As his new digital sheet music store New UK Musicals launches, I talk with multi-award winning composer and lyricist Darren Clark about the site and his career.
Mates blogger: Ian Foster
Ian Foster is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Ian's posts on MyTheatreMates. Take a look at our full list of theatre bloggers and our aggregated feed of all our Mates' posts. We’re always looking for new theatre bloggers. Could that be you? Learn about how to join us.
Since 2003, Ian Foster has been writing reviews of plays, sometimes with a critical element, on his blog Ought to Be Clowns, which has been listed as one of the UK's Top Ten Theatre Blogs by Lastminute.com, Vuelio and Superbreak. He averages more than 350+ shows a year. He says: "Call me a reviewer, a critic or a blogger, and you will apparently put someone or other's nose out of joint! So take it or leave it, essentially this is my theatrical diary, recording everything I go to see at the theatre in London and beyond, and venturing a little into the worlds of music and film/TV where theatrical connections can be made."
The latest from Ian on MyTheatreMates
‘Suffused with joy’: HAIRSPRAY LIVE! – The Shows Must Go On (Online review)
Hairspray Live! is such a joyous show it should perk up many a flagging spirit. It proves far superior to the previous week’s NBC Live offering of The Sound of Music.
‘There’s a fresh sprightliness to so much of the music that’s hard to resist’: RAGS – The Musical (Album review)
Sometimes a musical just doesn’t grab you, and so it was for me with Rags The Musical. The universe clearly wants me to hear it one way or another though, as Ghostlight Records are now releasing an official London cast recording.
‘A bittersweetly beautiful chamber musical’: PIECES OF STRING – Mercury Theatre (Online review)
Finally, a show I haven’t seen before being streamed! And what a beauty Pieces of String turned out to be.
‘They all spent time in Bat Out of Hell’s Obsidian’: The Songsmiths – Tenors of the West End (Album review)
Vocal group The Songsmiths’ Tenors of the West End offers up some fascinating harmonies on some classic pop tunes.
‘The top-notch cast sing as if it’s the first time they’re hearing the music’: Les Misérables – The Staged Concert (Online review)
Les Misérables – The Staged Concert is released on digital download, along with a bonus featurette which is highly amusing.
‘When You Believe has a choral majesty that is undeniable’: THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (Album review)
There was a moment in the last couple of days as I listened to ‘Make It Right’ for the umpteenth time that I wondered whether I’d been a bit harsh to The Prince of Egypt when it opened in late February.
‘Trying to capture just a spark of that charge that comes with live theatre’: ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – National Theatre (Online review)
National Theatre at Home is a huge success. The type of scheme that only large institutions can hope to really pull off but even so, managing the kind of appointment-to-view occasion that was its debut with One Man, Two Guvnors was still a remarkable achievement.
ALBUM REVIEW: #ZoologicalSociety
New musical #ZoologicalSociety, written by Vikki Stone and Kate Mulgrew, gets a well-timed concept album release.
‘Big misjudgement. Huge’: PRETTY WOMAN THE MUSICAL – West End
Aimie Atkinson is good but deserves far better than Pretty Woman: the Musical, the blatant cash grab at the Piccadilly Theatre.
‘A refreshing change to the norm’: MACBETH – Greenwich Theatre
Lazarus Theatre’s ensemble-based take on Macbeth at Greenwich Theatre proves thrilling in its stylish directorial vision.
‘Might be in need of a miracle’: THE PRINCE OF EGYPT – West End
In The Prince Of Egypt highly committed cast does their best to ride out inconsistent production choices to deliver work that fills the Dominion well.
‘Properly entertaining & endlessly watchable’: The Extraordinary Time-Travelling Adventures of Baron Munchausen – Vault Festival
I go and see The Extraordinary Time-Travelling Adventures of Baron Munchausen at the VAULT Festival and end up playing a tree with killer leaves.
‘Its vibrant energy is thrilling to behold’: POET IN DA CORNER – Royal Court Theatre & Touring
As rap and spoken word emerge as the primary storytelling modes in Poet in da Corner, along with some evocative dancing, there’s a compelling sense of the potential of what theatre can be.
‘An intriguing start to Bloomer’s tenure’: I WOKE UP FEELING ELECTRIC – Hope Theatre
Jack Robson’s I Woke Up Feeling Electric asks some morally and technologically challenging questions at the Hope Theatre.
‘A truly astonishing piece of acting’: DEATH OF ENGLAND – National Theatre
In Death of England, Rafe Spall delivers the performance of a lifetime in this punchy monologue by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams at the National Theatre.
‘It’s hilarious but also moving’: AFTER(S) – White Bear Theatre
The perils of midweek drinking writ large – After(s) examines what it means to be in your mid-twenties today at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington.
‘You’ll find it hard not to be won over’: THE MISDAVENTURES OF DAVID & SAM – Vault Festival
The Misadventures of David and Sam proves a good-natured and light-hearted piece of fun family theatre at the VAULT Festival.
‘Its power is unmistakeable’: THE SUGAR SYNDROME – Orange Tree Theatre
A fine revival of Lucy Prebble’s first play The Sugar Syndrome features a strong debut performance from Jessica Rhodes at the Orange Tree Theatre.
Twenty shows to look out for at the VAULT Festival 2020
Insofar as it is humanly possible for any one person to know everything that is happening at the VAULT Festival this year, I present a handful of my recommendations for 2020.