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The Victoria Theatre, Halifax – until 19th October 2024

Reviewed by Sal E Marino

5*****

Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a cult classic 1980s film and most people of a certain age can quote its golden lines that one never tires of hearing so, imagine seeing it live!  The anticipation of hearing Sue’s dad spouting “send em on Manningham Lane, it’s the best place for them” just builds and builds!  The audience members at the fabulous Victoria Theatre, Halifax, (where you always receive a warm Yorkshire welcome) couldn’t wait to hear those ionic phrases and were cheering loudly when the very talented acting crew delivered them!    Screen-to-stage adaptations don’t always work as well, especially one where the film is loved so much as the expectations are almost too high to measure up to but I found that Andrew Ashley’s (Artistic director) and Andy Fretwell’s (Managing Director) Rita, Sue and Bob Too was more enjoyable than the film!  The main reason for this is that I feel Ashley and Fretwell have done the brilliant Andrea Dunbar (the original play’s writer) justice and to understand that you need to go and see it.  For me, the uncomfortable elephant in the room that permeates throughout the film has finally been resolved.  We all booed Bob at The Victoria at the end.  And yet, there was no anger, the play did NOT lose any humour at all, it was hilarious, just different – but in a good and better way. 

It’s a very raw, harsh but strangely touching piece of popular theatre that encapsulates the mood of the 1980s.  Thatcher’s Britain, when a generation of men realised that their jobs-for-life, (especially in certain northern industries) were now gone and ‘they’ were no longer needed – obsolete – they didn’t fit into the new corporate, financial world.  So, what happened to some of them such as on those on the Buttershaw estate in Bradford?  Unfortunately drink, depression and a vicious cycle of poverty and abuse of various kinds ensued.  Pretty grim – so it’s amazing how this play, with all it’s dark sides can evoke such laughter, that in the face of such adversity we can chuckle along at the dialogue.

Beginning with the scene on the moors, where sleazy Bob played by Dale Vaughan first seduces Rita and Sue really sets the play’s narrative and although it’s obviously uncomfortable the girls are hilarious! It’s not how I remember it in the film because I’m now a grown-up (with a child just a bit older than Rita and Sue) so I have a new perspective.  Both Emma Hooker (Rita) and Polly Lovegrove (Sue) are so believable in their roles as these two teenagers who sadly have no hopes, no dreams and no aspirations.  They just want to live in a house that has space, quiet and no screaming and shouting.  If that involves being with a slime-ball older man like Bob (who would inevitably cheat on them too like he was with them), then that isn’t a problem because they want to be Michelle (Louisa Maude) – who in their eyes has it all – nice clothes and nice things (typical of a teenagers). The way this came out on stage highlighted the girls’ vulnerability, young age, lack of guidance, care and nurturing love.  That aside, the action and pace of the play just flows as the multi-media backdrop clips of news and events of 80s flash up on stage.  We are reminded of the wave of the times – protests, riots, anger, disease, despair along with greed and ‘loads a money’ … which made one reflect about those issues and their relevance today.

Andrew Ashley, who plays ‘Dad’ stole the show.  From the look, the walk, the line delivery – Ashley totally embodied the whole essence of the character and burnt it up!  I could have watched a drama of just him arguing and sparing with ‘Mum’, Alison Gibson.  These two are comedy gold, like Jim Royal and his long-suffering wife except with an edge.  The swearing, the insults and threats weren’t solved by having a chocolate digestive and a brew – more like a bottle of vodka to knock them out of their depressing reality. 

This play and whole production has the heart the size of Yorkshire – big, warm and it keeps beating and going even when times are tough! A wonderful tribute to Andrea Dunbar – it’s a blast, you’ll love it!

LYRIC HAMMERSMITH – UNTIL 2nd NOVEMBER 2024

Reviewed by Jackie Thornton

5*****

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a
sore? (Langston Hughes)

A house in the suburbs, a new business, an education. These are the dreams of the Younger family, three generations crammed into a cockroach infested apartment in Chicago’s South Side. It’s 1950s USA and with $10,000 of life insurance money due following the death of their beloved father, an honest, hard working Black family dares to dream of a better life in Lorraine Hansberry’s multi-award winning play.

