West Midlands Archives - North West End UK

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...

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...