The fourteenth Tete a Tete Opera Festival is currently taking place at The Cockpit Theatre, London, as well as online. Its aim is to produce “extraordinary opera in extraordinary places” from Stavanger to Shetland. And gives opportunities for young, as well as not so young, composers, librettists and performers to stage the most expensive of art forms. One of this year’s productions is EXPO MYCO “a Thread Through Change”, staged by Manchester Contemporary Youth Opera. Originally three short … [Read more...]

Just reading Janie Dee’s entry in Wikipedia is exhausting! This multi-talented artiste has achieved so much and her return to Cabaret at The Pheasantry (Pizza Express Chelsea) demonstrates her amazing versatility. In fact, a fitting subtitle to the evening would be “An informal evening with friends” because from the very start that’s what it seems like. She has that rare quality, charisma, that immediately charms the audience and puts everyone at their ease, in this case in a medley of … [Read more...]

This fifty-minute, online, one-man play is written and performed by the ever-so-camp Michael Conley, who has previously written the libretto for Superhero. The reason he stars in the play is, as he says, because he would not let anyone else! Crispin Cox has been drafted in at short notice to take over from his “very best friend” the only role in a musical version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses - which Crispin is unable to pronounce correctly. It appears that he has had a week to learn and … [Read more...]

"The funniest book in the World" was how Evelyn Waugh described "The Diary of a Nobody", the famous Victorian novel by George and Weedon Grossmith, that many have heard of but few have read! Keith Waterhouse’s 1980s adaptation is just as amusing, with many ‘laugh out loud’ scenes; just what is needed after 16 months of Pandemic!! George Grossmith, the ‘principal comedian’ in the original productions of most of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas at the Savoy Theatre, and his artist brother … [Read more...]

The Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch is one of the first producing regional theatres to open up again after the various lockdowns of the last sixteen months, albeit in a very safe, Covid secure, way, with socially distanced seating meaning that less than 30% of the auditorium is used, temperatures of all audience members being taken on entry, one-way systems in operation and drinks being ordered and served at seats. One feels as safe as it is possible to feel! Tim Firth, perhaps best known for … [Read more...]