REVIEWS Archives - Page 291 of 417

Don Giovanni – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

7Jun

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Don Giovanni – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

‘Hurry hurry’ one character sings to another. ‘I can’t’ the other character replies. This is Mozart after all and the composer has never been known to keep things short and to the point. Don Giovanni doesn’t drag like the final acts of Figaro, but you do have to buckle yourself in for a lengthy ride. For those who don’t know the storyline of one of the greatest operas in the canon, the titular character of the opera, Don Giovanni, is more than just a philandering womanizing rake. He’s a liar, a rapist and a murderer. This is all apparent in the first 10 minutes when he’s already a committed a murder. As the opera progresses there are a series of characters baying for his blood, all wronged by his actions. When it seems he has achieved the impossible and dodged his demise he meets his en...

2Jun

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Britannicus – Lyric Hammersmith

This intense adaptation by Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Arti Banerjee explores a dictator’s rise to power and the intense jealousy that bubbles in those that seemingly have the love of a nation but no genuine love around them. This is the inciting fire for Nero to punish his brother Britannicus by demanding his love Junia for his own, in hopes that it’ll settle that lacking inside him and banish any enemies that threaten his position on the throne. However, with this tragedy you get a real inside of Nero’s vulnerability towards his mother and how her passiveness has affected how he loves other people, a man who is the most powerful leader in the world seeking only the approval of his mother and in not getting it, turns to resentment and devastation onto others. Nero played fan...

The Concrete Jungle Book – The Pleasance Theatre

2Jun

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Concrete Jungle Book – The Pleasance Theatre

Twisting the colourful Disney version of The Jungle Book, reproducing the grimness of Rudyard Kipling’s classic, interpolating it with live rap music, grime, reggae and spoken word, the Highrise present a dynamic and reverberating Hip-hop musical The Concrete Jungle Book at the Pleasance. Written and directed by Dominic Garfield, the play explores homelessness, abandonment, and survival in a concrete jungle where “there’s no fair when there’s hunger in the air…” Set on the streets of London, the opening scene invites the audience into a run-down, dark, sketchy neighbourhood with a pulsating score often drowning the words of the actors. Nonetheless, their performance energy and commitment to the ensemble successfully transports the audience into a surreal world created brilliantly by jux...

Derren Brown: Showman – Liverpool Empire

1Jun

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

Derren Brown: Showman – Liverpool Empire

Forget Hugh Jackman, the greatest showman of our generation without a doubt is Derren Brown. The prominent illusionist rose to fame in the early 2000s, starting with the TV show Mind Control and other shows such as Trick of the Mind and his specials Sacrifice, Miracle: Faith or Fiction and The Push are currently available to stream on Netflix, with more available on All4. He has always stated that he is able to manipulate the mind and use psychology to work out people’s actions. More often than not, he is able to do exactly what he says and has stunned audiences worldwide. In today’s fickle age, over 20 years after his rise to fame, he is still as popular with audiences and able to stun them to silence in awe at what he does. Unfortunately, I can’t go into detail about what we wi...

1Jun

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

One Man, Two Guvnors – Octagon Theatre

After a critically acclaimed National Theatre premiere, a UK tour, an award-winning West End transfer and a Broadway run which kickstarted James Corden’s stratospheric stateside success, there can’t have been many people left who hadn’t seen the original production of One Man, Two Guvnors. And then the pandemic struck. Another 200,000 tuned in to the NT Live performance. One of the theatrical highlights of lockdown. It’s a brave programmer then who opts to revive Richard Bean’s adaptation of Goldoni’s commedia dell'arte classic The Servant of Two Masters. It’s a gamble that’s largely paid off. For anyone unaware, 1700s Venice has been replaced by 1963 Brighton. That aside, Bean’s adaptation is surprisingly faithful. Both to the plot and themes of upper-class stupidity, gender equa...

