Scotland Archives - Page 89 of 94

26Jan

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

School of Rock – Edinburgh Playhouse

I was 7 when I first saw School of Rock in the cinemas, as part of its original release. For me, the film was an instant five stars. Approaching Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production, my fears were rife. Could this film withstand a musical counterpart? Rebellious, unhinged and filled with angst, could it also cope with the slick trappings and stage design of a slick modern west end musical? It’s more or less the same story we all know and love from the film. Slacker and failed rockstar Dewey Finn (Jack Sharp) is down on his luck and in need of rent. One day he answers a call for a job offer at a prestigious fee paying junior school meant for his flat mate Ned Schneebly. Desperate and posing as Ned, he takes the job, and enters Horace Green School with no clue about pedagogy, but plenty of kn...

The Enormous Christmas Turnip – The Studio, Edinburgh

20Dec

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

The Enormous Christmas Turnip – The Studio, Edinburgh

That Ivor MacAskill (Rabbit Hutch) and Rosana Cade (Rabbit Stew) are Glasgow-based was obvious straightaway without consulting the programme. ‘You’ll have had yer tea’ made an early festive entrance as Hutch attempted to stall Stew’s attempt to invite more folks to Christmas dinner. More attendees would require more than the one carrot the two traditionally shared. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Potatoes and (the dreaded) Sprouts for example, but something was still missing, and it started with ‘Tur-‘. After the least bashful audience member of 2021 (five seats to our left) intervened to stop anyone adding a ‘-key’ we were off on a delightful, educational journey following the progress of seeds as they grew into actual vegetables. Adhering to the instructions given by the talking seed (an excel...

17Dec

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

White Christmas – Edinburgh Playhouse

Veterans Bob Wallace (Matthew Jeans) and Phil Davis (Dan Burton) have had a successful musical career since being discharged after World War II. But instead of continuing on with an engagement in Florida, they decide to follow female double-act the Haynes Sisters, Betty & Judy (Jessica Daley & Emily Langham) whom they have just met, to a Vermont lodge for a special Christmas show. There they discover the lodge happens to be owned by Bob and Phil's old Army General (Duncan Smith) and is in desperate need of their help. Though the original show has been cancelled, a whole new show must now be organised to save the place from ruin and the General from his mood. White Christmas was directed by Ian Talbot, based on the original direction by Nikolai Foster (Annie) and two-time Olivier...

Christmas Dinner – Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre

10Dec

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Christmas Dinner – Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre

They say a child first encounters theatre at Christmas. This year, the jewel in Edinburgh Theatre’s crown, The Lyceum lends its vast cavernous stage and stunning auditorium to Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, one of Scotland’s and possibly the UK’s best theatre company for Children. Armed with stories galore and a never-ending costume box they set to work to entice another hoard of children into the theatre. Writer Robert Alan Evans has dished up an eccentric celebration of why theatre is so important. In fact, it should come with a content warning: this production may make your child fall in love with theatre. The premise is … simple? Lesley (Elicia Daly), a tired and harangued stagehand has had a terrible past two years. Who hasn’t? Grief stricken, she wants nothing more of her Chris...

Heathers the Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

8Dec

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Heathers the Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

A toe tapping dark comedy, Heathers will have you laughing out loud at subjects in which you should really keep a straight face. Based on the cult classic 80s movie Heathers (Starring Christian Slater and Winona Ryder), Heathers the musical draws a very fine line between satire and serious subjects such as rape, suicide and of course murder, fortunately it does so very well indeed. Veronica Sawyer (Rebecca Wickes) is a student trying to survive life in high school, who just happens to have a talent for forging people’s writing. When this talent gets her noticed by the popular girls/ the Heathers (Maddison Firth, Merryl Ansah and Lizzy Parker) she finds herself entangled in a life of popularity, sex and one mysterious new boy: Jason Dean (Simon Gordon). One thing leads to anothe...

Sleeping Beauty – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

2Dec

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Sleeping Beauty – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

Allan Stewart and Grant Stott star in the King's Theatre Panto as Queen May and Carabosse. with Jordan Young as Muddles; Sia Dauda as Princess Beauty, Nicola Meehan as The Good Fairy and Clare Gray as Narcissa. It was written by Alan McHugh and directed by Ed Curtis. The programme says that production company Crossroads Pantomimes has spent £1.5 million on sets and costumes (which necessitated 20 makers) for this year's London Palladium pantomime, which will be seen in cities such as Birmingham, Wimbledon and Bristol in the years to follow. In the King's Theatre's Sleeping Beauty the budget is definitely on show through its multicoloured costumes (by Mike Coltman), lavish sets (designed by Ian Westbrook) and the odd Giant Flying Vampire Bat, motorcycle and pyrotechnics (special effects ...

18Nov

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Death Drop – Kings Theatre, Edinburgh

Death Drop is a dragtastic British bonanza which is sure to make you laugh out loud from curtains up to curtains down. The show takes place on a strange tidal island where a mysterious Lady von Fistenburg (Vinegar Strokes) throws a dinner party in celebration of the ten year wedding anniversary of Princess Diana and Charles. In doing so she invites 5 total strangers to join the festivities with her: Shazza (Willam), Summer Raines (Ra’Jah O’Hara), Morgan Pierce (Karen From Finance), Rich Whiteman (Richard Energy) and Phil Maker (Georgia Frost), joined by their motley catering crew (Holly Stars). When a storm attacks all are trapped within the house and as one predicts with a murder mystery it doesn’t take long before someone ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. To tell you ...

Eric & Ern – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

17Nov

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Eric & Ern – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

It was difficult to suppress a chuckle simply taking in the set. That sofa, for those of us of a certain vintage, the telephone (Daddy, what were they for in the olden days?) and… The Bed! With no sign of a kitchen one feared – correctly as it turned out – that this would be free of pop-up toast routines. Of Des O’Connor mentions, famous catchphrases and legendary sketches it was not. Never mind how ‘of its era’ it was (20 million+ viewers for the Christmas Specials in 1977 and 1978), this production underlined how enduring the scripts have proved. As has - faithfully captured by Jonty Stephens (Eric) and Ian Ashpitel (Ern) - the stagecraft, timing and theatricality necessary to execute them. In less safe hands a quip about watching a three-foot high person swallow a four-foot sword might ...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

9Nov

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane arrives in the eerie world of secrets and unsettling tradition of Sleepy Hollow to become the town teacher. But not all is as it seems, for Ichabod Crane harbours his own dark secret.... The play is based on the 1820 gothic story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Though the story is commonly accepted as having popularised the use of the pumpkin head at Halloween (replacing the turnip), it might be more familiar to most through its 1949 Disney adaptation and Tim Burton gothic nightmare. No, not the Dumbo remake. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) adapted The Legend into a half-hour short packaged with an adaptation of ...

The Play That Goes Wrong – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

3Nov

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

The Play That Goes Wrong – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

If I had to be absolutely honest, Cornley’s Poytechnic Drama Society’s performance of ‘Murder at Havisham Manor’ was about one-star at best, based purely on set design alone, but seeing as even that slowly disintegrated throughout the performance, this rating is dubious at best. You’ll therefore be glad to realise, reader, I was in attendance of Mischief Theatre’s ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, a carefully crafted physical theatre farce, where, unnervingly, everything that could have possibly gone wrong, did go wrong. ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ does what it says on the tin. The production framed through the narrative device of Cornley’s Polytechinic Drama Society’s latest production, which, thanks to inept planning and a lack of talent, goes very wrong indeed. It’s ram packed with every ki...