West Midlands Archives - North West End UK

Slava’s Snow Show – Alexandra Theatre Birmingham

13Nov

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Slava’s Snow Show – Alexandra Theatre Birmingham

An old man goes to see a psychiatrist in Switzerland complaining of deep depression. The psychiatrist tells him to go see Grock, the greatest and funniest clown in all of Switzerland. No one could see Grock and not come away delighted, entertained and inspired, he says. Grock takes all the worries off us for a few hours every night, he says. The old man looks up with sad eyes and softly says, “But I am Grock!” Clowns have hopped, bounced, bo-inged, flipped and prat-fell around the edges of show biz for centuries. Every era has its clown. Shakespeare had Will Kempe, during the regency period we had Joseph Grimaldi and today we have Slava Polunin who, though now 75, brings us an astounding piece of theatrical wonder which has been delighting audiences since 2009. Slava says “…One day I re...

17Oct

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Moulin Rouge – Birmingham Hippodrome

It Does What It Says On The Can-Can! Baz Luhrmann’s deft capacity to envision new worlds in new ways through new eyes has placed him at the peak of Hollywood artistry. Not only his ability to find, fashion and formulate dazzling new images and inspired panoramas but also to deliver something equally as valuable and important, putting the biz in show biz - money! His works tingle with extravagance and shimmer with opulence especially in his 2001 oddity “Moulin Rouge!”, which, though toffing its top hat to history, reinvents, reimagines and reupholstered the lot. It fizzes with unique ideas and iconic vistas which linger long after the final shot has faded into celluloid oblivion coupled with a bubbling, melting pot of eclectic songs and music - little of which is of the period but drawn ...

23Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Last Laugh – Alexandra, Birmingham

I was in Morocco once (hold on - this’ll make sense) and came across a market stall selling fezes. The stall holder asked me where I was from. I said, “UK” where upon he put on a fez and said, “Just like that!” I asked him if he knew what that meant. He shrugged and said, “No, but everyone who comes from UK puts on a fez and says, “Just like that!’” And we still do. Forty years after the death of the comic we’re imitating. Such is the impression he made and the impressions being made tonight at the Alexandra will surely be spoken for the same length of time. Three stalwarts of comedy who dominated the light entertainment landscape for many years are here evoked with uncanny accuracy by three comedy stalwarts who have to be seen to be believed. Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkh...

19Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Mary Poppins – Birmingham Hippodrome

P.L.Travers, by all accounts, cried at the opening of the Disney adaptation of her famous children’s novel - and not in a nice way. She was a stickler for accuracy and precision and wanted her book recreated almost exactly as she had envisioned it - Disney had other plans. Disney often did. In reinventing her novel (and ignoring Traver’s demands) he gave the world one of its most beloved family films which has woven itself in the DNA of our shared culture for over sixty years. It gave us those indelible Sherman Brothers songs coupled with an endearing, cute plot and one of the worst cockney accents committed to celluloid. So when Cameron Mackintosh landed on the idea of staging the show he not only took on the behemoth of a cultural icon, the might of Disney but, perhaps most intimidatingl...

The Addams Family – Birmingham Hippodrome

13Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Addams Family – Birmingham Hippodrome

Photo: Jay Brooks With its familiar theme song (click, click) and enduring characters (click, click) the Addams Family has established its own gruesome niche in the global comedy/horror market (click, click). Since it emerged from the fetid and grim brain of Charles Addams way, way back when horror was in black and white both in film and print and his cartoons adorned the pages of the New Yorker it has, like the many creatures it apes, transformed, transmuted and transmogrified and spawned many and varied offspring. Famously a TV series which evolved from the simmering depths of the ABC network in 1964 (not to be confused with “The Munsters” which sprung from the same gothic horror tropes with a similarity bordering on plagiarism, but shown on an entirely different channel), which then ...

The Great Big Dinosaur Show – Midlands Arts Centre

3Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Great Big Dinosaur Show – Midlands Arts Centre

“Never work with children and dinosaurs” is a paraphrased old showbiz adage and a well-worn warning passed down the years to caution well-meaning performers against the inconsistent vagaries of both - you never know what children may do and dinosaurs tend to go extinct. So it takes a strong poet and his gecko to face the daunting two-headed hybrid of the Dinokid, but in the reliable hands of both Simon Mole and his buddy, Gecko, who, I was disappointed to discover, was not a gecko, these old showbiz platitudes can be safely tossed aside. “The Great Big Dinosaur Show” emerged from the primordial soup of the combined imaginations of these two talented performers via Mole’s 2023 book, “A First Book of Dinosaurs” from Walker Books illustrated by Matt Hunt and evolved into something unique, ...

13May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Peter Grimes – Birmingham Hippodrome

For many, opera is another country; they do things differently there. Images of armour-clad Rheinmaidens and vain bass baritones with over-inflated girths and egos have permeated popular iconography for decades and not without reasons - in some places those stereotypes have and do exist, but not tonight, not at the WNO. The Welsh National Opera Company is peopled with performers, creatives and technicians clearly with their feet on the ground intent on delivering work which is accessible, engaging and truthful - and a prime example of this is tonight’s offering “Peter Grimes” which, on paper, could read as a dreary, sodden coastal tract but on stage is dances with wit, insight, and perception. The opera, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, has a libretto by Montagu Slater (a name itsel...

The Marriage of Figaro – Birmingham Hippodrome

9May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Marriage of Figaro – Birmingham Hippodrome

So what have Eddie Murphy and the Welsh National Opera got in common? Give in? I’ll tell you - the famous music at the beginning of his movie “Trading Places” is the overture to The Marriage of Figaro presented tonight by Welsh National Opera. See? We’re all connected in little ways and it only goes to show the manner in which Mozart has permeated our cultural DNA on nearly every level. I’m sure there are many other examples of his music seeping into films, TV and commercials, because they are a) cracking tunes and b) out of copyright. Mozart took up his quill in 1786 to match his music to the words of the eccentric Lorenzo Da Ponte (who himself deserves an opera all about his life) and between them presented a solid gold, 100% perfect classic full of melodies you don’t know you know but y...

6May

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

An Inspector Calls – The Alexandra

There are not many of these old theatrical war-horses left, you know. Those familiar, reliable, well-made plays which stomped across the provinces for year in, year out have now been replaced by newer, younger models targeting the cutting-edge, ground-breaking yoof market. There are fewer and fewer Agatha Christies, Ray Cooneys and hardly any Terence Rattigan. And no one has touched JB Priestley for years. Apart from Stephen Daldry. Priestley’s dour, northern wordy world has been given a fresh new slant in this production which itself is knocking on a bit having premiered way back in 1992 yet feels a fresh as a daisy - which is oddly the name of a character in the play. It’s appropriate that a play about social responsibility and the evils of capitalism should have started in Russia in ...

Titus Andronicus – Swan Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon

30Apr

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

West Midlands

Titus Andronicus – Swan Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon

Director Max Webster arrives In Stratford to direct his first production for the Royal Shakespeare Company hot on the heels of recent critical and popular success with Macbeth at the Donmar and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the National Theatre. For his debut with the company he has given us a glorious interpretation of ‘Titus Andronicus’ which, whilst sparing none of the blood and gore associated with Shakespeare’s bloody revenge tragedy, also manages to encompass the filial love at the heart of the play. The Costume Design by Joanna Scotcher places this ‘Titus’ somewhere in the present; a gorgeous grey-black palette suffuses the stage with long luxuriant coats and smart suits replacing the martial uniform of Imperial Rome. Scotcher also designed the set, the action played out o...