Saturday, September 21

REVIEWS

Tonight at the London Coliseum: Cassidy Janson
London

Tonight at the London Coliseum: Cassidy Janson

The most recent acoustic concert in the Tonight at the London Coliseum series features the star of Beautiful: the Carole King Musical and & Juliet, Cassidy Janson. Having already watched her livestream from her house earlier in the year, and seen her live in the intimate setting of the Coliseum’s Balcony Bar back in February, I have become familiar with her choice of songs, and this concert very much focuses on the crowd-pleasers and big-hitters. It remains a sad feeling to see any show broadcast from an empty space where an audience should be, however large or small. The beautiful Coliseum auditorium is lit up in reds, golds, and blues but without an audience there is a lack of energy and atmosphere. Janson, however, is a likeable and perceptive performer, and brings warmth to the ...
Michael Ball: Past & Present Tour – The Shows Must Go On
REVIEWS

Michael Ball: Past & Present Tour – The Shows Must Go On

It is no secret that I have and always have had since I can remember, a massive crush on Michael Ball and I have seen him in concert before and I would love nothing than to see him live again, but this will have to do..   However, he never ceases to amaze me with how he enthrals, energises and entertains his audience with his stories, wit and cheeky smile. This particular concert is to mark 25-year career of a lovely, cheeky man who is a genuinely, down to earth, loveable guy obviously humbled by the praise he was receiving. Michael was joined on stage by 5 guest vocalists: Adrian Hansal, Ben James Ellis, Emma Williams, Louise Clare Marshall and Louise Dearman and we were privileged to hear so much talent on one stage.  The set was simple but effective with blue & ...
Romeo & Juliet – Shakespeare’s Globe
London

Romeo & Juliet – Shakespeare’s Globe

Romeo & Juliet is a favourite for school examiners, and we see it re-appearing onto the curriculum at regular intervals.  The Globe have joined with Deutsche Bank, who for the last 10 years have funded online resources for their youth engagement programme, to enhance their ‘Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank’ project.  Each year 20,000 free tickets are given to schools for shows that have been specially created for students to introduce and nurture a greater understanding of Shakespeare and the performance of his plays.  This exceedingly useful resource offers students a chance to come to the home of the Bard to experience the thrill of live performance.  This experience undoubtedly helps the words to leapfrog from the page into their young minds, to help to vis...
Wake the Dragon – St Luke’s Bombed Out Church
North West

Wake the Dragon – St Luke’s Bombed Out Church

Wake the Dragon was a free event and part of Liverpool Ignitus Festival of Performing Arts and the event managed in partnership with St Luke’s Bombed Out Church, Bring the Fire Project, and Zest Event Management, and with funding from Culture Liverpool’s Without Walls scheme. With a focus on wellbeing, the event was a platform for some of Liverpool’s finest performing artists and organisations to flex their creative muscle and do what they do best: perform and connect with their audience, this time with the added constraint of social distancing. There were three specific acts listed, opening with international theatre company Teatro Pomodoro who also served as MC for the night. Our bubble of four (two couples in case you’re wondering), all of whom met at the celebrated École Phillipe...
Madama Butterfly – Royal Opera House
London

Madama Butterfly – Royal Opera House

A staple of the operatic repertoire around the world, this was my third Madama Butterfly this year although in contrast to the first two live productions, this was a televised performance of ROH’s 2017 offering, directed by Moishe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. We open with marriage broker Goro (Carlo Bosi) showing US naval lieutenant Pinkerton (Marcelo Puente) round the home he will share with his Butterfly bride-to-be. Pinkerton is obsessed about possessing her even if he crushes her fragile wings, whilst American Consul Sharpless (Scott Hendricks) warns him of the tragic consequences his game could have. The Butterfly duly lands in the form of young Japanese girl Cio-Cio-San (Ermonela Jaho) supported by maid Suzuki (Elizabeth DeShong), and they are married by the Commissioner (Gyula Nag...
The Show Must Go On: Fame the Musical – YouTube
REVIEWS

