Sunday, December 22

Tag: Alan Menken

Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy – Eventim Apollo
London

Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy – Eventim Apollo

This latest revival of Alan Menken, Glenn Slater, Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner’s divine comedy has been a long time coming. Initially conceived as an opportunity to return Whoopi Goldberg to the role she created in the hit nineties film, the planned second coming fell foul of the pandemic. So, two years after its planned debut Beverley Knight is rocking the habit, and the Eventim Apollo, in Bill Buckhurst’s revised production. The production is not short of spectacle with Knight and the singing nuns bringing enough glitz to hold their own amongst the long list of performers who have graced the Eventim Apollo stage over the years. The musical is fairly faithful to the film’s plot - having witnessed a murder Deloris Van Cartier is forced to hide out in a convent helping her ‘s...
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Z Arts
North West

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Z Arts

Based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame has been transcribed into a musical with a little help from the 1996 Walt Disney production. The play itself has been written by Peter Parnell, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The Manchester Musical Youth group have decided to tackle this classic as their latest production. It must be said it’s been a good few years since I’ve seen the Hunchback of Notre Dame and this production is certainly a lot darker than I remember the Disney movie. There’s also the addition of new songs. Even though the play is set in Paris, it almost has a Greek feel to it. The numerous statues and gargoyles almost act as a chorus that is quite typical of many Greek plays such as Suppliant Women. From that point of vi...
Beauty and the Beast – Liverpool Empire
North West

Beauty and the Beast – Liverpool Empire

Beauty and the Beast is a Disney classic, a staple of their dominance in the 1990’s when it comes to animated musicals. Coupled with one of the most successful composers of the modern musical, Alan Menken, and Beauty and the Beast has a sure-fire street to success. The play is the story of Belle (Courtney Stapleton), a young girl longing to escape from her dreary everyday life and see the big wide world (you can’t fault Disney for their recycling). Along the way she is captured by a hideous Beast (Emmanuel Kojo), whose only prospect of a return to normality is to love and be loved in return, but first he must learn to leave his selfish self behind. It must be said that in this production the Beast was not all that Beastly, as he still cut a lean, attractive figure throughout. The mar...
Brian Conley will star as Ebenezer Scrooge
NEWS

Brian Conley will star as Ebenezer Scrooge

Alan Menken, Lynn Ahrens and Mike Ockrent’s acclaimed musical of A Christmas Carol to play limited season at Dominion Theatre with Performances begin Monday 7th December 2020. Brian Conley will star as Ebenezer Scrooge this Christmas, as an exciting new, musical staged concert of Alan Menken, Lynn Ahrens and Mike Ockrent's A Christmas Carol will play a strictly limited season at the Dominion Theatre in London. Performances run from Monday 7th December 2020 to Saturday 2nd January 2021. The musical brings Dickens’ timeless fable to glorious life: Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean-spirited miser, does not believe in the power of Christmas. But on a Christmas Eve filled with memorable characters, spectacular songs, ghostly apparitions and journeys to the past, present and future, Scrooge acknowl...
Virtual Viewing: Disney Cruise Line’s ‘Tangled: The Musical’
REVIEWS

Virtual Viewing: Disney Cruise Line’s ‘Tangled: The Musical’

I confess I am somewhat a Disney aficionado. From the heart-warming, family-friendly stories, to the toe-tappingly catchy songs, anything that bears the moniker ‘Walt Disney’ is almost guaranteed to be a winner for me. So, when the chance came to review Disney Cruise Line’s original stage production of Tangled: The Musical, I jumped at the chance. Being able to see a brand new Disney stage production in the inner sanctum of a Disney cruise ship – without having to shell out an eye-watering amount for the privilege – was too good of an opportunity for a Disneyphile like me to pass up. Cruises start from £1,078 for a 3-day excursion (yes, really!), so to be able to watch these once exclusive shows without winning the lottery is a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity (probably the same stati...