Month: March 2022

ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM – UNTIL SATURDAY 5TH MARCH 2022

REVIEWED BY NADIA DODD

5*****

Based on the 1987 thriller film, this iconic story is now on stage and touring like you have never seen it before. And I literally hadn’t seen it before! Not seeing the film but knowing the basic plot the cast last night had me gripped throughout the performance with such a dangerous and intoxicating turn of events.

We start with a happily married Dan Gallagher (Oliver Farnworth) who finds himself at a chance meeting with Alex Forrest (Kym Marsh). As Dan’s wife, Beth Gallagher (Susie Amy) is away from home for the weekend, after a very flirty meal together they decide to see how discreet they can be and spend a very passionate evening together. Something that Dan wants to put behind him as he knows he has made a mistake, he loves his wife and daughter and doesn’t want this to jeopardise his relationship.

Alex, has a very different idea about how she sees their ‘relationship’ and makes this extremely clear to Dan that she will not be messed about and simply pushed to one side now Dan has had his night of ecstasy.

Prepare yourself for adult language, violence, some nudity and scenes of self harm which were slightly difficult to watch. Kym Marsh really bought this character to life, seductive, sexy, obsessive and kind of crazy. Impressive American accent also from the actress born in Merseyside.

The second half of the show turns much darker when the wife, Beth finds out about the night of seduction after Dan has to come clean when Alex just won’t stop pursuing him at home or the office.

The setting of the stage is great and very clever, using up to date face time calls and mobile phones which is obviously not part of the 80’s film. Even the lighting and music is dramatic and so intense at times that you really are filled with suspense awaiting the next move.

The play is tipped to be the most provocative and gripping stage play of this year and undoubtedly it will be after such a great first evening show in Birmingham last night.

Fatal Attraction is such a sultry, seductive thriller it’s hard to look away once it gets going. With obsessive Alex around you can’t afford to take your eye off the ball or the bunny ….. just in case……

JAMES MORRISON JOINS THE LINE-UP FOR

RISE UP WITH THE ARTS

• FUNDS RAISED WILL NOW BE DONATED TO SAVE THE CHILDREN IN RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE ALONGSIDE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED THEATRICAL CHARITIES

It is today announced that James Morrison will join the line-up for Strictly Come Dancing’s Pasha Kovalev and long-term dance partner, Anya Garnis’second annual Rise Up With The Arts – a streamed trans-Atlantic celebration of the theatre industry with performances and interviews interlaced across the evening of 27^th March.

In response to the crisis in Ukraine, it is also announced today that all funds raised will also be donated to Save The Children,alongside the previously confirmed Acting for Others, The Actors Fund (serving the performing arts and entertainment community in the United States)and icandance which is a charity that support children with disabilities finding their voice through performing arts.

Pasha and Anya said today: “The current situation in Ukraine hits too close to home for the both of us as Russian nationals. Our passport may say one thing but our hearts are with our friends and family and everyone still in Ukraine that are fighting for their freedom and lives. It only feels right that our show – Rise Up with the Arts, along with 3 charities that we are already supporting, will now focus on donating funds raised to the Save The Children that helps children and young people affected by this terrible conflict. They say it takes a village to raise a child but this time it will take the whole world to make the change happen and end this madness. Let’s make art not war!”

Broadcast on World Theatre Day – 27 March 2022 tickets are now on sale at just £14 via: https://www.riseupwitharts.com/

Through dance, singing, interviews and inspirational stories, Rise Up With The Arts celebrates the magical connection and transformative power of musical theatre, bringing the best of the best from across the industry, straight into your living rooms. It’s a magical show, celebrating and honouring the arts in a unique online event and all proceeds will go to continuing to helping and supporting artists in these difficult times.

The theatre industry in the UK employs over 270,000 people, many of whom were unable to receive any kind of support from the UK government during the pandemic and thus the show was created by Pasha and Anya to help the industry that has given so much to them throughout their life.

