Empathy is what defines Medea, a play that in its nervy, Hellenic way justifies filicide. Any adaptation will carry this legacy, from expressionism to the kitchen sink. Fury, by Soho’s resident writer Phoebe Eclair-Powell, goes working-class in a South London council estate through an inspired but patchy retelling. Sam (Sarah Ridgeway) is a single mother […]
The songs are conventional, the punchlines predictable, and the plot utterly bonkers, but there is something about Miss Atomic Bomb that ticked with me, making it quite an enjoyable, if not flawed, new musical. The show certainly has its problems and is unlikely to stand the test of time, but its charm and almost innocent […]
Matthew Perry is an actor that many of us are acutely aware of for his portrayal of the awkward, joke-spinning Chandler from the sitcom Friends. What people may not be aware of is that he is currently starring as the lead in a play of his own creation in the West End, presently at the […]
One of the latest revivals to hit the West End, Guys and Dolls is a classic piece of light-hearted entertainment, a thoroughly enjoyable romp which is sure to cure those pesky January blues. Set in a dizzying yet dazzling den of debauchery within the New York City underworld, Guys and Dolls tells the tale of […]
As is the case with many who count the 2003 film Elf, as one of the best Christmas films out there and a staple of the holiday season, its musical iteration has been anticipated by many in the run-up to its recent opening at the Dominion Theatre. Such excitement has manifested itself in not just […]
An enjoyable evening of roasting the current crop of West End shows, Jest End is amusing, loud, well executed—if not slightly under-polished at times—and a whole load of fun for anyone who is up to speed with London’s musical theatre. The structure is simple: take the music of any song from a West End show […]
This is not the youthful adrenaline shot that it sets out to be. Stoppard’s abridgement of Shakespeare tragedy-laden comedy is marred by poor direction choices, although the performances, as in the NYT’s other shows, are of a remarkably high calibre given the REP cast is handes their hardest material yet with the Merchant of Venice. […]
This is a tricky and charming work. The National Youth Theatre has made something first-rate and empoweringly original with Consensual. It is a discussion of sex but simultaneously a discussion of that discussion, critical of the current discourse yet accepting of a world transformed by porn and marketed sexualisation. Evan Placey’s script is punchy: it […]
It is no easy task to turn a book into a play, especially when the book is one of the most beloved pieces of English literature. Stephanie Street’s script brings a modern twist to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights in her adaptation. While the story is well adapted, the language is quite different from that of […]
With the Les Miserables 30th Anniversary Concert almost here on the 8th October, I have had the great privilege to talk with Jeremy Secomb, the man playing the role of Javert, about himself, his character and the musical as a whole. Before taking the part up in July of this year after a major cast […]
Take a bow, Imelda Staunton. The national treasure is mesmerising as Mama Rose in this perfect West End revival of the 1959 classic, Gypsy. Having been lucky enough to see the production at the Chichester Festival Theatre prior to its West End run, I couldn’t wait to see it again at the Savoy and certainly […]
This 2015 Revival of The Elephant Man is an average production of a bland play with competent actors. It tells the story John Merrick (played by Bradley Cooper), a disfigured Victorian who is saved from the life of a circus sideshow by surgeon Frederick Treves (Alessandro Nivola). Treves teaches John the ways of the upper […]
One of the most intriguing aspects of our fascination with the lives of the members of Britain’s Royal Family is how little we really know about them. Although perhaps one of our most public institutions, it is striking that we know only snippets of their ambitions, their disappointments, their hopes and dreams. Indeed, behind the […]