Festival Theatre, Malvern – 10th April 2022

Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau

5*****

Ellen Kent Opera Productions once again return to Malvern, this time with Bizet’s masterpiece Carmen performed by the Ukrainian National Municipal Opera, Kyiv.

The story concerns Don José falling for the obvious (though morally dubious) charms of Carmen, abandoning his former life (soldiering, a sweetheart and his elderly mother) and becoming jealous of the attention she garners wherever she goes which (being an opera) does not end well.

The orchestra, masterfully conducted by Nicolae Dohotaru, were on sparkling form right from the first notes. They were articulate, passionate and as tight as a toreador’s trousers. Everything you could want to transport you to the sensuous delights of Seville; evoked at curtain rise by an impressive plaza set and populated by the chorus in their enchanting costumes – a sensual feast!

Don José (played by Sorin Lupu) was a commanding presence as our leading man. His singing was both muscular and tender as the scene demanded. I particularly enjoyed his pianissimo high notes during the “Flower Song” and his affecting acting in the finale. A bravura performance.

And then there’s Carmen (played by Katerina Timbaliuk), who everyone falls in love with – and I was no exception. Carmen wastes no time getting straight into one of the most famous opera arias ever, the “Habanera”; a personal manifesto! An incredible portrayal which captured the Spanish spirit so well; quiet intensity juxtaposed with the Iberian love of passionate gestures and rambunctious vocal outbursts! I marvelled at Timbaliuk’s mellifluous tone as I was carried along on her every note. I was extremely impressed with her natural, self confident ease in a portrayal that totally nailed the character.

Playful and flamboyant , the chorus were sheer joy throughout! I particularly enjoyed their dramatic opening act fight scene which they looked like they were enjoying performing just as much as I was watching it! They surpassed that though with the wonderful gypsy dancing and singing in the festive scene in act 2. There’s something about the twirling of hair, skirt and hands whilst castanets (or tambourines) are playing that makes the senses reel. Ah, España!

Escamillo (played by Racovita Petru) enters for another uproarious highlight; the “Toreador Song”, with a perfect character study of the egotistical Matador. But when that chorus (them again) joined in, it was breathtaking!

Micaela’s big moment comes with her third act aria, bringing a wonderfully moving performance from Alyona Kistenyova as she conveyed her character’s piercing internal anguish with impressively heartfelt singing!

The curtain descended to rousing applause and deserved standing ovations. The intensity of feeling rose further once the Ukranian flag came out and their National Anthem was sung. I hope our applause and cheers conveyed to all involved how much we support Ukraine at this dreadful time.

This opera, like Spain (and Carmen herself), is gorgeous, alluring and untamed! Another triumphant night to thrill the senses, transport you to a better place and make you feel passionate once more. I cannot wait to see all concerned in future productions. ¡Perfección total! A 100% must see.

Pulitzer Prize-winning

Rabbit Hole

by David Lindsay-Abaire
at the Union Theatre

Multi-award-nominated Front Foot Theatre brings this beautifully crafted Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the Union Theatre for a limited run. 

Becca and Howie had a perfect life — a great marriage, a beautiful house, a wonderful family. But when a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down the couple must answer tough questions about themselves, their relationship, and their places in the universe. As improbably funny as it is heartbreaking, filled with distinctive wit and grace, the play charts the path from grief to its antidotes – love, hope, and forgiveness. 

Nicole Kidman’s production company adapted the play into a film in 2010, starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Sandra Oh, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller, and Giancarlo Esposito.

WHEN

12th April – 1st May 2022                                          Tues – Sat 7.30 pm (Sunday matinee 3 pm)

WHERE

Union Theatre, Southwark Old Union Arches, 229 Union Street, London SE1 0LRBox Office: 020 7261 9876www.uniontheatre.biz/rabbit-hole.html

Winners announced for Olivier Awards 2022 with Mastercard 

officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards 

• Cabaret triumphs with 7 awards including Magic Radio Best Musical Revival and acting wins for Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley  
• 5 wins for Life Of Pi including Best New Play and an historic Best Supporting Actor win for the 7 performers who play ‘Richard Parker’ the puppet tiger 
• Additional acting winners include Hiran Abeysekera, Sheila Atim, Liz Carr, Elliot Levey and Liza Sadovy  
• Back To The Future – The Musical awarded Mastercard Best New Musical 
• Constellations wins Cunard Best Revival 
• Ceremony to be broadcast tonight on ITV at 10:15pm

The winners have been unveiled for this year’s Olivier Awards with Mastercard, British theatre’s biggest night, which took place this evening (Sunday 10 April) at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by Jason Manford. 

