The newly opened Golden Goose Theatre brings some interesting musical theatre to Camberwell with Now. Here. This.
Album Review: Lucie Jones Live at the Adelphi
Covid-19 may have cut her time in Waitress short but Lucie Jones Live at the Adelphi is a great reminder of the leading lady she is and will surely continue to be.
‘Deftly experienced hands are shaping this new kind of experience’: MACBETH – Big Telly Theatre Company (Online review)
Not quite ‘when shall we three Zoom again’, Big Telly Theatre’s imaginative online version of Macbeth has some impressive moments.
‘You have to admire a creative response to this Coronavirus bullsh*t’: SEEDS / At YOUR PERIL (Online review)
A rare foray into the world of podcasts sees Ian Foster listening to the Nina Sosanya-starring Seeds and getting properly freaked out by horror anthology At Your Peril.
CD Review: Amanda Holden – Songs From My Heart
Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden releases her debut album Songs From My Heart, full of musical theatre treats and Sheridan Smith.
‘Intermittently affecting blend of personal struggle & political outrage’: BEAT THE DEVIL – Bridge Theatre
David Hare gets in first with his Coronavirus monologue Beat The Devil at the Bridge Theatre, evocatively performed by Ralph Fiennes.
‘The whole company impresses’: HENRY V / THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR – St Albans
A return to live theatre is well marked by these vibrant open-air productions of Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Roman Theatre of Verulamium in St Albans.
’An inspired, interactive & family-friendly journey’: ALICE: A VIRTUAL THEME PARK – Creation Theatre (Online review)
Doing the Macarena with the Queen of Hearts? But of course. Alice – A Virtual Theme Park does an excellent job of blending technical innovation with live theatre
’An absolute ray of sunshine’: Hello, Harry! A Celebration of 40 Years at Stage Door (Online review)
Hello Harry!, an online concert celebrating the incredible 40-year career of Harry Gabriel, the Shaftesbury Theatre’s Stage Door Keeper, was an absolute ray of sunshine.
‘There are so many talented writers out there deserving of opportunity’: Composer Darren Clark on launching new UK Musicals platform
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.
‘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.
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.