Month: October 2018

Churchill Theatre – until 27th Oct 2018

Review by Elizabeth J Smith

5*****

When I am going to see a play or show that was originally a much loved film I worry I wont feel the same about the piece. Did the producers and directors get it right and give the audience the same experience evoking similar emotions. Sometimes films made into shows just don’t get the same response. Not this one, it was bang on target.

Set in Sheffield, once the steel capital of the world in its glory days, to the time when factories were closed down and the men of the town no longer had a job for life and were reduced to unemployment or doing jobs below their skill set. How the impact these events have on families and individuals, making the men ask themselves “do woman need us anymore”.

Gaz, (Gary Lucy), is unemployed with no prospect of employment. Not helped by his criminal record. He finds himself dealing with an ex wife who wants maintenance for their son or she will prevent him having contact. Seeing a get rich quick opportunity he ropes in an unlikely cast of characters to become strippers for the night.

We meet this motley crew and learn how crappy life is treating each and everyone of them. The prospect of being strippers feels them with both dread and excitement. Forcing them to question their lives, relationships and choices.

From the get go the one-liners have you laughing out loud, even in the saddest of scenes, the attempted suicide of a young man, the humour of life rings out.

The auditions were hilarious, with a poignant moment when an auditioning gentleman decides he really can’t do it and was only there as a last resort as “there’s bugger all else on the horizon”.

The iconic dole queue dance was there and the portrayal of lads taking the “mick” out of each other but really having each others back came across in abundance.

The acting from all characters was believable, you felt empathy for each and everyone. Shout out to Fraser Kelly, who played Gaz’s young son Nathan, up holding an important role against some big hitting elders.

The final scene didn’t disappoint and had the audience cheering for more. I love the simplicity of the dance routine. However, when performed by such a mismatch of bodies you are rooting for them to remember it and get in right.
The cast are obviously having the time of their lives with the mainly female audience going wild, not often middle aged, over weight, slightly disabled men receive such adoration.

I defy any red blooded female not to get her knickers in a twist for these lovable characters and any male not to wish they had the nerve to do the same

HOW TO FIND LOVE, LOSE WEIGHT & LIVE FOREVER… WITHOUT REALLY TRYING!

FOR TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY

ON SUNDAY 9 DECEMBER & SUNDAY 6 JANUARY

AT THE APOLLO THEATRE IN LONDON’S WEST END

Children across the UK are already fans of Dr Chris and Dr Xand from their hugely successful TV and live show Operation Ouch!.  Now the identical twins have an adults-only show to share.  For two performances only, the doctors will perform How To Find Love, Lose Weight & Live Forever… Without Really Trying! on Sunday 9 December 2018 and Sunday 6 January 2019 at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End.

Pleasure and danger are intimately linked: whether your weakness is cake, drugs, TV box sets or base-jumping, modern life presents humans with a set of temptations and consequential harms we can all understand.  Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken will examine how it’s possible to get the most out of ourselves without self-help taking over our lives and without getting distracted by fads and nonsense.

Chris and Xand are working doctors and scientists, who have a decade of making TV shows about health behind them.  They will distillate live on stage the best of what they have learned from their experiences in the swamp forests of the Congo, Malaysian religious rituals, hallucinogens from the Amazon, naked swimming in the Arctic Ocean, work in refugee camps and war zones and everything in between.

Dr Chris and Dr Xand van Tulleken are identical twins who grew up in London and trained in medicine at Oxford University, graduating in 2002. They both still work in medicine: Dr Chris is an infectious diseases doctor based at University College London Hospital and Dr Xand is the Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow at Fordham University’s Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, with his main interests and expertise in Public Health, Medicine, Humanitarian Aid and Anthropology.  Their TV shows include The Human Body: Secrets of Your Life Revealed, Frontline Doctors: Winter Migrant Crisis, Horizon, Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad?, Blow Your Mind, Horizon, Sugar V Fat, Which Doctor?, The Secret Life of Twins, Medicine Men Go Wild, as well as their hugely popular children’s series, Operation Ouch!, which has won two BAFTAs and the seventh series of which will be shown on CBBC early 2019.  On his own, Chris has presented two series of The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs, The Truth About…HIV, and How to Stay Young, all for BBC1.  Xand’s solo TV programmes include Truth About Carbs, Horizon: Male Suicide, Fighting for Air, Expedition Volcano, Horizon: Sports Doping – Winning at any Cost? and Horizon: How to Find Love Online, all for the BBC, and How to Lose Weight Well for Channel 4.

The European premiere of How To Find Love, Lose Weight & Live Forever… Without Really Trying! is written by Chris and Xand van Tulleken and directed by Peter Adams, with lighting by Richard Dinnen.  It is presented by Andrew Kay and Margot Teele for Andrew Kay & Associates.

