REVIEW: The Woman In White, Charing Cross Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The Woman In White at Charing Cross Theatre

The Woman In White Charing Cross Theatre, 4th December 2017 5 Stars Book Now Who believes in ghosts?  Everyone has their own story to tell with its own special particulars, and mine concerns a night some years ago, about the time that the original production of this musical was coming to the end of its run at the magnificent Palace theatre in the West End.  I was cycling home from a night out in Southampton, crossing the Itchen valley down a long straight stretch of highway; it was cold, and clouds of fog and mist had rolled in from the Solent in opaque billows obscuring the way ahead and shrouding where I had come from in an impenetrable, silent, white wall of vapour.  And there, down the centre of the road, wrapped only in a long, white nightdress, strode a woman, her long hair down and falling over her shoulders … Read more

New version of Blondel The Musical comes to Union Theatre

Blondel the musical is to be staged at the Union Theatre in June 2017.

Musical theatre fans spread the word throughout the kingdom that a brand new version of the musical comedy by Tim Rice and Stephen Oliver is to be staged at the Union Theatre from 21 June – 15 July 2017. Heralds have been trumpeting the news this afternoon that the musical has been re-worked with book is by Tim Rice and Tom Williams, and additional music by Mathew Pritchard. Blondel is the tale of an ambitious minstrel in the court of King Richard the Lionheart and follows his trials and tribulations as he seeks to save his King and write the perfect love song to dedicate to his beloved Fiona. Tim Rice said today: “I’m delighted Blondel is returning to the stage. It was one of the most enjoyable projects of my career, and I’ve always felt Stephen Oliver’s wonderful music deserved a larger audience than it reached back in 1983 … Read more

REVIEW: The Spitfire Grill, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The Spitfire Grill at the Union Theatre

The Spitfire Grill is a musical treat. James Valco’s score is richly rewarding and creates a genuinely engaging musical atmosphere which helps shape and drive the narrative. He creates a true musical world for the characters and, within that world, each character has tunes and phrases which assist in illuminating them and their part in the story. It does not feel like a Sondheim score, but it has a similar effect. The songs are derived from the situation, the place, the pulse of the narrative; they are not grafted on as afterthoughts or fancy trimming.