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Musical news to brighten up a February day

Remember remember the fifth of November but Treason is coming in March… Ricky Allan and Kieran Lynn’s new musical will be premiering live online from Cadogan Hall from 12th-14th March and it is now revealed its cast. alongside a creative team with direction by Hannah Chissick, musical supervision by Nick Pinchbeck and orchestration by Matthew Malone.

The company includes Lucie Jones (Legally Blonde, Waitress), Oliver Tompsett (& Juliet, Kinky Boots), Daniel Boys (Falsettos, Nativity Rocks!), Waylon Jacobs (Hamilton, Memphis), Bradley Jaden (Les Misérables, Wicked), Emmanuel Kojo (Oklahoma!, Show Boat), Rebecca LaChance (School of Rock, Beautiful), Cedric Neal (Chess, Memphis), Sharon Rose (Hamilton, Caroline Or Change) with Debris Stevenson (1st Luv, Poet in da Corner) as the show’s narrator. Continue reading “Musical news to brighten up a February day”

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News: casting for MTFestUK 2020

It’s like the Superbowl, but for fans of musical theatre. Book your tickets at the Turbine Theatre here.

Jet Set Go! (3rd-5th February)

This show about a transatlantic cabin crew has been bopping around since 2008 so its interesting to see how it gets refreshed more than a decade late. Appearing in it this time round will be Siubhan Harrison, Lizzy Connolly, Michael Mather, Tyrone Huntley and Simon Bailey.

Jet Set Go! is directed by & Juliet’s Luke Sheppard with music, book and lyrics by Adrian Mole’s Pippa Cleary and Jake Brunger. Continue reading “News: casting for MTFestUK 2020”

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Review: High Fidelity, Turbine Theatre

A complete lack of charm makes this musical adaptation of High Fidelity tough-going at the Turbine Theatre

“Ian’s here
To offer a safe haven
Where you can be yourself
Unshackled and unshaven.”

I’d forgotten about Natalie Imbruglia, so I was happily grateful for the (albeit sneering) reminder about her in High Fidelity and popped her greatest hits on on the way home from Battersea’s Turbine Theatre. I was not tempted to listen again Tom Kitt’s score, which is a bit of a problem when you’ve just seen a new musical. It’s indicative of this choice of production at this new theatre, which at best could be described as curious, though problematic feels closer to the truth.

Though Nick Hornby’s novel and its inevitable cinematic adaptation garnered a level of popularity, they were very much products of their time, the 90s in microcosm. And David Lindsay-Abaire’s US adaptation, retooled here for the UK by Vikki Stone, does little to adjust that, ultimately coming up with something that already feels like a period piece. Oh look a geek, haha! Oh look a vegan, hahaha! Oh look a woman who’s way out of my league who was somehow my girlfriend and who I will stalk until she gets back together with me, hahahahahaha. Continue reading “Review: High Fidelity, Turbine Theatre”

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Review: Little Shop of Horrors, Open Air Theatre

Audrey II as a drag queen? Maria Aberg’s take on Little Shop of Horrors at the Open Air Theatre gives me life

“Oh, don’t you see?
Finally I’ll be
Somewhere that’s green”

It’s something of a relief when you’ve seen a version of a much-loved show that is nigh-on perfect, it really does take the pressure off those that follow. So I was able to visit a verdant Open Air Theatre to see Little Shop of Horrors – one of my all-time favourites, if not the actual one – excited by the prospect of what Maria Aberg had done, and secure in the knowledge that Derek Bond absolutely nailed it for the Royal Exchange a couple of years ago. 

Chief among her innovations is giving Audrey II much more life than they’ve ever had before, by casting drag queen Vicky Vox in the role. So from twitching, voracious puppet plant (designed by Max Humphries with Tom Scutt) emerges a strutting shrub of sinful sass and it is an inspired choice. Making her a Mephistophelean figure who can prowl around the amphitheatre flips Audrey II into something as thrilling as threatening, Vox revelling in the lasciviousness of “feed me” and the most scathing raised eyebrow you ever did see. Continue reading “Review: Little Shop of Horrors, Open Air Theatre”

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Review: Mamma Mia, Novello

 “It’s all very Greek”

18 years since it opened, Mamma Mia continues to tempt people to the island as it now ranks as the seventh-longest running show in the West End. It recently welcomed a new cast into the Novello and I got the opportunity to revisit this stalwart this week (only for the second time actually, here’s my review from 2014). I’ll post a link to my three star review once it gets published.

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 3rd March 2018, at the moment

 

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Review: Rent, St James Theatre

I’m not one to deny anyone their fandom and Lord know Rent has some of the most devoted of the lot. But for whatever reason, the show has left me cold every time I’ve seen it, increasingly so in its determination to defend artistic excess.

I was bought a ticket as a Christmas present so I was able to go and test my feelings once again but no change, no matter how good Layton Williams’ performance was. So for once, I’m just going to leave it here.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 28th January, then touring as below

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Review: Jesus Christ Superstar, Open Air Theatre

“Could you ask as much from any other man?”

Andrew Lloyd Webber sure doesn’t make it easy – for his support of new musical theatre in taking over the St James Theatre to making a transatlantic dash to the House of Lords to vote in support of tax credit cuts for the working poor, it’s hard to know where to stand. His status in the British theatrical establishment remains largely unchallenged though and it is to the 46-year-old Jesus Christ Superstar that the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park have turned for their big summer musical, directed this year by Timothy Sheader. 

And how do you play a 70s rock opera for today? You bring onboard shit-hot creatives like Tom Scutt and Drew McOnie to reinvent it for 2016. Scutt’s design choices make a virtue of the timeless iron structure that edges the stage. The company arrive in luxury sportswear, its loose silhouettes and muted earth tones akin to a Kanye West fashion show with which McOnie’s contemporary choreography meshes perfectly. Later scenes feature the glitter-covered muscularity of something like a late night Brighton Pride, a smattering of Xerxes from the film 300 and all out Sink the Pink excess during the whipping sequence. Continue reading “Review: Jesus Christ Superstar, Open Air Theatre”

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Review: Carrie, Southwark Playhouse

“You’re not like the other girls…”

Carrie managed that feat in the late 1980s, though for the wrong reasons, when the moderately-received RSC production transferred to Broadway and swiftly became a multi-million dollar flop, lasting for just 16 previews and 5 performances.

Finally taking Stone’s advice after a long period licking their wounds, book writer Lawrence D Cohen, composer Michael Gore and lyricist Dean Pitchford – undoubtedly boosted by the show’s growing cult reputation – substantially reworked Carrie in 2012 and it is that version that is now seeing the light of day with Gary Lloyd’s production at the Southwark Playhouse – its London debut no less. Was it worth the wait? Did it deserve to flop? Does she make things fly? Does she get covered in blood?  Continue reading “Review: Carrie, Southwark Playhouse”