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.
Best of the Blogs: Upstart Crow, The Prince Of Egypt, Macbeth & more
In our continuing series, editor Lisa Martland picks out some of her Top Picks from the last week of theatre (to 1 March 2020), ranging from Love London Love Culture’s thoughts on David Mitchell’s West End debut in the stage adaptation of TV favourite Upstart Crow at the Gielgud 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.
Best of the Blogs: Death of England, Endgame, Chaplin, The Jury & The Gift
In our continuing series, editor Lisa Martland picks out some of her Top Picks from the last week of theatre (to 9 February 2020), including Ian Foster seeing Rafe Spall give a career-defining performance in the National Theatre’s production of Death of England.
‘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.
Best of the Blogs: The Sugar Syndrome, Persona, Sold & Blithe Spirit
In our continuing series, our editor Lisa Martland picks out some of her Top Picks from the last week of theatre (to 2 February 2020), ranging from Ian Foster’s praise of the Orange Tree Theatre’s fine revival of Lucy Prebble’s first play The Sugar Syndrome.