The biggest winner of the night was Cabaret, a revival of the 1966 Kander and Ebb musical which has transformed the West End’s Playhouse Theatre into the ‘Kit Kat Club’ to critical acclaim. The show won seven of the eleven categories it was nominated in, including the Magic Radio Best Musical Revival. Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Emcee and Best Actress in a Musical went to Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles, with Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey awarded in the supporting categories for their roles as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Rebecca Frecknall was crowned Best Director, and Nick Lidster won the d&b audiotechnik Award for Best Sound Design. 

With five wins (including Best New Play) is Life Of Pi, Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaptation of the bestselling novel which began life in Sheffield in 2019 and is currently playing at the Wyndham’s Theatre. Hiran Abeysekera won Best Actor for his central performance as Pi, and – in an historic first for the Olivier Awards – the seven performers who play ‘Richard Parker’, the puppet tiger – Fred Davis, Daisy Franks, Romina Hytten, Tom Larkin, Habib Nasib Nader, Tom Stacy and Scarlet Wilderink – were collectively awarded Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The production also picked up awards for set and lighting design. 

Sheila Atim was named Best Actress for her role in Constellations, a Donmar Warehouse production of Nick Payne’s play which ran at the Vaudeville Theatre starring four rotating casts. Constellations also won in the Cunard Best Revival category.  

Best Actress in a Supporting Role was won by Liz Carr, who played Dr Emma Brookner (based on a real-life US physician who was among the first to recognise the 1980s AIDs epidemic) in a revival of Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart at the National Theatre. 

The coveted Mastercard Best New Musical award was given to Back To The Future – The Musical, a new stage adaptation of the hit 1985 sci-fi film currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre.  

The Noël Coward/Geoffrey Johnson Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play went to Pride And Prejudice* (*sort of), a comedic, all-female retelling of the Jane Austen classic first seen in Glasgow.  

Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a family-friendly ‘folk opera’ collaboration between the Royal Opera and Little Bulb, won Best Family Show. 

Elsewhere, renowned Broadway costume designer Catherine Zuber was awarded Best Costume Design for her work on Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Kathleen Marshall won Best Theatre Choreography for Anything Goes (which she also directed) and Simon Hale received the award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations for Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical. 

The award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre (representing the smaller London venues) went to Old Bridge at the Bush Theatre, a 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize-winning play by Igor Memic. 

In the opera categories, Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra were awarded Outstanding Achievement in Opera for their production of Vivaldi’s Bajazet at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, and Best New Opera Production went to the Royal Opera’s staging of the Janáček opera Jenůfa. 

Outstanding Achievement in Dance was won by Arielle Smith for her choreography of Jolly Folly – part of English National Ballet’s Reunion, a project converting five films made in lockdown into live dance performed at Sadler’s Wells. Revisor, a collaboration from choreographer Crystal Pite and theatre-maker Jonathon Young performed by dancers from Kidd Pivot at Sadler’s Wells, was awarded Best New Dance Production. 

The star-studded Olivier Awards ceremony featured performances from all nine nominated musicals; Anything Goes, Back To The Future – The Musical, Cabaret, The Drifters Girl, Frozen, Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Spring Awakening – plus a performance from Life Of Pi. 

The show culminated in a special musical tribute to legendary theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who died last year aged 91. This was performed by a group of swings and understudies from tonight’s performing companies (in recognition of all that the swings, understudies, standbys, and alternates of the West End have done to keep our theatres open) along with the next generation in the form of a choir from performing arts school ArtsEd. 

The Olivier Awards continues its partnership with ITV, which broadcasts the ceremony tonight at 10:15pm (available to watch afterwards on the ITV Hub). The full ceremony was also broadcast live from the Royal Albert Hall on Magic Radio. Outside the UK, the Olivier Awards will stream around the world tonight at 10:15pm UK time (5:15pm EST) on YouTube. 

OlivierAwards.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram 

#OlivierAwards

IT’S IN THE AIR! A UK PREMIERE OF A CLASSIC GERMAN MUSICAL.