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/vantulleken/

LISTINGS INFORMATION

9 December 2018 & 6 January 2019

Apollo Theatre

31 Shaftesbury Avenue

London W1D 7EZ

Box Office: 0330 333 4809 / www.nimaxtheatres.com

Tickets: from £29.50* (*a £1.50 booking fee applies for online and phone bookings and all tickets include a 50p restoration levy. No booking fee for tickets purchased in person from the Apollo Theatre Box Office.)

Performances:  Sunday 9 December 2018 & Sunday 6 January 2019 at 7.00pm

Running Time:  80 minutes, no interval

Recommended Age:  16+

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until 27th October

Review by Heather Chalkley

5*****

Bill Kenwright made the right choice to produce this iconic film on stage. Director Jonathan O’Boyle and his creatives have kept true to the story line and the poignant moments that are its essence. The flow of the dialogue created crescendos and gentle harmonies that carried the audience with it.

The detail and attention Mathew Horne has given his character Raymond is exceptional. As a mother of a son with disabilities, my community is made up of many Raymond’s. Horne was believable to the point you forgot he was acting. Ed Speleers as Charlie managed the pace of the play beautifully and with style. Charlie (Ed Speleers) took us on a journey through the anger and pain of rejection by his father, through to the softening and realisation of who his brother was – Rain Man. The final moments were simple and took my breath away.

Beautifully performed with a talented supporting cast and effortless transition through each scene. I would happily see again and again, despite no sign of a Buick on stage at any point!

Hope Theatre, Islington – 28 and 29 October 2018

Reviewed by Antonia Hebbert

4****

Intense things come in small packages. Sam Edmunds’s play is a fast-moving 55-minute exploration of grief and denial that confidently combines extremes of emotion with enough light-touch comedy to keep it all bearable.

The set consists of the hospital bed where Max (Nick Young) is a patient. In sequences that move briskly between reality and the storm in his damaged brain, we learn that he was in a car crash with his girlfriend Tess (Hannah Benson). She has been killed, and he has tried to commit suicide. Tess ‘appears’ to Max as he tries to understand what has happened; more surprisingly so do Jesus and Lucifer (David Angland and Daniel Leadbitter, both very cool and commanding), to argue the case for and against re-engaging with life. Jolly flashbacks to the past are interspersed with agonizing moments of brain overload inside Max’s head, powerfully conveyed by sound (William Harrison) and lighting (Sam Edmunds). Things get more complicated when we learn that Max’s devoted brother Chris (William Shackleton) was also involved in the accident.

The energy of Nick Young and all the youthful cast in the tiny, in-your-face space of the Hope Theatre made this a joy to watch. It was very competent and entertaining despite the dark material. No spoilers, but I found myself slightly feeling slightly short-changed by the direction that the play took. It touched on the question of how you deal with guilt after a death, but the main focus was on grief and denial. That’s interesting, but there is maybe a much more challenging play to be written here.

FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR

MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY’S

MAJOR REVIVAL OF FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

Music by Jerry Bock          Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick          Book by Joseph Stein

Directed by Trevor Nunn; Choreography Jerome Robbins & Matt Cole

Set Designer Robert Jones; Costume Designer Jonathan Lipman

Lighting Designer Tim Lutkin; Sound Designer Gregory Clarke

Musical Director Paul Bogaev; Orchestrations Jason Carr

As rehearsals begin today, the Menier Chocolate Factory today announces the full company for its major revival of one of the world’s most-beloved musicals of all time, Fiddler on the Roof, in a new staging by Trevor Nunn. Joining the previously announced Harriet Bunton (Hodel), Dermot Canavan (Lazar Wolf), Stewart Clarke (Perchik), Matt Corner (Fyedka), Joshua Gannon (Motel), Judy Kuhn (Golde), Louise Gold (Yente), Kirsty Maclaren (Chava), Andy Nyman (Tevye) and Molly Osborne (Tzeitel), are Miles Barrow, Sofia Bennett, Lottie Casserley, Lia Cohen, Shoshana Ezequiel, Fenton Gray, James Hameed, Matthew Hawksley, Matilda Hopkins, Adam Margilewski, Robert Maskell, Benny Maslov, Gaynor Miles, Ellie Mullane, Craig Pinder and Valentina Theodoulou to complete the company.

The production opens on 5 December, with previews from 23 November, and runs until 9 March. Booking is open for supporters of the Menier with public booking opening on 5 September.

This joyous and heart-breaking story of the travails of Tevye the milkman, his wife and five daughters features such classic songs as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and remains a heart-warming celebration To Life – L’chaim!

The first London production of Fiddler on the Roof opened in February 1967 at Her Majesty’s Theatre; and the most recent London production opened in May 2007 at the Savoy Theatre with Henry Goodman as Tevye.

Fiddler on the Roof sees Trevor Nunn renew his collaboration with the Menier – he previously directed Lettice and Lovage, Love in Idleness (also West End), A Little Night Music (also West End and Broadway) and Aspects of Love for the company.

