Cameron Mackintosh once wrote that “Musicals are funny things in that those that are most successful are the sum of their collaboration, rather than the single-minded vision of the author, however talented… the heart of a great musical is always a great book, usually adapted from an existing source…” Sir Cameron wrote this before he became involved in the new production of “Half a Sixpence” – he is modestly described as the “Co-Creator” - but its success, one suspects, is very much due to the … [Read more...]
Romeo and Juliet – Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company – Review
Romeo and Juliet has a story which has "mileage". In Opera, Ballet, the Concert Hall, the Musical Theatre and (no doubt) on ice as well. It's about man's folly. The Shakespeare tragedies usually are. The follies of revenge, or ambition , or jealousy or power or madness. Here, to an extent , we address the follies of youth. But in fact the star-crossed lovers, whilst perhaps foolish in the depth and urgency of their passion, are actually among the saner characters in … [Read more...]
Brideshead Revisited’s Nuffield Theatre Southampton and on tour – Review
It is not so much the 400 page length of Brideshead Revisited that makes Evelyn Waugh's novel a challenge for adapters but the range of characters and events all of which are arguably essential to the plot. Granada Television, in its definitive TV version in the early 1980s, resolved this by leaving virtually nothing out. The series spread over 11 episodes and seven hours! Such an option is not, of course, open to anyone seeking to make a stage play of the book - so unless it is to be highly … [Read more...]
Review of Brink at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond
The first word in Brad Birch’s remarkable new play is “So” spoken by the central character Nick: “So it starts like any other day”. Birch clearly has a good ear for language and he refers here to that strange modern affectation of using the word “So” gratuitously at the beginning of a sentence. This is an uber-modern (there I go!) play which among its many other virtues records the argot of today meticulously. Peter Hall convincingly argued that form and structured language give freedom to power … [Read more...]
German Skerries at Orange Tree Theatre Richmond – Review
The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond has a justified reputation for reviving forgotten classics and often mining gold. Together with “Up in Arms”, a touring company based in the South West of England whose mission is “Honest, human, affecting, revealing: we make plays about people and the places they’re from”, they have revived Robert Holman’s German Skerries - not performed since 1977. The play is set in Teesside in the long hot summer of 1976 which was a period of relative calm before the … [Read more...]
Review of Cosi and Cosi Fan Tutte at the King’s Head Theatre
When you've been going to the London theatre on and off for fifty years, as I have, surprises are few and far between. This can lead to a disagreeable sense of "been there, done that" which is not just depressingly world-weary but especially unhelpful if you're trying to be an objective critic. After all everyone sees Hamlet for the first time at some point in their life! Which is why, when something truly remarkable happens, as it did last night at the King's Head in … [Read more...]
What I learned from Johnny Bevan at Soho Upstairs – Review
What I learned from Johnny Bevan is an astonishing, thought-provoking and original tour-de-force by the young poet and performer Luke Wright. It won for him the “Fringe First Award for new writing” and “The Stage Award for acting excellence” at the Edinburgh Festival last year. The work starts with five minutes of rhyming couplets which then give way to a more measured if no less impactful poetic style - in total an hour of uninterrupted, fluent story-telling which captured completely the … [Read more...]