The Show Must Go On: Fame the Musical – YouTube

The Show Must Go On YouTube channel makes a timely return to bring some theatre back into our lives. This week’s offering is Fame the Musical, the 30th anniversary production filmed at the Phoenix Theatre in London last year. Fame the Musical is based on the 1980’s film of the same name. It follows a group of students through their time at the School of Performing Arts in New York from their first day to their graduation. Many issues are briefly portrayed in this show, illiteracy, drug abuse, sexuality, weight worries, prejudice and the need to succeed. Cramming all of this into a small space means that each subject is merely touched upon. This keeps the pace up but at times makes the story feels disjointed. What the story lacks in cohesion the cast make up for in energy. The ...
Tonight at the London Coliseum: Carrie Hope Fletcher
London

Tonight at the London Coliseum: Carrie Hope Fletcher

From the moment I saw Carrie Hope Fletcher, I was mesmerised. A petite girl-next-door with a big voice, she blew me away when I saw snippets of her 3-year stint as Les Misérables’ tragic demi-heroine Éponine at the Queen’s Theatre, London, from 2013-2016. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to review a one-time exclusive pre-recorded event - a night at the London Coliseum with Fletcher herself, delivered by Broadway on Demand. As the show was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance took place in front of an empty theatre, but Carrie’s talent is such that all she needed was a microphone, a piano, and her tremendous voice. That was enough to fill the London Coliseum twice over, with plenty more to spare. What a performance it was! The only thing that was missing was th...
La Bohème Live at The Drive-In – ENO, East Car Park, Alexandra Palace
London

La Bohème Live at The Drive-In – ENO, East Car Park, Alexandra Palace

Monty Python used to say, and now for something completely different, and ne’er was a truer word said than with ENO director P.J. Harris’ contemporary English language adaptation of Puccini’s classic opera, and it is also transformed from its 19th C Parisian location to a modern-day encampment in a disused London car park, where we meet our four struggling hipsters: poet Rodolfo (David Butt Philip); painter Marcello (Roderick Williams); philosopher cum photographer Colline (William Thomas); and musician Schaunard (Benson Wilson), who arrives having had some good fortune. They are interrupted by Benoît (Trevor Eliot Bowes), a security guard, but cleverly trick him to avoid paying him his dues. Whilst the others leave, Rodolfo remains but is interrupted by a young lady needing a light for...
Romantic Anonymous Live Broadcast – Bristol Old Vic
South West

Romantic Anonymous Live Broadcast – Bristol Old Vic

Wise Children and director Emma Rice serve up a delightful musical comedy confection based on the quirky French film Les Émotifs Anonymes, written by Jean-Pierre Améris and Philippe Blasband, with this real-time broadcast from Bristol Old Vic. Angélique (Carly Bawden) is a gifted chocolate maker inhibited by social anxiety and Jean-René (Marc Antolin) the boss of a failing chocolate factory. Angélique is so timid, she faints when people look at her; Jean-René is so awkward he relies on self-help tapes and is prone to embarrassing sweating. When Angélique takes a job in Jean-René’s struggling factory, a fragile love affair unfolds. Funny, tender, and painfully awkward in moments we will all recognise, Romantics Anonymous – book by Emma Rice, Lyrics by Christopher Dimond, Music by Mich...
A Marvellous Party – Stream Theatre
REVIEWS

A Marvellous Party – Stream Theatre

The Noel Coward foundation managed to present a transatlantic celebration of Noel Coward, filled to the brim with star-studded names from both UK and American theatre! It provided us with an evening of monologues, as well as musical numbers all interspersed with footage from the Noel Coward archives. Many great names came together to create this piece and it was refreshing to see the different takes plus having some spoken word pieces alongside songs. It was also a joy to watch Robert Lindsey and Giles Terera’s segments, as these were filmed inside theatres and provided hope that we will be back inside them soon! The evening provided a rare opportunity to see numerous faces together, perhaps for the first and only time. Personal highlights were Bebe Neuwirth and Patricia Routledge, ...