Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Originally staged in two parts at Bristol Old Vic, Sally Cookson’s collaborative adaptation of Jane Eyre won acclaim in a single, three-hour form at the National Theatre. It is due to return to London in September, following this current tour which has now arrived in Aylesbury. Jane Eyre is often presented as a…
Month: April 2017
The Whisper House, The Other Palace, London ★★
Reviewed for Musical Theatre Review: For its second major staging in its new rebranded guise as the home for new musical writing, The Other Palace has chosen curiously. Whisper House is a 2009 piece with music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik, whose Spring Awakening and, to a lesser extent, American Psycho marked him out as…
After You, The Crazy Coqs, London ★★★½
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Over recent months, Brasserie Zedél’s live cabaret space, The Crazy Coqs, has been spreading its wings with comedy performers and plays complementing the more traditional cabaret. Now, it has a commissioned musical, written for and set in the venue by Alex Parker and Katie Lam. Apart from raising one of…
Audra McDonald, Leicester Square Theatre, London ★★★★★
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: If your knowledge of Audra McDonald is limited to her role as the opera singer-cum-wardrobe, Madame de Garderobe, in Disney’s recent live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, you have so much more to learn. McDonald has won six Tony Awards – more than any other actor – and is…
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Wilton’s Music Hall, London ★★★
Reviewed for Musical Theatre Review: The self-help book may not seem like the likeliest of genres from which to birth a musical comedy. But Shepherd Mead’s 1952 book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a sharply satirical work that mercilessly lampoons the office culture that Mad Men would, several decades later, afford a…
The Playwrights’ Suite: Full Tilt, Canal Café Theatre, London ★★★½
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Attending a staged reading of a work in progress is an experience unlike any other for an audience member. There is no set, no exits or entrances, no lighting or sound cues – although all of those such stage directions are read direct from the script. And so, in addition…
Interview: Sharon D Clarke on a dream role in The Life and colour-blind casting
Originally published on Musical Theatre Review: Revived at the Southwark Playhouse, The Life at is a revival of a Cy Coleman musical which has not been seen since its original Broadway production 20 years ago. Musical theatre star Sharon D Clarke, who was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list, plays Sonja, a…
Consent, National Theatre, London ★★★★
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: The act of rape, its effect on the victims and the difficulties with prosecuting attackers, is such a serious subject that one can feel guilty at laughing during Nina Raine’s new play for the National and Out of Joint, Consent. And yet, such laughter is deliberate and necessary: Raine’s darkly…
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