REVIEWS Archives - Page 185 of 545

6Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Medea Gosperia – The Cockpit

I have a mild obsession with Medea, prompted by the realisation that there is not enough time to read, study and analyse The Classics, so probably wise to just focus on one banger until the coffin lid closes on my life. It was Rachel Cusk’s brilliant vision of the Euripides shocker at the Almeida which put me on this path. Kate Fleetwood’s performance and the entire production blew my mind. It moved me as a piece of theatre, but also turned me on to the text. This nouveau fevered enthusiasm led me to the 1969 Pier Paolo Pasolini film with Maria Callas, which gave me full-blown Medea mania. Medea Gosperia is presented as a ‘brand new jazz/gospel opera’ which in many ways, ticked a lot of boxes for me, but led to widespread hoots and horror when mentioned to my peers. It’s fair to s...

I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire – Southwark Playhouse

6Jul

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire – Southwark Playhouse

‘I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire’ takes audiences on a wacky ride, bringing them into the quaint and intimate setting of Southwark Playhouse Borough, which is creatively transformed to resemble a 14-year-old girl’s room. As you might have guessed, this girl is utterly obsessed with Tobey Maguire. Set in 2004, the play is drenched in nostalgia, featuring hit music from the era with songs by Britney Spears, Vanessa Carlton, Natasha Bedingfield, and Avril Lavigne. The story unfolds in Shelby's basement, which she has converted into her personal hub and shrine dedicated to her Tobey Maguire obsession. From the moment the performance begins, Tessa Albertson, playing Shelby, bursts onto the stage with infectious energy. Her portrayal vividly captures the wild infatuation and manic enthus...

3Jul

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Boyography – Social Refuge, Manchester

The marketing and pre-show announcements for Boyography promise a unique story about queer love and fluid sexuality in a “post-gay world”. The reality is a lot more commonplace. It starts promisingly. When two boys bump into each other in a school corridor something unspoken and powerful is sparked. The locker room encounter between Oliver (Isaac Radmore) and Jake (George Bellamy) feels inevitable, but Oliver’s reaction is a lot more surprising. Experience would tell an audience that the cocksure and laddish one in a relationship like this would be closeted and outwardly homophobic. Far from it. Oliver has a girlfriend, but he also happily sleeps with boys. It is just sex. After all, “bodies are bodies”. Sadly, the intensely modern idea of young men without doubt who reject la...

3Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Guts! The Musical – Hull Truck Theatre

Hull Truck Theatre’s latest production, GUTS! The Musical, a world premiere, portrays the real-life struggle female fish packers at a local fish factory faced in their battle for equal pay. The stark stage setting of bare, “tiled” walls, soulless strip lighting and little else is what one imagines a processing frozen food factory to be like. The year is 1984 and the aforementioned workers are about to make and change history. Also making a bit of (theatrical) history of their own are the 57 members of the community who answered the call to bring this production to life. Space prevents me from naming them all, but what a fantastic job they each did. The factory in question, owned by a Mr Frank Fish (Andrew Clark) is based in Hull, with all the fishy business, historically, being...

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

3Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Bradford Alhambra

When I was at school in the less enlightened 1970s the mere hint of being different would have earned you a beating, so turning up to an end of year disco in a dress would have been inviting real trouble. So when in our more liberal times Sheffield teenager Jamie New announces he wants to wear a dress to his prom you’d think no-one would care. Sadly, as in most musicals, the road to true self expression is never an easy one as he battles to overcome prejudice and his own insecurities to achieve his dream. Openly gay Jamie doesn’t want to be a forklift driver that his career teacher thinks is his destiny, instead he wants to be a drag queen like the real life character who Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MaCrae based their lively musical on. It helps that Jamie has the support of his sing...

Lea Salonga – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

3Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lea Salonga – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

A rare opportunity to see one of the greatest singers of our time, a true icon of musical theatre and a Disney princess twice over. The singing voice of warrior, Mulan and Princess Jasmine in Alladin, but perhaps best known for her role as Kim in Miss Saigon for over fifteen years, Salonga has a long list of stage and screen credits, spanning over 35 years. When Salonga took on the role of Kim in Miss Saigon in 1989, aged just 18, she went on to become the first Asian performer to win a Tony and one of the youngest to win an Olivier. In the 1990’s she played Eponine alongside, Michael Ball’s Marius in Les Misérables. The rest, as they say, is history. Most recently starring in Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, in London’s West End, she has taken time out to tour the UK, for eight perfo...

3Jul

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

I’m Still Here – Ambassadors Theatre

Debbie Wileman found viral success during the pandemic whilst performing a ‘Song a Day’ as Judy Garland. She has now performed worldwide as Garland, singing the songs that we love and also the songs that we never got the chance to hear. A whirlwind start to her career has allowed her to release a debut album called ‘I’m still here’ in which she impersonates Judy Garland throughout a range of her repertoire and a few personal favourites that she wishes Garland could have sung. There is no doubt that Debbie Wileman possesses an incredible talent- her impersonation is staggeringly accurate and effortless. The difficulty in this performance is expert level but she holds her own. Beginning with a very famous ‘I’m Still Here’ and title of the album, we begin the show with a bang- conductor...

1Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Hamilton – Birmingham Hippodrome

Battling over who becomes the next American president took place twice last week. Once as two white men - one stumbling inarticulately, the other lying shamelessly - battled on TV, the second as a vibrantly talented and culturally diverse cast of astonishing performers retold the tale of the early days of America and its constitution. The former making me weep for the future of our planet, the latter filling me with hope for the future of our species. “Hamilton” is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s barn-storming, hip-hop, rapping Broadway smash which has enchanted the world for nearly a decade. And though, the rapping occasionally narrows the bandwidth of what is possible in a musical, this is undoubtedly a writer aware of his theatrical heritage. Listen carefully and you’ll hear traces of Gilbert a...

28Jun

By Robert BartleyNo Comments

London

Next To Normal – Wyndhams Theatre

When cult favourite ‘Next To Normal’ was announced at the Donmar Warehouse in 2023, critical acclaim and incredible word-of-mouth made it a sell-out smash, and one of the highlights of the year for many theatre fans. The Donmar’s intimate space meant many fans missed out on seeing it, and if you were one of them, you need to be heading to Leicester Square’s Wyndhams Theatre, where the show has returned for another limited run. Reassembling the Donmar’s celebrated cast (including Broadway belter Caissie Levy), the multi-award winning musical explores mental illness and grief in the face of trying to maintain a “normal” suburban family life, set to a rock-based score from composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey. Wife and mother Diane Goodman (Caissie Levy) is struggling wi...

28Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Twelfth Night – Stafford Gatehouse

For those of you not around for the premiere in 1601 you missed a belter. The Bard’s buoyant and feisty tale of shipwrecked twins rent asunder amidst a fearsome tempest (not to be confused with the other Tempest by the same writer) to be finally washed up on the shores of the lyrical land of Illyria has held audiences enthralled for decades and, if this production is anything to go by, will for many more. Music is, indeed, the food of love in this sparkling new production at the Stafford Gatehouse it’s a fulsome menu of tasty titbits served by kitchen full of Michelin-starred chefs. Sean Turner’s unique interpretation of the play fizzes with invention, joy and bright new ideas - though relocating the play to a Cornish fishing village in 1958 does strip it of its usual pastoral idyll it ...