Musical theatre comedy done well is a blissful way to spend an evening. So it is with Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, currently playing to packed houses at the Savoy Theatre.
‘The cast is stellar’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre ★★★
Based on Doris Betts’ short story The Ugliest Pilgrim, featuring music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Brian Crawley, Violet follows a disfigured woman as she embarks on a Greyhound Bus journey from Spruce Pine, North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be healed by a famous television healer.
THE CHRISTMASAURUS LIVE ONSTAGE – Eventim Apollo ★★★★★
“This is not a musical. This is not a concert. This is not a panto, or a play, or anything I can compare it to,” so proclaims Tom Fletcher in the show notes. And he is quite right. While The Christmasaurus Live On Stage has components of all of these, it is – much like the titular only dinosaur in the world – truly unique.
INTERVIEW: Spotlight On… Side Show designer takis
Designing Side Show has been a blessing and a challenge at the same time. A blessing, as the audience have an inclusive, immersive experience of a freak/vaudeville show and are able to observe closely the life journey of (the real life conjoined twins) Violet and Daisy Hilton played extraordinarily by Laura Pitt-Pulford and Louise Dearman.
SIDE SHOW – Southwark Playhouse
Through their fascinating and unconventional lives, Side Show succeeds in engaging the audience with an open question about individuality and identity; the two girls’ struggle to just be themselves (or “Like Everyone Else” as they sing) is a never-ending controversial and painful process of auto-definition.
RAGTIME – Charing Cross Theatre
A dozen of Thom Southerland’ excellent cast of triple threats also play the entire score as actor-musicians seamlessly blended into the action: I have never seen this done better. In a word, Ragtime is faultless.
RAGTIME – Charing Cross Theatre
A dozen of Thom Southerland’ excellent cast of triple threats also play the entire score as actor-musicians seamlessly blended into the action: I have never seen this done better. In a word, Ragtime is faultless.
CRAZY FOR YOU – Newbury
The Watermill has cast the show perfectly, with Tom Chambers and Caroline Sheen leading the Crazy For You company.
DIE FLEDERMAUS – Opera Holland Park
There can truly be no finer night to visit Martin Lloyd-Evans’ new production of Die Fledermaus than the hottest day of the year. As the sun set over the Opera Holland Park arena, west London’s balmy climes proved a perfect ambience for this most barmy of operettas.
TITANIC – Charing Cross Theatre
Now I am not going to bore you with recounting the story of the Titanic as you all know that, but in case you don’t – “spoiler alert” – they do not rewrite history of the ill-fated ship here!
TITANIC – Charing Cross Theatre
Unlike its ill-fated namesake, Thom Southerland’s production of Titanic has now made a triumphant trans-Atlantic return crossing, tying up at London’s Charing Cross Theatre for a ten-week season. Acclaimed at the Southwark Playhouse three years ago and later in Toronto, this riverside reprise marks Southerland’s debut as Artistic Director at Charing Cross, with his long-time muse Danielle Tarento also on board as co-producer.
VIDEO: The cast of Titanic in rehearsals
Titanic, one of the most acclaimed musicals in recent times, is sailing back to London for a 10-week season at Charing Cross Theatre from Saturday 28 May to Saturday 6 August 2016, directed by Thom Southerland and produced by Danielle Tarento, Steven M. Levy, Sean Sweeney and Vaughan Williams. Have a listen to the cast in rehearsals…
GREY GARDENS – Southwark Playhouse
Making its European premiere, Grey Gardens is a blend of fact and fiction that tells of Edith Bouvier Beale, aunt to and her daughter Edie. What sets this family apart is that the two women were respectively aunt and first cousin to the woman who was to become the world’s First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
OLIVER! – Newbury
It is a rare treat to visit Newbury’s charmingly situated Watermill Theatre and Luke Sheppard’s Oliver! more than makes the journey worthwhile. On arrival and in one of the most innovative mise-en-scenes, as the audience mingle on the lawn outside sipping Pimms and G&Ts, the cast’s ragamuffin kids dart about, not picking pockets but offering to shine shoes for a sixpence. It’s a charming touch.
Review: In The Heights (Southwark Playhouse)
At the end of press night for In The Heights only one of the national newspaper critics wasn’t on his feet and grooving to the beat. It’s that infectious. Of course if you’re further from hip-hop and closer to hip replacement, prefer your musicals with a solid plot, familiar characters and a few old tunes […]
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