Month: August 2016

REVIEW: The Dark Tower, Youth Music Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
National Youth Music Theatre's The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower Youth Music Theatre, CLF Cafe, Bussey Building, Peckham Rye Lane, Wednesday 24th August 2016 5 Stars This is probably the biggest musical theatre event of the year. And I choose my words carefully. YMT is an acronym that appears with increasing frequency in the performer and crew biographies in theatre programmes, listed under ‘Training’. It has a place alongside the best drama schools in the country as a crucible of new talent. And, as a producer, it is a force increasingly to be reckoned with in the commissioning, development and promotion of original new dramatic work. And this summer it staged a magnificent new work that is unlike anything most of us have ever seen. Last winter, I glimpsed a fragment of YMT’s 2015 dance drama, ‘Sweat Factory’, in the Christmas concert selection of extracts presented at the Salvation Army Hall on Oxford Street. I was so … Read more

Drink, Drugs And Homosexuality Feature In New Old Red Lion Production

News, Off West End
If We Got Some More Cocaine I could Show You How I Love You at Old Red Lion Theatre

If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You, a new one-act  play developed out of The Minaturist’s 10th Birthday last November, will be presented at The Old Red Lion Theatre in September . The debut play of John O’Donovan, If We Got Some More Cocaine looks at gay love between two young men who haven’t seen much love in their short lives. A backdrop of violence, bravado and small-minded attitudes hangs behind this desperate rooftop drama. Ireland was the first country to legalise gay marriage by public vote last year, an exceptional turnaround considering homosexuality was only decriminalized by the government in 1993, after having their hands forced by the European court of human rights. If We Got Some More Cocaine… examines the defences and residual stigma associated with such a dramatic change in public perception in a short space of time, and the … Read more

REVIEW: Marco Polo, Shaw Theatre ✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Marco Polo the musical at the Shaw Theatre

But the message this work has to speak to us is not going to be dismissed: in an era when the management of the world by politicians is so signally lacking in hope, this story reminds us that there are other ways of doing things, there are other attitudes that can be assumed and there are other ways of responding to others than relentless, unwinnable wars.

The Top 100 Musicals Poll – Voting Now Closed

News
Vote now for the 100 greatest musicals of all time

We’re excited to say that after weeks of fervent discussions on our social network groups (Facebook and Twitter), voting has now closed for the BritishTheatre.com Top 100 Musicals Poll. We’re madly counting the ballots now and we will start advising the results from the 1st September 2016. Thank you for placing over 20,000 votes for musicals. We’ve had a quick look at the ballots and some interesting choices have been made. Don’t forget that this poll has been voted on by you the public, not any musical theatre professionals, and the results reflect your tastes. Get ready for the results.

MY TOP MUSICALS – Paul T Davies

News
Vote now for the 100 greatest musicals of all time

Voting for the Top 100 Musicals Poll finishes at 11.50pm on Sunday night. We asked a few of our reviewers to put down their thoughts on their favourite musicals. Just back from a stint at the Edinburgh Festival, Paul T Davies gave us his thoughts:- “It took a long time for me to appreciate musicals. My only exposure to them when growing up was my mother’s fondness for the American film versions; we never went to the actual theatre. Some of those films are classics, but I hated them! Saccharine and sugary, the boy always got the girl and it all seemed so fake. Not fashionable to say it, but I can’t stand The Sound of Music– just what do you all see in it? The really annoying thing about The Sound of Music is, even if you hate it, you know every song. There’s one in your head now … Read more

Broken Strings Comes To The Tabard Theatre

News, Off West End
Broken Strings at the Tabard Theatre

Coronation Street stars Steven Arnold and Linda Clarke are to star in the World Premiere of Broken Strings at The Tabard Theatre in September 2016. Following the death of her husband, Rose, is persuaded by her daughter, Susan, to move in with her and her husband David, who she has never got on with in their small two up two down. Rose believes Susan married beneath herself, but because of his love for Susan, David reluctantly agrees to the idea. With tension in the house already at breaking point, Susan falls terminally ill. Her dying words to David are; “Take care of Mum, promise me you won’t put her in a home…” Broken Strings is a heartwarming, dramatic, thought provoking and at times funny, story of how two people damaged by bereavement, finally discover the truth about themselves, begin to understand one another better and deal with the pain they … Read more

Rediscovered Priestley Comedy Comes To Park Theatre

News, Off West End
J B Priestley's The Roundabout at the Park Theatre

The Roundabout, a recently discovered comedy by J B Priestley comes to the Park Theatre in late August 2016. The Kettlewells are a dysfunctional family. Richard is a charming old Etonian whose business ventures are failing. Over a crowded weekend, his daughter Pamela, whom he hardly knows, returns from Russia, a passionate communist; his ex-wife and mistress both unexpectedly arrive, and his butler has a big win at the races. Best known for the classics The Inspector Calls and Time And The Conways, this will be the first major revival of The Roundabout in eighty years. Directed by Hugh Ross, the cast of The Roundabout will include Steven Blakeley (Comrade Staggles), Lisa Bowerman (Lady Kettlewell), Bessie Carter (Pamela Kettlewell), Richenda Carey (Lady Knightsbridge), Charlie Field (Farrington Gurney), Derek Hutchinson (Parsons), Annie Jackson (Alice), Ed Pinker (Alec Grenside), Brian Proteheroe (Lord Kettlewell), Hugh Sachs (Churton Saunders) and Carol Starks (Hilda Lancicourt). … Read more