Not a word is wasted in director Tinuke Craig’s revival of this groundbreaking work that warmly follows matriarch Lena (Doreene Blackstock), her grown children Beneatha (Josephine-Fransilja Brookman) and Walter Lee (Soloman Israel), his wife Ruth (Cash Holland) and their ten-year-old son Travis. Hansberry’s clever digs at the misogyny, sexism, classism and racism of 1950s America agitate, sadly still ringing true today, as do the universal conversations on colonialism and independence, power and corruption, hope and despair.

Set design by Cecile Tremolieres confines the stellar cast to one sparsely furnished room which Lena, Ruth and Beneatha tirelessly scrub, dust and clean. Will they ever escape it? Holland as Ruth is incredible; even while in the background, the gamut of emotions she conveys constantly draws your gaze. That’s not to say that Israel’s pained speeches as hapless Walter or Brookman’s comical flamboyance as aspiring doctor Beneatha are not equally precise and enthralling. Kenneth Omole as Beneatha’s Nigerian suitor Joseph Asagai similarly dazzles with cheeky self-assurance while also delivering some stirring home truths.

A Raisin in the Sun is a timeless and captivating tale which generously offers up space to reflect on the human necessity for hope in a world inclined to kick us when we’re down. Life is struggle which makes our triumphs sweeter and existence all the richer. Don’t miss out on this stunning revival. I’d watch it again in a flash.

Brand new footage IS RELEASED 
FOR CAMERON MACKINTOSH’S NEW PRODUCTION OF LIONEL BART’S IRRESISTIBLE AND ICONIC MUSICAL

Season extended at London’s Gielgud Theatre
– now booking through to 28 September 2025

Performances begin 14 December 2024

www.oliverthemusical.com

Tuesday 15 October 2024, London: Cameron Mackintosh is delighted to release footage of his new production of Lionel Bart’s iconic musical, Oliver!, which will begin performances at Gielgud Theatre in London on Saturday 14 December 2024 and has today extended bookings through to 28 September 2025. www.oliverthemusical.com

This critically acclaimed production, which Mackintosh has fully reconceived with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, is a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre, where Oliver!’s run as part of their 2024 Summer Season was the biggest success in the theatre’s history

Returning to the cast is Simon Lipkin (Guys and Dolls, Avenue Q) as Fagin, Shanay Holmes (Miss Saigon, The Bodyguard) as Nancy, Aaron Sidwell (Henry VI, Wicked) as Bill Sikes, Billy Jenkins (Les Misérables, BBC’s Dodger) as the Artful Dodger, Philip Franks (The Rocky Horror Show, Witness for the Prosecution) as Mr. Brownlow, Oscar Conlon-Morrey (Mother Goose, Only Fools and Horses The Musical) as Mr. Bumble, Katy Secombe (The Music Man, Les Misérables) as Widow Corney, Stephen Matthews (Strictly Ballroom, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as Mr. Sowerberry/Dr. Grimwig, and Jamie Birkett (Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mamma Mia The Party) as Mrs. Sowerberry/Mrs. Bedwin. The full London cast will be announced soon.

Lionel Bart’s musical masterpiece, freely adapted from Charles Dickens’ novel, Oliver! tells the story of the orphaned Oliver Twist, who escapes the harsh Victorian workhouse and takes refuge in London’s murky underworld with the wily gang leader Fagin and his team of resourceful pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger. He finds a friend in the kind-hearted Nancy and when he’ s wrongly arrested for stealing, Oliver meets an unexpected saviour; but is happiness truly within his grasp?

With a sensational score, including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more, the Olivier, Tony and Oscar-winning masterpiece vividly brings to life Dickens’ ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more.

