Edinburgh Playhouse Archives - North West End UK

2Oct

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Top Hat – Edinburgh Playhouse

Irving Berlin’s Top Hat taps into the Edinburgh Playhouse this week with more sparkle than a sequinned gin palace, and, in a rare feat, manages to float for two and a half hours without ever feeling heavy. Not just that, the sound is also extraordinary, and for a venue sometimes dogged by poor acoustics, this is a revelation: sound clear as a bell, band fizzing with verve, and an audience leaning in from overture to curtain. For context, Top Hat began life in 1935 as an RKO film directed by Mark Sandrich, a vehicle for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, with Berlin supplying the evergreen numbers, “Cheek to Cheek,” “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” “Isn’t This a Lovely Day?”. The stage version we see tonight descends from the 2011 UK adaptation by Matthew White and Ho...

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

18Aug

By Danielle FarrowNo Comments

Scotland

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

From the lone woman in red descending during the overture to the final full stage that yet starkly reflects the beginning, this multi-company production of the Gluck & Calzabigi Orfeo ed Euridice presents stunning spectacle. Does something so visually focused serve opera? The original 1762 production was part of a reformation of opera which challenged elaborate action and technique centred “extreme sport” opera, as noted in the programme, which also includes Gluck’s own striving for music’s “true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity or ornaments.” The original opera still included dance, and, for the most part, Yaron Lifschitz - director and set desig...

Moulin Rouge The Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

2May

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Moulin Rouge The Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

Premiering at the Edinburgh Playhouse, the musical theatre adaptation of Baz Lurhmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge, kicks off the first ever tour in the show's history this month. Set in 1899 Paris in the infamous Moulin Rouge cabaret, we follow the secret love affair between the cabaret’s star performer Satine (played by Verity Thompson), and bohemian writer Christian (played by Nate Landskroner). Despite the grandiosity of the Moulin Rouge, it is struggling financially so owner Harold Zidler (Cameron Blakely) arranges for Satine to seduce The Duke (James Bryers) and in return the Duke will provide Zidler with a large investment to put towards their next show. Satine has to choose between living a life of poverty with her true love Christian or submitting to the Duke in orde...

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

27Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

It’s big, bold and cheesier than a Swiss Fondue, but if you can put up with the variably dodgy Brummie accents there is a lot to enjoy in this jukebox musical based on the best musical decade there ever was – the eighties of course! The story, set in Birmingham, follows two school chums Gemma and April and their friends and family between the year 1989 and a class reunion in 2009, and music is the elixir that never grows old – as powerful and evocative twenty years on as it was when they first heard it. It is certainly an interesting and well thought out concept for a musical and on the whole, it works, helped in no small part by a brilliant set which flips very cleverly from bar to lounge to park to video shop (remember those!). The clever and at times very funny script also skips alon...

Queen Extravaganza – Edinburgh Playhouse

12Feb

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Queen Extravaganza – Edinburgh Playhouse

If you love Queen… scratch that, if you like Queen just a bit… don’t miss this. A sell-out crowd was clearly up for it but the first ‘act’ began with a peculiar, muddy version of ‘We Will Rock You’, the band in dull, pub-band regulation black and as the following two tracks travelled past the chief positive was that the sound clicked sharply into place. Though hang on, that vocal pirouette Gareth Taylor dropped at the end of ‘Somebody To Love’ was a bit special, wasn’t it? Then came ‘Under Pressure’, a lump in the throat reflecting that this was written before mental health was a thing; we all had stuff going on, it just wasn’t ok to talk about it. Except that David, Freddie and the band did, producing an epic four-minute pop song that resonates more heavily every single year si...

22Jan

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Rocky Horror Show – Edinburgh Playhouse

Midway through its UK tour, The Rock Horror Show is a franchise which retains its cult appeal and an ardent band of followers despite being over fifty years old. And there were no complaints here from the almost full audience, who cheered and bayed and provided the necessary responses at the appropriate times, and also plenty of unnecessary responses at inappropriate times! This time around, ex-Neighbours star, 56-year-old Jason Donovan takes on the alien, transvestite scientist lead role as the mercurial Frank-N-Furter. Donovan’s Frank is a languid, louche and limp-wigged affair, more aging aunt than sexy vamp. This is Dame Edna in stockings and suspenders, and for me at least, it doesn’t entirely pay off. Given the look and the speed of delivery, which is generally a slow, eye-rollin...

8Jan

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Bat Out of Hell – Edinburgh Playhouse

Walking into the Edinburgh Playhouse, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Bat Out of Hell. I’d heard the rave reviews and knew of Meat Loaf’s legendary anthems, but would it translate into a compelling night of theatre? As I was not familiar with the story, I had my doubts but by the time the final note rang out, my question was answered with a resounding yes! Right from the opening moments, the show makes its intentions clear: it’s big, it’s bold, and it’s not afraid to embrace its madness. Backed by an incredible eight-piece live band, the production hurtles forward at full speed. The stage transforms into a dystopian world filled with rebellion and romance, brought to life by Jon Bausor’s stunning set design. One moment we’re in dark underground tunnels; the next, a teenager’s...

21Nov

By H.S. BakerNo Comments

Scotland

101 Dalmatians – Edinburgh Playhouse

This musical is very much a children’s entertainment, so it’s therefore surprising that it runs the standard length of time, despite starting and finishing half an hour earlier than one normally expects. It would benefit considerably from being at least half an hour shorter, without losing any of the essential story telling or spectacle. The narrative is a simple one, the evil Cruella de Vil desires a wardrobe of outfits made of white with black spots fur, and to that end, sends her two incompetent nephews to steal all the Dalmatians in the area. With music and lyrics by Douglas Hodge, book by Johnny McKnight from an original novel by Dodie Smith, and directed by Bill Buckhurst, this musical has a lot in common with pantomime. With Cruella the villain we all love to bo...

Only Fools and Horses the Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

6Nov

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Only Fools and Horses the Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

Nothing compares with a theatre full of supportive fans who love what is going on up there on the stage. So, it was with Only Fools and Horses and the West End cast performing in Edinburgh. The jokes are wonderfully familiar, the characterisation excellent and the musical interludes perfectly pitched. This show is an out and out winner for Del Trotter fans and Rodney’s fellow aspiring art students. Co-written by Jim Sullivan (the original writer, John Sullivan’s son) and the prolific, Paul Whitehouse, this show hits the target again and again. It is played for fans of the long-running television sit-com which hit our screens in 1981 and, if my dad was still alive, he’d have loved it! The set works fluidly and looks ideal, thanks to Alice Power’s design. The ensemble dancing an...

The Book of Mormon – Edinburgh Playhouse

17Oct

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Book of Mormon – Edinburgh Playhouse

It should be immediately noted that The Book of Mormon Musical is not a factual retelling of the original Mormon text, nor is it created to pay homage to the religion itself, in fact one could argue it does exactly the opposite. Brought to you by the creators of South Park, The Book of Mormon is a comedy musical designed to poke fun and indulge one’s dark humour needs. We follow the mission taken by two Mormon’s from the Latter-Day Saints Church who have embarked on their quest to convert the world into the all American religion that is Mormonism. Elder Price believes he is set to do great things, to change the world and to go to Orlando…..? His main issue now is that he’s been coupled up a pathological liar who hasn’t even read the book and instead of Orlando they are going to Uganda, ...