Henry Box Brown continues at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh until 27 August 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This musical blends original Broadway sounds with spirituals and close harmony. It brings to life the true story of a young slave, from his birth in Virginia 1816 to his escape at age […]
Piramania! The Swashbuckling Pirate Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly Bristo Square
Piramania! The Swashbuckling Pirate Musical continues at the Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh until 26 August 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Nine years ago two writers David Massingham and Tim Frost created a show for young people and they gave it welly at the Edinburgh Fringe to the delight of fellow […]
Thunderstruck – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Checkpoint
Thunderstruck continues at Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh until 26 August 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ I was delighted to witness the magnificent powerhouse energy of David Colvin offering us his story from a small boy in Fife to musical mastery, by witnessing the magical music making of Gordon Duncan – one […]
Shellshock! – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – The Greenhouse
Shellshock! continues at The Greenhouse, Edinburgh until 26 August 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Written by composer Joey Baker (also guitar) and writer/director Louis Catliff, new a cappella comedy musical Shellshock! is presented as part of an eight-show season in a zero-carbon Greenhouse Theatre pop-up built in the grounds of […]
Nearly Human – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Dome: QueenDome
Nearly Human continues at Pleasance Dome: QueenDome, Edinburgh from 2-12 and 14-26 August 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ First show of the season, and in celebration, the QueenDome has regressed into a primordial soup – no carbon-based life forms as yet, but plenty of prog brass (as any decent human […]
Tree – Young Vic Theatre
Tree continues at the Young Vic Theatre, London until 24 August 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
My Son Pinocchio Jr. – Southwark Playhouse
My Son Pinocchio Jr. continues at the Southwark Playhouse, London until 14 August 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear – The Musical! – Dorfman, National Theatre
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear – The Musical! continues at the Dorfman, National Theatre, London – until 31 August 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ There really is nothing not to like in Andy Stanton’s stage adaptation of his own kids’ book. This wise-cracking, rib-tickling, side-splitting phantasmagoria probably has more in […]
Broadway marks the passing of the legendary Hal Prince
The lights on Broadway were dimmed last night in memory of Harold Prince, the multi award-winning director and producer who died at the age of 91 yesterday (31 July 2019) A true Broadway legend, Harold Prince wove his magic on the Great White Way for decades, working with many of the greats and winning 21 […]
Kiss Me, Kate – Watermill Theatre, Bagnor
Kiss Me, Kate continues at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor until 21 September 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ The great thing about theatre is that it transcends all boundaries. Gender stereotypes, wife-slapping and husband-beating, psychological coercion – they all started way before Shakespearean times and then good old Cole Porter came […]
Road Show – Encores! Off-Center – New York City Center
Road Show, an Encores! Off-Center production, played at New York City Center. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Road Show is a brilliant but daunting enterprise, so all kinds of credit and thanks have to be heaped on the Encores! Off-Center series for giving us another look at it. […]
The Worst Witch – Vaudeville Theatre
The Worst Witch continues at the Vaudeville Theatre, London until 8 September 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Jill Murphy’s entertaining, imaginative boarding school for witches pre-dated Harry Potter by a whole generation. And Emma Reeves’ excellent adaptation includes several witty references to make sure that we don’t forget that. Now transferred from the […]