Marisha Wallace to headline new UK talent show,
Alpha Unsigned – plus wildcard finalists announced
Indigo O2, 205 Peninsula Square, London SE10 0ES
Wednesday 30th March 2022

Broadway and West End sensation Marisha Wallace will headline the amazing final of new talent show Alpha Unsigned at the Indigo O2. Marisha has topped the music charts with her cover of Annie’s Tomorrow, which raised funds for performers out of work and been playlisted on Radio 2 with her singles and subsequent album, released on Decca Records. She is perhaps best known for her epic stage performances having starred in Dreamgirls, Waitress, Hairspray and Something Rotten!

She joins an already incredible line up including Alpha Unsigned host and previous The X Factor winner Ben Haenow and Sorsha Seven, the latest stunning signing to Alpha Music & Records whose much-anticipated debut single So Completely will be released on 25th March.

Also announced are the two Alpha Unsigned Wildcard finalists: singer Minerva Daisy is the public’s Social Media Wildcard. Her official debut amassed over 10,000 streams on Sonstream and she has gone to have her music played on BBC Introducing and stations including Radio X. The Judges’ Wildcard is the amazing Forde, who started writing songs in the summer of 2019 and has since produced tracks in his home studio, featuring crunchy guitar driven choruses and beats combined with electro elements.

These two Wildcards join eight already announced finalists who will perform at new talent show Alpha Unsigned, which is on the hunt for ‘the next big thing’. The winner will land an incredible £100,000 record deal with Alpha Music & Records with the aim of releasing their very own album by the end of the year. Alpha Music & Records are committed to supporting their artists with invaluable mentorship and marketing through the record making process.

The ten extraordinary finalists are Mim Grey, Caitlin, Ania Prasek, Lois Morgan Gay, Joe Taylor, Gola, LaMont, Macie Nyah, Minerva Daisy and Forde.

Alpha Music and Records and Alpha Unsigned are branches of The Alpha Family, a Business Services Group enhancing business and lifestyle. Alpha is dedicated to supporting the
performing arts in the UK, investing in events such as Best of the West End (Royal Albert Hall) and BroadwayWorld award-nominated Sunset Boulevard (Royal Albert Hall), and artists through their events and Music & Records label

Mathew Horne, Keith Allen, Ian Bartholomew 
Sam Alexander, Geoffrey Lumb, Shanaya Rafaat  

Star in theTony Award-winning play by Harold Pinter

THE HOMECOMING

Directed by Jamie Glover

UK Tour from 30 March 

Full casting is announced for Harold Pinter’s Tony Award-winning masterpiece The Homecoming, directed by actor and director Jamie Glover, which will open at Theatre Royal Bath from 30 March 2022 before travelling to Cambridge Arts Theatre, Malvern Theatre, Leicester Curve, Theatre Royal Brighton, Newcastle Theatre Royal, and Theatre Royal York.

Harold Pinter’s 1960s masterpiece is widely regarded as his finest play. This bleakly funny exploration of family and relationships has become a modern classic and winner of the Tony Award for Best New Play.

Star of BBC’s Gavin & Stacey, Mathew Horne (Death in Paradise, Bad Education with upcoming credits including Newark, Newark and The Nan Movie), plays Lenny, Teddy’s enigmatic brother.

Versatile actor, comedian and musician Keith Allen (The Young Ones, The Pembrokeshire Murders, Pinter 3 in the West End) plays the brutal patriarch, Max.

Four time Olivier Award nominee Ian Bartholomew (Into The Woods, Radio Times, Mrs Henderson Presents, Half a Sixpence, Coronation Street), plays Sam.

Teddy is played by Sam Alexander whose recent TV includes Rhys in Emmerdale, and on stage The Watsons(Chichester Festival Theatre), Lady in the Van and Racing Demon (both Theatre Royal Bath).

RSC regular Geoffrey Lumb, recently seen in the West End in Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and The Light, plays Joey. 

Shanaya Rafaat (Around the World in 80 Days at the St James Theatre, Great Expectations at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and BBC’s Doctor Who) plays Ruth.

