Beautiful charts the early years of Carole King from a 16 year old girl writing her first hit single, to her first solo concert in front of an audience at Carnegie Hall in June 1971. King would go on to become the most successful female American songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century, writing or co-writing 118 hit songs, 61 of which charted in the UK.
Debbie’s favourite male performances of 2018
Mind the Blog rounds up her favourite male performances in the theatre during 2018.
‘Rice sprinkles in her own brand of magic’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Empire Cinema Haymarket
Brief Encounter is a love letter to both film and theatre in which Rice combines elements of David Lean’s 1946 film with the 1936 Noël Coward play Still Life that it was based on, and then sprinkles in her own brand of magic.
‘Moving, heartbreaking & blurring the lines between film & reality’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Empire Cinema Haymarket ★★★★
As the leads, Isabel Pollen and Jim Sturgeon are captivating. Suitably reserved and excited at times they create a moving and heartbreaking relationship which blurs the lines between film and reality.
‘It’s a classic’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Empire Cinema Haymarket ★★★★
The interactive movie footage in Brief Encounter is well done, there are trains enough to satisfy the most diligent railway enthusiast, and the breaking waves motif is clever. Maybe it’s a pity they couldn’t have intercut some of the David Lean film, it’s still a classic. But, in its own way, so is this production.
‘A little classic in its own right’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Empire Cinema Haymarket ★★★★★
On the far side of Emma Rice’s brief unhappy tenure at the Globe, here Brief Encounter comes again, with a few fine tweaks, to remind us what Rice does best, and how playful, inventive, sincere and inspiring Kneehigh can be when it beats its own path through the woods.
‘The show of the year so far’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Empire Cinema Haymarket ★★★★★
My verdict? Brief Encounter is a love letter to stage and screen, beautifully conceived and immaculately performed – the show of the year so far.
‘Every emotion is captured’: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Touring & West End ★★★★★
Directed by Emma Rice, Kneehigh’s Brief Encounter is a fast-paced, superbly powerful, moving and yet hilarious piece of theatre.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – Chichester
Though my life has long been filled with musicals, Fiddler on the Roof has never been the one. I’ve only ever seen it the once (2013’s touring version) and though I quite enjoyed it then, I can’t say I was hankering after seeing another production.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF – Chichester
Omid Djalili steps up to the pivotal role of Tevye the milkman. Married to Golde and with 5 daughters (3 of marriageable age) Djalili captures a hen-pecked, hardworking weariness of the poor pious family man who dreams of maybe, just a small fortune.
NEWS: Tracie Bennett & Jan Ravens lead The Sorcerer’s Apprentice musical concert
A new British musical inspired by Goethe poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice receives an exclusive West End concert presentation at the Ambassadors Theatre on 8 February 2017, with a stellar cast including Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett and impressionist Jan Ravens.
MUTED – Bunker Theatre
Muted is tender and thoughtful, beautifully reflective in the way it probes into the different ways in which we grieve. And it uses its structure well, songs are less about narrative propulsion but saying what the characters don’t yet have the emotional articulacy to say out loud.
MUTED – Bunker Theatre
It’s not a big, showy American musical, but one that is distinctly and quietly British. With more development and dramaturgical support, Muted will really shine.