musicals
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! / Hiya Dolly!Tuesday, 09 August 2022
Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!, Summerhall ★★★★★ What a pleasure to be in the audience for this terrific musical whodunnit, about best friends Kathy (Bronté Barbé ) and Stella (Rebekah Hinds), who live in Hull and have a podcast devoted... Read more... |
South Pacific, Sadler's Wells review - strong singing in Daniel Evans's fast-paced productionSaturday, 06 August 2022
How old is Emile de Becque? Perhaps because my first Emile was the 1958 film version’s Rossano Brazzi, my vision of the lonely French plantation owner in the South Pacific during the Second World War has been coloured by that casting: a visibly... Read more... |
Tasting Notes, Southwark Playhouse review - whining in the wine barSaturday, 30 July 2022
LJ's dream has come true - she has her very own wine bar. Unfortunately for us, it turns into a bit of a nightmare.This new musical open on a nostalgic 70s vibe. Tables and chairs fill almost all of Southwark Playhouse's smaller space, a set that... Read more... |
Sister Act the Musical, Eventim Apollo review - the West End meets the WestwayThursday, 28 July 2022
If jukebox shows occupy one end of the musical theatre spectrum and Stephen Sondheim's masterpieces the other, Sister Act The Musical is somewhere in-between.We get songs we know (Alan Menken's score, heard first on the West End and then, in 2011,... Read more... |
101 Dalmatians, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - puppets rule in patchy musicalTuesday, 26 July 2022
There's further training, shall we say, still needed on 101 Dalmatians, the much-delayed show that marks the second consecutive musical this summer at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, following their revisionist Legally Blonde.A busy, bustling... Read more... |
Anything Goes, Barbican review - shipboard frivolity still fizzes, mostlyFriday, 22 July 2022
This is the summer, in musical theatre terms at least, of the revival of the revival, with several recent remountings of iconic titles (South Pacific, now in London previews) getting a renewed lease on life, alongside the likes of My Fair Lady,... Read more... |
Legally Blonde, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - a joyous Gen-Z musical makeoverWednesday, 25 May 2022
The 2001 Reese Witherspoon-starring film Legally Blonde, upon which Heather Hach, Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin’s peppy Broadway musical is based, was something of a Trojan horse: a bubblegum-pink comedy with a feminist spine.Now Lucy Moss, co-... Read more... |
My Fair Lady, London Coliseum review - tasteful revival powered by stirring performancesSaturday, 21 May 2022
First staged in 2018, Bartlett Sher’s Lincoln Center Theater production of My Fair Lady is London’s latest import from Broadway, coming here hot on the heels of Oklahoma!. In returning to the city where its story is set, Lerner and... Read more... |
Grease, Dominion Theatre review - a super night out, great songs well sung and spectacular dancingWednesday, 18 May 2022
Barry Gibb was at the considerable peak of his era-defining songwriting powers when he provided the song that played over the opening titles of the iconic 1978 film, so it's a wise decision by director, Nikolai Foster, to go straight into "Grease is... Read more... |
Bonnie & Clyde, Arts Theatre review - great songs, but plot fires too many blanksThursday, 21 April 2022
One of the more irritating memes (it’s a competitive field, I know) is the “Name a more iconic couple” appearing over a photo of Posh and Becks, or Harry and Megan, or Leo and whoever. I’ve always been tempted to close the discussion down with a... Read more... |
Zorro the Musical, Charing Cross Theatre review - struggling to find the right toneSaturday, 16 April 2022
Zorro (what a name!) is back, swashing and buckling his way into the West End, 13 years after he left and now not the only one wearing a mask. He’s also an entertainer turned political leader, inspiring his people to resist an evil martinet. Well,... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: West Side StorySunday, 10 April 2022
West Side Story’s cinema release crashed into Omicron and never recovered. Maybe Ariana DeBose’s Oscar will help the world wake up to this Spielberg masterpiece, which definitively betters 1961’s Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins version.Spielberg loves... Read more... |
