West Midlands Archives - North West End UK

Operation Mincemeat – Alexandra Birmingham

12May

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

Operation Mincemeat – Alexandra Birmingham

Operation Mincemeat has been running in the West End for three years and is currently on its 18th extension. You don’t need to travel to London to see it though, audiences in Birmingham have the chance to see this tour, with many cast members who have appeared in the West End version. The slightly unappealing title of the show comes from the code name of an MI5 mission to deceive the German army and help to win the war. Not exactly ideal musical material, but somehow this show really works! There is everything you need for a cracking night out, great characters, humour, drama, perfect comedy timing, surprises, wonderful vocal performances and moments that will tug at the heart strings. All the songs are original and help to propel the story on at a rapid pace. There are a mix of styl...

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui – The Swan (RSC Stratford)

28Apr

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui – The Swan (RSC Stratford)

This is a play that feels as relevant now as it did when it was written by Bertolt Brecht in 1941. We are transported to Chicago in the middle of the Great Depression. Times are hard and the underworld is ruled by gangsters. Can Ui save the city or is he just power hungry? Will anyone try to stop him? From the very start the fourth wall is smashed down. This is perfect for the intimate setting of The Swan Theatre and helps to set the irreverent tone for the evening. From the stark grey and introductions to the characters, the stage bursts into colour and life. While many of the costumes are muted, there are splashes of colour and nods to a cabaret/circus feel in the set and costumes, both designed by Georgina Lowe. As the story and time develops, the clown style make up becomes more ...

23Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Barnum – Birmingham Hippodrome

Some musicals are classics and last forever, strong enough to weather changes in socials mood and time and attitudes. Other pieces have their place, their period and should, thereafter, be quietly archived as a curiosity of its time. Barnum falls into the latter category. Not for any fault in the music which continues to be vibrant, lively and riddled with humble ear-worms, but because we are asked to support, empathise and care for a character whose real-life exploits are clearly questionable by today’s standard. In the hands of a beloved TV entertainer forty years ago this would have passed without remark but today it’s somewhat toe-curling. A tweak of a line here or there would’ve avoided that. Barnum exploded on Broadway in the eighties with the multi-talented Jim Dale in the title ...

To Kill a Mockingbird – Birmingham Hippodrome

16Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

To Kill a Mockingbird – Birmingham Hippodrome

Like all great classics, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been filmed, staged, adapted into many other genres, yet at heart it remains a substantial component of the literary canon having made immeasurable contributions to understanding racial tension and segregation and gaining itself a Putlizer Prize in the process. Harper Lee penned the novel to reflect her childhood in 1930’s America when times were less enlightened and drew her inspiration from her neighbours and family around Monroeville, Alabama. Such was the momentous impact of the book, from being included on school reading to being banned from schools completely, it has woven itself into the cultural DNA of the US to earn its place as a true American classic and, almost, immobilised the author from ever writing another. Now sprinkl...

The Rocky Horror Show – Wolverhampton Grand

14Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Rocky Horror Show – Wolverhampton Grand

She's still a wild and an untamed thing. Like a regular visit from your favourite aunt, Rocky Horror rocks up once more at the Grand Theatre Wolverhampton to holler, heckle and howl, to shout, shimmy and shock, to dazzle, disturb and delight. Since it burst on the fringe scene fifty-three earth years ago it has transcended taste and tact with an ebullient effusion of mad-cap antics and a full-bodied burst of good old rock and roll to deploy a tale both carnal and comic with just a hint of poignancy running through its tainted veins. Like a mad scientist pondering the morality of his unnatural endeavours, I wonder if Richard O’Brien quite thought what he was unleashing on an unsuspecting world when he sharpened his quill and wrote “Michael Rennie was ill the day the earth stood still…” a...

Death on the Nile – Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

8Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Death on the Nile – Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

It’s mysterious that when Agatha Christie decided to adapt her novel “Death on the Nile” for stage she was so tired of Hercule Poirot, who, of course, so ably solved the murder in the book, she cut him out. “Death on the Nile” without Hercules Parrot as Maggie Smith misnames him in the movie? Yes, she re-wrote the novel as “Murder on the Nile” and instead of a Belgian she substituted an Archdeacon. Clear? I won’t muddy the waters of the Egyptian river by also mentioning the book started as a play titled “Moon on the Nile” before Agatha adapted it into a book with Poirot which then became a play without him which then became a film with him and is now, in the safe hands of Ken Ludwig, a play with him once again. A tortuous trail of disappearances and re-appearances to test the greatest of l...

7Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Small Island – Birmingham Rep

Andrea Levy’s 2004 novel set primarily in 1948 focussing on Jamaican immigrants travelling to post-war Britain and exploring themes of identity and race relations has already been adapted into a highly acclaimed BBC TV series. Here we have a stage adaptation by the very accomplished Helen Edmundson which first saw light at the National Theatre in 2019 garnering a slew of impressive reviews including Michael Billington’s claim for it to be ‘one of the most important plays of the year.” We follow our characters as they journey from the sun-scorned beaches of Jamaica to the cold, unwelcoming streets of London in the 40s’ encountering entitlement, abuse and the inevitable racism. This is the Windrush story told in just three short hours which fly by and the tale of Hortense, Gilbert, Queeni...

Operation Mincemeat – Wolverhampton Grand

18Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Operation Mincemeat – Wolverhampton Grand

“Helsinki!” It seems diversion, deception and misdirection are the mainstay of world politics and a swift scroll through todays newsfeeds uncovers a strew of devices and ploys employed by the most powerful people (mostly men) in the world to distract the same world from uncovering their doings. I think you know who I mean without naming names. So, it’ll come as no surprise people (mostly men) throughout history have been doing the same and in tonight’s case we’re looking at the British deception operation in World War Two intended to disguise the 1943 invasion of Italy. I’m not sure how you disguise an invasion. It surely must be very noisy. Apparently, it involves the body of tramp dressed as a royal marine, loaded with fake ID, fake info, fake uniform and, yes, fake news. This vers...

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical – Birmingham Hippodrome

25Feb

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical – Birmingham Hippodrome

"Go and see Percy Jackson!” they said. “Who?” I replied, immediately betraying my ignorance of popular culture. Is this a pop star who has gone under my radar? Most have since the turn of the century to be fair. Is it some form of movie star only know to a myriad of teens? Is it a strange strain of that global phenomenon known as a YouTuber? No, no, no. If, like me, you are in the dark, allow me to throw some light your way. It seems the author Ricki Riordan has been bashing out stories about Percy for over twenty years initially inspired by his own son’s struggle in school. Percy is a demi-god (Half-divine, half-human) son of a mortal and Poseidon, the famous Greek god, who continually finds himself ensnared in rip-roaring adventures in a series of now seven books. There now we know. Perc...

11Feb

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Fawlty Towers – Wolverhampton Grand

Of course I don’t need to remind you of the high esteem in which Fawlty Towers is held not only by the international comedy loving public but also by comedic contemporaries and comedians of today. It is the one. The first and the best. Bar none. End of. Its first script was once described by an early producer as “a collection of cliches and stock characters which I can’t see being anything but a disaster.” Unlike John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs and Connie Booth that producer’s name has been consigned to history. We watch the show over and over, without tiring, in abject horror and disbelief as Basil commits the same acts of frustrated stupidity taking his indignation to dizzying heights transcending taboo after taboo. It’s a glorious fusion of British stiff-upper-lipped suppr...