musicals
theartsdesk MOT: The Lion King, Lyceum TheatreSunday, 04 September 2011
When The Lion King first opened in London in October 1999, there were cries from some quarters that it was merely following in a long line of stage shows that had been lifted lazily from films. Indeed its creator, Julie Taymor, didn't depart too far... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Hooray for Hollywood, John Wilson Orchestra, WilsonMonday, 29 August 2011
Hooray for Hollywood! The title of last night's Prom didn't officially have an exclamation mark. But if any concert deserved a screamer, it was this one. A delirious mutual enthusiasm pinged back and forth from stage to audience all night as the... Read more... |
South Pacific, Barbican TheatreWednesday, 24 August 2011
"Whoring after the public taste" is how Ingmar Bergman described some rather funny hanky-panky in one of his most singular films. It's what showbusiness thrives on, and it's fine if done well. Yet a decade ago Trevor Nunn crowned the National... Read more... |
theartsdesk MOT: Dreamboats and Petticoats, Playhouse TheatreMonday, 22 August 2011
It's one of the distinctions of the London theatre to be at once highbrow and middle-of-the-road, to offer up esoterica from Ibsen and Schiller while allowing audiences elsewhere the chance to rock out to the beloved pop icons of their choice. And... Read more... |
Q&A Special: On Recreating South PacificSaturday, 13 August 2011
It was early in 1949. South Pacific, the follow-up to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s huge wartime hit Carousel, had entered the try-out phase before hitting New York. Late one night the production team were deep in one of those 11th-hour how-do-we-make-... Read more... |
Crazy For You, Open Air Theatre, Regent's ParkTuesday, 09 August 2011
"Drop that long face," we're urged during the end of the giddy Regent's Park revival of Crazy For You, and if ever there were a time for such sentiments, it came during the lockdown that London remained under during the all too aptly cloud-filled... Read more... |
Ghost the Musical, Piccadilly TheatreTuesday, 19 July 2011
Death means learning to say "I love you" in the woozy world of Ghost, the 1990 film that has become a breathlessly vapid musical sure to keep hen parties happy for some while to come (especially now that Dirty Dancing has closed and Flashdance... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Magician Paul KieveTuesday, 19 July 2011
Hollywood has turned the special effect into a birthright for a generation of movie-goers. “How did they do that?” is no longer a question you hear in the multiplex. In the theatre it’s another thing entirely. Whatever the reception for the show... Read more... |
Road Show, Menier Chocolate FactoryThursday, 07 July 2011
"Onward we go," the hearty but essentially hapless Wilson Mizner (David Bedella) remarks well into Road Show, the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical that has been slow-aborning, and then some, since it first appeared in workshop form in New York... Read more... |
Opera North: not homophobic, just craven?Tuesday, 05 July 2011
The kerfuffle over the collapse of a community opera, Beached, to a libretto by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall with music by Harvey Brough, seems to have gone international. In short, the main school in the Bridlington area fielding 300 participants... Read more... |
Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical, Gielgud TheatreWednesday, 15 June 2011
Acid prophecies of this show’s swift demise, as with that of the great Italian tenor whose supposed transformation from il stupendo to il stifferino results in the debut of a surpise new Otello at the "Cleveland Grand Opera", turn out to be greatly... Read more... |
Shrek the Musical, Theatre Royal, Drury LaneWednesday, 15 June 2011
Broadway musicals can have a bumpy transatlantic crossing. For every New York entry that repeats its acclaim on the West End, others quickly fade, while still others never make it to the capital at all: consider The Light in the Piazza, which won... Read more... |
