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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Birmingham Hippodrome

5Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Birmingham Hippodrome

“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the Musical” first took off over 34 years after the original film starring the eternal Dick van Dyke was released based on the original book by Fleming, Ian Fleming with malicious additions by a pre-Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl - who else could have invented one of the most terrifying characters in all cinema - the Child Catcher? Though I’m reluctant to place it among the spate of tribute theatre we’ve seen of late (name a favourite film from your childhood/teens and add “the musical” and wait for the tills ching) it does smack of that genre. Nonetheless, though the film is a haphazard sub-Disney confection, it has wormed its way into our collective hearts not least through an endearing and irresistible score from the ever reliable Sherman Brothers. Our fine fou...

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Liverpool Empire

5Mar

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Liverpool Empire

NOW That’s What I Call a Musical promises a nostalgic trip back to the 80s, but what it delivers is more like a chaotic tribute night with a flimsy story tacked on. Following best friends Gemma and April, the show jumps between their teenage years in 1989 and their reunion in 2009, exploring how life — and friendship — doesn’t always turn out the way we expect. It’s a familiar premise, but the story itself never really finds its feet. The biggest issue is the script, which feels like an afterthought, existing purely to glue together as many 80s hits as possible. Jukebox musicals often lean on their soundtrack, but this one takes it to extremes. Songs like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves” feel clumsily wedged into scenes, rarely adding anything to the...

5Mar

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Driftwood – Traverse Theatre

Set solely on a beach on the coast of the North Sea, Driftwood’ explores how two brothers navigate the grief of their father’s passing while attempting to mend their fragmented relationship. Tim Foley’s masterful writing shows two very different minds, that of elder brother Mark who focuses on funeral arrangements whilst navigating his return home after an extended absence. We also see the younger sibling, Tiny, distract himself with his fascination with the beach, its poisoned landscape and the ghostly and illusive figure, the Mariner. Both brothers have been apart for some time and it's clear from the outset that many words are being left unspoken. James Westphal (Mark) expertly crosses between moments of panic due to being confronted with the past while also showing the care his char...

An Evening of Irish Myths and Queer Love at Shakespeare North Playhouse

4Mar

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

An Evening of Irish Myths and Queer Love at Shakespeare North Playhouse

Liverpool-based Irish theatre-maker Anna Ní Dhuill is set to bring their new show ‘This is Not My Beautiful House’ to the Shakespeare North Playhouse Studio this May. Building off its success at the Galway Theatre Festival in 2024, where audiences called it “incredible” with a “richness of imagination and language”, Ní Dhúill and company Cult Collective are so excited to bring their work to a Scouse audience. A story of myth, legend and identity, ‘This is Not My Beautiful House’ is a one-person play in the Irish language. With English surtitles, the show revolves around an unnamed artist as they wait in their studio for their partner to come home so that they can reveal their secret and finally come out as non-binary. As they wait, they begin to delve into their recent obsession wi...

One Day When We Were Young – Park Theatre

4Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

One Day When We Were Young – Park Theatre

Opening with a bang (both literally and lasciviously) but ending with a whimper, One Day When We Were Young illustrates a little too effectively that for war’s hollow men, life is very long. The framework of the script is slightly too frail to support both its underwritten characters. Like the Titanic’s infamously splintered door, this play can only hold up one of its young lovers’ character development. Resultantly male lead Barney White gets to cut his teeth on a sturdily written World War II conscript while Cassie Bradley exhausts her jaw attempting to chew through all the scenery provided to the young lover turned middle aged mother turned elderly author who plays second fiddle to him throughout. Designer Pollyanna Elston’s set is surprisingly rich but unfortunately clashes in palet...

Spring Serenade Concert with students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – Carlops Village Hall

3Mar

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Spring Serenade Concert with students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland – Carlops Village Hall

Oodles of talent poured forth at a humble village hall in the Scottish Borders on Sunday afternoon. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s young talent got themselves organised and created a programme of music which was a delight. Eighteen-year-olds, Maria McMaster (voice) and Lena Błotnicka (Cello) and nineteen-year-olds, Michael Gemmell on piano and Kristie MacKenzie on flute are all first-year students at the Conservatoire. Today’s performances showcased just how they earned their places at this prestigious establishment. They filled the packed hall with beautiful, touching and amusing pieces and they received well-deserved, rapturous applause and many shouts of delight at the end. Gemmell organised this event with his former teacher, accomplished pianist and examiner, Lauren G...

3Mar

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Birdsong – Alexandra Palace

The novel Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks was a popular GCSE text back when I was taking those exams but wasn’t part of the Jane Austen-heavy syllabus followed by my school. Friends at a neighbouring school had studied it though (it was my at-the-time boyfriend’s favourite book) so I went into Rachel Wagstaff’s stage version on Friday night with a vague expectation of a sad World War I love story. The reality is obviously far richer and more complex than that, and I’m still unsure whether having a fuller understanding of what to expect would have made my experience better or worse. At three hours long the production covers a lot of ground, and the three acts divide the action neatly, but for me the first act was quite slow moving and a lot of subtlety was lost in the enormous auditorium. N...

2Mar

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Son of a Bitch – Southwark Playhouse

Ten seconds, seven words. That’s all it takes for Marnie (Anna Morris) to become a viral sensation… for all the wrong reasons. After a stressful long-haul flight in which her husband has ditched her and their son in Economy while he sips champagne in Business, Marnie’s rising frustrations have an almighty climax as she loudly calls her four-year-old a c*nt in front of all the other passengers — including one opportunist filming it on their phone. Soon, Marnie is public enemy number one as she becomes the global poster girl for ‘bad’ motherhood. Some suggest child services need to get involved, some believe she should be sterilised, and #SaveTheSon is the latest trending topic. But in reality, as we discover in time-jumping scenes throughout Son of a Bitch’s 60-minute runtime, Mar...

Whip-crack-away as Calamity Jane rides into Leeds Grand

2Mar

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Whip-crack-away as Calamity Jane rides into Leeds Grand

The revival of The Watermill Theatre’s Calamity Jane starring Carrie Hope Fletcher comes to Leeds Grand Theatre before a West End run. It’s based on the beloved Doris Day movie, andthis foot-stomping new production features all the sure-fire classic songs including The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), The Black Hills of Dakota, Just Blew in from the Windy City, and the Oscar-winning Secret Love. The fearless, gun slingin' Calamity Jane is biggest mouth in Dakota territory and always up for a fight. She'll charm you hog-eyed though, especially when trying to win the heart of the dashing Lieutenant Gilmartin or shooting insults at the notorious Wild Bill Hickok. But when the men of Deadwood fall hard for Chicago stage star Adelaid Adams the touch rebel struggles to keep her jea...

2Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Dead Mom Play – Unity Theatre

The funny thing about grief is that it’s no laughing matter, yet conversely laughter is generally considered the best medicine. That’s the conundrum for this semi-autobiographical production from writer, director, and producer Ben Blais which it doesn’t entirely overcome. A young man, Charlie (Griffyn Bellah) faces his critically ill mother (Hannah Harquart) and Death (Joe Bellis), a scythe-wielding Scouser in a hood, as he struggles to accept the harsh reality of the grieving process whilst stuck in a play of his own creation. This is the second play I have seen on grief in as many weeks and whilst I wasn’t reviewing the first, both pieces suffer from the need for some independent creative check which is absent because, in this instance, the writer has opted to direct and produc...