David Gregory

H G Wells could see into the future, and he gave us his alter ego – the ebullient draper’s boy, Kipps, who is even now, thanks to the combined efforts of Anthony Drewe, George Stiles and Julian Fellowes, dazzling his way back onto the Chichester Festival Theatre stage in the most recently refreshed version of the 1960s musical based on his adventures, David Henecker and Beverley Cross’s ‘Half A Sixpence’. But perhaps even Wells’ clairvoyance might have fallen short of grasping just what a powerful role the British fascination with trade would play in its musical theatre creations of the early 21st century. Two shows seen earlier in London (and now entertaining the crowds in Edinburgh), and another housed in a temporary space in the capital, open our eyes and ears to the powerful influence that commercial life still exerts upon national life. First, in ‘Tomorrow, Maybe‘, we pop into … Read more