Matthew Bourne is internationally renowned for reinventing classics including Swan Lake and Edward Scissorhands for his company New Adventures, as well as his Olivier Award-winning choreography for My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins (which he co-directed and earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography) and his recent acclaimed direction and musical staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends. The stellar creative team includes designer Lez Brotherston (Fiddler on the Roof, Me and My Girl, Flowers for Mrs Harris).

Produced and revised by Cameron Mackintosh,Oliver! is directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne andco-directed by Jean-Pierre van der Spuy. Designed by Lez Brotherston, lighting design is by Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs, sound design by Adam Fisher, video design by George Reeve, new orchestrations by Stephen Metcalfe based on the original by William David Brohn; music supervision is by Graham Hurman.

Oliver! is a Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre production.

OLIVER! | London Listings Info

Gielgud Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6AR

Dates
Performances from Saturday 14 December 2024
Now booking until Sunday 28 September 2025
New Sunday matinees begin 9 March 2025
Additional midweek matinees added in July and August 2025

Website
www.oliverthemusical.com

Social Media
All platforms: @Oliveronstage

Curve Theatre Leicester – until 19th Oct 2024

Reviewed by Amarjeet Singh

3***

Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s most beloved and treasured tales. Deviating from your average whodunit, it truly challenges traditional formula and enables the detective to flex the power of his little grey cells and explore compassion and concern for humanity. A snowdrift stops the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train, unusually full for this time of year is a little lighter by the morning when a passenger is found stabbed to death in his bed, his door locked from the inside and there is no clue of how the crime was committed. Isolated and with a murderer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot sets about identifying the murderer by meticulously interviewing a motley crew of passengers who are trapped alongside him in this treacherous weather on this fateful night.

Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Christie’s tale, made some bold choices, attempting to present a modern and lavish rendition, but they didn’t all land well. The production is confused, delivering huge amounts of exposition without depth, so we never warm to most of the characters. They largely stay as over the top, hammy caricature’s, with no character development or light and dark. We don’t fully understand motives, drives, desires and connection, which is a huge part of this story and is much needed in order for it to all come together at the end.

Unfortunately, it appears, this production chose to focus on Mike Britton’s set design. A clunky and cumbersome cluster of compartments which click together to form a train. They are beautiful but they hinder the performance and our engagement with it, by causing long pauses between scenes, obstructing views and creating jarring noises. Sarah Holland’s lustrous costumes bring some real pizazz to the production.

Michael Maloney’s portrayal of Poirot begins as the familiar Belgian detective we remember, but this quickly slips into moments of strangeness. Giggling, flirting and such before returning back to his stoic stance, leaving me confused, what was the point of this shift? The final reveal at the end is so far removed from the cool, calm collected and compassionate sleuth that it fell flat and was unbelievable.

As disjointed as the train, sadly this production just didn’t work.

SALLY CADE HOLMES AND HEATHER SHIELDS ANNOUNCE LONDON PREMIERE

OF CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, SOLD OUT FRINGE HIT

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS

AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE FOR A LIMITED RUN THIS CHRISTMAS

Following a smash-hit run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer and multiple sold out seasons in New York, Sally Cade Holmes and Heather Shields today announce the London premiere and cast for Recent Cutbacks’ Hold On To Your Butts, a live shot-for-shot parody of the greatest dinosaur film of all time performed by just two actors and a live Foley artist, at the Arcola Theatre this Christmas for a limited run only from Tuesday 10 Dec 2024 until Saturday 4 Jan 2025 prior to a UK Tour. Tickets are on sale now.

A wildly inventive tour-de-force of comedy, physical theatre and live Foley, Hold On To Your Butts was created by Recent Cutbacks, directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker (Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, Off-Broadway), developed with Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer & Blair Busbee, and stars Jack Baldwin (The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, West End) and Laurence Pears (The Mousetrap, UK Tour; The Comedy About A Bank Robbery and Magic Goes Wrong, West End), with live sound and foley by Charlie Ives (A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story, Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace; Private Lives, West End). A Cappella arrangements are by Kelsey Didion.

