I had to admit that I’m not a big fan of jukebox musicals but I’m an enormous fan of Carole King having seen her live on a number of occasions, have nearly all of her albums and even worked for her record company back in the day! So, it was with some trepidation that I set out for Bromley to see Beautiful - The Carole King Musical at the Churchill Theatre but I have … [Read more...]
RAGS The Musical at Park Theatre | Review
To say that Rags The Musical has had a chequered history would be a total understatement. It opened on Broadway in August 1986 and ran for just four performances. It’s been reworked and revised at least four times before landing at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester last year and has now transferred to The Park Theatre in London. Originally conceived as a kind of … [Read more...]
Off The Top! With Jason Kravits and Special Guests
Off The Top! is the title of Jason Kravits’ improvised musical comedy show that’s on this week at Live At Zédel. Kravits is an American performer who’s appeared on Broadway and is a regular guest star on TV in shows such as The Big Bang Theory, The Kominsky Method and The Deuce. As you take your seat in the superb art deco room that is The Crazy Coqs, there’s a … [Read more...]
Review of Once at the Fairfield Halls | UK Tour
Margo Lion, Broadway producer of “Hairspray”, once said “Traditionally, the great musicals were based on plays, but the thing is we ran out of plays and we had to find something else to base them on”. Whilst I wouldn’t totally agree with her, there’s no doubt there’s a recent trend where films such as “Billy Eliot”, “Kinky Boots”, “Little Shop Of Horrors” etc. have … [Read more...]
Peter Pan Goes Wrong at Alexandra Palace Theatre | Review
There were two reasons I was looking forward to reviewing Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Firstly, I wanted to visit the recently (well twelve months) re-opened Alexandra Palace Theatre. And secondly, I’d never seen one of Mischief Theatre’s “Goes Wrong” productions and I thought I should - and I wasn’t disappointed on either count. As for the theatre, built in 1875 and once … [Read more...]
FITTER by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter at Soho Theatre
I had it all planned in my head. It would be a sketch that Abbott and Costello (the American version of Morecambe and Wise) would be proud of. I’d turn up at the Soho Theatre box office and say, “I need to collect two tickets for FITTER”. The man in the box office would say “What name?”. I’d reply “Fitter” to which he’d respond, “I know what show you’ve booked for - … [Read more...]
Cinderella at The Phoenix Concert Hall – Fairfield Halls
In the past, pantomimes at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon were staged in the 750-seater Ashcroft Theatre (now renamed the Playhouse). However, Cinderella is the first pantomime to be produced at the complex since its multi-million-pound refurbishment and it’s been moved to the 1800-seater Phoenix Concert Hall. This is a gamble on two levels as they have to fill a lot … [Read more...]
Review of Aladdin at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley
Every provincial theatre has to have a pantomime each year and most of them are produced by QDOS Entertainment “the world’s biggest pantomime producer” who this year are putting on over thirty pantos up and down the land including Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the London Palladium - and you don’t get much bigger than that. This year’s offering at the Churchill … [Read more...]
Whistle Down The Wind at The Union Theatre | Review
Whistle Down The Wind is, as the programme cover states, is “Based on a novel by Mary Hayley Bell and the screenplay by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse and the film by Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes”. The novel was published in 1959 and the film was released in 1961 but prior to that, it had been a stage play too. Unusually it has been turned into a musical … [Read more...]