REVIEWS Archives - Page 398 of 417

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Full Show – The Shows Must Go On

25Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Full Show – The Shows Must Go On

"Shakespeare's Sonnets Full Show" is The Shows Must Go On's... well the title says it all really. This show is all of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets performed to camera by an ensemble cast that includes Fiona Shaw, Sir Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, Simon Callow, Simon Russell Beale, Kim Cattrall, Dominic West and Stephen Fry. Many of the performers here are household names and all are familiar faces, some for Shakespeare, others not, and a very few for their expertise either in performing Shakespeare in the period accent or his life and times, which is always intriguing and if nothing else proof of the vast love that has brought these people together over this text. The text is not the only reason though as this show is for a cause, to raise money for The Actor's Fund as well as several...

Don’t Leave Me this Way – Voila Festival

25Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Don’t Leave Me this Way – Voila Festival

‘Don’t Leave me this Way,’ by Zoo Indigo is part of Voila Festival, an annual celebration of European theatre set in the shadow of Brexit which seems a million light years away in the current climate of the pandemic. As we know theatre and the arts have been severely compromised so they are having to adapt. Their performance was pre-recorded in the Cockpit Theatre in London's Marylebone. We are encouraged to turn up the brightness of our computer screens preshow as it is a little dark due to being recorded in a theatre. I felt uncomfortable when they told us what a watch party is as most people are aware of this. Rosie and Ildiko, are the Anglo-German duo who make up Zoo Indigo and explore their heritage tonight in a two woman show alongside the talented Rob the violinist. A fantasti...

West End Unplugged: Vol 2 – The Shows Must Go On

21Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

West End Unplugged: Vol 2 – The Shows Must Go On

This is the second concert like this on the Show Must Go On YouTube channel. It features West End stars singing with a small group of musicians on acoustic instruments. This is mixed with socially distanced sofa chats between West End choreographer Anthony Van Laast, the stars and other theatre workers. There are 2 mini concerts with different acts put together to make a 90-minute session. These shows are billed as the West End’s biggest stars, which could be debated as some of the acts last appeared there at least 7 years ago. The songs are also not ones which would instantly jump to mind as popular favourites. This week’s acts are Hannah Waddingham, David Bedella, Joe Stilgoe, Richard Fleeshman, Celinde Schonemaker, Katie Brayben and Cavin Cornwall. With everything stripped bac...

21Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Aftermath – The Piece Hall Halifax

One of the most depressing aspects of the pandemic is how quick people are to condemn parts of our communities for its spread and even more bizarrely putting a lot of the blame on young people as a group. That’s why a troupe of young dancers from across Calderdale, supported by Northern Broadsides, worked with choreographers Sam Ford and Anna Holmes to devise this original piece reflecting on their own experiences of living under the shadow of the virus, and to rebut the idea that mass infection is somehow all their fault. Led by professional dancers Daniel Phung and Soul Roberts they delivered what appears to be a clever, vibrant and challenging piece. I say appears because Aaron Howell’s film of their performance in the piazza of Halifax’s historic Piece Hall is a distraction. ...

21Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Falling Stars – Union Theatre

How can just two people command a stage and put on such a wonderful production in such a short time? Written and conceived by the male lead, Peter Polycarpou, who along with his female co-star Sally-Ann Triplett gave us a night and a show which will live on in the memory for a long time to come. Both are well established performers in their own right and their combined talents have resulted in an unforgettably entertaining history of the music from the glorious era of 1920’s musicals. The show has been put together in just three days and after the first day of rehearsals, Lockdown 2 was announced in England which put paid to many of the ideas for this production. The show’s title is taken from a Charlie Chaplin song and tells the story of the discovery of an old songbook found hidden aw...

21Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Berkoff’s Women – At Yours

Linda Marlowe has been working with Steven Berkoff since time immemorial and is often referred to as his muse, with this resurrection of her one-woman show – filmed at Charing Cross Theatre and directed by Josie Lawrence - perfectly suited to the performance constraints of the current pandemic as it provides a theatrical exploration of sensuality, revenge, pathos, heart-breaking loneliness, and riotous humour. The show is very simply performed with no set – just an elegant black dress and a chair with an occasional prop added for effect as necessary – as through a series of monologues Marlowe uses the prose of Berkoff to explore the many emotions of women with excerpts from his plays ‘Agamemnon’, ‘Decadence’, ‘East’, ‘Greek’, ‘Kvetch’, and ‘Sturm Und Drang’, and whilst there is li...

Panto.Demic – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

20Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Panto.Demic – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Pantomime is well and truly a British institution, and although the traditional festive offering might not be playing in theatres up and down the country this year as it normally would, the tradition of Panto has always had the capacity to adapt with the times, and even during a pandemic, the team at the fantastic Altrincham Garrick Theatre continue to entertain their audiences even during a national lockdown with a special pre-recorded ‘Panto-demic’ short for the whole family to sit down together and enjoy! The Altrincham Garrick have a well-deserved reputation for delivering one of the best family-friendly pantomimes in the North West and I’d be the first to say I was thoroughly excited to be sat in those red theatre chairs with a packet of wine gums in hand ready to sit back and enjo...

19Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Marry Me a Little – Barn Theatre

Hearing of a Stephen Sondheim revue, I don’t think you’d be alone in thinking that it's going to be a bunch of ballads. I’m happy to tell you that with Marry Me a Little, this is not the case. It’s much, much more. The Barn theatre have cleverly updated this celebration of Sondheim and have produced a fresh love story. A set of two apartments sharing the centre of the stage, splits the recently parted couple as they go about their newly single lives. The production is sung-through, but the plot is brought together by innovative use of the technical elements. With a genius addition of a phone-screen backdrop, and even a song brought on by tinder swiping, catapult the story into the modern day. Jukebox musicals have attempted to merge catalogues of songs and fluid storylines for years....

19Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Macbeth – The Shows Must Go On

Macbeth is a TV film version of the 2007 Chichester Festival Theatre production of William Shakespeare's tragedy directed by Rupert Goold and starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood as Lord and Lady Macbeth. The film was shot entirely at Welbeck Abbey and makes full use of its larger halls and dingier corridors, and a much more limited use of its exteriors. These often almost empty but gigantic rooms (and peeling paint in the war scenes) and the almost total lack of exterior scenes in the first half evoke an almost apocalyptic underground world in which sunshine and fresh air may be (but seldom is) reached via the lift some characters disappear into. The costumes, props and stock footage evoke the Soviet Block in the Cold War, specifically Romania in the 1960s, thus establishing...

Frozen: A Musical Spectacular – Disney Cruise Lines

17Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Frozen: A Musical Spectacular – Disney Cruise Lines

This reviewer must be one of the few people to have never watched the film Frozen, although even then has been unable to entirely escape a certain level of knowledge! The film cast though were at least credited, whereas the cast of the stage show performed on the Disney Cruise Lines are forever doomed to anonymity thanks to the Disney policy of not crediting their live performers because they are the character. Frozen – A Musical Spectacular is an abridged version of the film, mostly the songs and some interlinking short scenes and feels like a cross between a spectacularly staged musical and a provincial pantomime. A small cast of principles and ensemble are tasked with creating a feel of a show that needs to be bigger. The cast, uncredited, vary in skill. The young woman playing An...