REVIEWS Archives - Page 4 of 427

The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook – Floral Pavilion

12Dec

By Katy GilroyNo Comments

North West

The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook – Floral Pavilion

It’s panto season …oh no it isn’t! But it really is, and The Floral Pavilion is currently showing The Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook from now until January 5th. It’s the professional pantomime in the area, and it promises to be a night full of fun. With glamorous sets, beautiful costumes, and a great storyline, this is a fantastic show. Starring big names like Emmerdale’s Tom Lister as the evil (but spectacularly funny) Captain Hook, and local legend Sean Jones (who has played Mickey in Blood Brothers for over two decades) as Smee, there was some incredible acting talent on display. Photo: Brian Roberts The story follows Emily Darling, grand granddaughter of Wendy, as she heads to Neverland with Tinker Bell (played by West End’s Holly Atterton) to prov...

The Adventures of Pinocchio – Bradford Alhambra

12Dec

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Adventures of Pinocchio – Bradford Alhambra

Next year Bradford becomes the UK City of Culture so what better way to prepare for that momentous year then joining local legend Billy Pearce for his 24th panto. Pinocchio is a new show for both this theatre and panto giant Crossroads, so it makes sense to launch it with Billy leading a strong company and getting the audience revved up from the moment he came on. Billy may be in his seventh decade, but he retains an infectious energy, and razor sharp comic timing honed by his years slogging round the club circuit. He’s also the king of the fart gag, much to the delight of the young kids laughing their heads off alongside their loved ones. He’s equally at home with the corny gags that are so central to a satisfying panto experience, and the smutty asides that go over the heads of...

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Blackpool Opera House

12Dec

By Paddy Darnell-WalshNo Comments

North West

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Blackpool Opera House

The much-loved family favourite, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, flies into Blackpool this week for an extended run over the festive period. Adapted from Ian Flemming’s story, with music and lyrics from the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks), the story follows widowed inventor Caractacus Potts and his two children, Jemima and Jeremy, as Potts restores an old car, discovering it has magical powers. Once described as ‘James Bond for children’, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang boasts many similarities to Flemming’s more famous works, from evil villains to impressive gizmos and gadgets, incompetent spies to a farfetched story line and of course, a wonderful car. Add these elements to a truly toe-tapping score and you realise why this production has stood the test of time. I was...

11Dec

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Snow White – Sheffield Lyceum

Sheffield Lyceum’s pantomime ‘Snow White’ proves once again that this art form is going nowhere and is truly generational fun. It is expectedly raucous, fun, well spirited, cheeky and great family entertainment for all. Damian Williams, yet again, is excellent in his role as Nurse Nellie, and as he seemingly does every year reaffirms himself as panto royalty. His charismatic performance, witty off-cuff asides, facial contortions and vocal bombasticity palette this colourful world aptly. Likewise, there were some joyful and committed performances from The Seven, with Hassan Taj as Loopy a particular delight. Catherine Tyldesley was a sound choice for the evil Queen of this fairytale land, who possesses the appropriately scathing voice and demeanour, and notably one of the most incredu...

11Dec

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Barbican

In the last four hundred-odd years, since Shakespeare first wrote ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, there have been a myriad of incarnations and reincarnations. Every age injects the words with meaning pertinent to the day. Cue the Royal Shakespeare Company’s director Eleanor Rhode, who brings to the stage possibly the deepest, funniest, most immersive, inventive, creative and multi-layered version of the play, yet. The story is in brief: a comedy chemical romance. Hermia is refusing to marry Demetrius because she is in love with Lysander. If she disobeys her father’s wishes, she will either be put to death or live as a single woman in a nunnery for the rest of her life. Hermia chooses option C - to run away with Lysander so they can escape the rule of Athenian law and be together. Ala...

11Dec

By Rebecca CaseyNo Comments

North West

Cinderella – Blackpool Grand

I spent my afternoon at The Grand theatre Blackpool, at the matinee of this year’s Christmas Pantomime Cinderella. As usual, a star studded lineup including Hayley Tamaddon as the fairy godmother. Britain’s Got Talent’s local Steve Royle as a lovable Buttons who certainly earned his money, in my opinion the funniest part of the show. It had all of the traditional pantomime aspects that one would expect, the audience participation, the good vs evil, the happy ending, even the song sheet at the end. Local talent, a very pretty Kitty Harris in the title role, direct from her recent stint as standby for the leading role in Burlesque the Musical UK Tour. A genuinely funny script, very well put together, colourful creative scenery, and a strong team. Direction by Kylie Bu...

11Dec

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Sleeping Beauty – Storyhouse Chester

Back for their 8th Christmas Season, we have another Storyhouse original production, this time the classic Sleeping Beauty, but as usual, done in their own way. This year, Storyhouse have tried something different and produced their show on the proscenium stage rather than the thrust stage. This gives them more scope to include a bigger set and more stage magic including flying and pyrotechnics. It does feel like it loses a little bit of magic not having the cast as close as usual as in the past, with the audience surrounding the stage and the cast entering through the audience at times but what they have done with this year’s set and storytelling makes up for that. Written by Samantha O’Rourke who also wrote last year Cinderella, we are taken on a journey of love, self-discovery and be...

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary – Southwark Playhouse

11Dec

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary – Southwark Playhouse

‘The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary’ playing at Southwark Playhouse, attempts a brave, comedic overhaul of Gustave Flaubert's sobering classic, with varying degrees of success. For those of you not familiar with the novel (which is, as pointed out at the start of the show, most of us), the story centres around a woman battling the constraints of the patriarchy. Emma is portrayed as profoundly disenchanted, bored with her uninspiring doctor husband, her mundane provincial village, and her stifling role as a dutiful wife in nineteenth-century France. The character extravagantly spends beyond her resources to flee the dullness and void of provincial existence. This narrative is upended by Ha Hum Ah Productions & Minack Theatre as the audience is ushered into a more modern and rau...

9Dec

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Cinderella – Gladstone Theatre

It’s that time of year again… oh yes, it is! And Dreamworld Entertainment returned for the nineth year with a fabulous Cinderella, to a full house of laughter and appreciation. Everyone loves a panto with its upbeat songs, glittery costumes, corny jokes and audience participation and this has it all in abundance. Director Laura Newnes and Choreographer Jamie-Leigh Christian, also producers, have assembled a tight professional cast and slick technical team to give us the wow factor and a jolly good entertainment. We all know the story, but writer Fortina Stone gives us a little bit extra with an amusing dynamic between the Prince and Dandini (who frankly are usually a bit wet) as well as all the usual slapstick and “it’s behind you” we come to expect. Some excellent si...

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

9Dec

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Theatre Royal Haymarket

Director James MacDonald breathes new life into Samuel Beckett’s absurdist 1953 tragicomedy about two down at heel men waiting for a mysterious figure to appear, with a fresh and engaging interpretation that focuses more on the inherent humour within the play rather than just the disconsolate existentialism with which it is usually associated. Opening to a dystopian landscape bereft of any positive discernible feature other than a leafless tree, we encounter Estragon/Gogo (Lucian Msamati) and Valdimir/Didi (Ben Whishaw), as they wait for Godot. Whilst their connection to each other is unstated, there is an endearing affection between them that pervades their ongoing conversations about something and nothing, which distracts from the obvious bleakness of their everyday lives. The appe...