Charlie Fairbanks (Adam Gillen) quietly commands the stage in Radio, a somewhat intense and introspective look at an era half a century ago - at a time when the Moon landings were considered by some to be a mere conspiracy by the American Government of the day to take away the focus from the war effort in Vietnam (and, although not explicitly mentioned, the Cold War … [Read more...]
Trinity Laban Musical Theatre Presents Sweet Charity | Blackheath Halls
It’s probably unfair to compare a student summer showcase production with one done recently at the famed Donmar Warehouse, but I simply can’t desist from saying that the Trinity Laban production achieves pretty much the same effect, without nearly the same amount of scenery and props. The Blackheath Halls stage is a substantial one, and while the production does well … [Read more...]
Review of The Mother at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
Perhaps being a non-parent has a lot to do with not quite being able to connect with The Mother - all I could see at face value was a storyline moving at a pace that varied between that of a marriage procession and a glacier, and a revolve that revolved and revolved some more, and when it was done revolving, started revolving back the other way. If you want to … [Read more...]
Review of Aladdin – original motion picture soundtrack
The ‘2019 live action version’ of Aladdin (to distinguish from the 1992 animated motion picture), is not the first remake that the Walt Disney Company has embarked on, and the chances are they have yet more in the pipeline. A remake is, of course, an opportunity to revise, reshape and re-orchestrate, and they’ve done a pretty good job on those scores here. There will … [Read more...]
It’s Not Really the Apocalypse – A New Musical album review
There are probably more dystopian plays and musicals out there than there are utopian ones, or at least it feels that way. The possibilities seem more infinite in an apocalyptic narrative, even if there’s always a place for the musical theatre happy ending, and here, in this cast recording of It’s Not Really the Apocalypse, there’s a careful consideration of the … [Read more...]
The Light in the Piazza at the Royal Festival Hall | Review
There are people who prefer their operas sung in Italian rather than English. Then there are people like me who prefer operas sung in Italian because the chances are that there are English surtitles, thus retaining the intonations and verbal emphases of the original language whilst understanding in full precisely what’s going on. The Light in the Piazza is opera-esque … [Read more...]
I Know My Husband Loves Me at the Union Theatre | Review
“Trust no one,” so I was once told in school by a teacher who I subsequently refused to trust in any way, even when it came to mathematical equations, and therefore I found myself in detention quite regularly that year. Then I stubbornly refused to budge at the supposed end of the detention because I didn’t ‘trust’ that the time was what I was told it was and would … [Read more...]
Review of Three Sisters at Theatro Technis
One of these days, somebody somewhere will put on an adaptation of Three Sisters in which one of the sisters finds a way, however implausible, for them to go to Moscow after all. In the meantime, this version presented by the Acting Gymnasium has a running time considerably shorter than the two hours and fifty-five minutes the recent production at the Almeida Theatre … [Read more...]
Review of Bye Bye Birdie by Trinity Laban Musical Theatre
Presented as a one-act show (despite being written as two acts), it’s not been seen in the West End since 1961 and is set in 1958. It’s another one of those stage shows set in an era where the cool kids, like the title character of Conrad Birdie (apparently a play on words on the singer Conway Twitty (1933-1993)), a popular rock singer with hordes of screaming … [Read more...]