Latest Articles - Page 43 of 724

9Jun

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Shantify – Underbelly Boulevard Soho

Some theatre productions are clever; others are musically impressive. The truly special ones manage to be both, while embracing an utterly absurd premise with complete confidence. ‘Shantify’ [jazz hands essential] is one of those rare productions. It is utterly joyous, inventive and irresistibly entertaining, and will leave you grinning long after the curtain falls, with its brilliantly reimagined sea shanties still playing on repeat in your head for days afterwards! The premise alone sounds improbable: take chart-topping pop hits, musical theatre favourites and traditional sea shanties, throw them together aboard a nautical adventure, and somehow make it all work. Yet against all odds, it works brilliantly, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, from the Spice Girls to Hamilton and Six, familia...

Hidden Door Festival – The Old Paper Factory

9Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Hidden Door Festival – The Old Paper Factory

This year I make two visits to Hidden Door's remarkable takeover of the former Paper Factory in Edinburgh, attending both the opening Wednesday night and returning again on the Saturday. As ever, Hidden Door proves that some of the most memorable artistic experiences happen when creativity is allowed to spill into spaces never originally designed for it. The vast industrial sheds, exposed steelwork and seemingly endless corridors create an environment where exploration becomes part of the evening. Every turn reveals another installation, another performance space or another unexpected discovery. The building itself is as much a performer as any artist appearing within it. What distinguishes Hidden Door from a conventional music festival is that the experience extends far beyond the m...

9Jun

By Jenn McKeanNo Comments

North West

Follies – Liverpool Playhouse

An amateur dramatics company putting on a Stephen Sondheim show should be enough to send shivers down your spine – but Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust (BOST) really gave it their all – and it paid off! Follies opened on Broadway in 1971 and was written by Sondheim, James Goldman and Hal Prince, inspired by the former Ziegfeld Follies. It centres around Sally Durant Plummer and her husband Buddy and her best friend from their time in the Follies, Phyllis Rogers Stone and her husband Ben. We are introduced to their present selves in 1971 and their 30-year younger selves, at the star of the 1940s. It is set at the Weissman Theatre on Broadway, on the eve of its demolition. We mainly follow Sally, Phyllis, Buddy and Ben and their younger selves, but we also get to meet some of the other p...

9Jun

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Are You Watching – Royal Court

A ten-foot pool of blood spilling across a white-tiled floor is the final image in Georgie Dettmer’s professional playwriting debut at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. In it, two teenage girls are playing: they are reimagining the end of Gisèle Pelicot’s story. In the girls’ fictionalised version of events, Pelicot gets her revenge by shooting and killing her husband. They find their catharsis and go to sleep covered in blood. Are You Watching? follows a number of stories in vignettes, all of which have to do with voyeurism in some form. The stories look at sexual violence in the age of the Internet and AI — sometimes digital in origin, always physical and bodily in effect. A son finds deepfake porn, made using his own childhood pictures, on his father’s iPad; a famous ac...

The Wizard of Oz – The East Cheshire Musical Theatre Company

4Jun

By David S ClarkeNo Comments

North West

The Wizard of Oz – The East Cheshire Musical Theatre Company

This is a very well-known story from the 1939 film starring Judy Garland taking the part of Dorothy in the tale of a young girl from Kansas who is magically transported to the land of Oz and her adventures along the way and the various characters she meets. Based on the original book by Frank Baum, it has become a popular show for theatre productions for many years, and it is nice to see East Cheshire Theatre Company join the long list of groups who have put on this production. The storyline centres around young Dorothy who lives with her aunt and uncle on a farm in Kansas along with her dog Toto. During a severe tornado, Dorothy and Toto find themselves whisked up in the air, finally landing in what turns out to be the magical land of Oz, where they are greeted by Glinda, a good which,...

4Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Waiting for Godot – Arches Lane Theatre

In a place where time seems to have lost meaning, where memory plays games with the mind, two men wait endlessly under a barren tree. They talk, they quarrel, they make up, they are bored, but they dare not leave. This week, a new production of Samuel Beckett’s most popular play takes to the stage. Directed by Leo Bacica, it has Rich Allen playing Vladimir and Steve Broad as Estragon. Together, the men wait for the mysterious, unseen Godot. Between uncomfortable boots, pockets full of turnip, and kidney trouble, the two men kill their time talking about the mundane and the spiritual, the philosophical and the nostalgic. The monotony of their wait is broken by the rather disruptive entrance of Pozzo and his servant Lucky. Lucky has a rope tied around him, which is controlled by...

4Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Barnum – Hull New Theatre

Never was a standing ovation so well deserved as that given to the cast of Barnum, The Circus Musical after they thrilled a full-ish Hull New Theatre on Tuesday evening. For over two hours we were entertained with sensational singing, dancing, acrobatics, magic tricks, music from multi-talented musicians - and Jumbo, the elephant circus owner Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) once advertised as “the largest in the world” in order to draw in the crowds. It was later discovered he had enhanced Jumbo’s skeleton after the animal had died, by packing it with blocks of wood and positioning its tusks to make it look extra massive. However, the huge elephant puppet on stage on the night was one of the best I have seen in any show, so hats off to its designers, Mervyn Millar and Tracy Wall...

2Jun

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

2:22 A Ghost Story – Sheffield Lyceum

A ghostly entertaining, slick mind game of a production! With a sense of apprehension - due to a very active imagination - I convinced myself to review 2:22 A ghost Story on its opening night at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre, and I survived the evening stunned but unscathed! Written by Danny Robins, the seven seasoned West End phenomenon which premiered in 2021 and went on to tour the UK and Ireland, has been seen in over thirty worldwide productions. I have to immediately note, that it is the writing by Robins that highly impressed me. The theatrical thriller is the near perfect exploration of doubt, belief and theories surrounding the controversial topic of Ghosts. It allows you to question your beliefs, your scepticism and learn some new theories to explain away the spirit world. All ...

The Good Life – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

2Jun

By Max EdenNo Comments

North West

The Good Life – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The Altrincham Garrick Playhouse continues its impressive season with a feel good production of The Good Life this week, bringing Jeremy Sams’ wonderfully adapted stage version of the beloved television classic to life with warmth, charm and plenty of laughter. Set in suburban Surbiton, The Good Life follows Tom and Barbara Good as they abandon the rat race in favour of a self-sufficient lifestyle, much to the bewilderment of their next-door neighbours, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter. What follows is a hilarious clash of lifestyles, personalities and ambitions, packed with the gentle British humour that made the original series such a success. Directed by Garrick regular; Daniel Ellis, this production captures the heart and spirit of the much-loved sitcom. Jeremy Sams’ adaptation retains...

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

2Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Dark of the Moon – Charing Cross Theatre

This new musical version by Lindy Robbins, Dave Bassett and Steve Robson is the latest in a long series of versions of this piece. It was first performed as a play in 1942 and a substantially revised version transferred to Broadway in 1945. It was produced in London at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1948 and the Ambassadors Theatre in 1949. The story has not been updated. It is effectively a fairytale about a rural Appalachian community who live in close proximity to a coven of witches in the nearby Smoky Mountains. One of the witches, John (Witch Boy), is enamoured with one of the human girls, Barbara Allen, and seeks to develop a relationship with her, to the dismay of both communities. Its theme is the clash between cultures with the boy/ girl relationsh...