Jack Chambers Archives - North West End UK

8Aug

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Saving Mozart – The Other Palace

Do we really know the story of Mozart, or his genre of music from symphonies, opera. concertos to chamber music. Through his classical period from (1756-1791) his body of work continues to enchant generations, and audiences today. Twenty-Five-year-old Charli Eglinton has been moved by Mozart as a composer and has brought to the stage Saving Mozart a musicaldepicting the life span of Mozart’s, gruelling childhood rituals to his breakthrough and recognition of being an esteemed composer, to his untimely death at the age of 35yrs. What strikes you from the beginning, the stage is small, the set is carved out as a letter M, with reflecting mirrors positioned to enhance the illusion of optimal space for all the characters to dance, act creating movement from a horse’s carriage to a boarding ...

19Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Mary Poppins – Birmingham Hippodrome

P.L.Travers, by all accounts, cried at the opening of the Disney adaptation of her famous children’s novel - and not in a nice way. She was a stickler for accuracy and precision and wanted her book recreated almost exactly as she had envisioned it - Disney had other plans. Disney often did. In reinventing her novel (and ignoring Traver’s demands) he gave the world one of its most beloved family films which has woven itself in the DNA of our shared culture for over sixty years. It gave us those indelible Sherman Brothers songs coupled with an endearing, cute plot and one of the worst cockney accents committed to celluloid. So when Cameron Mackintosh landed on the idea of staging the show he not only took on the behemoth of a cultural icon, the might of Disney but, perhaps most intimidatingl...

12Apr

By Coral MourantNo Comments

North West

Mary Poppins – Palace Theatre

Disney’s magical nanny is back delighting audiences all over the UK, and children (even the big kids) are bound to leave the theatre with a smile on their face. Based on the book series by P.L. Travers, this production by Disney Theatricals in collaboration with Sir Cameron Mackintosh, first took the West End by storm over twenty years ago. But just the same as its movie adaptation, I believe that this version is ultimately timeless. The Banks family wish for a nanny to fix all their problems, Jane wants someone fairly pretty, Michael wants someone to play games with, and their parents just want one to stay. Blown in by the wind, the “practically perfect” Mary Poppins appears and takes us all on an amazing adventure filled with colour, magic and a song or two. The twelve-piece orches...

27Jan

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Mary Poppins – Festival Theatre

In P.L. Travers’s book, ‘tossed and bent under the wind’, Mary is thrown ‘bag and all, at the front door’ by an east wind, at which ‘the whole house shook’. Here (as in the film), despite the proximity of Storm Eowyn, her arrival and appearance are ‘practically perfect’*, all spit-spot and efficiency. Which pretty much describes this abundant sweetshop of a production; it dazzled, shone, all slick, gloss and polish, which, given its producers (the hyper-successful Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Group), was not surprising. Which can be an issue with these huge shows where the creative team includes no less than two responsible for ‘set design adaptation’ and two whose remit is ‘illusions’. Technically, everything (and the kitchen sink) is thrown in, from small prop details like...