For the first time in a new modern English translation, this celebrated German musical is heading to Manchester this Summer!

It’s In The Air! showcase will be the UK premiere of the hit German musical ‘Es Liegt in der Luft’ will open at the Hope Mill Theatre. Originally written by composer Mischa Spoliansky and lyricist Marcellus Schiffer, this never seen before English translation will open on Wednesday 22^nd June 2022 at the Hope Mill Theatre

It’s In The Air! first premiered in 1928, with Marlene Dietrich in the lead role. This popular musical encapsulates the alienation within society and mindless extravagance of the Weimar Republic’s interwar years.

It’s In The Air! at the Hope Mill Theatre is supported by the Spoliansky Trust, Royal Northern College of Music, and The Golsoncott Foundation and features original English translations by West End composer and librettist Steven Edis and original orchestration by young and up and coming composer Celia Denore-Lopez.

A big sale is on and brings with it the exuberant and diverse personalities of the Weimar Republic. Follow these characters as they scrabble mindlessly for any deal they can get their hands on. We see parents forgetting about their children, mad kleptomaniacs (because why not?) and even a store wedding! All in the name of godless consumerism… there must be something in the air!

Tickets for It’s In The Air at the Hope Mill Theatre are on sale now. 

DONMAR WAREHOUSE ANNOUNCES FIRST EVER RELAXED PERFORMANCE DATE FOR THE UK PREMIÈRE OF JACKIE SIBBLIES DRURY’S MARYS SEACOLE

Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch of the Donmar Warehouse today announce tickets are now on-sale for the company’s first ever relaxed performance for the UK première of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s MARYS SEACOLE. The production opens on 21 April, with previews from 15 April, and runs until 4 June with the relaxed performance being held on 26 May at 11.30am. The first relaxed performance forms part of the Donmar Warehouse’s wider commitment to accessibility.   

This performance is suitable for anyone who may benefit from a more relaxed theatre environment; the performance itself is unchanged but loud noises, sound effects and lighting will be turned down or removed. Audience members should feel comfortable making noise and moving around as and when they need to, using designated front of house space to take a break. Babes in arms are welcome.  There are £10 and £20 seats available across the auditorium so that audience members can sit where they feel most comfortable. 

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; Production Manager Marty Moore; Costume Supervisor Lucy Martin; Hair and Makeup Consultant Dominique Hamilton; Voice and Dialect Coach Hazel Holder; Dialect Coach Nia Lynn; Fight Director Kev McCurdy; Props Supervisors Chris Marcus and Jonathan Hall for Marcus Hall Props; Associate Designer David Allen; Resident Assistant Director Josh Parr; Associate Sound Designer Iman Muhammad; Associate Lighting Designer Ayana Enomoto Hurst 

15 April – 4 June 2022

Relaxed Performance: Thursday 26 May at 11.30am 

“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.

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

Relaxed Performance: 26 May at 11.30am

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

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

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.

DIGITAL THEATRE+ PARTNERS WITH TRAFALGAR RELEASING

TO PROVIDE EDUCATION PLATFORM FOR

 MULTI-TONY AWARD WINNING AND OLIVIER NOMINATED 

ANYTHING GOES 

From 1^st June 2022, schools, universities, and educational institutions all over the world will be able to see the digital capture of Anything Goes – the hugely critically acclaimed and Olivier nominated play, which was filmed live at the Barbican in London.

Directed by Kathleen Marshall, this 5-star production of the classic musical comedy features an all-star cast led by renowned Broadway royalty Sutton Foster as Reno Sweeney, alongside Robert Lindsay (My Family), Felicity Kendal (The Good Life) and Gary Wilmot (Chicago). 

Following the worldwide cinema release by Trafalgar Releasing, Digital Theatre has acquired the musical to stream for educational institutions on Digital Theatre+, Digital Theatre’s education platform.

Now this much-loved musical will be made available to students, and this will be followed by the release of a suite of educational resources for the musical, produced by Digital Theatre+ designed to support teachers and educators in inspiring and engaging students studying. 

The collaboration is among a number of Digital Theatre+ partnerships with theatres and producers worldwide to share original content with the education sector. Educational support packages are tailored to fit each production and can include including biographies, documentaries, essays, lectures, workshops, study guides, and interviews alongside other learning aids. 