“They’re very warm people, really. Very warm. They’re my family. They’re not ogres”

Teddy, a professor in an American university, returns to his childhood home accompanied by his wife, Ruth, to find his father, uncle and brothers still living there. In the subsequent series of encounters, life becomes a barely camouflaged battle for power and sexual supremacy fought out with taut verbal brutality. Who will emerge victorious – the poised and elegant Ruth or her husband’s dysfunctional family?

The Homecoming is presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions. Director Jamie Glover, Designer Liz Ascroft, Lighting Designer Johanna Town, Sound Designer Max Pappenheim, Associate Director Amy Reade, Casting Director Ginny Schiller CDG.

Listings

30 March to 9 April 2022
Theatre Royal Bath 
theatreroyal.org.uk

11 April to 16 April 2022
Cambridge Arts Theatre
cambridgeartstheatre.com

18 – 23 April 2022
Malvern Theatre
www.malvern-theatres.co.uk

25 – 30 April 2022
Leicester Curve
www.curveonline.co.uk

2  – 7 May 2022
Theatre Royal Brighton
www.atgtickets.com

9  – 14 May 2022
Newcastle Theatre Royal
www.theatreroyal.co.uk

16 – 21 May 2022
Theatre Royal York
www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR THE UK PREMIÈRE OF JACKIE SIBBLIES DRURY’S MARYS SEACOLE

With Max Webster’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V starring Kit Harington currently running at the Donmar, Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch today announce the full casting for the UK première of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s MARYS SEACOLE. Nadia Latif directs Déja J. Bowens (Mamie), Llewella Gideon (Duppy Mary), Kayla Meikle (Mary), Esther Smith (Miriam), Olivia Williams (May), and Susan Wooldridge (Merry). The production opens on 21 April, with previews from 15 April, and runs until 4 June.

MARYS SEACOLE

By Jackie Sibblies Drury

Directed by Nadia Latif; Designer Tom Scutt; Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun;

Sound Designer and Composer Xana; Movement Director Theo TJ Lowe;

Fight Director Kev McCurdy; Voice & Dialect Coach Hazel Holder; Casting Director Anna Cooper CDG

15 April – 4 June 2022

“Scene One:
Mary Seacole stands before us.
If you don’t know who she is, well,
look her the f**k up.”

Mary Seacole was the pioneering Jamaican nurse who bravely voyaged to heal soldiers in the Crimean War. She was a traveller, a hotelier and a businesswoman. She was the most impressive woman you’ve ever met.

Putting the concept of a biopic through a kaleidoscope, MARYS SEACOLE is a dazzling exploration across oceans and eras of what it means to be a woman who is paid to care, and how, ultimately, no one is in charge of their own story.

Directed by Nadia Latif, the UK premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury’s celebrated new play reunites the team behind her critically-acclaimed Fairview in 2019.

Déja J. Bowens playsMamie. She recently graduated from Mountview; and this production marks her professional stage debut.

Llewella Gideon returns to the Donmar to play Duppy Mary– her previous work for the company includes The Vote. Her other theatre work includes The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Amen Corner (Bristol Old Vic), The Big Life (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Faith, Hope and Charity (Théâtre Odéon Paris/Vienna WienFestwochen), Septimus Bean and the Amazing Machine (Unicorn Theatre), Play Mas (Orange Tree Theatre), Birthday (Royal Court Theatre), The Best of Little Big Woman, The Little Big Woman, The Little Big Woman Show (Dual Impact), and Family Man, The Sunshine Boys (B&S Productions). For television, her work includes Sneakerhead, Small Axe, Mangrove, The Real McCoy, Absolutely Fabulous, Nighty Night, Big Train, Murder Most Horrid, Alex Rider, Game Face, Millie In-Between, Still Open All Hours, Birthday, Sir Lenny Henry’s Comedy of Colour, Big School, Giggle Biz, Trigonometry, Delivery Man, PsychoBitches, The Old Shop of Stuff, Hotel Trubble, and The Lenny Henry Show; and for film, Paddington, A Street Cat Named Bob, My Jerome, Black Sea, Second Coming, Manderlay, Nativity, Absolutely Fabulous – The Movie, and Harry Hill – The Movie.

