REVIEWS Archives - Page 13 of 596

29May

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Once – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Marking Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s 75th anniversary and the inaugural season of new Artistic Director, Alan Cumming, Once, the hit West End and Broadway musical, has its Scottish premiere. Bringing back the original team, including designer, Bow Crowley, and director, John Tiffany, this production is very exciting to have opening the theatre programme and start a new chapter for Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Once follows Guy, a Dublin-based musician used to playing in bars who dreams of success but is ready to abandon his hope and give up. He meets Girl, a Czech immigrant, who attempts to bring back his hope and inspires him to keep going. The pair meet a group of quirky individuals, coming together to create an album filled with Guy’s original music. From the outset of this producti...

29May

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Black Comedy– Orange Tree Theatre

Aspiring sculptor, social climber, and cad Brindsley Miller is supposed to be hosting both his fiancé’s well-to-do father as well as a famed art collector in his unimpressive flat, when a blown fuse plunges the entire building into darkness. What follows is a hilarious cavalcade of slapstick gags and farcical set pieces, as Miller attempts to spin more and more plates and stay on top of an ever-growing web of lies in order to keep his many transgressions from coming to light. Unlike Miller’s evening, this revival of Peter Shaffer’s farce is an absolute success. While the characters are in darkness, the audience gets a clear view of everything, thanks to Elliot Griggs’s simple-yet-effective lighting design (and a lighting desk operator with split-second-perfect timing). While the charact...

Beetlejuice The Musical – Prince Edward Theatre

29May

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Beetlejuice The Musical – Prince Edward Theatre

Based on Tim Burton’s iconic film of 1988, Beetlejuice bursts onto the West End in musical form with an all-star cast and presents a unique and thrilling piece of theatre. This eagerly awaited stage adaptation has been highly anticipated since its US debut in 2018 and does not disappoint. This is the story of Beetlejuice, the title character: a pale-faced ghoul dressed head to toe in a black-and-white suit, complete with outrageous green hair, trapped between the real world and the afterlife, affectionately known as “The Netherworld”. Beetlejuice has one goal: to be seen and no longer feel invisible. His plan to achieve that involves killing a seemingly ordinary couple and haunting the new occupants of their home. However, it is not until he meets Lydia, the daughter now living in the h...

2:22 A Ghost Story – Edinburgh Playhouse

27May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

2:22 A Ghost Story – Edinburgh Playhouse

The touring production of 2:22 A Ghost Story arrives at the Edinburgh Playhouse carrying a formidable reputation. Danny Robins’ supernatural thriller has already conquered the West End, toured internationally and become one of those modern stage phenomena where audiences arrive already primed, whispering theories before the lights even dim. The premise remains brilliantly simple, a dinner party with four friends descends into a late night argument about belief, scepticism and whatever may or may not arrive each night at precisely 2:22am. What elevates the evening beyond a standard jump scare ghost story is Robins himself. Already well known as the creator of the hugely successful BBC Sounds podcast series Uncanny, Robins has become something of Britain’s modern campfire s...

The Rapping Princess – Polka Theatre Wimbledon

27May

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

The Rapping Princess – Polka Theatre Wimbledon

This beautifully crafted adaptation of the book The Rapping Princess by Hannah Lees and Allen Fatimaharans’ tells the story of “Shiloh, a princess with a big love for music. But she’s got one problem, she cannot sing”. Through her dismay and her parents’ disappointment Shiloh embarks on a journey of discovery to only find that she has another hidden talent that not even she expected. With a cast of two performers, they take you on a journey of song through the genres, beat box and rap. Anu Akinseye (once on this Island, Into the woods) plays Shiloh she is joined by Grace Venus (Stalled, Sleeping Beauty) as the Queendom Storyteller, who also voices the King, the Queen, Doctor Grump, DJ Princess Kenya, and various princes. This play incorporates purposeful interaction to encourage the...

