Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The Musical comes to Leeds Playhouse for the festive season. The musical invites one into a world of imagination of Charlie’s plight and Willy Wonka’s confectionery wonders at his chocolate factory. The musical is based on David Greig’s book with Marc Shaiman’s musical composition and his and Scott Wittman’s lyrics.
‘Coward’s classic fits the quarrelsome exasperated affections of middle age perfectly’: PRIVATE LIVES – Touring ★★★★
May as well tell you, I had the ultimate pensioner experience, and it was a blast. A midweek, senior-price matinee for the new touring production of Private Lives.
‘A stellar production of an intriguing play’: THE PRICE – West End ★★★★
The Price is a stellar production of an intriguing play about family tensions – the set is breathtaking and Miller’s insights remain as perceptive as ever.
‘Suchet’s portrait is memorable in all its detail & density’: THE PRICE – West End
David Suchet is majestically magnificent in this excellent revival of Arthur Miller’s 1968 family drama The Price.
‘Neither as funny nor as clever as the audience desperately want it to be’: VULCAN 7 – Touring ★★★
There are some brilliantly imaginative elements to the touring production of Vulcan 7 at the King’s. Unfortunately, none of them are in Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer’s script.
‘It’s also time to let Wilde free’: AN IDEAL HUSBAND – West End
In an otherwise charming and chic production, it can only be a shame that Classic Spring didn’t decide to take a risk with this interpretation of An Ideal Husband.
THE NORMAN CONQUESTS – Chichester
Sometimes a character exits to join another play, or comes in from a scene you will only see in the next show. The final part begins half an hour before the first and ends after them all, providing prequel and sequel by half an hour.
ALL OUR CHILDREN – Jermyn Street Theatre
Interesting that two new plays in recent weeks have referred back to Nazi Germany and indirectly to the Holocaust. Whereas Cordelia O’Neill’s fine No Place for a Woman (Theatre503) looks at relativism and the chance accidents of life that can turn one middle class woman into being on the `winning’ side, and the other, by virtue of her Jewish birth, on another, Unwin looks directly at the Nazis’ policy of eugenics.
Love’s Labours Lost / Much Ado About Nothing – Chichester & West End
A couple of years ago the Royal Shakespeare Company paired Love’s Labours Lost with Much Ado About Nothing (renamed Love’s Labours Won) in a gorgeous setting amidst the Great War to much acclaim. This year they’ve revived the productions, with many of the original cast and have brought it to Chichester Festival Theatre ahead of the West End.
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG – Touring
The stage version of the iconic 1968 British film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is not awful. Much-loved songs by the Sherman Brothers and the sensational sets coupled with stunning special effects make for an entertaining experience. Oh, and there is a flying car.
Review: Barking in Essex (Wyndham’s Theatre)
With the West End full as it is of excellent ‘stuff’ – Chimerica, Curious Incident, One Man Two Guvnors – you have to question why a sane theatregoer would squander the same amount of cash on Barking In Essex, a heavily television-referenced comedy by the late Clive Exton, writer of Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster and that exemplar […]
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