Kayla Meikle plays Mary. For theatre, her work includes Paradise, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre), Living Newspaper Edition 5, Shoe Lady, Ear for Eye, Primetime (Royal Court Theatre), Vassa, Dance Nation (Almeida Theatre), All My Sons (The Old Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jack & The Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith), Monologue Slam (TRI FORCE), Merlin (Nuffield Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Arts Theatre), and All That Lives (Ovalhouse). For television, her work includes Nightingale, The Girl Before, Ear for Eye, Small Axe, The Capture, Afterlife and Will; and for film, Medusa Deluxe, Morning Song, and Soundproof.

Esther Smith plays Miriam. Her theatre work includes Fairview (Young Vic), Parliament Square (Royal Exchange Theatre/Bush Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre), NSFW (Royal Court Theatre), The Honeyman (Derby Live), When It Falls (Soho Theatre), Carrot (Theatre503/ Latitude Festival), Many Moons (Theatre503), Limbs (Present Tense) (nabokov), The Author (Royal Court Theatre/international tour), and This Child (Southwark Playhouse). For television, his work includes Trying, Defending The Guilty, Cuckoo, Zapped, Uncle, Ballot Monkeys, Black Mirror, Cockroaches, Flack, The Midnight Beast, The Smoke, Holby City, Skins Redux: Rise, Deadbeats, Misfits, and Material Girl; and for film, Elephant.

Olivia Williams returns to the Donmar to play May – her previous work for the company includes Hotel in Amsterdam. Her other theatre work includes Tartuffe, Mosquitoes, Waste, Happy Now?, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard III (National Theatre), Scenes from a Marriage (St James’ Theatre), In A Forest Dark and Deep (Vaudeville Theatre), The Changeling (Cheek by Jowl), and for the RSC, Peer Gynt, The Wives’ Excuse, The Broken Heart, Wallenstein, and Misha’s Party. For television, her work includes The Crown, Call My Agent, My Name is Leon, Unprecedented, The Nevers, Counterpart, The Halcyon, Manhattan, Salting the Battlefield, Playhouse Presents: City Hall, Case Sensitive, Dollhouse, Miss Austen Regrets, Krakatoa, Agatha Christie, Friends and Emma; and for film, The Trouble with Jessica, Victoria and Abdul, Man UP, Altar, Maps to the Stairs, Sabotage, Last Day on Mars, Seventh Son, Hyde Park on Hudson, Anna Karenina, Now is Good, Hanna, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, An Education, The Ghost, Flashbacks of a Fool, There for Me, X-Men 3, Tara Road, Valiant, To Kill a King, Heart of Me, Below, Man from Elysian Fields, Lucky Break, Born Romantic, The Body, Dead Babies, Sixth Sense, Rushmore, The Postman and Gaston’s War.

Susan Wooldridge plays Merry. Her theatre credits include Hay Fever (Citizens and Lyceum Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Almeida Theatre), What the Women Did (Southwark Playhouse), Lay Down Your Cross (Hampstead Theatre), A Snake in the Grass (Print Room), The Importance of Being Earnest (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Don’t Look Now (Sheffield Theatres and Lyric Hammersmith), Tonight at 8.30 (Chichester Festival Theatre), Playhouse Creatures (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Celebration (Almeida Theatre and Lincoln Center), A Family Affair (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour), Collateral Damage (Tricycle Theatre), The Price (Bristol Old Vic), Three Sisters (Birmingham Rep), The Deep Blue Ocean (Royal Exchange Theatre), Map of My Heart (Gielgud Theatre), and Look Back in Anger (Young Vic). Foer television, her work includes War of the Worlds, A Very English Scandal, Still Star Crossed, Poirot, The Flood, Pinochet’s Progress, Eleventh Hour, The Brief, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, The Commander, Courtroom, The Last Detective, The Worts Witch, The Writing Game, Preston Front, Hand Made Moon, Under the Hammer, Bad Company, The Hummingbird Tree, Ticket to Ride, The Devil’s Disciple, Time and the Conways, Byron, The Jewel in the Crown, and The Naked Civil Servant; and for film, The Lady, Tamara Drewe, Just Like a Woman, Afraid of the Dark, Twenty-One, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Bye Bye Blues, Hope and Glory, Loyalties, Butley, The Shout, Dead Man’s Folly and Frankenstein.  

