Mike Bartlett is very prolific, but this Restoration-style satire on society at London’s Lyric Hammersmith is sadly timid and predictable.
NEWS: Matilda The Musical is back in the West End in September – full casting is announced
Casting has been announced for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s West End production of Matilda The Musical which returns to the Cambridge Theatre from 16 September 2021. Celebrating 10 years since the multi-award-winning show opened in London, the much-loved British musical is now booking through to 13 February 2022.
‘The puppetry is top class’: PINOCCHIO – National Theatre ❄❄❄❄❄
Award-winning John Tiffany directs, bringing to life a show that has been in his thoughts for several years now – he’s joined on the team by long-standing collaborator Bob Crowley, as well as Toby Olié as puppet director.
‘A unique, faintly creepy brand of entertainment’: PINOCCHIO – National Theatre
No matter the weather, as you walk into the Lyttelton’s auditorium for Pinocchio, you’ll find that it is snowing. A simple trick but one that inspires just the right childlike wonder for an adaptation of such a popular fairytale.
‘There’s a curious disconnection at the play’s heart’ – PINOCCHIO – National Theatre ★★★
It’s an old tale and a magical one. The deployment of spectacle and effects under John Tiffany’s direction and the remarkable tech and design team are not allowed to overshadow its old-fashioned moralities.
TWELFTH NIGHT – Shakespeare’s Globe
Emma Rice’s Summer of Love got off to a slightly sticky start at the Globe with a mystifying take on Romeo and Juliet from Daniel Kramer and as we move onto Twelfth Night, which she is directing herself, there’s a similarly uncompromising attitude in place.
BILLY ELLIOT – Touring
Built around the acclaimed film and with music by Elton John, Billy Elliott seemed destined for success but I’ll admit I was a little surprised to realise it had run for 11 years in London before heading out on tour.
BILLY ELLIOT – Touring
Tutu Good To Miss:Five stars and ten tissues as the smash hit musical of a working class boy’s battle to do ballet comes to the Edinburgh Playhouse.
VOLPONE – Stratford-upon-Avon
Trevor Nunn’s production of Volpone at the RSC’s Swan sagely contends that the sins of greed and avarice are timeless. With Ben Jonson’s 17th century comedy set squarely in a modern Venice, if some of Ranjit Bolt’s occasional script revisions are schoolboy clumsy (silly references to Greece and the Euro pop up), they can be forgiven in a plot in which incredible complexities may not have weathered the test of time as much as the brilliant observation of the flawed human condition that makes this play so entertaining.