Listings Information

Fiddler on the Roof

Venue:                                Menier Chocolate Factory

Address:                             53 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1RU

Press performance:         5 December at 8pm

Dates:                                 23 November 2018 – 9 March 2019

Times:                                For the performance schedule, please see the website

Box Office:                         020 7378 1713 (£2.50 transaction fee per booking)

Website:                        www.menierchocolatefactory.com (£1.50 transaction fee per booking)

Tickets:                               Prices vary, as below from discounted preview tickets to premier seats. With the emphasis on ‘the sooner you book, the better the price’:

A meal deal ticket includes a 2-course meal from the pre-theatre menu in the Menier Restaurant as well as the theatre ticket.

www.menierchocolatefactory.com

Twitter: @MenChocFactory

‘Do You Love This Planet?’

By Alexander Matthews

At the Tristan Bates Theatre in London
27 February to 23 March 2019

‘Do You Love This Planet?’ by the playwright and philosopher Alexander Matthews will premiere at Covent Garden’s Tristan Bates Theatre in February 2019.  Directed by Antony Law, the play will run from 27 February to 23 March.  Casting will be announced at a later date.

Do you really love this planet? Enough to be a whistleblower? Rachel’s life is torn apart when she demands an answer to these questions. But how far is she prepared to push her family in her quest to do ‘what is right’?

This new play, examines the importance of human responsibility on a declining planet, inviting audiences to question their own moral and social responsibility in an age of climate change and global warming.

Alexander Matthews was born in New York City in 1942.  He taught Philosophy in a number of universities between 1975 and 1989. In 1986 he was awarded a Visiting Fellowship to Princeton University. He has published several books and essays including ‘A Diagram of Definition’ and has written three plays including ‘Screaming Secrets’ and ‘Glass Roots’ which had their stage premieres at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Spring 2018.

Alexander Matthews had a privileged but haphazard upbringing into the literary world. His father, TS Matthews, was an author, biographer and journalist, and an editor-in-chief of Time Magazine.  Martha Gellhorn, his stepmother, was a notable author and war correspondent, and the third wife of Ernest Hemingway.  Their friends and associates, including Edmund Wilson, Adlai Stevenson and Robert Graves have had a marked influence on Alexander’s work; his writings are renowned for focusing on the nuances and idiosyncrasies of human behaviour.

Alexander has been the Chair of the Martha Gellhorn Trust Prize Committee for nearly 20 years.  Since its foundation in 1999, it has offered a prize for journalism, for the kind of reporting that distinguished Gellhorn: in her own words “the view from the ground”; a human story that sees through the established version of events to expose the unpalatable truth which lies behind official propaganda or conduct.  Past winners include Robert Fisk, Iona Craig and Robert Parry.

Listings information:

Do You Love This Planet? 
Venue:                                 Tristan Bates Theatre, 1A Tower Street, London WC2H 9NP

Dates:                                   27^th February to 23^rd March 2019

Performance Times:       Tuesday-Saturday at 7.30pm

                                                Saturday at 2.30pm

                                                Sunday at 3.00pm

Tickets:                                 £18 (£15 concs); previews £12

Earlybird Offer: £12 tickets if you book by 16th November. Use code DYLTP12
Box office: 020 3841 6611 and online at www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk

Royal Albert Hall – 19 & 20 October

Reviewed by Claire Roderick

5*****

This spectacular semi-staged production of Guys and Dolls is just brilliant. The story of the seedier side of Broadway – full of small-time crooks and gamblers, showgirls and missionaries just never gets stale, and the producers have managed to get a dream cast for this oh-too-short run.

Jason Manford is a revelation as Nathan Detroit, desperately trying to keep one step ahead of the law and his creditors and find a place to hold his floating crap game aided by his sidekicks Benny (Joe Stilgoe) and Nicely Nicely Johnson (Clive Rowe). He enters into a ridiculous bet with Sky Masterson (Adrian Lester) that he can take mission leader Sarah Brown (Lara Pulver) to Havana. Nathan is also being pursued by his fiancée of 14 years, Miss Adelaide (Meow Meow) who just wants to know when they’re getting married.

James McKeon and his orchestra are centre stage and belt out Frank Loesser’s fabulous music as Stephen Mangan narrates the show. Director Stephen Mear keeps in all the favourite dance numbers with the Hot Box girls’ gloriously cheesy routines and the crapshooters amazing balletic moves.

Adrian Lester is a class act as sky – oozing charisma as he woos the luminous Lara Pulver. Clive Rowe is worth the ticket price alone as he reprises his role as Nicely and takes Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat to new heights. The star of the show is Meow Meow – sneezing and sniffling her way through the night in a hysterically off-kilter and slightly subversive version of lovelorn Miss Adelaide.

The story and songs are old favourites, but this fast-moving format breathes new life into a classic show – and when Lady Luck gets a cast like this together, just sit back and enjoy the magic of musical theatre.