Jackie Sibblies Drury’s plays include Marys Seacole – OBIE Award, Fairview – 2019 Pulitzer Prize, Really, Social Creatures, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include the Young Vic, Lincoln Center Theatre, Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, New York City Players & Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Company One, and the Bush Theatre. She has developed her work at Sundance, Bellagio Center, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Bushwick Starr, LARK, and MacDowell Colony, among others.  She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The LARK, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama.  

Nadia Latif directs. She is a theatre maker, screenwriter and film director. From 2018 – 2020, she was Genesis Director at the Young Vic, where she directed the acclaimed UK première of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview in 2019. Her other theatre credits include Nightclubbing (Lowry/Camden People’s Theatre/Tour), Fall of the Kingdom and Rise of the Footsoldier (RSC), Octagon and But I Cd Only Whisper and The Ballad of Crazy Paola (Arcola), Homegrown (NYT), Even Stillness Breathes Slowly Against a Brick Wall (Soho), Carrot (Latitude/Theatre503), Coalition, Wild Horses and Slaves (Theatre503); and for film, They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar (Film4), My England (Young Vic) and White Girl (BFI).

MARYS SEACOLE OPEN WORKSHOP

Saturday 14 May, 10.30am – 12.30pm

£12.50 (£7.50 for 16-25 year olds)

Open to anyone over 16, our Open Workshops offer extra insight into our work. Join the Donmar Resident Assistant Director for a two-hour workshop exploring the themes of the production and take part in some of the exercises used by the company in the rehearsal room.

Patrons will have the option to book for the Open Workshop when booking tickets for the production – these do not need to be booked on the same day.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @donmarwarehouse

MARYS SEACOLE

LISTINGS

DONMAR WAREHOUSE

41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX

15 April – 4 June 2022

Captioned: 23 May at 7.30pm

Audio-Described: 21 May at 2.30pm, touch tour at 1pm

British Sign Language Interpreted: 30 May at 7.30pm

Box Office: www.donmarwarehouse.com / 020 3282 3808

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Evenings Mon – Sat: 7.30pm

Matinees Thu & Sat: 2.30pm

TICKET PRICES

£45 | £32.50 | £20 | £10

PREVIEW PRICES

£42.50 | £30 | £17.50 | £10

YOUNG+FREE

YOUNG+FREE tickets for 16-25 year olds released by ballot. Sign up at www.donmarwarehouse.com.

Generously supported by IHS Markit.

DONMAR DAILY

New tickets on sale every day at the Donmar. Allocations of tickets from £10 will be made available every day for performances 7 days later. Tickets will be available across the auditorium at every price band.

STANDING TICKETS

£10 standing tickets available from two weeks in advance 10am online, by phone and in person. (Except Press Nights. Subject to availability)

ACCESS

The Donmar Warehouse is fully wheelchair accessible. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome in the auditorium. There is a Loop system and a Radio Frequency system fitted in the main auditorium and there are also hearing loops at all the front of house counters.

ASSISTED PERFORMANCES

If you require a companion to attend the Donmar, their ticket will be free. To book call 020 3282 3808 or email [email protected].

For all other access enquiries or bookings call 020 3282 3808.

SEASON AT A GLANCE: 

HENRY V

Until 9 April 2022

Captioned: 28 March at 7.30pm

Audio-Described: 2 April at 2.30pm, touch tour at 1pm

British Sign Language Interpreted: 26 March at 2.30pm 

MARYS SEACOLE

15 April – 4 June 2022

Captioned: 23 May at 7.30pm

Audio-Described: 21 May at 2.30pm, touch tour at 1pm

British Sign Language Interpreted: 30 May at 7.30pm

The season is presented in partnership with Wessex Grove.

NYT Gala raises vital funds to support next generation of talent

National Youth Theatre raised £350k to support young talent and widen access to arts on Monday night at their Nostalgic Fantastic fundraising gala in association with EON Productions, TikTok and Netflix with support from Cath Kidston, Omega, Think Publishing, Champagne Bollinger and Soho House, and with thanks to the David Pearlman Foundation and Stelio & Susie Stefanou.

