REVIEWS Archives - Page 427 of 549

Alistair McGowan: The Piano Show – Cadogan Hall

19May

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Alistair McGowan: The Piano Show – Cadogan Hall

Alistair McGowan's show is a "game of two halves", a unique blend of stand-up impressions and classical piano. McGowan's self-titled debut album reached No 1 in the Classical Album charts, launching his rebranded career as a classical pianist. His second classical album has also just been released. In this new show, he combines his abilities as well-known impressionist and comedian with his more recent classical music talents. His career so far has been as eclectic as this show; he starred in The Big Impression, one of the BBC's top-rated comedy programmes for four years, has worked in the West End (Art, Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, Mikado), written plays and books and provided voice-overs for Spitting Image. McGowan's impressions are spot-on, with some well-known voices mixed...

19May

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

Oh Mother – HOME

If you have ever had a child, been a child, had or been a mother, cared for someone you love or if you have ever had a dishwasher, at some point during this perfectly paced piece of physical theatre you will be struck, right in the heart and soul. Oh Mother is made up of fragments of stories that are interrupted and cut off, woven together to create the dreamlike world you can live in when you are taking care of someone, at the beginning or the end of their life. The stories are interspersed with sequences of movement and music that adventure into epic domestic, rage, gender, bonding, attachment and climbing into that fantastic beast of domestic white goods… The Rashdash Company of three, present a brilliant Brechtian bonanza which looks at women’s roles as key carers to their own...

19May

By Lewis DownhamNo Comments

North West

Chicago – New Wimbledon Theatre

New Wimbledon Theatre had it coming as the show razzle dazzled its way onto the stage, with popular musical hits such as Cell Block Tango, Mister Cellophane and many more. The show is set in 1920’s Chicago and follows the story of Roxie Hart (Faye Brookes) and Velma Kelly (Djalenga Scott) as they battle for a space on the front of the newspaper to gain fame and stardom, after murdering various lovers after not getting their way. Billy Flynn (Russell Watson) takes the case of the two stars. The set for this production was stripped back, which by no means takes away from the show but frames the stage and band quite literally as they take centre stage while being immersed into the show and given a character of their own. Interacting with the cast led by Andrew Hilton (Musical Director) ...

Ross & Rachel – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

19May

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Ross & Rachel – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

They were arguably the biggest on-screen couple of the 1990s. But what happened after the cameras stopped rolling on Ross and Rachel? After all, no one told life was gonna be this way. Written by James Fritz, strangely this isn't a play about the iconic couple from Friends. Instead, it is about a young couple navigating their way through life until they're delivered a massive blow. What starts off as relatively light hearted takes a more sinister turn. To add to this, the play directed by Carole Carr, is essentially a series of monologues delivered by one actor. In this case Fiona Primrose rose to the challenge. Her dramatic scenes were when she shone brightest, but personally I would have preferred a more distinguished difference between the two characters. I did have the joy of see...

The Rocky Horror Show – Liverpool Empire

17May

By Jan MellorNo Comments

North West

The Rocky Horror Show – Liverpool Empire

Well, what a hoot! From start to finish this show was an absolute rollercoaster of mayhem, laughter and double-entendres! The Rocky Horror Show – more of a phenomenon now since it first braced the theatres nearly 50 years ago (since 1973)- has become the biggest cult musical of all time. Richard 0’Brien’s wacky story of how two squeaky clean college kids – Brad and his fiancée Janet, when by a twist of fate, find their way into a creepy mansion whilst on their way to visit their former college professor, meet the charismatic Dr Frank ’n’ Furter and change their lives forever, has taken on a new life of its own. I have seen the show a couple of times and thought it’s time I educated my 17-year-old son into the world of “The Mind Warp” and to the craziness that is the Rocky Horror Show. A...

17May

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

The Actress – Players Theatre, Cheadle

Lydia Martin is an actress of a certain age… her words not mine! She has decided that she no longer wishes to wait around for the decreasing number of roles that could come her way, and so she is set to retire to Geneva with her new fiancé, Charles, where life will be calm and quiet and clean. Set primarily in Lydia’s dressing room, this 2014 play by Peter Quilter takes us through the night of her final performance. We meet the key people in her life and try and get to the bottom of her monumental decision. First, a word about the design. Peter Thorburn, who also directed the piece, has created a very authentic space for this grande dame of theatre to hold court on her closing night. However, this set holds a secret – which I will not spoil here – to enable the audience to be transpo...

17May

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Maggie May – Leeds Playhouse

There’s nearly a million people and their families in this country living with one of the 200 variants of dementia who have been mostly ignored by theatre makers. There would an outcry if a similarly sized group of people were being marginalised in that way, but Frances Poet’s bittersweet work tracing one woman’s dementia journey goes someway to addressing that in an unflinching, yet hopeful, new work that never sugar-coats what is happening to Maggie, but not for one second loses sight of her as a person. Maggie has been married to Gordon for over forty years and they have always retained their love of cheesy singalongs to their favourite hit songs that have been curtailed by his recent stroke, but as this feisty woman nurses him back to health, she is trying to hide something big f...

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice – Liverpool Playhouse

17May

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice – Liverpool Playhouse

A Cinderella story where Cinders never wanted to go to the ball in the first place, and is much happier at home, listening to music in her PJs with a cup of tea thank-you-very-much, sounds like a very modern take for a fairy tale. Yet ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’ has solidly morphed into period theatre. Penned by Jim Cartwright, this regularly revived tale introduces us Laura ‘LV’ Hoff, a reclusive young girl who retreats from the world dominated by her brash and bawdy mother, Mari, preferring the company of her late father’s record collection of ‘diva’ songstresses – Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey and more. Her hidden talent for mimicking the singers soon catches the ear of wannabe empresario Ray Say, who pushes LV to perform publicly. The show’s success lives...

The Barricade Boys – Opera House, Manchester

16May

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

The Barricade Boys – Opera House, Manchester

Believe it or not it’s the Barricade Boys 7th Anniversary tour of ‘Bring him Home’, originally the brainchild of Scott Garnham and Simon Schofield who wanted to create an audience experience that was much more than just songs from the shows. Having first performed at the Charing Cross Theatre in 2015, the group have successfully progressed providing entertainment on cruise ships, various well known UK television shows, Broadway and numerous other venues. The 2022 cast consists of the original founders Scott Graham and Simon Schofield joined by Craig Mather and Kieran Brown; all male vocals have a huge accolade of west end successes. Liam Steel choreographed the tour bring it nicely in line with the Les Miserable theme as it was Liam who was the choreographer for the Les Misérables movie...

14May

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Snatched – The Lowry

Melissa Johns is extraordinary. Although, not necessarily for the reasons you might think, and certainly not just because she was born with a disability… She is extraordinary because she is uncompromising in her honesty, and she has learned to be unapologetically herself. In SNATCHED, she tells her story precisely because it is a story that everyone can identify with, whether they are disabled or not. Theatre has value as entertainment, of course; and Johns is funny. The anecdotes she tells about her life are funny, and she has exceptional timing when telling them. But theatre can do so much more than just entertain, and I challenge anyone to go and see this production and not come away changed. We all have things that we can learn about ourselves and about society’s relationship to dis...