Rob Compton is quite remarkable in the title role here. The pain and anger and fear he expresses through vocal guttural cries combined with the way he uses his almost entirely naked body to establish precisely how instinctive, alert and animalistic his existence, his life in subterranean caves, has caused him to be, is enthralling to watch.
Danielle Tarento has announced the world premiere of Gods and Monsters. The play based on the novel Father Of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram was the same source material used for the 1998 Oscar-winning movie, Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen. Frankenstein director James Whale, long forgotten by the studios and in reclusive Hollywood retirement has fallen victim to a series of strokes. The only demons he fights now are in his head. Handsome new gardner, Clayton Boone, becomes an unlikely friend and unwitting player in Whale’s grand finale. Gods and Monsters is not so much a Hollywood history as a glorious imagining, exploring the sometimes divine, sometimes monstrous landscape of obsession and desire. Gods and Monsters is directed by Russell Labey, produced by Danielle Tarento in association with Jason Haig-Ellery, and will receive its world premiere in a five-week season at Southwark Playhouse from Thursday February 5 – Saturday 7 … Read more
There may be plenty of blood, guts and severed body parts but there is little reason to faint as audience members regularly did at the original Grand-Guignol. It is a darkly entertaining show, with the campness and broad comedy reminding us that the horror is just for fun.
Ten years after the last known sighting, Bat Boy will return to sink his fangs into the London stage in a brand new production in The Large at Southwark Playhouse from Friday 9 January to Saturday 31 January 2015. A strange bat-child is discovered in a dank cave in deepest, darkest West Virginia. For the small community of Hope Falls, the discovery threatens to shake its moral core and the residents turn to the town veterinarian, Dr. Parker, in the hope that he will know what to do with the strange creature. Taken under the wing of Dr Parker’s wife, the boy is taught in the ways of the world and adjusts to life in this seemingly normal American family. However, ‘normal’ is merely the cycle on Mrs Parker’s washing machine. Secrets, lies and a mysterious case of dead cows leave our Bat Boy at the mercy of his God-fearing … Read more
There are questions to be asked about Dogfight. Any attempt at a review really ought to address those questions rather than simply parroting the plot and blurting out an opinion. Is it any good? Well, first let me declare an interest – I am fortunate enough to represent two clients appearing in the show, Cellen Chugg Jones and Samuel J Weir. It would be remiss of me not to mention this, and while I thought both were outstanding performances, it doesn’t really have any bearing on what I thought of the show. Suffice to say both men did me proud, turning in dazzlingly focused and nuanced performances. As Boland, right-hand man to Jamie Muscato’s thrilling Eddie, Chugg Jones gives a performance of raw masculinity and power. I probably would say that though, wouldn’t I? Weir, like all the marines, balances virility with vertiginous vocals. No On The Town-esque mincing for … Read more
Casting has just been announced for William Shakespeare’s As You Like It at Southwark Playhouse which is being staged to co-incide with the Bard’s 450th birthday. Simon Lipkin (Avenue Q, Rock of Ages, I Can’t Sing) will play Touchstone, Sally Scott (Sense and Sensibility, Watermill and Boeing Boeing) will play Rosalind, Steven Crossley (The Vertical Hour, Broadway, Measure for Measure, National Theatre and Complicite) will play Duke Frederick and Harry Livingstone (nominated for Best Newcomer at the Manchester Theatre Awards for The Glass Menagerie) playing Orlando lead the cast. They are joined by Richard Albrecht (Paddington Bear the Movie, My Child), Dominic Gerrard (Propeller’s The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Kaisa Hammarlund (A Little Night Music , Cabaret and Sunday in the Park with George, Wyndham’s). All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. A brilliant comedy about love, wrestling and … Read more
A Beginner’s Guide To DOGFIGHT THE MUSICAL So What’s It All About? It’s November 21, 1963. On the eve of their deployment to a small but growing conflict in Southeast Asia, three young Marines set out for one final boys’ night of debauchery, partying and maybe a little trouble. But when Corporal Eddie Birdlace meets Rose, an awkward and idealistic waitress he enlists to win a cruel bet with his fellow recruits, she rewrites the rules of the game and teaches him the power of compassion. The musical is based on the 1991 Warner Bothers film which starred River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. Who Wrote It? Dogfight was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, two of the hottest young musical writers around at the moment. They’ve been hailed as the heirs of Rodgers and Hammerstein. They wrote original songs for the television series Smash and were nominated for Tony … Read more
This is a thoroughly engaging production with many highs and real drama at play – and the music makes you float through the passages where the vocal work does not. Maury Yeston is a genius.
