REVIEWS Archives - Page 402 of 417

Ramin Karimloo Live at The London Coliseum

24Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Ramin Karimloo Live at The London Coliseum

Whilst there is uncertainty of when we can view Live theatre in person. It’s events that are put on by stream theatre that really help us get through this challenging time. Prior to the show starting I must say it was a huge headache trying to log in to see the stream. Maybe this should be looked at if more shows are to be added. On to the concert itself. Ramin Karimloo is a giant in the world of musical theatre both on Broadway and in the west end. His debut was Les Misérables and in the show speaks of how great full he was to have this show in his life. He has always been a fan of the show and to have played Jean Valjean was an honour. If you haven’t seen him in shows such as Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera and Murder Ballad. You may recognise him on Tv Medical Drama Holby City a...

24Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

First Date: The Musical – Online

Lambert Jackson are the producers of the moment right now. With their numerous concerts and musicals being streamed over lockdown, they are giving the theatre lovers something to keep us going until we can return to our seats. We are extremely lucky that they have treated us to this witty American musical, with a top cast and some smashing vocal performances. First Date is exactly what is says on the tin. A musical about an explosive blind date between two people who endure awkwardness, arguments and annoying waiters in the quest to find love. The Crazy Coqs seems the perfect place to set it. There’s a bar, a place for dinner seating and a stage ready for an impromptu song. The team have cleverly utilised this space with a multi-camera set up and plenty of close-ups that pull the audien...

Death of a Salesman – Eugene O’Neill Theatre

24Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Death of a Salesman – Eugene O’Neill Theatre

In an unprecedented collaboration with Showtime and The Actors Fund, Goodman Theatre presents a free stream of the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy, and directed by Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls. This production, featuring the Broadway cast at Eugene O’Neill Theatre, was captured on film in 2000 and has not aired since its original release. A tired salesman, 60-year old Willy Loman (Brian Dennehy), returns to his Brooklyn home and wife, Linda (Elizabeth Franz), following an arduous road trip in which yet again he has failed to meet his target. But Willy doesn’t want to face the reality of his situation and the outstanding bills when he can indulge in the illusion of success that he believes is ultimately gover...

Mrs Shaw Herself – Liverpool Irish Festival

23Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Mrs Shaw Herself – Liverpool Irish Festival

Started in 2003 to celebrate the links between Liverpool and Ireland, the Liverpool Irish Festival has always been a highlight of the city’s cultural calendar, bringing a range of arts, literature, film, music, and drama. However, it is unlikely that any year has been as challenging as this one, with venues closed, social distancing, and so on. Drama is one of the areas most affected by the restrictions, unless the company has access to the type of technology that has been used in the recent streaming for cinema of productions by, for example, the National Theatre and the RSC. However, the online performance of Mrs Shaw Herself, by the Wirral-born writer and musician Helen Tierney, who plays the harp in the change from one ‘scene’ to another, and co-devised with Alexis Leighton, w...

Tales from the Tombstone Tavern: Annie – Ameena Hamid Productions Ltd

23Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Tales from the Tombstone Tavern: Annie – Ameena Hamid Productions Ltd

Tales from the Tombstone Tavern is a new six-part podcast series featuring five iconic monsters from classic horror: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Wailing Woman, Wolf Man and The Mummy. The five all hang out at the Tombstone Tavern, drinking and exchanging stories, when one evening they talk about how their brand of horror has become irrelevant and today’s scary stories are not what they once were. Directed by Jamie Boucher, the podcast opens with narration by Delmar Terblanche who also wrote the series. Their narration is excellent combining traditional methods of creating atmosphere with a self-mocking philosophical whirlwind about time and its role in life. From the opening the sounds of the pub are created and the atmosphere of a busy bar is created. The group sit good nat...

22Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Meek – Dazed New World Festival

“I’m just a woman who works in a factory, I don’t want any of this!”. These are the words of the heroine of this play, Irene, (played by Maria McColgan) and seemed to me to sum up what the play was all about. A part-time songwriter who is unwittingly drawn into a confrontation with the regime running the country when a love song she has written and performed takes social media by storm (somewhat of an obsession of the character) but is misinterpreted by the country’s religious leaders as a blasphemous attack on their devout beliefs, resulting in Irene being thrown into a prison cell, where the vast majority of the action takes place. Set sometime in the not too distant future in a country not too far from our own, the play centres around the conversations between Irene and her long-time...

22Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Norma – Royal Opera House

Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece Norma had its premiere at La Scala, Milan, on Boxing Day 1831. After a muted initial response, the opera quickly became popular, and is now a mainstay of the repertory, being particularly acclaimed as a vehicle for the lead soprano. The priestess Norma (Sonya Yoncheva) loves Pollione (Joseph Calleja), leader of the occupying force suppressing her people, and has secretly borne two children by him. But Pollione’s love for Norma has withered, and he now loves her fellow priestess Adalgisa (Sonia Ganassi). Meanwhile, the people urgently look to Norma to lead their rebellion. Norma discovers the love between Pollione and Adalgisa. Furiously she gives the signal for war. Pollione is captured, attempting to steal away with Adalgisa. Norma, called upon to announ...

19Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

All By Myself – Part of the Main Online

Who hasn’t gone on social media during this pandemic and wondered why that person on the screen looks like they are doing so well? The loneliness of the pandemic and the vast outreach of the apps have played a massive part in all of our lives, and All By Myself is a refreshing but worrying “Insta vs Reality”. The piece started with a character on screen, finding a good position, adjusting her clothes and fixing her hair. It speaks well for the actress, Charlie Blandford, that I was not sure if the play had begun or if she was about to introduce it. The character, played intelligently by Blandford, busies herself making a self-care video, when really, she isn’t doing all that great. It is impressive that the character’s relatability is so strong when there is hardly any dialogue. ...

Truth To Power Café – Conway Hall, London

19Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Truth To Power Café – Conway Hall, London

Inspired by his father Mick Goldstein’s friendship with ‘The Hackney Gang’ (six childhood friends - Harold Pinter, Henry Woolf, Mick Goldstein, Jimmy Law, Ron Percival and Moishe Wernick), Jeremy Goldstein has collaborated with the gang’s only living member Henry Woolf to continue his journey of discovery. In the 1940’s and 50’s the gang would meet up and throw around ideas about literature and poetry amongst other things, trying to escape from the problems going on in the big wide world and inhabit their own creative world. Previously, Goldstein Jr had worked on adapting his father’s work ‘Spider Love’ with Henry Woolf. After his father’s death in 2014, Goldstein found a play his father had written and decided to develop it. I had been written in answer to a book writ...

Adding Machine: The Musical – Finborough Theatre

19Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Adding Machine: The Musical – Finborough Theatre

Adding Machine: The Musical was first developed and performed in 2007 in Illinois, before moving to New York in 2008. In 2016 it was revived at the Finborough Theatre in London for a short run. Based upon American playwright Elmer Rice's 1923 play The Adding Machine, the musical adaptation retains the expressionistic and non-realistic approach of the original. Mr Zero is a faceless accountant in a big company, unrewarded at work and nagged at home by his wife, he loses himself in the numbers his job involves. Things go wrong when instead of the company celebrating him working there for twenty-five years, they lay him off, replacing him with an adding machine. Mr Zero loses his temper and kills his boss, to be arrested, tried and then sentenced to death by hanging. After he dies he finds...