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Summer Holiday The Musical – Crucible Theatre

26Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Summer Holiday The Musical – Crucible Theatre

Jump aboard as The Bus stops at the Crucible! A Sheffield Theatres Production in association with Blackpool Grand Theatre bring the summer to Sheffield and the Yorkshire weather played its part too. With a giant sandpit outside the theatre and stripy blue and white deckchairs, with buckets and spades abound both children and adults had a lovely time with live music adding to the ambience. The fully air-conditioned Crucible Theatre gave a wonderful place to escape the blistering sun and enjoy a Summer Holiday from a cool vista. The stage version of the classic film has been specially adapted for the Crucible’s round stage by Michael Gyngell and Mark Haddigan resetting the story of Don and the gang from Sheffield on South Yorkshire Transport to Paris, Italy, the Alps and Greece. A fun sto...

Blood Wedding – The Drama Studio, Sheffield

26Jun

By Nathan DunnNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Blood Wedding – The Drama Studio, Sheffield

The Company brought their production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Spanish tragedy ‘Blood Wedding’ to Sheffield this week, and with it plenty of endeavour. How does this horrorful, mysterious tale of lovers torn astray weigh up today? It ought to be said that many (if not all) of the performers on stage demonstrated strong performative capability. They were confident, expressive, at times dynamic and at times deeply committed. Equally Mia Stephenson and Bella Rodgers’ costumes are great, and John Ansari’s fight co-ordination is strong. However, unfortunately I feel this production faced some challenges that proved difficult to overcome. Ed Bancroft and Heather Ellis’ direction has its moments. Specifically, it has a big moment in the second act – in which the sinister, abstract underwor...

26Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Sting – Young Vic

This is a confusing and poorly constructed play. According to the publicity and the programme it is about witchcraft and how persecution of women through the ages has led to the current appalling levels of domestic abuse. That sounds intriguing, but the play lost its way several times. Photo: Helen-Murray It starts in an archive where archivist Lily, played by Phoebe Ladenburg works, although there was not much evidence of that on her empty desk. Enter her new assistant the effervescent Ash (Adelle Leonce), dressed and hung over from a wild night out at a nightclub. Despite appearing to be totally unsuitable for a role in the archive she is actually a very bright individual with a considerable knowledge of the history of witchcraft. She has, however, a dark personal history. Ne...

Cyrano de Bergerac – RSC – The Noel Coward Theatre

26Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Cyrano de Bergerac – RSC – The Noel Coward Theatre

Cyrano De Bergarac is a classic 1897 play by French playwright Edmond Rostand, and has been performed numerous times and starred many famous actors over the years. This is a new version for the RSC by Simon Evans and Debris Stevenson, making its London transfer from the Stratford stage, and it is a corker! Evans and Stevenson have kept the original plot and managed to retain much of the poetic style while making it up-to-date, lively, very funny and fully engaging. Highly theatrical from the very beginning, Christian Patterson comes onto the stage as Ragueneau to welcome the audience and explain that in theatre we are separate from "The world out there, Us quiet in here". The cast makes full use of the theatre space, entering through the auditorium, appearing on balconies and in the box...

26Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Table – Traverse Theatre

Community theatre often faces a challenge that professional theatre rarely has to confront. The desire to include everyone can sometimes come at the expense of dramatic momentum. Large casts, varied abilities and an understandable determination to give every participant their moment in the spotlight can result in productions with enormous heart but limited theatrical drive.The Table, a collaboration between Curious Seed, Lung Ha Theatre Company and Lyra, tackles that challenge head on and comes remarkably close to overcoming it.Directed by Christine Devaney, Maria Oller and Jo Timmins, this ambitious and highly inclusive production brings together professional performers, young people, disabled and non-disabled artists in a work that sits somewhere between dance theatre, live music event a...

Sinatra The Musical – The Aldwych Theatre

25Jun

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Sinatra The Musical – The Aldwych Theatre

Sinatra The Musical comes to the West End bringing the big band sound and gritty romantic storylines. Based on the life and career of the legendary icon” Francis Albert Sinatra. Known to some as “Ol Blue Eyes”, and a man who became one of the worlds influential singers. His life a conundrum of complexity is acted out by the key players who support his rise to fame whilst spotlighting others who stood by and watched is timely demise. Portrayed as a loving family man Frank certainly was close to his children. His daughter Nancy Sinatra has supported and contributed to this production of her fathers staged biopic. The story starts from when Sinatra and Nancy young and in love are finding their feet in showbiz and in their personal relationships. Life takes on a whole new meaning when Sinat...

25Jun

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Monarchs Anonymous – The Other Palace

"We live in our own timeline and are judged by the next" What happens when a group of royals, transported from various periods of history, join a therapy session and talk about their feelings? The massive egos of Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, Charles II, Sophia Duleep Singh and Mansa Musa inevitably clash, resulting in jousting matches and fist fights. They reluctantly do the therapist's exercises, all trying to outdo one another. When the existence of the Monarchs' Anonymous sessions are leaked to the press, the group find themselves having to put their egos to one side to work together, revealing some deep truths and traumas of their lives in the process. On its surface, Monarchs' Anonymous, written by Nadia Devereux, Joshua Poole and Lyon Devereux, is a jolly surreal r...

25Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

The Truth – Apollo Theatre

Camouflaged behind rip-roaring humour is a tale of deceit and infidelity. Though the lies look straightforward to begin with, in a while you find yourself out of depth. Who is lying, and who is telling the truth? Is there even a single version of the truth? Written by Florian Zeller and directed by Lindsay Posner, this is the story of two cheating couples. Michel is having an affair with Alice, his best friend Paul’s wife. As seen in several other similar setups, the woman is emotionally attached and wants to spend more time together, while the man is in it only for the physical connection and cannot see anything lacking in the arrangement as it is – hotel room rendezvous between meetings. Things begin to go awry when Alice is struck by a case of guilty conscience. She is haunted by ...

25Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Brassed Off – Leeds Playhouse

Britain has had two civil wars, and the second was the titanic battle that ran between 1985 and 1985 as our nation’s miners who were the shock troops of the industrial working class took on Thatcher’s Tory government. This stage revival of the hit movie Brassed Off takes place a decade after that bitter dispute in the fictional pit village of Grimley where the miners are agonising whether to vote to take a big redundancy package and let their mine die. Meanwhile, troubled young miner Andy is finding love with his school flame Gloria who has come back home, but is she who she appears to be? Paul Allen’s witty and often bleak adaptation also uses the colliery’s brass band - led by obsessive conductor Danny who believes music is the answer to everything - to explore the idea of wh...

The Choir of Man – Sheffield Lyceum Theatre

25Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Choir of Man – Sheffield Lyceum Theatre

Wow! What an exhibition of triple /quad threat talent was took over the entire building at Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield last night. I am still stunned by what I saw. The Choir of Man created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay and under Doodson’s direction is one of the most enduring pieces of cultural enhancing theatre I have witnessed. With Musical Supervision, vocal arrangement and orchestration by Jack Blume, monologues written by Ben Norris and Freddie Huddleston in directive charge of movement and choreography, this production only gives you time to have a quick gulp of your beer in between diverse spectacle after spectacle. Energy in every form possible. Oli Townsend’s scenic design takes us to ‘The Jungle’, the local British pub, much in decline and much needed. Where men can...