26May

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Mean Girls – Hull New Theatre

On what is being called “the hottest May Day ever”, it was a relief to enter the relative coolness of the Hull New Theatre, on Monday night. The Mean Girls were in town and I was curious to know if this stage version would live up to both the original 2004 movie, starring Lindsey Lohan, and the 2024 remake. Notes in the glossy programme inform us the Mean Girls transition from movie screen to stage was not a decision taken lightly; among the successful transitions mentioned are Dirty Dancing and The Bodyguard, that both “pulled in people who might not otherwise be willing to try the theatre”. Well, on Monday the venue was pretty full of theatregoers of all ages - no mean feat (pun intended) for a Bank Holiday night when folk usually have other activities on their agendas. The s...

Baby Mash-Up: What on Earth Are You Doing? – Traverse Theatre

26May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Baby Mash-Up: What on Earth Are You Doing? – Traverse Theatre

Sally Hobson’s Baby Mash-Up, What On Earth Are You Doing? Is a bold, strange and undeniably ambitious new work that often resists easy interpretation even as it reaches towards moments of startling emotional beauty. Presented by stillpoint at the Traverse Theatre and directed with restless invention by Nicholas Bone, the production unfolds across a collage-like structure of some twenty-five scenes, veering wildly between absurdist comedy, philosophical speculation, domestic intimacy and moments of piercing lyrical reflection. At first, the play feels almost deliberately destabilising. The audience is bounced from one surreal encounter to another, unsure whether to laugh, think, analyse or simply surrender to the flow of ideas washing over them. Yet gradually, beneath the theatri...

23May

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

The Harder They Come – Stratford East

Here’s the truth. I reviewed The Harder They Come at Stratford East when it opened last autumn. It got an enthusiastic five stars. It deserved every one of them. Spoiler alert- it’s getting five stars again. The fact that I jumped at the chance to repeat the experience is another testament to this show’s joyful power. Jimmy Cliff died at the age of 81, last November, adding a certain poignancy to this welcome comeback. This musical is based on Perry Henzell’s seminal 1972 film The Harder They Come. While casting the movie, Henzell asked Jimmy Cliff, ‘Do you think you could write some music for the movie?’ ‘What do you mean, do I think?’ replied Cliff. ‘I can do anything.’ Cliff’s swaggering confidence not only won him the lead role of Ivan, but he also wrote much of the legendary sou...

Churchill’s Urinal – King’s Head Theatre

23May

By Saloni SanwalkaNo Comments

London

Churchill’s Urinal – King’s Head Theatre

Imagine a zombie Winston Churchill, slobbering and drunk, delivering one of his trademark rousing speeches to you through a hole in a half-destroyed urinal. You’d have a fairly good idea of what it is like to be an audience member in Rosie Holt’s Churchill’s Urinal. The show is 70 minutes of non-stop chaos as the protagonist, played by Holt and heavily inspired by first female Chancellor Rachel Reeves, simultaneously deals with an overbearing boss, incompetent assistant, and indifferent soon-to-be-ex-husband, all while a mob gathers outside her office, calling for her head. The cause? Her wish to remove a urinal from the Chancellor’s private bathroom which was once used by Sir Winston Churchill and is thus classed a national treasure. This sets the stage for a sharply scripted satire...

21May

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

End of the Rainbow – Soho Theatre

Jinkx Monsoon takes on the role of Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow, delivering a performance that is both captivating and emotionally devastating. Best known by many for their drag artistry and sharp wit, Monsoon proves themself to be an exceptional dramatic performer, embodying Garland with remarkable precision. From the mannerisms and vocal delivery to the emotional vulnerability beneath every scene, the portrayal feels deeply authentic and heartbreakingly human. The production itself is brilliantly written, refusing to romanticise Garland’s final years. Instead, it presents an unflinching look at a beloved icon struggling with addiction, exhaustion, and the crushing pressures of fame. At times, the show is genuinely difficult to watch, not because it lacks quality, but because it ...