Pacific Overtures continues at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London until 24 February 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ For some, this production of Pacific Overtures will be a revelation, a bold demonstration of what theatre is capable of when stupendously talented creators dare experiment and make something truly singular.
Tag Archives | Pacific Overtures
Cast for Menier’s Pacific Overtures
The Menier Chocolate Factory has unveiled the full cast for the venue’s revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures.
Menier announces three major musical productions for 2023
The Menier Chocolate Factory is returning to its musical theatre roots with a 2023 season that will feature two world premiere musicals and a revival of a Stephen Sondheim classic.
Remembering Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), The Ultimate Musical Man of Broadway
Stephen Sondheim rewrote the history of the Broadway musical in a career lasting over 60 years. Michael Darvell looks back, show by show, at the genius that was Stephen Sondheim. It is an unquestionable fact that Stephen Sondheim was responsible for taking the rather moribund genre of the Broadway musical and breathing new life into […]
‘There are giants in the sky’: The theatre community pays tribute to Stephen Sondheim
It feels pretty impossible to find the words to sum up the kind of influence composer Stephen Sondheim had on the world of musical theatre. There was of course the way he turned the genre on its head and made changes to form and content that had never been contemplated before. Then there was the […]
‘We are all blessed to have been alive at the same time as this theatre legend’: Stephen Sondheim dies at the age of 91
The Stephen Sondheim Society’s Chairman and Musical Theatre Review contributor Craig Glenday writes: Dim the lights… Stephen Sondheim was the most innovative, most influential and most important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. His contribution to musical theatre – and to theatre in general – is impossible to quantify, such was the variety, sophistication […]
A Crossword of Sondheimian Rhyme
Stephen Sondheim is probably theatre’s greatest living lyricist. This is a compliment he may or may not be sick of reading, especially after last month’s deluge of well-deserved 90th birthday encomiums. Either way, as a (somewhat less-acclaimed) musical theatre maker myself I know there is something every proud lyricist could never tire of: people noticing […]
Sondheim at 90: A YouTube career retrospective
Ian Bowkett writes: It is deeply unfortunate that on the 90th birthday of legendary composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim we are in the midst of a period without access to live musical theatre. However, that does make this the perfect time to scour YouTube for our favourite renditions of his songs to take us away to happier […]
Book Review – Sense of Occasion – Harold Prince
SENSE OF OCCASION – Harold Prince (APPLAUSE BOOKS – ISBN: 9781495013027) Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Books arrive every so often that you start to read and find you have great difficulty in putting them down – this is one of those! The first two-thirds of the book is a reprint of Harold […]
Pacific Overtures – Classic Stage Company, New York
Pacific Overtures continues at Classic Stage Company, New York until 18 June. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ If there’s such a thing as minimalist grandeur, director John Doyle achieves it with his rendering of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures. Doyle is capping his first season as artistic director of […]
Pacific Overtures – Union Theatre, London
Pacific Overtures continues at the Union Theatre, London until 2 August. The almost-operatic Pacific Overtures was never going to be easy listening and it’s certainly not everybody’s cup of sake but the 45-seater Union Theatre appears to have itself an unexpected hit with this classy Michael Strassen revival of one of Stephen Sondheim’s most complex and ambitious […]
