High Society, Old Vic
It took 30 years for High Society to make its laborious transition from screen to stage. There are good reasons for that. The indelible impression left by the movie and its star Grace Kelly was undoubtedly the…
The Pirates of Penzance, London Coliseum
Let it never be said that English National Opera hasn’t done its bit for Gilbert and Sullivan – but the fact that only one its several stagings has achieved recognition and longevity surely says something about the…
Sweeney Todd, London Coliseum
Review for this week’s edition of The Spectator… Attend the tale… http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/theatre/9486232/sweeney-todd-eno-review-blunt-and-bloody/… [Read More]
The Grand Tour, Finborough Theatre
Everything about this little-known and largely forgotten show – including the title – suggests epic. Multiple locations, ambitious concept, big ideas. But like so much of Jerry Herman’s work – and the received wisdom on it is…
Assassins, Menier Chocolate Factory
Santa Claus does make it to the Menier Chocolate Factory this Christmas but his name is Sam Byck and he plans to fly a 747 into the White House and “incinerate Dick Nixon”. So not the Christmas…
Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre
It’s throwback week with two very different shows recalling the darkest days of America’s racial disharmony – but where The Scottsboro Boys shocks and satirises and has us choke on our own laughter Memphis is content to…
Gypsy, Chichester Festival Theatre
There’s a moment of stunned silence in Imelda Staunton’s storming Mama Rose at the Chichester Festival Theatre, a long, long, moment where neither speaking nor singing she conclusively demonstrates what a difference a great actress makes in…
The Scottsboro Boys, Garrick Theatre
You come away from The Scottsboro Boys sure of two things: that the next Cakewalk you ever hear will induce queasiness; and that the show’s director/choreographer Susan Stroman is some kind of genius. This kick-ass UK premiere,…
Dogfight, Southwark Playhouse
The movie slipped through my net, the musical comes to Europe – more specifically the Southwark Playhouse – laden with Off-Broadway awards, including the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical. You can see why. There is conspicuous…
Forbidden Broadway, Menier Chocolate Factory
Since 1982 it’s been open season on the great and the good of Broadway musicals. It was in that very year that a chap called Gerard Alessandrini created Forbidden Broadway and from the hitherto innocuous sidelines of…
