Marc Pickering Archives - North West End UK

11Dec

By NewsdeskNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Snow White – Sheffield Lyceum

Sheffield Lyceum’s pantomime ‘Snow White’ proves once again that this art form is going nowhere and is truly generational fun. It is expectedly raucous, fun, well spirited, cheeky and great family entertainment for all. Damian Williams, yet again, is excellent in his role as Nurse Nellie, and as he seemingly does every year reaffirms himself as panto royalty. His charismatic performance, witty off-cuff asides, facial contortions and vocal bombasticity palette this colourful world aptly. Likewise, there were some joyful and committed performances from The Seven, with Hassan Taj as Loopy a particular delight. Catherine Tyldesley was a sound choice for the evil Queen of this fairytale land, who possesses the appropriately scathing voice and demeanour, and notably one of the most incredu...

Zorro The Musical – Charing Cross Theatre

The Phantom Of The Opera isn’t the only masked man in black running around the West End while singing about the woman he loves. He now has competition from Zorro, the Spanish vigilante whose story was developed as a musical back in 2008. This new production was beginning a run in Manchester in March 2020 when Covid got in the way, but now the swashbuckler with the flaming sword is back at London’s Charing Cross Theatre. Based on the origin tales of the famous fictional character (along with the 1998 film starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones), the show follows the life of the wealthy young Diego who is sent away from California to study in Spain. Initially Diego resents being sent away, but soon falls for the Latin way of life, along with the intoxicating gypsy ...

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Southwark Playhouse Stream

After the exciting rise of new British musical theatre came to a dreary halt last March it feels immensely hopeful to finally catch a new offering, in the form of Ben Morales Frost and Richard Hough’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, as our industry slowly comes back to life. Due to have had its premiere at the Southwark Playhouse (an innovative home for new musicals) earlier this year, the production now finds itself shifted online in the form of a three-week stream. Taking inspiration from J. W. Goethe’s 18th century poem, which went on to inspire Dukas’s orchestral piece, a section in Disney’s Fantasia and its subsequent 2010 live action adaptation, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in its new musical form sheds most of these skins until it is mostly unrecognisable aside from its magical danci...