Recent Cutbacks is a New York-based creative ensemble founded in 2014. Their critically acclaimed work sits at the intersection of comedy and theatre. They’re best known for live movie parodies that fuse humour, nostalgia, and lo-fi spectacle.

Their projects invite audiences to see the world with a newfound exuberance and remind us why we fell in love with movies, theatre, and storytelling in the first place.

Producers Sally Cade Holmes and Heather Shields said: “Hold Onto Your Butts is everything we love about theatre – it celebrates imagination, is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and reinvents a classic. After the success at Edinburgh Fringe, we’re excited to bring this ridiculously fun show to London this holiday season. The show delivers pure joy, and we can’t wait to share the laughter with audiences at the Arcola and beyond!”

Director Kristin McCarthy Parker today said: “We are over the moon to bring Butts to the Arcola Theatre and then on tour after its thrilling UK premiere at the Fringe! Recent Cutbacks’ goal has always been to inspire joy, creativity, and humour in our audiences, which feels like a perfect fit for the holiday season. Butts combines everything we love about theatre, comedy, and pop culture, and judging by its reception in Edinburgh, British audiences seem to agree”.

www.holdontoyourbutts.co.uk

Instagram/TikTok: @HoldOnToYourButtsUK

Facebook: /HoldOnToYourButtsUK

Trafalgar Theatre, London – until 20th December 2024

Reviewed by Celia Armand Smith

4****

Writer and director Zinnie Harris’s adaptation of John Webster’s Jacobean tragedy The Duchess of Malfi is a sorry tale of love, revenge, and ultimately men being really awful. The story of a woman being controlled by aggressive and controlling male relatives is unfortunately as relevant today as it was in 1614, and Harris’s modernisation shows just that. The wealthy Duchess (Jodie Whittaker) is trapped in a hyper-traditional cycle of marriage and mourning prescribed by her horrible brothers, The Cardinal (Paul Ready), and her twisted twin Ferdinand (Rory Fleck Byrne). Both are brutal in their words and actions, and they will stop at nothing to find out what their headstrong sister has been doing. When she decides to marry her steward Antonio (Joel Fry) in secret, she sets off a series of worsening events that leads to madness and murder.

First performed in 2019, Harris’s updated version could be set at any point between 1950 and 2050. Tom Piper’s pale grey brutalist style set is simple with a walkway running along the top that allows for events to be manipulated and people to be spied on. This industrial-esque setting which is oft seen in modern retellings of classics feels strange and disconnected for a palace setting. There is an intense use of sound, light, and projection that bounce off the walls during a torture scene that is a difficult watch if only for the lights and sounds repeatedly turning on and off for what seems like a very long time. What follows is a series of extremely grisly deaths, and then a slightly confusing yet welcome calm choreographed afterlife accompanied by The Musician who may also be an angel or maybe Death.

Where the writing falters, the cast fill in the gaps. Jodie Whittaker is kind and defiant in her role of the Duchess and her love for her servant, and Joel Fry is perfect in his role of the at times charming yet wimpy Antonio. Paul Ready and Rory Fleck Byrne are splendidly evil (although at times comically so), and you can’t wait for their predictable demise. Jude Owusu as Bosola navigates his path with emotion and there are even some flecks of sympathy left for him at the end despite his heinous actions. Elizabeth Ayodele’s Julia is just a play thing for The Cardinal, and she has a lovely voice and bursts into song at one point, though I am not entirely sure why.

The tension between ambition and moral decay is palpable and there are lots of good ideas to be had in The Duchess (of Malfi), and yet this Tarantino adjacent retelling of a classic feels a bit bogged down by them. Despite this, I enjoyed the fantastic performances by the cast, and it’s always fun to see some proper bloody deaths on the London stage.

