musicals
Q&A Special: Actor Nigel LindsayMonday, 13 June 2011![]() His only previous visit to musical theatre was as Nathan Detroit in the Donmar’s West End production of Guys and Dolls. And now Lindsay sits in the sumptuous dressing room – it feels more like a small flat – at Drury Lane once occupied, he is proud... Read more... |
Interview: Timothy Sheader, Artistic Director of Regent's Park Open Air TheatreSaturday, 14 May 2011![]() The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has always been one of London’s theatrical success stories, attracting luminaries from Flora Robson to Judi Dench, but over the past few years under the stewardship of artistic director Timothy Sheader, it has... Read more... |
Classic Brits 2011Friday, 13 May 2011![]() In case anybody had the bizarre notion that the Classical Brits was getting a trifle too classical, the 2011 version of the event was rebranded as the Classic Brit Awards. That would seem to open the door to almost anything - classic rock perhaps... Read more... |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – The True Story, BBC FourThursday, 28 April 2011![]() “There’s no place like home… there’s no place like home… there’s no place like home…” A wish became a mantra and then became a happy ending, when Dorothy wiggled her ruby-red shoes in the MGM movie version of L Frank Baum’s fairy story. But this... Read more... |
London Road, National TheatreThursday, 14 April 2011![]() The murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich: it’s hard to imagine a less likely subject for a musical, not least because the memory of the crimes of forklift-truck driver Steve Wright, committed in late 2006, is still so horribly fresh. But there is... Read more... |
Betty Blue Eyes, Novello TheatreThursday, 14 April 2011![]() Foot fetishists will have a field day at Betty Blue Eyes, given that the producer Cameron Mackintosh's latest venture is also the first in my experience to sing of bunions, calluses and corns, the last encompassing a passing reference to a lyric... Read more... |
Thrill Me, Tristan Bates TheatreMonday, 11 April 2011![]() Does the perfect murder make for the perfect musical? One doesn't have to make undue claims for the work's chamber-size appeal to warm to Thrill Me, the American two-hander that has arrived at the Tristan Bates Theatre as this season's entry in... Read more... |
Smash!, Menier Chocolate FactoryFriday, 01 April 2011![]() If you're going to put on a show about putting on a show, you gotta get a gimmick, as a wise man not unconnected with the late Jack Rosenthal's autobiographical comedy once wrote. Put it another way: if the show/film/TV series depicted is... Read more... |
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Gielgud TheatreTuesday, 22 March 2011![]() Zut alors! A gifted English theatre artist, Emma Rice, comes a serious Gallic cropper with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a stage musical adaptation of the through-sung 1964 movie that only succeeds in making the recent, prematurely departed Love Story... Read more... |
Love dies at Olivier Awards, but Smith, Sondheim, Lyttelton soarMonday, 14 March 2011![]() The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Love Never Dies emerged empty-handed at the 35th Laurence Olivier Awards, despite seven nominations, but it was a good night for Legally Blonde, Stephen Sondheim, and, so it seemed, pretty well any production lucky... Read more... |
The Wizard of Oz, London PalladiumWednesday, 02 March 2011![]() If it only had a heart. Animal cruelty, a sadistic green-faced witch, flying monkeys: L Frank Baum’s story, which spawned the MGM movie that made Judy Garland a star, is downright grotesque. And when it’s not unsettling you with its rusty Tin Man,... Read more... |
Million Dollar Quartet, Noël Coward TheatreMonday, 28 February 2011![]() As acting challenges go it borders on the foolhardy: impersonate not just in looks and mannerisms but in musical skill too some of the most truly iconic figures of the 20th century. And do it up close and personal with an audience who know the... Read more... |
