Your name up in lights, leg warmers and dubious racial stereotypes, everything is bundled up into the classic film, TV show, Broadway and Off-Broadway musical. But how has the most recent spawning of the famous musical landed from its soaring leap into the Peacock Theatre? Following the various dreams, aspirations and heartbreaks of the class of ’84 at the Fame ...
A rocking concept makes this gig theatre an experience not to be missed With Skunk Anansie playing overhead the stage is set, quite literally, as if we’re about to watch a gig. And in some respects, we are. Cora Bissett’s deeply personal show, What Girls Are Made Of, sits gloriously where theatre and live music meet, as it comes to ...
As we pile into the Southbank Centre’s cavernous Royal Festival Hall, we are greeted by 17 dancers limbering up in full house lights. This is clearly going to be an experimental dance piece with a capital E. Figure a Sea is a joint project between the celebrated choreographer Deborah Hay and the Swedish Cullberg Ballet (Sweden’s foremost contemporary dance company) with music ...
Still reeling from the death of Ningali Lawford-Wolf (the original narrator and creative spine of The Secret River), Andrew Bovell’s stage adaptation of Kate Grenville’s book carries on its accolade-gathering tour of the UK. Despite the tragedy that has befallen the show, it still manages to speak on a topic so complex, heart-breaking and rooted in European and Australia history. The story follows ...
The great tradition of watching a family be horrible to one-another is given a fresh undercurrent in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 play Appropriate. With a venomous performance by Monica Dolan, this piece burns with resentment, misery and prejudice. Following the death of their father, three siblings return to their plantation/mansion in Arkansas to hammer the resentments of the past out of each other, and to try ...
Oddball is undoubtedly an ambitious task undertaken by Francesca Forristal (writer and solo performer) and Micha Mirto (director) bravely trying to make a musical comedy about Forristal’s experience with anorexia. It is personal, complex, and unfortunately disconnected. We follow Oddball as she tries to get ready for a date but most of her swirling thought processes concern having to cope with ...
The Doctor, Almeida Theatre: ‘High-calibre, unique drama that will leave you a changed person’ Robert Icke waves goodbye to the Almeida with The Doctor, his last production as the theatre’s associate director. Following such triumphs as Hamlet and Mary Stuart, this should be a challenge but the brave (and very free) adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s play Professor Bernhardi allows Juliet Stevenson’s acting and Icke’s directorial talent ...
ZooNation crashes into the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall for a follow up on their 2013 hit show Groove on Down the Road. Tales of the Turntable is an infectious and uplifting piece of hip-hop theatre that showcases the next generation of Britain’s dancers. Following the heart-warming tale of Eric, bullied and lonely, and his grandfather’s time-travelling record player that allows them to explore ...
The comedy of catastrophe is a very British pleasure (Brexit anyone?). The same is true in theatre and Willis & Vere: The Starship Osiris is riding that particularly muddy wave, bringing this 5-star Edinburgh Fringe show to the Soho theatre. We follow the egotistical, utterly dislikeable Captain Hamilton, played by George Vere, as he bullies, demeans and embarrasses not only his resentful ...
Jesus Christ Superstar, Barbican Theatre: ‘Modern, but with all the clout of the original’ Rock, opera and the bible? This bold concept has been confounding and enthralling people since the 1970s concept album was crafted into Broadway hit Jesus Christ Superstar – all hail Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Having spawned two films and countless professional and am-dram restagings, this classic ...