BRADLEY RICHES

AMBER DAVIES &

CLAUDIA KARIUKI

JOIN SONGWRITER

SCOTT ALAN

LIVE AT CADOGAN HALL

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2024

Fourth Wall Live are delighted to announce that Bradley Riches (Heartstopper, Babies The Musical), Amber Davies (Back to the Future, Pretty Woman) and Claudia Kariuki (Six, Sister Act) will join Amy di Bartolemeo (The Devil Wears Prada, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, We Will Rock You, Bat Out of Hell), Oliver Tompsett (Kinky Boots, Wicked, Guys and Dolls), and Stuart Matthew Price (The Rocky Horror Show, Parade, Dear World) as guest vocalists for internationally acclaimed songwriter SCOTT ALAN live at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 10 November 2024 at 6.30PM. Tickets are on sale at www.fw-live.com and www.cadoganhall.com

Scott Alan is an internationally acclaimed songwriter who has worked with some of the brightest stars of theatre, TV, film and recording.  Some of those artists include Grammy Award winning Pentatonix, Grammy nominated artist Jane Monheit, Westlife’s Mark Feehily, Taylor Dayne, Tony Award winning artists Sutton Foster, Adriane Lenox, Randy Graff, Frances Ruffelle, Lea Salonga, film and TV stars Tracie Thoms, Patina Miller, Katie Stevens, Mark Feehily, Cheyenne Jackson, Megan Hilty, Samantha Barks, Jeremy Jordan and reality stars Sam Bailey, Collabro, Diana DeGarmo and Christina Marie, among others.

After the 2007 release of his debut album Dreaming Wide Awake, Alan has gone on to release six further albums that include Keys, What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up, Live, Anything Worth Holding On To, Cynthia Erivo and Oliver Tompsett sing Scott Alan and Lifeline. 

Alan has toured the world, selling out concerts in New York City, Japan, London, Holland, Germany, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Australia & various cities in South and North America. His compositions have also been featured on American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Entertainment Tonight, HBO, MTV, VH1 and various other programs. In addition to songwriting, Scott teaches piano and vocal to students at the Scott Alan Studio in St. Petersburg, Florida as well as virtually all over the world. 

Alan continues to tour and just released his new album Nothing More, a collection of songs written for his daughter, Alex Vivian, featuring Gay and Transgender fathers. 

Scott said “Returning to London after so many years away feels like coming home.  I can’t wait to return with some of my favourite people, in my favourite city, celebrating the 15 year anniversary of “Dreaming Wide Awake.” To have my dear friend Darren Bell, whom I met at my first UK concert in 2008, and Fourth Wall Live produce this night feels like a giant hug.”

Fourth Wall Live (FWL) is an award-winning entertainment company specializing in concert productions.

In 2024, Doctor Who returned to the stage for the first time in over 30 years, thanks to a collaboration between FWL, AEG, and Big Finish at Cadogan Hall. That same year, FWL brought the UK premiere of Something Rotten, starring Jason Manford, to Theatre Royal Drury Lane, followed by a production of Oklahoma! featuring Phil Dunster and Zizi Strallen. In 2025, FWL will present Patti LuPone in a sold-out concert at the Coliseum.

The summer of 2023 saw FWL stage full orchestral gala concerts of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita and Love Never Dies at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, both receiving nominations for “Best Concert Event” at the WhatsOnStage Awards, with Love Never Dies taking the award. Academy Award® and BAFTA winner Ariana DeBose headlined a sold-out concert at the London Palladium, and Alan Cumming embarked on his UK tour of Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age in early 2024.

Breaking box office records in 2022, FWL’s Bonnie & Clyde The Musical concert at Drury Lane, starring Jeremy Jordan, sold out in under six minutes. That year also featured Jordan’s solo show and a special full orchestral performance by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald at the London Palladium, with her show airing to acclaim on PBS in May 2024.

