Month: January 2025

When I reviewed Seattle Rep’s The Skin of Our Teeth, and mentioned I’d never attended any productions of it after fifty years of watching and writing about theatre, my editor wrote back that he was surprised I hadn’t seen it. Ditto, I hate to admit, with Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. I had read both but… Continue reading Blithe Spirit

Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, and their bitterly antagonistic families meet on stage in a completely new, award-winning version from Ballet Cymru, the Cardiff-based Welsh touring ballet company. Does Romeo and Juliet end well? Sadly, most of us know the fate of the young lovers, and Jacob Myers—Romeo—and Gwenllian Davies—Juliet—portray them well, with, particularly,… Continue reading Romeo a Juliet

A tale of fame and fortune, Dick Whittington feels nowhere more at home than when presented in London, where the streets aren’t quite paved with gold. A home-grown narrative on home soil often leads to a path well-trodden, but this year’s pantomime at the Greenwich Theatre reinvents the title in a truly innovative way. Appearing in his… Continue reading Dick Whittington and his Cat

Mashed-up fairy tales, eye-popping visuals and saturated sound and colour go hand in hand in Patrick J O’Reilly’s exuberant The Adventures of Red Riding Hood at Belfast’s The Mac. It’s busy, loud, paced with enough adrenaline to light up a small town and doesn’t so much bend the fairy tale genre as turn it upside down and… Continue reading The Adventures of Red Riding Hood

Framed posters announcing a Hamlet musical, which closes after one night, a red plush curtain, this is penny-pinching fringe theatre for producer Max Bialystock who boasts of once being king of Broadway. Into his shabby office walks nerdish nebbish accountant Leo Bloom with his baby blue comfort blanket, come to check the creative accountancy in… Continue reading The Producers

We think of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a comedy, but it is full of duress, anger and upset, of disruption and downright cruelty and director Eleanor Rhode doesn’t hide this, they are there from the start with Sirine Saba’s Hippolyta turning her back and walking away from the conqueror whom she now has to marry. Andrew… Continue reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream

For those seeking to avoid panto land but who still want some festive fun, Southwark Playhouse is staging The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary, an adaptation of Flaubert’s iconic novel performed by a cast of four and ‘lovingly derailed’ by writer John Nicholson. Breaking the fourth wall within minutes of the show starting, the cast… Continue reading The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary

Even when it was first conceived, Valentine Davies’s story Miracle on 34th Street was steeped in nostalgia, a yearning for happier, simpler times when belief in Santa Claus and kindness was possible. At that time, no-one could have anticipated society would reach a point where high streets would be barren and physical retail sales in actual shops… Continue reading Miracle on 34th Street

Carlos Acosta’s touring production of Nutcracker in Havana has been on the road since 1 November and will finish in Salford late January, so it has to travel light, relying on video projection (we fly over Havana and Cuban plantations), simple set design and mapping by Nina Dunn and Andrew Exeter’s lighting. And on a… Continue reading Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker in Havana

When it comes to panto season, who doesn’t like an opportunity to enjoy a look at Jack’s stalk lubricated by a couple of pints? Whereas some adult pantos are straightforwardly themed, Vauxhall’s Garden Theatre is hosting a high energy, generally rude Snow White for 18+. It is a mix of the ribald and the smutty and, by… Continue reading Snow White – London’s Naughtiest Adults Only Panto!