West Midlands Archives - Page 14 of 16

28Jan

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

Animal Farm – Birmingham Rep

This well-known story based on the book by George Orwell, studied by generations at school has taken to the stage in Birmingham. From the moment you walk into the auditorium you can tell this isn’t a happy go lucky play. The stage has a dark industrial feel too it, the pre-show action on stage reinforces the tone even further. Animal Farm tells the tale of animals on a farm who dream of days of freedom from their human oppressors. Following a stirring speech from an old pig, they plan a revolution. We follow their journey as all their best laid plans and intentions start to fade. Anyone who studied this at school will probably remember the story revolves round political ideals, leadership and control of the masses. This production manages to bring the story to life in a very visua...

25Jan

By Priya GuptaNo Comments

West Midlands

Chicago – Alexandra Theatre

Start the car and head on down to the Alexandra Theatre, where Chicago really is all that jazz. The Tony award-winning, record-breaking hit musical has Fosse walked its way to Birmingham and it doesn’t disappoint. Set in Chicago in the Jazz age, the musical is based on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. With the music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, and the book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the ‘celebrity criminal’. Set in the backdrop of 1920’s decadence Roxie Hart murders her lover after he threatens to walk out on her. To avoid conviction, she dupes the public and the media by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, who will defend you for a high price, guilty ...

19Jan

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

The Addams Family – The Alexandra

At last, this spooky and kooky production comes to Birmingham for the week. Based on the 60's TV show and various films, this musical brings the creepy family to life in a show full of humour and original songs. Wednesday Addams has fallen for a “normal” boy, much to her family's horror. She invites him and his parents for dinner to meet the family, will they get along or will her family and their mysterious game ruin everything. Although set in New York there is a distinctly Spanish flavour to the show thanks to Gomez and his ancestors. With a Latin beat running through some of the numbers it is hard not to tap your feet to the music. The songs may not stay etched in your memory, but they tell the story and convey the emotions perfectly with each one being a showcase for the sing...

Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Birmingham Hippodrome

8Jan

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Birmingham Hippodrome

If you go down in the woods today, you’ll be sure a vibrant explosion of panto frolics and furry fun at the Birmingham Hippodrome where, after a covid-induced hiatus, the annual treat comes crashing back forming the cherry on top of a very rich Christmas cake. The newly formed Crossroads Pantos rose phoenix-like from the remains of previous panto producers Qdos and transformed panto-like into the shiny new makers of our yuletide jollity with just enough traces of their previous incarnation blended with dollops of freshly minted ideas to justify their name change. “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is a plot rarely visited in pantodom. It’s scant and thin with only one familiar scene so it’s unsurprising Crossroads have taken to building out the story with some astounding circus artiste...

The Play What I Wrote – The Rep, Birmingham

7Dec

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

The Play What I Wrote – The Rep, Birmingham

This homage to comedy geniuses Morecambe and Wise comes to Birmingham for the festive season, what better place to stage the 20th anniversary revival production. If you are expecting Eric and Ernie look-a-likes or the story of their lives you will need to think again. Instead, what you get is like a compilation of hits and the essence of the humour that so may people loved. Thom and Dennis are a comedy double act, but Thom has decided he has had enough of not being funny one so turns his hand to play writing. In contrast, Dennis thinks their future together can be saved if they perform a Morecambe & Wise show. What follows is Dennis using every method he can think of to persuade his friend to be his straight man again. There are laughs a plenty from the jokes to facial express...

24Nov

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

Death Drop – The Alexandra, Birmingham

Having started life in the West End, Death Drop comes to Birmingham to bring its unique twist on the murder mystery genre to brighten the city. It is 1991, the Lady of Shantay Mansion invites a seemingly random group of personalities to celebrate a special anniversary. However, on this stormy night strange things soon start to occur. As secrets are revealed, will anyone make it out alive? I have never seen a show like it, it brings the art of Drag (be it Queens or Kings) into a mainstream theatre. The lines of gender are blurred, all you see are larger than life characters as they fill the stage with their performances, and it works, it makes you wonder why this hasn’t happened before. This is part pantomime, with slap stick and tongue twisters, part musical with a couple of crack...

9 to 5 The Musical – The Alexandra, Birmingham

17Nov

By Annette NuttallNo Comments

West Midlands

9 to 5 The Musical – The Alexandra, Birmingham

After an enforced break, this feel-good musical takes to the road again, stopping off in Birmingham for a week. Based on the 1980s film of the same name and of course, the iconic song, this show tells the tale of three woman (Doralee, Violet and Judy) with office jobs, struggling to get noticed in a man’s world. Their boss, Franklin Hart Jnr, has views that (hopefully) are outdated in the workplace today. Can the ladies get him to take them seriously? Being set in the 1980s, everything is of the era. The costumes, hair and make-up instantly transport you right back, as does the pared down set. Clever use of projection does the leg work for the scene setting allowing for a few well placed furniture items to create the location. The set changes create a choreographed musical interlude ...

9Nov

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Groan-Ups – Wolverhampton Grand

It’s probably an apocryphal tale and often attributed to, among others, Edmund Kean, that on his deathbed he is asked how he feels to which he replies, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” And it is a wise aphorism borne out by tonight’s performance of “Groan-Ups” presented to us by Mischief Theatre who you will immediately recognise from “The Play that Goes Wrong” and TV’s hugely successful “Goes Wrong Show” - very familiar faces. Since giving us the first of those shows which was a smash hit in the West End they have travelled to Broadway and, having seen its original production, I can say it was undoubtedly one of the funniest evenings I have ever spent in a theatre in my life. Ever. So you’re probably wondering why this one has only earned two stars. Here goes… It explores familiar grou...

3Nov

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Blood Brothers – Birmingham Hippodrome

Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” famously opens with one long, droning tone from the orchestra which engages, entrances and thrills in equal measure. “Blood Brothers” employs the same technique and hits exactly the same, as it were, note. We are drawn into a dark and tragic world where the outcome of the plot is set out as clearly as the two dead two bodies laying before us. This is the plot spoiler of all plot spoilers but, oddly, though we know the end we want to know why it happened. Not a whodunnit, but a whydunnit? And so, the drone draws us in… My first Mrs. Johnston was Kiki Dee, which for all you BB buddies out there, means I saw it quite early on in its humungous run. Barbara Dickson did it first, of course, in a version that didn’t take off. Bill Kenwright sprinkled his Liverpudlian m...

26Oct

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Chicago – Wolverhampton Grand

“Chicago” can hardly be described as bursting with colour with a limited design palette of black, white, grey and occasional splatters of bloody red light during the murders it aims to emulate, perhaps, the movies of the period. More accurately it emulates the still photographs of the newspapers of the period and chooses to present it all in a stilted and, oddly, uninvolving fashion. As the production adopts a distancing alienating technique (I’m guessing more a directorial decision than an authorial one) it deliberately stops us from engaging and empathising with the characters or plot - so all that is left to beguile us is technique and design. The band dominate the stage sitting like a jazz orchestra trapped in a roll-top desk leaving just a sliver of fore stage for the remainder of ...