Jermyn Street Theatre has a well-deserved reputation for staging new work, and their latest production, About Leo, can only enhance this. It is difficult to believe that this beautifully written, atmospheric play is the first one by playwright Alice Allemano. Eliza Prentice, whose character is clearly influenced by the playwright’s own life (‘I’d always wanted to write but didn’t quite feel qualified to do so’) arrives in Mexico City, an inexperienced, wannabe, journalist, to interview … [Read more...]
Review of The Here and This and Now at Southwark Playhouse
This superbly acted play by Plymouth playwright Glenn Waldron is alternately hilarious and very dark, and certainly, sends one out of the theatre thinking! Commissioned by Plymouth Theatre Royal, and premiered there in March 2017, it looks at what would happen if, as seems likely at some date in the future, antibiotics no longer work, and the world is hit by a disease which cannot be stopped. The first scene of this 90-minute piece is exceedingly funny, yet also dark and ironic. It takes … [Read more...]
Review of The Hound of the Baskervilles at Jermyn Street Theatre
The pocket-sized Jermyn Street Theatre, just south of Piccadilly Circus, has made an inspired choice for this year’s Christmas production: an hilarious, three-handed adaptation of Conan Doyle’s The Hound of The Baskervilles. The play has been directed (the highly talented Lotte Wakeham) at breakneck speed, with terrific energy, sense of pace and, above all, a true sense of style, and is performed by just three actors, all of whom are either on-stage all the time, or changing costume. The … [Read more...]
Review of James Meunier’s new solo EP ‘From The Heart’
James Meunier is currently in the UK Tour of Sunset Boulevard understudying the role of Joe Gillis. The EP is produced by Auburn Jam (Nikki and Joe Davison), including original arrangements by Joe Davison, and featuring live musicians - including Richard Meunier on guitar and string players. It has been a very pleasurable voyage of discovery listening to James Meunier’s EP. He has an attractive light high baritone with a slight vibrato, which he uses to great effect. ‘Bring Him Home’ is so … [Read more...]
Review of Frankenstein at the Bridewell Theatre
If you have experienced Mel Brooks’ version of Young Frankenstein and wondered what Mary Shelley’s original was really like, you should head to the Bridewell Theatre near Blackfriars Station this week where the amateur Stock Exchange Operatic and Dramatic Society is staging Nick Dear’s faithful and evocative play based on the novel, first seen at the National Theatre in 2011. What is immediately apparent is that the ‘stars’ of this show are the designers. Steven King has produced a … [Read more...]