David Loud

REVIEW: Sondheim on Sondheim, Royal Festival Hall ✭✭✭✭✭

Reviews
Sondheim on Sondheim Royal Festival Hall

Mark Ludmon reviews the new London production of the Sondheim on Sondheim revue at the Royal Festival Hall Sondheim on Sondheim Royal Festival Hall 16 March 2018 Five stars Even the most lavish musical productions in the West End may stretch to only 20 musicians, with most having far fewer, so a one-off staging of Broadway hit Sondheim on Sondheim with the BBC Concert Orchestra was a rare opportunity to hear Stephen Sondheim’s music in all its richly orchestrated splendour. Add to this six of the best musical theatre performers around, and you have a captivating evening of Sondheim songs ranging from something familiar to something peculiar. This is a symphonic version of the Sondheim on Sondheim revue that premiered in New York City in 2010, which was immortalised in a superb cast recording. It slightly trims the original show but retains most of the video interviews and clips that reveal candid … Read more

REVIEW: The Visit, Lyceum Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

Broadway, Reviews
Chita Rivera in The Visit on Broadway Number One in out Critics Choice Broadway Shows list

For 90 minutes of ecstatic storytelling, you are transported to a place where love, death and consequence are dancing together and where a victory for true love might just not be what you first think it will. Chita Rivera, an incandescent star of the Broadway stage in undiminished glory, is faultless. One of the best of Kander & Ebb’s musicals, The Visit is the best, most important, musical currently playing on Broadway.