Superstar: hot play or cold gig? Actually a hot gig about Coldplay. Well a bit about Coldplay, anyway, but much more about what it’s like to be the runt in a family of five siblings, what it’s like to be a panto bunny (aged 8), what it’s like to be Anne Frank and in love with Shippy, and what it’s like to be a bespectacled Toad who spots through her squint from the stage a woman in a cap that is apparently Gwyneth Paltrow though she could be the Princess of China for all you know. Shippy, … [Read more...]
Mischief Theatre’s Groan Ups at the Vaudeville Theatre
The trouble with a franchise - and Mischief Theatre is now on it’s 6th (or is it 7th?) show - is that - if you are not careful - it grows a bit stale. Groan Ups has all the accoutrements of the Mischief Theatre brand that we have come to know and love but, honestly, the joke and, yes they are all basically based on the one elongated joke, is wearing a bit thin. The action goes awry, characters act OTT and it ends in farce. The farce in this instance takes hold in Act 3 after the interval. To … [Read more...]
Pictland written by Eilis Price – Part of the Watford Fringe Festival
At a time of jittery national uncertainty, as we ladle our way through an extraordinary mish-mash of magi-mix politics, it’s encouraging to come across a piece of theatre that boldly attempts to deconstruct democracy and explore the concept of community. I suspect there were some wise voices that urged writer Eilis Price not to go there (boldly or not) but I for one am glad she did as Pictland is not so much a song for Europe as a parable for society - yes, I mean that same society that Mrs T … [Read more...]
Stagescripts: We Are The Lions Mr. Manager
Townsend Productions’ excellent play We Are The Lions Mr. Manager, which received rave reviews during its 2018 tour is to be published by Stagescripts as part of the publisher’s 11th birthday celebrations. Written by Neil Gore, We Are The Lions Mr. Manager takes as its subject the infamous Grunwick strike of the mid-1970s and through its clever staging and characterisation is an invaluable historical document: this makes it a particularly apt choice for publication given the publisher’s … [Read more...]
Midlife Cowboy at the Pleasance Theatre | Review
Welcome to Cliché Gulch. OK, so we have the cowboy boots, the studded Levis, the check shirts, the stetsons and a smattering of obligatory “yee-haws” but these necessary accoutrements of a Country and Western show are not the clichés I am referring to. I’m talking about the dreary, uninspiring, going-through-the-motions, cliché-ridden apology for a narrative which is not so much an exploration of midlife crisis as midlife Agony Aunt column: yes, folks - it’s a soap opera - with songs. So we … [Read more...]