Month: January 2023

An all-singing, all-dancing musical about workers going out on strike to fight for a decent living wage? The London opening of Newsies could not be more topical. Yet this is set in a different century, in a different country – if nothing else, it shows that where rampant capitalism is concerned some things never change.… Continue reading Newsies at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre review: bristles with infectious energy

This musical biopic of South Africa’s great unifying leader is a storming celebration of the human spirit and the human voice. It’s not easy to portray a secular saint on stage – especially if you’re working “in proud partnership” with his family – but the creators manage it, and Broadway star Michael Luwoye brings force… Continue reading Mandela – a New Musical at the Young Vic review: a storming celebration of the human spirit

(Description)Vitrine Ballet in 2 acts. Story by Hans Christian Andersen. Music and libretto by Zoltan Demme.DANCERS: Ugly Duckling, Mother Duck, Duck Majesty, Cock the King, His Grace The Turkey, Her Grace The Turkey Lady, Peacock Queen. GROUP DANCERS: Poultry, Wild Ducks, Migrant Birds, Wild Pigeons, Hawks, Icebirds, Storks, Vultures, Swans.Act 1 Scene 01-1-1 CUCKOO AND… Continue reading Ugly Duckling, as a Vitrine Ballet

The US star on appearing in As You Like It in the West End, living in London and how she’s still approached by fans of The Goonies almost 40 years on It was during Martha Plimpton’s second stint in the West End, in 2018, when she was starring in Lynette Linton’s production of the incendiary… Continue reading Martha Plimpton: ‘I was wrong the first time but Trump isn’t getting anywhere near that White House again’

Sir Ian McKellen makes a triumphant return to pantomime damehood in this gleeful, willfully slapdash affair, which opened in Brighton on Saturday and moves to the West End this Thursday. Wearing a series of increasingly garish frocks and using his own Burnley accent, the original great Knight out treats us to dance routines, a stream… Continue reading Mother Goose at Duke of York’s Theatre review: Ian McKellen makes a triumphant return to panto

In Lillian Hellman’s 1941 melodrama, the war in Europe bursts through the genteel, neutral country-house door of Washington dowager Fanny (Patricia Hodge), and she is forced to pick a side. The message – that you can’t equivocate over or ignore fascism, however distantly it flowers – chimes with our times. Ellen McDougall’s production is crisp… Continue reading Watch on the Rhine at the Donmar Warehouse review: movingly acted but the play feels like a museum piece

B ritish boxer Vernon Vanriel’s descent from sporting highs in the 70s and 80s to being left homeless in Jamaica by UK Immigration’s “hostile environment” in the 2000s is a harsh and compelling story. It’s rigorously explored to the point of ponderousness in this play co-written by Vanriel and Dougie Blaxland and studded with reggae… Continue reading On the Ropes at Park Theatre review: a story worth telling, but no knockout

The script is not without narrative skill or ambition but fails to be particularly profound A young gay man communes with his dead partner as he struggles on through life in Tom Ratcliffe’s slight, sentimental exploration of bereavement. The 60-minute script is not without narrative skill or ambition, but it’s too skimpy to approach anything… Continue reading Wreckage at the Turbine Theatre review: a slight exploration of bereavement

Dolly’s new songs are good and sometimes excellent in this imperfect tryout T hough Dolly Parton is a goddess, my hopes weren’t high for her musical transposition of Dickens to depression-era Tennessee, which started life as a 40-minute “presentation” at her theme park, Dollywood. More fool me. Hardscrabble Appalachian life in 1936 has clear parallels with Victorian poverty, and Dolly and… Continue reading Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol review: carried with glee and gusto