Oliver Hoare Archives - North West End UK

21May

By Stephanie WiswallNo Comments

North West

Sunny Afternoon – Liverpool Empire

Sunny Afternoon captures the spirit of The Kinks with grit, energy, and undeniable heart, delivering a musical that feels both raw and deeply human. Rather than presenting a polished version of the band’s rise to fame, the production leans into the tensions, frustrations, and contradictions that shaped the music, giving the show an authenticity that resonates throughout, directed by Edward Hall. What makes the musical particularly effective is how closely the songs reflect real life. Tracks such as “Waterloo Sunset,” “Days,” and “You Really Got Me” emerge naturally from the emotional struggles of Ray Davies and Dave Davies, revealing the loneliness, ambition, and family conflict beneath the swagger of the 1960s rock scene. There is something wonderfully unvarnished about the production ...

Sunny Afternoon – Leeds Grand Theatre

If you thought Liam and Noel were the most quarrelsome rock ‘n’ roll siblings, this often dark jukebox musical featuring the hits of The Kinks will make you think again. The decades-long sibling rivalry at the band’s creative heart, tortured songwriter Ray Davies and his wild guitarist sibling Dave, make the Gallagher boys look like choirboys in comparison. They were at each other’s throats from the moment they formed The Kinks in Muswell Hill with constant bickering, plus onstage fistfights, which led to them being the only UK pop act banned from America at the heart of their powers, denying them the chance to be huge across the pond. They probably wouldn’t have made it big like the Fab Four or The Who as Ray’s often bittersweet classics that are all included in the show are so quin...

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – Birmingham Rep

This latest reincarnation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe explodes with delight, wonder and some truly breathtaking magic which holds its cross-generational audience enrapt for its entire course. From the first moment of a single pianist playing songs from the war through to the final thrilling anthemic chorus (via a plethora of engaging compositions variously described as “crisp beats” or “thrumming cello” by the ever attentive surtitles) Beni Bower and Barnaby Race’s music provides the aural glue holding together this magnificent edifice of a show. A packed theatre was held spellbound throughout.Various previous iterations for stage, television and film of CS Lewis’s iconic children’s book have struggled which it’s Church of England subtext but here we see a more secular and clea...