Nikita Johal Archives - North West End UK

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Liverpool Empire

5Mar

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Liverpool Empire

NOW That’s What I Call a Musical promises a nostalgic trip back to the 80s, but what it delivers is more like a chaotic tribute night with a flimsy story tacked on. Following best friends Gemma and April, the show jumps between their teenage years in 1989 and their reunion in 2009, exploring how life — and friendship — doesn’t always turn out the way we expect. It’s a familiar premise, but the story itself never really finds its feet. The biggest issue is the script, which feels like an afterthought, existing purely to glue together as many 80s hits as possible. Jukebox musicals often lean on their soundtrack, but this one takes it to extremes. Songs like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves” feel clumsily wedged into scenes, rarely adding anything to the...

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...

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Hull New Theatre

5Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Now That’s What I Call a Musical – Hull New Theatre

Set in Birmingham, the Brummy tones in this new musical were a joy to listen to. Now That’s What I Call a Musical, written by Pippa Evans and directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, of Strictly Come Dancing fame, charts the lives of two best school friends, whose loves, hopes, dreams (shattered or otherwise) are played out to some of the greatest pop hits of the 1980s. It’s 1989, and April (Maia Hawkins) and Gemma (Nikita Johal) are typical schoolgirls - April is blonde, bubbly and dreams of stardom in Hollywood. Her bestie, the shorter, dark-haired Gemma, dreams only of marriage and having kids. Gemma’s family are a scream - that accent again. Dad (Christopher Glover) works in a car factory, while Mum (Poppy Tierney), seems to spend her time laying the kitchen table...

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Opera House

29Jan

By Coral MourantNo Comments

North West

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Opera House

A new musical comedy hits UK theatres and transports its audiences back to the 80’s with pop-tastic hits, flashy routines and an empowering story of love and friendship. Two high school friends dream of their futures, April wants to take Hollywood by storm, Gemma is quite content in Birmingham, but nothing is going to come between them. Fast forward twenty years to the high school reunion and the girls are confronted with their decisions, their love-lives and their futures ahead. Is their friendship going to conquer all? Or have they grown up and, ultimately, grown apart? Now… isn’t anything ground-breaking, in fact it’s very familiar. It’s a story of every-day people, with songs we all know and love performed with gusto by a brilliant cast who represent a typical British city (kudos...

NOW That’s What I Call A Musical – Bradford Alhambra

16Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

NOW That’s What I Call A Musical – Bradford Alhambra

Back in the eighties when CDs first came on the market NOW That’s What I Call Music! compilations packed full of mega chart hits dominated the hit parade, so it’s no shock that a jukebox musical version is on the road. We’re back in 1989 with Brummie best mates livewire April and sensible Gemma, who for some reason is in love with Jay Osmond, but years later like many intense teen friendships they have drifted apart until a school reunion. Shock, horror - it’s all soundtracked by the sort of middle of the road bangers featured on the NOW collections. Pippa Evans' slightly flabby book is full of eighties inspired gags, but she does cleverly weave the narrative from 1989 to the reunion, and then backwards and forwards. Evans makes some good points about the fragile nature of friendship...

Now that’s What I Call a Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

12Sep

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Now that’s What I Call a Musical – Sheffield Lyceum

Now that’s what I call a…. trip down memory lane for an 80’s kid! I was smiling until my jaw ached as the now 40 year old ‘Now That’s What I Call’ music CD phenomenon blasted out the songs of my youth. The music is prominent in Now, That’s What I Call a Musical as the name implies…The production is unapologetically nostalgic and a little lacking in depth at times, but the soundtrack of a generation takes centre stage as the story underscores the songs for once. And it works a treat! Penned by comedian Pippa Evans and inspired from the screenplay ‘The Video Help Service’ by Ian W Brown, Lotte Mullan and Natalie Malla, the story starts in 2009 and thrusts us back into 1989. Cleverly directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, we are greeted by two simultaneous time eras as we se...