FWL is known for regularly bringing Broadway stars to the UK, with past concerts featuring Chita Rivera, Keala Settle, Stephanie J Block, Laura Benanti, Sierra Boggess, Kelli O’Hara, Megan Hilty, Alex Newell, Caissie Levy, and Jeremy Jordan. The company has also showcased UK talent such as Hannah Waddingham, Michael Ball, and Matt Cardle, while notable productions have included The Light Princess, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and Zorro The Musical.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Sunday 10 November

Cadogan Hall

5 Sloane Terrace

London 

SW1X 9DQ

Performance: 6.30pm

Tickets: From £18

Box Office: 020 7730 4500

Website: www.fw-live.com and www.cadoganhall.com

Instagram: @scottalanmusic / @f_w_live 

HACKNEY TOWN HALL – UNTIL 22nd DECEMBER 2024

Reviewed by Jackie Thornton

4****

It is the age of Total Surveillance, everything you say or do is scrutinised, even your
innermost thoughts. As numbers are allocated and we’re shepherded onto wooden benches while two singers play incongruously upbeat acoustic numbers, it’s time for our assessment to begin. Will we the audience pass the test and be inaugurated into the Thought Police, ready to spy on our neighbours and rewrite the past?

Directed by Jack Reardon, George Orwell’s dystopian cautionary tale 1984 is adapted by Adam Taub into chilling immersive theatre which aptly refuses us the position of passive bystander.

Specialising in reimagining classic stories in unique environments, Pure Expression sets up camp inside the imposing Hackney Town Hall, inviting us into one of its elegant Art Deco council chambers to hear a rousing speech from O’Brien, played with unsettling menace by Dominic Carter. Every inch of Winston and Julia’s forbidden romance is captured by a camera crew and projected onto a lofty wall, adding extra resonance to Joe Anderson’s intensity and Neetika Knight’s allure. Harsh red light from Ben Jacob’s lighting design further underpins the unnerving atmosphere and it should be noted that this production does not hold back in its depictions of torture.

For those already familiar with Orwell’s novel, this is a good opportunity to soak up the dread and anxiety fittingly dreamt up by the author as the world drifted from WWII into the Cold War. It definitely still feels like we’re in the 1940s with nods to the dark blues and greys of Soviet fashion with its long skirts and high necks standing against Western excesses. Indeed, apart from the roving live cameras, this production resists making modern references to fake news and our own extreme online and digital cultures, rather ironically allowing the audience to do the thinking for ourselves. It is certainly at its most powerful when making us complicit in its cruel regime.

ST HELENS THEATRE ROYAL JOINS CAMPAIGN TO SAVE ZOE’S PLACE

£15 from all tickets for special Sleeping Beauty panto performance going directly to threatened baby hospice

Theatre hopes to raise thousands of pounds for good cause

St Helens Theatre Royal is joining the campaign to help save Liverpool’s Zoe’s Place with a special fundraising performance of its enchanting half term panto.

Sleeping Beauty comes to St Helens from Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November 2024.

And today the theatre is announcing that £15 from every ticket already sold or newly bought for the 1pm show on Tuesday 29 October will be donated directly to the vitally important Liverpool baby hospice whose future is under threat.

It means panto audiences could help raise up to £10,500 if there is a full house.

In addition to the individual £15 ticket donation, a special bucket collection will also be held at the performance.

Zoe’s Place, which was founded in 1995, is one of only three hospices in the UK which specialises in caring for babies and children under the age of five who have life-limiting, life-threatening or complex conditions.

The six-bed hospice in West Derby includes a state-of-the-art sensory room, hydrotherapy pool, soft play area, outdoor play area and garden and a special bereavement suite where families can stay overnight. An expert nurse-led team delivers care tailored to individual children and their families to allow them to live life to the fullest.

But the lease on the Yew Tree Lane site runs out in 2025, and delays in securing planning permission for a new purpose-built hospice, combined with sharply rising costs in the construction industry, have led to Zoe’s Place announcing it faces closing its doors at the end of this year.

Since news broke earlier this month, a campaign has been launched to raise £5 million in 30 days to help fund a new building and keep the vital service in Liverpool.

Meanwhile the most spellbinding panto of them all, Sleeping Beauty tells the story of Princess Aurora who is cursed by the evil fairy Carabose, pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and is doomed to sleep for a hundred years – unless a handsome prince arrives to break the spell.

