REVIEW: Casa Valentina, Southwark Playhouse ✭✭✭✭✭

Casa Valentina by Harvey Fierstein at Southwark Playhouse

As directed by Luke Sheppard, Casa Valentino is a play about a marriage. Everything turns on the central relationship between George (Edward Wolstenholme) and Rita (Tamsin Carroll). They have an unconventional marriage. She married him knowing that he liked to dress in women’s’ clothing; indeed, she has fostered and supported his desire because she loves him. She is content for his dress-wearing self to be the prettiest girl in their marriage. She welcomes, supports and mothers the other men who come to rent rooms in their weekend guesthouse and unleash their inner woman. A Weekend In The Country with a difference.

Casa Valentina Cast Announced

The cast of Casa Valentina at the Southwark Playhouse.

Producer Paul Taylor-Mills and Director Luke Sheppard have announced their cast for the upcoming European premiere of Harvey Fierstein’s play Casa Valentina at Southwark Playhouse. The cast will include Tamsin Carroll (Rita), Ben Deery (Miranda), Charlie Hayes (Eleanor), Bruce Montague (Terry), Robert Morgan (Amy), Matt Rixon (Bessie), Ashley Robinson (Gloria), Gareth Snook (Charlotte) and Edward Wolstenholme (Valentina). Set in 1962, in the picturesque Catskills mountains of New York, a group of heterosexual men escape from the City to spend their weekend dressed as women. In this cross dressing colony they leave their families, friends and city jobs behind to safely inhabit their female alter egos and release their inner woman. However when given the choice to share their secret lives with the world, the group have to decide whether the freedom gained by the openness is worth the personal risk. Based on real–life events, this delightfully insightful and hilariously entertaining … Read more

REVIEW: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, RFH ✭✭✭✭

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying Royal Festival Hall

On the strength of this first, tentative outing, concerts like this could come to rival those staged in the Encores! series in New York or by the Production Company in Australia. Jonathan Groff was truly terrific – and one was left wanting to see him headline a full scale production of this show, with Cynthia Erivo and Hannah Waddingham (and Amy Ellen Richardson) by his side.