Category: Reviews

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finalist Divina De Campo as evil Queen Morgiana steals the show in this year’s panto at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall. And never mind the poisoned apple, her heels are lethal. Imagine Theatre and De Montfort Hall have got a great team going behind the annual panto production, with several of the cast… Continue reading Snow White

Poznan Opera is celebrating the 120th anniversary of the birth and the 55th anniversary of the death of Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969), one of Poland’s major modern playwrights. Every year between 1964 and 1975, British theatre impresario Peter Daubeny would organise a World Theatre Season, bringing foreign theatre companies to the Aldwych Theatre. One of the plays was… Continue reading The Marriage (Ślub)

The magnificence of Broadway Theatre’s renovated Art Deco interior seems to positively shimmer in the reflected sparkle of this year’s panto, Sleeping Beauty. At the helm is “acclaimed panto legend” Susie McKenna (hyperbole justified), so this is a show that is everything a panto should be. Written by McKenna, this Beauty is an up-to-date heroine,… Continue reading Sleeping Beauty

Narnia’s origin story, The Magician’s Nephew, proves apt seasonal programming for Belfast’s Sanctuary Theatre, a stone’s throw from where C S Lewis was born, in a production by Bright Umbrella marked with agreeably old-fashioned charm. Director Patsy Montgomery-Hughes makes imaginative use of the repurposed church venue, playing on, off and below the stage, the set a… Continue reading The Magician’s Nephew

A new Nutcracker, the company’s eleventh iteration, to celebrate English National Ballet’s 75th birthday, and a new artistic director at the helm… Wayne Eagling’s version (designer Peter Farmer), created in 2010, with its hot air balloon and King Rat with skull head and eyes like headlights, has made a timely exit. A very different one… Continue reading Nutcracker

It’s that blooming time of year again, and Father Christmas has a busy night ahead. Pins and Needles has recreated Raymond Briggs’s much-loved cartoons to bring a day in the life of Santa to delight audiences young and not so young. Nathan Masterson is a rather grumpy St Nick whose dreams of a holiday in… Continue reading Father Christmas

For the third time in ten years, Derby Theatre is producing A Christmas Carol, described in the programme as a “timeless tale of redemption which captures the true spirit of Christmas”. The 2024 adaptation is by Mike Kenny, whose work has regularly been performed on the Derby Theatre stage. Shortly after Sarah Brigham took over as… Continue reading A Christmas Carol

The theatrical setting of Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, a favourite children’s book ever since its publication in 1936, makes it a great choice for this year’s National Theatre Christmas treat. It has been skilfully adapted by Kendall Feaver with a few tweaks to the characters and updating some of its attitudes but still set in the… Continue reading Ballet Shoes

From ‘umble Cockney flower girl to polished pronunciation fit for a princess, My Fair Lady is one of the classic rags-to-riches stories loved by many, its place cemented in the cultural psyche thanks to the award-winning 1964 film version starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. My Fair Lady’s source material is George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion, adapted… Continue reading My Fair Lady

Conceived as a ‘concert opera’, with a libretto by Respighi’s friend and collaborator Claudio Guastalla, Maria Egiziaca is more like a twentieth century mystery play than a conventional work for the stage. Although none of the composer’s eleven operas are often performed, this short work, lasting just over an hour, has apparently retained a place… Continue reading Maria Egiziaca