They’re back, those big burly men who sing like angels while dispensing free beer… yes, The Choir of Man has returned to town and it’s just the tonic that we need in these grim times. The term “crowd pleaser” was coined for shows like this concert-revue-jamboree hybrid, with a song stack featuring everything from Guns’n’ Roses, Queen, Avicii and Sia, to showtunes, Celtic folk songs and much more besides.
‘The show deserves a bigger stage to fully breathe into its fabulousness’: BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER – Turbine Theatre
A cheering musical to be sure, but But I’m a Cheerleader is ill-suited to the intimacy of the Turbine Theatre, it needs a bigger stage (and a bit of an edit) to truly shine.
‘Slowly but surely wins you over’: PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT – Hornchurch
Directed by Douglas Rintoul for Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, this production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert marks the show’s regional professional premiere.
‘I want those puppies’: THE HUNDRED & ONE DALMATIONS – Birmingham
The main reason for traveling to Birmingham Rep for The Hundred and One Dalmatians was to see Cruella De Vil played by Gloria Onitiri, an actress who I’ve enjoyed following since the Avenue Q days more than a decade ago.
ONE LOVE: THE BOB MARLEY MUSICAL – Birmingham Rep
There’s much to enjoy in One Love: The Bob Marley Musical, not least the joyous celebration of some of the most enduringly famous music in the world. And writer and director Kwame Kwei-Armah does a decent job at balancing the populist demands of a jukebox musical with something more dramatically satisfying.