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Alice in Wonderland – Liverpool Playhouse

7Jul

By Luke StephensonNo Comments

North West

Alice in Wonderland – Liverpool Playhouse

Last night, at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, I was invited to watch Alice in Wonderland. A short synopsis of the story is that we (as audience members) were transported back to the old ages, specifically the 1990s (which at that point, I felt old knowing it was 30 years ago). Where stereos played cassettes. Alice (Paislie Reid) was fixing her stereo player, as it had stopped working. She wanted to hear the song her dad Simon would sing to her before he sadly wasn't around anymore. In came her brother Lewis (Zweyla Mitchell Dos Santos) with a birthday cake for Alice. Like most brothers, Lewis got on Alice's nerves. Alice wouldn't let Lewis interfere with the stereo in case she made things worse. After a few more tweaks to the stereo, she was transported to a wonderland within the cassett...

6Jul

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Beneatha’s Place – Young Vic

Artistic Director of the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei-Armah writes and directs a new piece, 'Beneatha's Place', following a young black American woman, Beneatha (Cherrelle Skeete), who marries her professor Joseph Asagai (Zackary Momoh) and moves to Nigeria with him to start their new life together. The first act follows their first day moving into a white neighborhood; visitors from Joseph's childhood bring warnings of growing political pressures that put him at risk. Beneatha, overwhelmed by this new life and unaware of the politics, must catch up on how to tackle racism differently here than how she would in America. The second act brings us further into the future, with Beneatha now a Dean of an Ivy League university, bringing her employees back to this home in Nigeria to discuss the new prop...

6Jul

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Wasteman – King’s Arms, Salford

In a sequin-studded change in his career path, Joe Leather whimsically recounts how he traded hi-vis for high heels in this endearing one-hour play. Despite dabbling in drag in former times, regrettable events have led him to boxing up his dreams. However, a new opportunity tempts our refuse-collecting queen to rediscover their passion for performing. Leather embraces his ‘imaginary’ audience and entertains us with engrossing words, song and dance while jumping between a past and present narrative. His stage presence is cheeky and charming, and he capably juggles additional minor roles with expressive mannerisms and accents. While there are plenty of funnies laced throughout the script, a quantity over quality situation in terms of humour is sometimes apparent: where too many ...

The Chester Mystery Plays – Chester Cathedral

6Jul

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

The Chester Mystery Plays – Chester Cathedral

This is a very different theater experience set in the towering cathedral arches, played in traverse with audiences on both sides. Director John Young's artistic vision is bold, exciting, and inclusive, and we were spellbound by its color and energy. The professional production team is impeccable in their crafts. Matt Baker's atmospheric, glorious soundtrack with magnificent chorale work is so befitting of the majestic environment. Jess Curtis's design is imaginative and magical. Emma Briggs's choreography gives the piece fluidity and variety. Lighting (Aaron J Dootsan) and sound (Kieran Lucas) enhance all the different playing areas to full effect. But it is to the company of players I give the most praise - 200 performers, singers, and musicians drawn from all walks of life, give an o...

Wilton’s Music Hall Announce Autumn Season

5Jul

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Wilton’s Music Hall Announce Autumn Season

Wilton's Music Hall today announces its stunning autumn season, which sees groundbreaking productions and collaborations with forward-thinking theatre companies. Continuing what has been an incredible year of theatre for Britain's oldest Victorian music hall, this new season is set to be one of the best yet. The riotous and enchanting POTTED PANTO (29th November – 30th December) will make its East End debut at Wilton's Music Hall, truly encapsulating the festive season, to bring seven classic pantomimes in 80 hilarious minutes to Grace's Alley. The spectacular Christmas madcap ride from Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner, and Richard Hurst, through all the best-loved characters from the wonderful world of panto, will be a delight for all the family this Christmas. MAYBE A GHOST STORY ...

5Jul

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Agatha – Theatre503

Agatha and Ben are newly engaged and about to have his parents around for dinner to share their happy news. Agatha seems distracted and when Ben finds a sonogram picture, their different needs from their relationship come into combat. Told through a series of flashbacks, from their first night together we follow the couple through the years, young love, moving in together, settling into the quiet moments and to the marriage proposal. There is a complication that Ben wants children, Agatha does not and despite the years together and the time jumps to show them together, it isn’t something either of them ever brought up. It seems odd that so far into a relationship, living together for years, talking of marriage and of future plans but neither have mentioned their strongly held beli...

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story – Sheffield Lyceum

5Jul

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story – Sheffield Lyceum

A celebration of the love and power of music. With its premier in the West End in August 1989, Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story has been in production worldwide ever since, with over 10,000 performances thus giving it claim to the most successful Jukebox musical ever. The Sheffield attendees were on their feet by the end of the show and the musicianship of the cast was received with raptures by the 1400 strong Yorkshire audience. The issues Holly faced, due in part, to the American music culture of the mid 1950’s, during the 18 months his career was built are glossed over in this production as we see his meteoric rise to global stardom. All is very positive and ‘happy’ and we are presented with a young man who just wanted his rock ‘n’ roll music heard, Holly ‘never wanted’ to be the coun...

5Jul

By Jo TillotsonNo Comments

North West

Titanic the Musical – The Lowry

The RMS Titanic. Owner J. Bruce Ismay wanted to create a legend – it was the largest moving object in the world when it was built. Sadly, the legend of the Titanic we know today is not the one he wanted. In one of the worst tragedies of the 20th Century, 1517 people died when the ship sank on 14 April 1912. This production tells the story of the maiden voyage of the Titanic, and it does so with an extremely high production value. The set and costumes designed by David Woodhead are as epic as the ship itself, and are used to the maximum to indicate at every point where the action is taking place on the ship and which class the passengers are from. The lighting (Howard Hudson) and sound (Andrew Johnson) designs are clever and intricate, used to particularly excellent effect in the Act I f...

5Jul

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Crazy for You – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Crazy for You is a traditional musical from the Gershwin's catalogue of brilliance, a production revitalized by Joey Parnes, Sally Horchow, and Michael Harrison. It had a run of sell-out performances at the Chichester Festival Theatre and is directed by Olivier award-winning director Susan Stroman. Charlie Stemp star of Half a Sixpence and Mary Poppins as (Bobby Childs) and Wicked star Carly Anderson as (Polly Baker) head up a stellar cast showcasing joyous melodies including the familiar Gershwin classic songs, I Got Rhythm and They Can't Take That Away from Me. The performers acted and danced their way through a 2-hour 20-minute score and brought to life the ‘Folies Bergere’ style and glamour, a delightful spectacle of costumes, color, and synchronicity which filled the stage and a...

5Jul

By Bev ClarkNo Comments

North West

Whiskey Galore – Chester Little Theatre

The Little Theatre in Chester is a charming community theatre offering two spaces and tonight the Liz Stafford auditorium was full to capacity for this jolly romp of a play. Compton Mackenzie’s Whisky Galore was made into a famous film and remade a few years ago but this reimagining, adapted for the stage by Philip Goulding, gives us an all-female cast of seven playing thirty characters (although I didn’t count them). It has some real rip-roaring comedy moments, and it was what attracted director Lexi Fox-Hutchings to bring it to CLT. The fictitious Pallas Players, a touring theatre troupe in the 1950s, transport us back to 1943 in WWII on the two islands of Little Todday and Great Todday, where a shortage of whisky causes mayhem among the villagers. A shipwreck means 50,000 bo...