The Age of Aquarius Dawns Again
It’s been pretty scary returning from the Big Apple eager to share one’s excitement over the glorious revival of the ‘American Tribal Love-Rock Musical’ “HAIR” and finding yourself confronted with a series of puzzled faces – “What’s…
Seance for Stephen Schwartz
Josef Woodard’s review of the World Premiere of Stephen Schwartz’ first foray into “Opera” – “Seance on a Wet Afternoon” – in the Los Angeles raises once more the spectre of divisive attitudes to music theatre –…
Reviewing the Situation
So Omid Djalili has stepped into Mr. Bean’s – or should I say Mr. Atkinson’s – shoes at Drury Lane and putting aside the supreme irony of a chap born of Iranian parents playing the most infamous…
Tosca – a step into the breach, a leap to stardom
There’s been more than a buzz about Amanda Echalaz for some time now. Her Tosca at Holland Park wowed even my most hardened colleagues and English National Opera’s decision to strike while the iron is hot and…
Something Wonderful?
There is, of course, one moment where staging Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” ‘in the round’ at the Royal Albert Hall well and truly comes into its own – and that’s the moment where Anna…
Sisters Acting Up
It’s been pretty much open season on nuns since “The Sound of Music” and really there can be no greater irony than Alan Menken and lyricist whiz-kid Glenn Slater’s “Sister Act” following that venerable show into the…
Finishing the Heats
* Thursday, 21 May 2009 at 10:21 am For those less sad than I, the title is a pun on the Sondheim song “Finishing the Hat” from “Sunday in the Park with George – a song, a…
A Florentine Romance in Leicester?
Something extraordinary is happening in Leicester. The newly opened Curve Theatre – so high-tec, high-spec that it appears somehow to have “materialised” rather than been built in what was the scrag-end of Leicester’s town centre – is…
Premium Priscilla
Really, who could blame Queen Priscilla for eschewing the desert and installing herself at the Palace (theatre, that is)…. but just be careful where you sit. “Premium” seating (essentially the best seats in the house but with…