The talented cast of firm St Helens favourites includes Maddie Hope Coehlo in the leading role while Rachael Wood is Carabose, Lewis Devine appears as Chester the Jester, Lewis Burrage is the Prince, Warren Donnelly appears as the King, Katy Mac is Fairy Sparkle and Mark Two plays Dame Queenie.

The panto is written by Liam Mellor, directed by Chantelle Nolan and has choreography by Nazene Langfield. Callum Clarke is musical supervisor.

Regal Entertainments Ltd has been bringing top quality and star-studded productions to the North-West for more than 20 years. It is run by the theatrical powerhouse mother and daughter duo of Jane Joseph and Chantelle Nolan who produce top quality drama, comedy and panto productions which continue to break box office records.

It produces four pantomimes – at Easter, Christmas and in the February and October half term holidays, with tens of thousands of theatregoers enjoying the fantastic family-friendly fun each year.

Panto director and St Helens Theatre Manager Chantelle Nolan says: “As soon as we heard the terrible news about Zoe’s Place, we knew we wanted to do something to help secure the future of what is a vitally important resource for young children and their families in the North-West.

“We’re really delighted to be able to pledge £15 from each ticket that is, or has already been, sold for the matinee on 29 October, and knowing how loyal our wonderful panto audiences are, and the generosity of St Helens people, I’m certain that we’re going to raise a lot of money for this worthiest of causes.

“And of course, I can also guarantee everyone a brilliant time. Sleeping Beauty is one of our best-loved pantos and we have a fantastic cast who are ready to cast a spell over audiences young and old this half term.”

Follow St Helens Theatre Royal on social media channels: 

Facebook:       www.facebook.com/St-Helens-Theatre-Royal 

Twitter:           @TheatreRoyalStH 

Instagram:      @TheatreRoyalStH 

SHOW LISTING 

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November 2024.

Special fundraising performance Tuesday 29 October at 1pm.

Tickets* are £24 for adults, £23 concessions and £22 for children.

*Subject to booking fee.

THEATRE ROYAL BOOKING DETAILS  

ST HELENS THEATRE ROYAL 

Corporation Street, St Helens, Merseyside 

WA10 1LQ 

Telephone ticket booking line 01744 756000, lines open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm. 

Book online at www.sthelenstheatreroyal.com 

Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham – until 19th October 2024

Reviewed by Jacqui Radford

4*****

This Dolly Parton inspired production is not about Dolly but more about the question; ‘What Would Dolly Do? Written by Bruce Vilanch, Gabriele Barre, Tricia Paoluccio and Jonathan Harvey this concept is applied to the scenario of a depressed Dolly Parton super fan who isolating in his parents’ attic during the pandemic in 2020. You might well ask; ‘What could possibly be entertaining about that?!’ However, the show is ultimately a musical comedy.

There are only two central characters in the play; Kevin who is played by Steven Webb and of course Dolly Parton, played by Tricia Paoluccio. It was Tricia’s love of Dolly Parton and her spirit that inspired her contribution to the writing of the play. Tricia has also clearly studied Dolly Parton’s mannerisms and has a voice as strong as Dolly herself.

Our introduction to Kevin outlines his situation as a failed stand-up comic in his forties who has recently been dumped by his boyfriend. He finds himself living back at home in his childhood attic den which includes an impressive selection of Dolly Parton memorabilia. Surrounded by his childhood memories and sinking deeper into depression he asks the question ‘What Would Dolly Do?’.

In a flash of brilliant lights and pyrotechnics, the tempo of the production changes up a gear and we welcome Dolly to the stage. As Dolly appears, we are drawn into an intense friendship between Kevin and Dolly as he relays his woes to her. Dolly offers her wisdom through her songs.

The friendship between Kevin and Dolly is very convincing. Dolly swoops in to become Kevin’s cheerleader while he gains confidence in his own comedy and ability to face the world again. The music woven throughout lifts the tone and provides the perfect opportunity for audience participation.

Packed with iconic songs including Jolene, 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream, you come away feeling like you’ve been duetting with Dolly and at the very end enjoy them all again in quick succession. If anyone can make you forget about your woes for a while, Dolly can!