West Midlands Archives - Page 13 of 13

Everyone’s Talking About Jamie – The Alexandra, Birmingham

15Sep

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Everyone’s Talking About Jamie – The Alexandra, Birmingham

“Everyone’s Talking About Jamie” was greeted by wild, enthusiastic audience from its devoted followers at the Alex in Birmingham. They whooped, hollered, cheered and even applauded an unscheduled show-stop. They loved it. Clearly the way to approach this show is with the soundtrack firmly in your head and a determination to enjoy yourself no matter what.We were back! The theatre was packed with expectant, eager people made up of a demographic who rarely make up the majority of a theatre audience. This is all good. All positive stuff. However, a few things jarred. The young performers who form the larger part of the cast consistently talked through laughs and applause that so much was lost. The sound was slightly awry in parts, but this being opening night will probably settle. The drama wa...

13Sep

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

West Midlands

Rock of Ages – Alexandra Theatre

Part rock gig, part romp down memory lane, the new tour of Rock of Ages has landed, ready to make the UK ‘feel the noize’ and indulge in some heavy metal headbanging. Tonight, we’ve been transported from the centre of Birmingham to the heart of Los Angeles, the Sunset Strip. We meet the regulars of the Bourbon Bar; an insalubrious rock joint being faced with extinction as a villainous German duo look to demolish and develop the gritty Strip into a gleaming European vision of modernity. Underneath this shadow we meet barback Drew who is instantly smitten with the wholesome new girl in town Sherrie, and the show follows their budding ‘will they, won’t they’ relationship as they navigate the standard fare of missed opportunities and misunderstandings as well as their attempts to make it...

1Sep

By Angela KellyNo Comments

West Midlands

Grease – Regent Theatre

It maybe rapidly approaching Autumn but there are still a few Summer Nights to be had at The Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent this week. Directed by Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director for Curve, the musical classic ‘Grease’ and its infamous score are totally prepared to entertain audiences on stage with an all-new cast. For those very few individuals who may not have experienced Grease previously, it is essentially a 50’s High School love story, starring the leather clad, cool dude 'Danny Zuko' (Dan Partridge) and the innocent, girl next door, 'Sandy Dumbrowski' (Georgia Louise). They reunite in their final year at Rydell High. It may be a love story on the surface, but it is also very much a story about teenage friendships, peer pressure, sexual relationships and personal challenges. Pa...

What’s Love Got To Do With It? A Tribute to Tina Turner – Regent Theatre

25Aug

By Angela KellyNo Comments

West Midlands

What’s Love Got To Do With It? A Tribute to Tina Turner – Regent Theatre

If you are a star that is known instantly by your first name ‘Tina' and have a musical career that spans more than 50 years, then you really don’t need much of an introduction. However, one lady who should be applauded is the one and only Elesha Paul Moses, performing songs by Tina Turner. Brought to the stage by the producers who brought us the fabulous ‘Whitney, Queen of the Night’, this show was a celebration of Tina Turner’s career. ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’, is certainly the perfect return to the theatre for most audiences post lockdown. Jam packed with Tina’s hits it provided the audience with an uplifting, extremely energetic, feel-good show that is undoubtedly a wonderful tribute to the great Tina Turner. There are often strong opinions one way or another about tribute...

10Apr

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

West Midlands

Rooms – Birmingham Hippodrome

I don’t think there are enough jaw-droppingly awesome words in my vocabulary to say how absolutely astonishing this production is. If you see one show this year Rooms should be it. Imagine if you will, sitting in a train carriage and glimpsing into a series of lit rooms on a dark night. You can see the goings-on, the occupants, the lives – but only for a brief tantalising moment. Now imagine stepping into that room; literally being in that room, such is the power of the close cinematography. Rambert’s 17 brilliant dancers will literally transform your life into their lives as their stories unfold over 36 scenes and involving 100 characters. Captivating and beautiful, funny and dark, their stories will surprise you, engulf you and become a part of you. Shot as if you are in the ro...

7Sep

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Birmingham Hippodrome

The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England. Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End shows, pantomime and drama. The Hippodrome is the venue for West End touring theatrical shows, such as Wicked, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Lion King, Matilda, Mary Poppins, Annie, Grease and We Will Rock You. The theatre's Christmas pantomimes are produced by Qdos Entertainment, over recent years attracting stars such as Brian Conley, Don Maclean, Julian Clary, Joe Pasquale, John Barrowman, Joan Collins, Nigel Havers, Keith Harris, Lynda Bellingham, Lesley Joseph, Gary Wilmot, Paul Zerdin,...

6Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Birmingham Opera Company: The Ice Break

Birmingham Opera’s Artistic Director Graham Vick takes a brave leap in transforming this opera by Michael Tippett the first interpretation since 1977 in Covent Garden. An unused warehouse is cleverly transformed into a strange airport terminal where the audience stands and is ushered around to the dramatic action by the chorus; a lot whom are from the local community. Opera can have many connotations, high brow, difficult to understand and perhaps for an old fashioned elite; Vick throws all this on its head with an utterly gripping show where everything is energised for a fascinating heady performance that is contemporary and relevant. It is indeed even more relevant with the Black Lives Movement that has been a regular feature of the last few months. The themes focus on race, rio...

Much Ado About Nothing – Royal Shakespeare Company

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Much Ado About Nothing – Royal Shakespeare Company

Showing as part of the BBC’S Culture in Quarantine series, this Royal Shakespeare Company 2014 production, often wondered to be the missing Love’s Labour’s Won, was originally the latter half of a comic double bill – the first half being Love’s Labour’s Lost – devised by director Christopher Luscombe and designer Simon Higlett, and was live screened to cinema in 2015. In a clever re-staging, the action is set in December 2018 at the country house of Leonato (David Horovitch), and which has been converted to serve as a hospital, with daughter Hero (Flora Spencer-Longhurst) and cousin Beatrice (Michelle Terry) replete in nurses uniforms. Prince Don Pedro (John Hodgkinson) leads the returning soldiers which include his illegitimate brother Don John (Sam Alexander), Claudio (Tunji Kasim)...

The Merchant of Venice – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

2Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

The Merchant of Venice – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

It is not often recognised that this is one of Shakespeare’s comedies and watching this RSC production from 2015 under the direction of Polly Findlay as part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine programme, one would be tempted to say it was a tragedy. I often say that less is more but Johannes Schütz’s set design is so bare that even with its pendulum constantly swinging, it is impossible to decipher a proper sense of time or place which is at the heart of this play about money and how it affects all involved. We begin with Antonio (Jamie Ballard), a prince among Venetian merchants who is unaccountably depressed despite his obvious success as a dealer in luxury goods. His friend Bassanio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in contrast is broke but remains reasonably cheerful as he has a plan to marry Por...

29Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Othello – Birmingham Opera Company

Shakespeare’s Othello is a tragedy which explores timeless themes of race, trust and fidelity and Verdi’s operatic version adds a mesmerising backdrop of powerful music. Birmingham Opera Company’s production is a unique modern interpretation which immersed its original audience within the action of the story and exposes the darkest elements of the story in shocking detail. The opera is sung in English, with occasional subtitles which turn on and off at seemingly random intervals. The opera is performed in a warehouse, with bare brick walls and a blood red carpet, with a live orchestra conducted by Stephen Barlow. As part of the broadcast we see the bewildered and shoeless audience enter the performance space and merge into the Chorus made up of 250 people. It was clearly the intention o...