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…
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: With the state of current political events, and right wing ideologies gaining strength and power both sides of the Atlantic, it is perhaps inevitable that our live theatre is responding with material heavily influenced by themes of fascism in World War II. Into that category falls Incident at Vichy, a…
Reviewed for Musical Theatre Review: There are many musicals that deal with society’s underclass, and its criminal element. The Life is one such piece: with music by Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity, City of Angels) and lyrics by Ira Gasman (who co-wrote the original book with David Newman), this 20-year-old Broadway musical deals with prostitutes and…
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Based on the 1967 movie devised as a Julie Andrews vehicle, the 2002 Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which is revived here, expands upon the original film’s appropriation of 1920s music by grabbing and adapting songs and styles from many other places. No other musical could claim a speakeasy…
Originally published on Musical Theatre Review: Opening this week, The Life at Southwark Playhouse is a revival of a musical which has not been seen since its original Broadway production 20 years ago. For this anniversary revival, the show’s original director Michael Blakemore has returned to the show. With music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by…
Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Since 1998, Janet Lewis’ English Youth Ballet (EYB) has been working with young dancers around England, giving children and young adults the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside, and be trained by, professional ballet dancers. The result is an evening of ballet in which the stage is full of young…
Originally reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Alan Janes’ Buddy, the granddaddy of jukebox biography musicals, opened in October 1989. Which means that, at the spritely age of 27, this musical is now five years older than its protagonist was at his death in 1959. And truth be told, that age is beginning to show, particularly at…
Original reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Before his death in 1973 at the age of 40, B. S. Johnson had written several novels, plays and TV films, often with a Beckettian eye for the surreal. The Finborough’s new trilogy of three of his short works serves as an interesting introduction to his work, albeit with…
Originally reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco, telling the story of the persecution of Israelites by the Babylonians, has over the decades come to be treated as an allegory for contemporary oppression in Europe. The work’s most famous choral tune, Va, pensiero, better known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, has resonated from…
Original reviewed for The Reviews Hub: Round the Horne remains a milestone in radio comedy history. The 1960s sketch series fronted by Kenneth Horne was, on the face of it, merely a rebadged version of its predecessor, Beyond our Ken, which ran for six years. But the name change came about when writer Eric Merriman departed, to…
Originally reviewed for The Reviews Hub: As acting gigs go, being the understudy to a famous actor in a large West End or Broadway show is a thankless one. If the person in whose shoes you are expected to stand is indisposed, the production will face demands from theatregoers who would rather receive a refund…
The latest iteration of Calendar Girls may be the best yet
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