The event was attended by National Youth Theatre Royal Patron HRH The Earl of Wessex, NYT Patrons Rosamund Pike and Hugh Bonneville and alumni Regé-Jean Page, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Rob Rinder, Ben Miles, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Lynette Linton, Lolita Chakrabarti, Clive Mantle, Daisy Lewis and Backstage alumna and Creative Director of Cath Kidston Holly Marler. It was hosted by alumni Lauren Lyle and Rhys Stephenson and guests supporting the evening included Adrian Lester, NYT President Barbara Broccoli and NYT chair Dawn Airey. The evening concluded with a performance by M People’s Heather Small and a DJ set by Jazzie B. The live auction presided over by Lord Harry Dalmeny featured lots including tickets to Macbeth starring NYT alumnus Daniel Craig including a stay at Soho House New York, a luxury trip to Lake Como and a lunch at a private dining room at Coutts. 

An immersive cabaret performance by current members of the National Youth Theatre was created by Tatty Hennessy and Joel Scott. 

EMPIRE THEATRE, LIVERPOOL – UNTIL SATURDAY 5TH MARCH 2022

REVIEWED BY MIA BOWEN

5*****

The sweetest of all Matthew Bourne’s treats returns, with a newly designed and reimagened production. Since the first performance and opening at the 1992 Edinburgh Festival, it is celebrating its 30th anniversary and touring the UK, it’s a Nutcracker! for all seasons.

Traditionally, Tchaikovsky’s 1892 Nutcracker is a crowd pleasing, yet skilful ballet with a beautiful and famous score. Martin Duncan and Anthony Ward worked with Matthew Bourne to create this new version to revamp the traditional Christmas story. Bourne’s adaptation keeps Clara’s (Katrina Lyndon) lovesick quest for her nutcracker (Harrison Dowzell) central to the plot and keeps a secure hold on the audience’s affections by taking them on a bittersweet journey of first love, growing up, adventures and dreams.

The designer, Anthony Ward worked with Bourne to create contrasting worlds. A bleak, darkly, comic Christmas Eve at Dr Dross’ Orphanage, a shimmering ice skating Winter Wonderland and the scrumptious candy kingdom of Sweetie Land full of dreams and fantasy. The climax of Ward’s set design, and also the highlight of the production, is the tree-tiered wedding cake, upon which all the characters dance, devour, slurp and lick their way around the layers. It is entirely a fantastical set and one that conjures up images of candy-canes and sugar delights.

Bourne’s choreographic style is a ‘pick n mix’ of dance styles including a bit of ballet, contemporary and modern. I experienced a sudden burst of sugar rush watching the performances of the Liquorice Allsorts, Knickerbocker Glory, Marshmallows and Gobstoppers, everyone looked good enough to eat!

Sugared, sweetened and satisfying Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker is a splendid adaptation of a classic ballet. If you fancy something special and non-traditional for a delightful treat this year, look no further

KING’S THEATRE, EDINBURGH – UNTIL 5th MARCH 2022

 REVIEWED BY RACHEL FARRIER 

3***

‘Sheila’s Island’ is a wholesale adaptation of a comedy written by Tim Firth almost 30 years ago which was called ‘Neville’s Island’ and originally featured an all-male cast. With this knowledge, I had wondered whether the underlying premise (middle management on a team building exercise that goes very wrong) and jokes would feel jarring with a slightly altered script and all-female cast. This was not the case at all and the gang of four women certainly felt like familiar characters from any office environment. Abigail Thaw felt like the comedic centre of the show, playing a witheringly acerbic Denise – and she certainly garnered the most laughs from the audience over the evening. Judy Flynn as Sheila, the team-appointed ‘captain’ was very relatable and amusing as her character sought to keep up the spirits of her team mates, despite increasingly desperate circumstances. 

Tracy Collier, the understudy who took on the role of Julie in place of Rina Fatania, deserved the extra round of applause she received at the end of the show – with a cast of only four it cannot be easy to step into such a role at the last minute and she produced a sweet and affectionate performance of a woman who begins to see her beloved husband in a new light as the play progresses. 

