Reviews by Alan Fitter

There’s no doubt that as the pandemic goes on, that one year after theatres closed, production companies are having to work harder and harder to come up with original and distinctive work. It’s getting to the point where productions using Zoom are becoming a little repetitive - after all, there’s only so much you can do using the format. Other productions have used social media, the filming of live plays and musicals and live streaming using the various platforms. Now production company … [Read more...]

I’ve seen Showstopper The improvised Musical in a theatre a couple of times and always thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I was intrigued to see what they would do in Showstopper (The Socially Distanced) Improvised Musical - an on-line version of the show and I wasn’t disappointed. Firstly, I was delighted to see that they weren’t using Zoom which in my experience can be a bit hit and miss but YouTube which turned out to be the perfect platform. A behind-the-scenes video during the interval showed … [Read more...]

A few months ago, I’d never heard of Zoom and I suspect that neither did the theatre companies who have been putting on their productions through what was basically video conferencing software since the lockdown began back in March. In the past four months or so, I’ve now seen several productions using Zoom and frankly they’re all becoming a bit samey. As I said a few weeks ago in my review for Ovo’s production of Twelfth Night, in a very short time Zoom productions already have their own … [Read more...]

In just three months, theatrical productions on Zoom have become the norm as producers and actors look for a way to keep working and entertain people who can’t get to see live theatre. Zoom theatre productions now even have their own tropes such as the passing of an object be it a prop or piece of clothing from one actor to another even though they may be hundreds of miles apart, the use of wobbly greenscreen backgrounds and audience participation where attendees are asked to shake something or … [Read more...]

A few months ago all the word Zoom meant to me was the title of two songs, one by The Commodores and one by Fat Larry’s Band but I was soon to find out it was also the name of a video-conferencing application that allowed people from all over the world to communicate with each other with both sound and vision. After having a Zoom meeting with a charity I was involved with, I was hooked and have been using it ever since at least three times a week to meet up with family, old workmates, friends I … [Read more...]