This year both Kiss Me Kate and this reviewer turn 70. It’s up to others to say how well I’ve aged but this wonderful musical has aged pretty well although like all of us at nearly three score years and ten, it sometimes creaks a little around the edges! Opera North’s production is the second … [Read more...]
Review of Summer Holiday at the Churchill Theatre
This production of Summer Holiday is based on the 1963 movie of the same name starring Cliff Richard. It was adapted for the stage by Michael Gyngell and Mark Haddigan and had its first production in Blackpool in 1996 starring Darren Day as Don, the bus mechanic played by Cliff in the movie. In … [Read more...]
Review of The Biograph Girl at Finborough Theatre
The Biograph Girl made its West End debut in November 1980 at the 1000-seater Phoenix Theatre with a production that had a cast of twelve and an orchestra of ten. Now it’s been revived at the fifty-seater Finborough Theatre with a cast of nine and an “orchestra” of one - and it’s probably all the … [Read more...]
NeoArctic by Hotel Pro Forma and Latvian Radio Choir | Review
The Queen Elizabeth Hall has always been one of my favourite music venues. Ove the years I’ve seen everyone from Australian conceptual/cabaret artist Meow Meow to Georgie Fame and the BBC Big Band, from Ronnie Spector (of The Ronettes) to Van Dyke Parks and beyond. The seats were always comfortable, … [Read more...]
Review of Gift Of The Gab at the White Bear Theatre
The first thing that grabs your attention as you enter the tiny space that is the White Bear Theatre above a pub in Kennington is Sim E Sigh’s amazing set for Simon David Eden’s latest play Gift Of The Gab. You immediately feel that you’re looking right at Rizzini’s, a greasy spoon cafe (or should … [Read more...]
Review of Anthony Horowiitz’s Mindgame at the Ambassadors Theatre
After an amusing “please turn off your phone” message that set the scene, the Mindgame (or should that be Anthony Horowitz’s Mindgame?) curtain rose on an old-fashioned doctor’s office in Fairfields Hospital in Suffolk with the sound of bells and loud ticking clocks followed by a chilling scream. … [Read more...]
Frankenstein – The Modern Prometheus | Review
I was supposed to be reviewing Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus at the Royal College of Music’s Britten Theatre but due to, as they say, circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to get there. However, by the miracle of modern technology, the production was being streamed live all around the … [Read more...]