There were some technical difficulties on this first night, with the curtain going up twenty minutes late due to lighting issues, and the sound quality throughout the performance being uneven – at times it was hard to hear lines, which obviously impacted on their comedic value. 

 Overall, this is a gently amusing play with occasional laugh out loud moments but there were patches which felt like jokes were being stretched too thin, and you wanted the plot to move along a little faster. As with many comedies, there were moments of poignancy within the script, although these sometimes felt jarring when touching upon very serious issues. However, the confident performances from experienced comedy actors overcame these obstacles, and made for an enjoyable evening out. 

New Victoria Theatre, Woking – until 5 March 2022

Reviewed by Nicky Wyatt

5*****

WOW! What a show!

The Osmonds, the original boy band back on stage bringing their audiences to their feet all over again.

Jay Osmonds new musical chronicles the story of the boys rise to fame. The family bond is truly awesome and for those of us old enough to remember Osmondmania it is a snap shot of what our wall posters went through to make us love them then and now.

The show has a very slick set with seamless movements, well thought out costumes and dance routines of the 70s. The cast of this show do themselves and the Osmonds proud.

Charlie Allen is superb as dad George. His hard attitude was tough on the boys and he does it so well, with mum Nicola Bryan as Olive bridging the gap between dads strictness and nurturing her brood.

The entire cast were fabulous , the children worked really hard and are convincing, especially little Donny.

Alex Lodge as Jay is perfectly cast. He is endearing yet funny and delivers some great lines. Jamie Chatterton as Alan also superb. The older brother always stuck between a dominant father and his siblings.

The choice of songs in the show is just perfect a real trip down memory lane a fantastic sing a long and shimmy night.

The show finale had the whole theatre on it’s feet over 50 years since they walked on to the Andy Williams show and they still bring the house down. Absolutely fantastic show and night out.

Cadogan Hall – 28 February 2022

Reviewed by Claire Roderick

2**

The gala concert and UK premiere of Mimma raised funds for a worthwhile charity, so that’s a positive to take from the night. Unfortunately, the show itself is a muddled, unsatisfying mess.

Ron Siemiginowski and Giles Watson’s desire to raise awareness of the internment of enemy aliens in the UK during WW2, and the sinking of the Arandora Star carrying deported aliens to Canada is admirable, but there is no coherent structure or emotional integrity in this show.

Mimma and her family run a publication campaigning against Mussolini, but when Mimma is identified by the black shirts, her brother decides to send her to London to stay with her uncle Lorenzo. Lorenzo runs a nightclub in Soho, and is a naive member of the Italian Club, which Mimma is horrified to see is a front for the fascists. In Lorenzo’s club, Mimma meets Sarah, a singer whose boyfriend is in the navy, and they bond quickly. As her brother and friends back in Turin are captured by the black shirts, Italians in the UK are rounded up and placed in camps.

All extremely dramatic, and the writers’ not so subtle musical themes make it very clear where the audience should be FEELING THINGS. The swing music that characterises the London scenes contrasts with the ever more operatic Turin scenes, and it begins to feel as if these are two separate shows that have been cobbled together. The libretto doesn’t help, with banal lyrics describing wartime London that would not seem out of place in a school project. At least the opera parts are in Italian so any cringeworthy lyrics went over my head. There is no discipline to the songs either, with some being interminably long and others just tapering off suddenly.

Even the talent of Celinde Schoenmaker, Louise Dearman, John Owen-Jones and the BBC Concert Orchestra can’t save this. They all perform impeccably but deserve better material. Elena Xanthoudakis and Ashley Riches also sing magnificently. David Suchet adds gravitas as Alfredo Frassati, narrating the semi-staged show and adding lots of exposition, but by the time heroic deeds of espionage are revealed in the epilogue, the feeling that you have been repeatedly whacked on the head with a history book numbs you.

Mimma is a huge disappointment and in need of rigorous revision and workshops if it is ever to become a musical that truly honours this dark moment in history.