Mrs Doubtfire, the new comedy musical, is the latest in a long line of all-singing, all-dancing versions of classic retro ’80s / ’90s movies filling London theatres from Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing and Groundhog Day. Some are better than others, but if the movie, like in our home, is a firm favourite integrated… Continue reading Mrs Doubtfire
Month: July 2023
Inflatable fun for Manchester festival
Manchester International Festival returns until July 16 with new work from artists including Ryan Gander, Maxine Peake, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tino Sehgal and Juan Mata, and music from John Grant, Angélique Kidjo, Alison Goldfrapp and more. A major exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s spectacular inflatables forms a centrepiece of the festival and offers the first opportunity to… Continue reading Inflatable fun for Manchester festival
The Tempest
Jennifer Tang’s reimagined version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest includes songs, occasional audience participation and a higher-than-usual profile for Caliban and Ariel, but it is still Shakespeare’s play with all the great speeches and a good chunk of the original text. Our initial hosts on a stage that is surrounded by the assorted plastic rubbish that still rolls up… Continue reading The Tempest
42 Balloons cleared for take-off
The first full production of new musical 42 Balloons plays at The Lowry, Salford 18 April 18 to May 19, 2024. Using a lawn chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons, truck driver Larry Walters defied all the odds (and airspace regulations) to make his lifelong dream a reality and fly 16,000 feet above Los Angeles. Featuring an… Continue reading 42 Balloons cleared for take-off
Once the Musical
If asked to picture a musical set in Dublin, you might be forgiven if that evoked an imagined mishmash of Riverdance, pints of the black stuff and Bono. But from those first opening bars, and the penetrating spotlight trained on our protagonist—Guy—Once seeks to disperse your preconceptions. The Barn Theatre itself is an intimate venue… Continue reading Once the Musical
Making space for Smeds & Smoos
The Smeds and The Smoos soar into Blackpool Grand July 11–13. Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler’s star-crossed aliens take an interplanetary exploration with music and laughs for everyone aged three and up. On a far-off planet, Smeds and Smoos can’t be friends. So when young red Smed Janet and young blue Smoo Bill fall in love… Continue reading Making space for Smeds & Smoos
Bosie
The downfall of Boris Johnson suggests the UK may be tiring of narcissists who get others into trouble while dodging consequences themselves. If so, this might be a bad time to launch a play about Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, known as Bosie. Bosie is known more for his relationships with other people than his own… Continue reading Bosie
The Tremors
May be out of my depth here. Lapsed Catholicism and listening to the Today programme may not be sufficient to appreciate a play about the complexities of the situation in Palestine. Hence the twenty-minute delay to the start of the play is spent speed-reading the background information in the programme. The Tremors is a play that rewards preparation. The… Continue reading The Tremors
Black Sheep set to tour
There’s an autumn tour for Livia Kojo Alour’s debut solo show Black Sheep. Fusing physical theatre, spoken word and song, it’s the story of a queer black woman finding love, overcoming institutional racism and leaning into radical vulnerability while building community around her. Black Sheep is at Old Fire Station Oxford September 1; Norwich Arts… Continue reading Black Sheep set to tour
Boris Godunov
Never before had Bryn Terfel sung a role in Russian, let alone tackle the greatest in that country’s great history of opera. Yet this magnificent performance in 2016, which he repeated three years later, ranks for me as the very best available on DVD or to stream, beating even that of the great Rene Papp… Continue reading Boris Godunov