There’s a happy ending, beginning and indeed, middle, as Jack and the Beanstalk gets a Musselburgh makeover at the Brunton Theatre this festive season.
‘Achieves an excellent balance between old & new’: Wendy & Peter Pan – Edinburgh ★★★★
Old and new collide in Wendy & Peter Pan, a beautifully staged Lyceum Christmas production that combines originality with fidelity to the spirit of a much-loved classic.
‘High-octane, utterly feel-good show’: NATIVITY! THE MUSICAL – Touring ★★★★
All Edinburgh Theatre’s Hugh Simpson went along to the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh to catch Nativity! The Musical.
‘A delightful treat of a show’: FLUTTER – Touring ★★★★
Built in a flurry of snow Flutter, from Tortoise in a Nutshell and Freshly Squeezed at the Assembly Roxy and then on tour, is the charming story of young sisters who venture out into the garden after a snowstorm.
‘Witty, tuneful & life affirming’: Doris, Dolly & The Dressing Room Divas… At Christmas – Edinburgh ★★★★★
The Gilded Balloon Basement in the Rose Street Theatre hosts top-tier talent this Christmas as five fabulous female stars tell their stories… via three spookily talented backstage assistants in Doris, Dolly & The Dressing Room Divas… At Christmas.
‘Fun & outrageous’: LA CLIQUE NOEL: PART DEUX – Edinburgh ★★★★
La Clique returns with an eclectic array of outrageous and magnificent circus cabaret to Edinburgh this festive season for Noel – Part Deux.
‘Doing much more than singing the hits’: Talking to the creatives behind Motown The Musical
Big of voice and oh so slick in presentation, the West End production of Motown the Musical – which is now on UK tour through 2019 and pausing at the Edinburgh Playhouse for a three-week run – was everything I had expected.
‘Just experience the production as something elusive & unknowable’: RAMBERT: LIFE IS A DREAM – Touring ★★★
Rambert’s Life is a Dream is a peculiar, poetic piece that suffers from pulling in too many directions at once.
‘Genuinely joyous’: MOTOWN THE MUSICAL – Touring ★★★★
Motown The Musical has a strangely conceived storyline but is carried along on a wave of wonderful music.
‘A constant fascination to it all’: THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND – Edinburgh ★★★★
The Last Days of Mankind, an international co-production at the reborn Leith Theatre, is an exasperating but ultimately worthwhile exploration of the horrors of the 1914-1918 war. Both resolutely adult and appealingly childish, it convinces and confounds almost equally.
‘Extremely seductive’: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE – Touring ★★★★
Top-notch comic performances and a production that purrs like a Rolls-Royce mean that the touring production of Shakespeare In Love from Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Theatre Royal Bath is extremely seductive.
‘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.
‘Unashamedly crowd-scaring’: DRACULA – Touring ★★★
Noisy fun is to be had in the touring Dracula at the King’s, in a production that lacks depth but is unashamedly crowd-pleasing, not to say crowd-scaring.
‘There is nothing new being said here’: MACBETH – Touring ★★★
There is a peculiar absence of majesty at the heart of the National Theatre’s touring production of Macbeth.
Saddened by the death of brilliant & much-loved actress Pauline Knowles
The news of Pauline Knowles’ death has come as a shock to the Scottish theatre community, with an outpouring of sorrow from the many actors and theatre professionals who worked with her as well as those who have been privileged to witness her on stage.
‘Equally fun for children & adults’: QUEST FOR OZ – Musselburgh ★★★★
An infectious cross between an interactive game and a piece of immersive theatre, Quest for Oz sees the paths around Drummohr House near Musselburgh turned into the land of Oz.
‘Constant wonder at the skill in storytelling’: MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE – Touring ★★★★★
It’s 23 years since Mathew Bourne changed the gender of the swans in Swan Lake for his choreography of the ballet but it still stands the test of time.
‘Might be a good way to introduce children to the world of theatre’: MADAGASCAR THE MUSICAL – Touring
Madagascar The Musical is very much a show that only young children will enjoy. Unlike other kids shows, however, there’s just not nearly enough adult content to keep them entertained too.
‘Riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit’: CYRANO DE BERGERAC – Edinburgh ★★★★★
Visually and verbally intoxicating, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Lyceum, Edinburgh is a riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit.
‘Never going to catch fire’: REBUS: LONG SHADOWS – Touring ★★★
Despite boasting the talents of two of Scotland’s greatest writers and a more than adequate cast, Rebus: Long Shadows is nowhere near as compelling as the stage debut of Edinburgh’s most celebrated fictional policeman should be.