REVIEWS Archives - Page 489 of 548

Opera Beneath the Stars – Liverpool Theatre Festival

12Sep

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

North West

Opera Beneath the Stars – Liverpool Theatre Festival

The Liverpool based company Absolute Opera presented this night of glorious and mesmerising operatic classics at The Royal Court Theatre Studio. Originally the gala concert was going to take place in the Bombed Out Church but due to adverse weather conditions and with just 3 hours’ notice, the venue was changed to the Royal Court Studio. All credit to the production team headed by Bill Elms that they managed to get this magnificent show back on track with very little time to spare. The show featured the talents of Tenor Roy Locke (Opera Australia and also creative director for Absolute Opera), Mezzo Soprano Lilly Papaioannou (Glyndebourne) and Soprano Leigh Rhianon Coggins (Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company). They were accompanied on piano by the excellent Danish musician Per Nei...

8Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Woman in Black – Fortune Theatre

Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel returns to the West End with a special reopening at the Fortune Theatre. For director Robin Herford, the project was inspired by an innate urge to mount grandiose artistic output using scarce resources, an endeavour which led him to approach his friend, the late Stephen Malattrat, to adapt Hill’s story with a dozen odd characters into a brisk two-hander play. The show premiered in 1987 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and transferred to London a year later, playing at the Lyric Theatre, Strand, the Playhouse and finally moved to the Fortune, where it’s been on for over thirty years. Whereas the original plot of the novel focuses on the everyday happenings and conversations in a small English town haunted by a...

8Sep

By Hazel BumbyNo Comments

North West

Magic Goes Wrong – Empire Theatre

Firstly, I must say how nice it was to be back in a theatre and the Empire is one of my personal favourites. The staff are always so helpful and friendly. Having watched the first two plays by this creative team, and being happy with a bit of magic, I was very much looking forward to this play. However, unfortunately I felt this fell quite flat in comparison to The Play That Goes Wrong and The Bank Robbery That Goes Wrong. The set was simple but effective with some fabulous lighting which ‘went wrong’ a few times throughout the evening and this was accompanied with excellent sound effects. There were no actual hiccups with sound and lighting throughout the show which is testament to a cracking technical crew. Well done to all involved with this. There was only one song in the e...

Twice Nightly – Liverpool Theatre Festival

8Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Twice Nightly – Liverpool Theatre Festival

Liverpool Theatre Festival is about halfway through its run of nightly performances that boosts everything from music to drama, comedy and lots more. The same can be said for tonight’s performance ‘Twice Nightly’ which served up all of the above and more in one show! ‘Twice nightly’ is a 70-minute show which was not only written by and directed by Maria Lovelady and Michael Alan Bailey but it also stars these two talented performers as the double act Don & Madge. The show opens with Don & Madge singing a duet with the catchy words ‘what did we steal?’ This opening number leaves the audience wondering what they are in for, who are these pair? Is the show about mastermind criminals? is it all sung? and to add to the curiosity, Don’s moustache kept falling off- was this supposed to...

8Sep

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Waitress – New Wimbledon Theatre

After a premature West End closure due to the pandemic, Waitress, the smash-hit musical comedy written by Sara Bareilles is opening up (again), kicking off its UK tour at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Based on Adrienne Shelley’s cult film of the same name, the show tells the story of Jenna, a talented pie-baking waitress with a big heart whose life unexpectedly changes when a new doctor arrives in town. Several cast members from its West End run have returned to reprise their roles, most notably Lucie Jones who plays the lead, Jenna. From her debut in 2019 to coming back after the show’s closure, Jones has grown in leaps and bounds in her portrayal of Jenna. From her beautiful rendition of ‘What Baking Can Do’ to the incredibly emotional ‘She Used to Be Mine’ which received a well-earned s...

8Sep

By Tracy RyanNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Groan Ups – Sheffield Lyceum

After meeting at Drama school 13 years ago the in suppressible Mischief Theatre members have continued to have us rolling in the aisles with their next instalment Groan Ups. Following on from the successful West End located The Play that goes Wrong, and the Penn and Teller collaboration Magic Goes Wrong; the seasonal Peter Pan Goes Wrong and the standalone The Comedy about a Bank Robbery, the work ethic of Mischief is admirable. Groan Ups takes a slightly different persona to the former being more an observational comedy and does not rely on physical comedy as it’s lynch. It has real moments of nostalgic pathos as it follows the lives of five friends at three intervals in their lives from primary school to the obligatory school reunion. All taking place within a classroom the set reduce...

7Sep

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Three Way – Empty Space

Midlands-based theatre company Split Infinitive have rightly identified that the ‘B’ of LGBTQ+ is an oft-overlooked if not snubbed sexuality within the community. Their endeavour to address this comes in the form of Three Way, a trio of monologues centred around the love lives of three conflicted men. Though a focus on the experiences of bisexual males is deliberate, omitting a female narrative is certainly a missed opportunity since it would have offered a wider perspective on the prejudices faced by all those who are bi. The intention of this piece is sincere, but it often fans the flames of the stereotypes associated with bisexuality, rather than challenging them: arguably, one of the characters is not even bisexual, instead falling into the ‘bi now, gay later’ box that Three Ways...

Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens – TriBeCa Manchester

7Sep

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens – TriBeCa Manchester

In the great fringe tradition, Saucy Jacks and the Space Vixens begins before you even enter Manchester’s TriBeCa venue. An American diner waitress takes the tickets, a moody cabaret boss is sat in the corner and the club acts are cleaning tables and interacting with the audience members, even sending voice messages using peoples’ phones. A delay to press night was another chance for improv as one of the cast ushered the audience back upstairs, declaring “some diva isn’t ready”. But if the production feels haphazard when you arrive, the quality of the material and performances soon convince you otherwise. The show isn’t new. After premiering in Edinburgh in 1995, Saucy Jacks has been staged by both amateur and professional groups - on and off - ever since. The overarching theme isn’t gr...

Dear Elizabeth – The Gate @ Theatro Technis

7Sep

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Dear Elizabeth – The Gate @ Theatro Technis

Dear Elizabeth (written by Sarah Ruhl) is an exploration of the deep yet complicated friendship between American poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Ruhl’s script is a vast selection of the letters the two wrote to each other over several decades, and each night a fresh pair of unprepared actors arrive to take on the roles of Bishop and Lowell, unaware of what they’ll be performing. This interesting if not risky concept means that each audience will have a somewhat different experience, and while the letters are funny and searingly honest there wasn’t enough there for me to make up for the lack of characterisation. I found it frustrating being offered a window into the lives of two fascinating people but not being able to dig deeper into their personalities and motivations. Tha...

7Sep

By Alison BainesNo Comments

North West

Toxic – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

Suicide is a perennially important topic and one that has to be approached with care, compassion and tact. This was the subject of Toxic; no easy task to take on. As part of Manchester Fringe festival, Toxic, at The Altringham Garrick, is a story that follows two best friends and the circumstances which have caused them to spiral. Andy discovers his husband has been having an affair. Stuck in a soul-crushing job, his lifejacket of love was the only thing keeping him afloat. His best friend James is a man’s man who uses gags to disguise his vulnerability. The writer, Dan Lovatt, explores toxic masculinity, with each character clearly defining the traits of men you recognise from your own life. As a woman, the pressures upon men within a toxic society can be alien, but the piece does w...