The Play That Goes Wrong – Manchester Opera House

31May

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

The Play That Goes Wrong – Manchester Opera House

When going to the theatre, I always love to see a ‘comedy farce’ more than anything else; I enjoy a good drama as much as the next person, but I find that farce comedy just works so well in a theatre environment and there’s one company that stands out above all the rest for being masters of the farce; this is of course the Mischief Theatre Company. Set up back in 2008 by a group of talented theatre students; This company has had great success on stage and on screen and perhaps their best known production and most successful is; The Play That Goes Wrong which is without doubt the best of farce and currently back at Manchester Opera House for one week only! The production first debuted in 2012 at The Old Red Lion Theatre in London and now just over a decade later; the original cast hav...

We Will Rock You – New Wimbledon Theatre

31May

By Lewis DownhamNo Comments

London

We Will Rock You – New Wimbledon Theatre

It’s hardly 'A night at the opera' as Queen and Ben Elton’s musical We Will Rock You stomps into New Wimbledon Theatre. This jukebox musical features all the classic Queen songs you know and love intertwined with a quirky and futuristic storyline. The show is set far in the future in a dystopian world where children choose to live their lives through social media. They forget what it means to live in the real world and how to make real friends that aren’t just followers online, while listening to new and upcoming autotuned state-controlled songs. However, the bohemians lead by 'Cliff’ (Michael Mckell) slowly learn of the musical legends from the past and make it their mission to bring rock and roll back into the world. This show falls into the trap that many juke box musicals follow,...

Bow & Arrow: The Ghost of Sherwood – Epstein Theatre

30May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Bow & Arrow: The Ghost of Sherwood – Epstein Theatre

There’s a saying in elite army regiments: big boys’ games, big boys’ rules, and tonight City Theatre stepped up to the big stage but sadly, despite passion and well-meaning, it didn’t come off. Set in the days of Robin Hood (Shaun Herr) and Maid Marian (Alex Rochford), we were almost halfway in before the plot was revealed with ghost hunters Bow (Rebekah Jayne Moreland) and Arrow (Johnny Sedgwick-Davies) having not paid their taxes to caretaker Sheriff Maxwell (Graham Lyne) who is supported by some oddball characters in Gob (Louis Cashin-Harris), Miss Thorn (Anna Chan), and Ursula (Dee Patricia). So far so bad but lining up for the goodies are King Lincoln (Leo Hewitson) and his niece Princess Elle (Lydia Pearl), yet still questions remain unanswered: will Friar Tuck (Sean Campbell) be ...

The Canterville Ghost The Musical – Hope Street Theatre

27May

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

The Canterville Ghost The Musical – Hope Street Theatre

Every now and then a gem of a show comes along and leaves you thinking about it after like a dramatic hangover. This is that show. Unique, creative and hilarious, The Canterville Ghost – The Musical is based on Oscar Wilde’s renowned text. Be a fly-on-the-wall and witness the arrival of the brash, American Otis family as they arrive at Canterville Manor. Disrupting the peace of the Mrs Umney the housekeeper (Lizzy Paes) and the Butler (Luke Furlonger-Copeland), the Otis’ and their three daughters make themselves at home. Mr Otis (Omar Hussein) and Mrs Otis (Neve McLaughlin) are sceptical about warnings of the malicious Simon de Canterville (Jack Royens) ghost. Their mischievous twins, Stars (Frankie Fleming) and Stripes (Katie Moncaster) are also not fazed by the resident ghoul but t...

Tomorrow May Be My Last – Old Red Lion Theatre

27May

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Tomorrow May Be My Last – Old Red Lion Theatre

In the Second Summer of Love, during the late ‘80s, I went full-tilt psychedelic. I tie-dyed my clothes, listened to Janis Joplin’s Pearl and read the infamous sex and drugs memoir, ‘Going Down with Janis’ by Peggy Casserta. Unlike Janis, I lived to tell the tale. In post-modern 2022, that teenage flirtation with psilocybin and flares seems very distant. Tomorrow May Be My Last delivered a patchouli flavoured flashback to my flower powered youth and is probably the nearest one can get to experiencing a Janis Joplin live show. Nobody sings like Joplin. That’s a fact, but Collette Cooper brings an impressive range to the table in this one-woman show, exploring the life and work of the iconic rock goddess. It’s a tall order, but at times, Cooper totally nails the vocals, esp...