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‘You’d have to be a scrooge not to enjoy it’: Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Touring ★★★★★

In Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Olivia MitchellLeave a Comment

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a staple and rite of passage for many musical theatre fans so when a production is mounted there’s always a ready and willing audience to view it. Thankfully for current audiences, the Palladium production which is currently touring the country is absolutely top notch and a dream night out.

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‘Memorable production’: WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND – Watermill Theatre, Newbury ★★★★

In Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Regional theatre, Reviews by Elaine ChapmanLeave a Comment

The Watermill’s bespoke setting and compact stage wouldn’t be my first choice of venue for a revival production of the musical Whistle Down the Wind based on the book by Mary Hayley Bell, adapted to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Jim Steinman. However, the results are extremely impressive.

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’Andrew Lloyd Webber’s first solid smash hit for quite some time’: CINDERELLA – Gillian Lynne Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Reviews by Alun HoodLeave a Comment

Andrew Lloyd Webber may have composed better scores than his new Cinderella, but he has certainly never created anything camper, and no, I haven’t forgotten Sunset Boulevard. This collaboration with Oscar winning book writer Emerald Fennell and lyricist David Zippel (City of Angels, ALW’s own The Woman In White) actually feels like something of a return to form, not because it’s much like anything else in the Lord’s canon thus far, but more because, after well over two decades, a new musical by this country’s most successful theatrical composer actually feels, once again, like a major West End event. School Of Rock doesn’t count as it was already a solid Broadway hit by the time it opened at the same Gillian Lynne Theatre that Cinderella is now gaudily occupying.