab The Musical’ is a brutally open and honest, dark comedy window into the world of addiction, the journey of recovery, and the bravery of the many different characters who check themselves into rehab. Set in 1999, at the dawning of a new millennium, this new musical tells the story of young protagonist Kid Pop (Jonny Labey), a child star and manufactured pop artist, who as they often do, gets caught up in a hedonistic world of alcohol, drugs and parting, and ends up on the front pages of the tabloid press in a compromising situation. Up in court on drugs charges, Kid Pop is sentenced to 60 days in rehab, a punishment which, for Kid Pop anyway, is seen as a walk in the park. However, as articulate...