Month: February 2025

Hope Mill’s latest production is a play rather than a musical, but one with a musical theme. Peter Quilter’s 20-year-old play centres on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the American socialite from the early twentieth century who was proclaimed as one of the worst opera singers in history but who sold out Carnegie… Continue reading Glorious

Allison Davies’s play, Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light, is a warm, compassionate and playful love story based on her own experience of autism. It was first seen in Newcastle in 2023, and Birmingham is the last stop on this 2025 tour. We first meet Elsa (Hannah Genesius) aged fourteen, full of hormones and hopelessly in… Continue reading Tiny Fragments of Beautiful Light

I love shows that open with a lie. Especially a lie about politics, as in the case of Lauren Yee’s world première, which finally opened after several world-changing events. First, this was scheduled to open at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2022. Sadly (for all of us), COVID-19 hit and hit hard, closing not only Mother… Continue reading Mother Russia

The current touring performance of The Buddy Holly Story is a joyful experience and a thrilling evening in the theatre. Since opening in Plymouth in 1989, the musical biography has had a 14-year run in the West End and extended tours all over the world. This is a tribute to the enduring popularity of Buddy’s music, its… Continue reading The Buddy Holly Story

Director and choreographer Anne Tournié and libretto adapter and co-director Chris Mouron’s colourful version of The Little Prince novella (my French edition is under a hundred pages), that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry pared down and down to essentials, is not modest. Remember that famous quote about seeing with your heart and not your eyes… that the Fox (very… Continue reading The Little Prince

It is sobering when younger generations begin to experience nostalgic moments, but 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Clueless, the film loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma (published 1815) that made stars of Alicia Silverstone and Paul Ruud and turned yellow plaid into a fashion statement. Amy Heckerling, writer of film and book, has now done the same… Continue reading Clueless, The Musical

There’s no denying there’s the guilty pleasure of schadenfreude in watching two twenty-somethings argue with each other for the best part of an hour. From the outset, director Sarah Majland has the two characters move around each other like unevenly matched opponents in a ring with David consigned once again to play audience and punchbag… Continue reading Tell Me You’ll Think About It

Newlywed Ali (Nicole Evans) experiences massive buyer’s remorse. She wonders, having lived happily with her partner Les (Darren John Langford) for years, if it was a wise choice to spaff £30,000 on a honeymoon and a wedding attended by just 15 of their friends and her less aggressive relatives. Husband Les, however, is undergoing his… Continue reading Les & Ali’s Big Balearic Adventure