Neelay Patel, CEO of Digital Theatre+ said “We are incredibly pleased that Digital Theatre+ will now allow educational institutions to see this truly spectacular musical comedy. Anything Goes has a strong educational value, as it is the epitome of sophisticated escapist entertainment and satire. We are delighted to be able to bring what is often called the definitive 1930s musical comedy to students all over the world.

Digital Theatre+ is a global educational platform focused on the teaching of English and Performing Arts. The company works with all levels of education from age 11 up to Higher Education. Digital Theatre+ partners with the theatre industry, sharing captured and original content globally with educators and students from companies such as Frantic Assembly, Royal Shakespeare Company, Gecko, Complicite and the Lincoln Centre. DT+ works with theatre professionals to support their commitment to education, and to help instil a passion for theatre in young people that will help create the theatre goers of tomorrow.

TIM WALKER’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED

BLOODY DIFFICULT WOMEN WILL BE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DEMAND

★★★★★ Adam Boulton

★★★★★ Kevin Maguire

Wind of Change, in association with Cahoots Theatre Company, today announce on demand streaming of their critically acclaimed world premiere of Tim Walker’s Bloody Difficult Women. Following an extended run at Riverside Studios from 24 February – 2 April 2022, will be available to stream from Friday 8 April until Tuesday 3 May 2022. Early bird tickets will be available to purchase online until 15 April at £12, after which they will be available for £15 for the remainder of the streaming. Tickets will be available at www.bloodydifficultwomen.com.

‘Powerful’                                                     ‘A must-see’

Michael Billington                                       The Spectator

‘Witty and civilised but with a brutal undertow’

What’s On Stage

The production, inspired by the court case Gina Miller brought against Theresa May in 2016 and with the final climatic scene set in the present, is directed by Stephen Unwin and stars Calum Finlay (Max Guilden), Edmund Kingsley (Alan Miller), Graham Seed (Sir Hugh Rosen), Jessica Turner (Theresa May) and Andrew Woodall (Paul Dacre).

Denise Silvey, the producer, says: “Even after we extended the run of Bloody Difficult Women by popular demand, a great many people who couldn’t manage to get along asked us to stream it. We’re now delighted to share our play with a much wider online audience all over the country and beyond. We hope they will share, too, the enthusiasm that our live audiences had for this unique play and see why it has such resonance in these challenging times.”

Tim Walker, the writer, says: “Any show that is as honest about our political classes and our media as Bloody Difficult Women was always going to make powerful enemies, but it made a lot of great friends for itself, too, and played to packed and appreciative houses night after night in London. It’s a state-of-the-nation play that has a lot to say for itself, but, trust me, it will make you laugh as well as think.”

Wind of Change

in association with Cahoots Theatre Company presents

BLOODY DIFFICULT WOMEN

By Tim Walker

Cast: Amara Karan (Gina Miller), Calum Finlay (Max Guilden), Edmund Kingsley (Alan Miller), Graham Seed (Sir Hugh Rosen), Jessica Turner (Theresa May) and Andrew Woodall (Paul Dacre)

Director: Stephen Unwin; Designer: Nicky Shaw; Lighting Designer: David Howe

Sound Designer: John Leonard

“If standing up for what you believe to be right is being ‘bloody difficult’, then so be it”

Theresa May

Tim Walker’s brand-new drama sees the tumultuous political events of recent years played out in a power struggle between two determined women.

His intensely human account of the court case Mrs Miller brought against Mrs May makes for revealing and often very funny theatre, but ultimately, it’s a tragedy, where there are no winners, only losers.

Walker brings the story bang up to date in a dramatic finale which says so much about the deep divisions we still have in our country.

Hope Theatre, London – to 23 April 2022

Reviewed by Debra Stottor

4****

A group of college friends organise a reunion dinner. So far, so normal. One is busy cooking in the kitchen, three – including the ‘outsider’ Georgia (Holly McComish), recently engaged to Chris (Cameron Wilson) – are chatting in the dining room, the other is late, not replying to text messages from girlfriend Anna (Hattie Kemish) or answering his phone. Again, so far, so normal.

As the evening progresses, however, cracks appear. Dark secrets are revealed, differences of opinion surface, the self-absorbed and entirely oblivious Georgia manages to irritate pretty much everyone – and still the latecomer fails to materialise.

The dénouement is startling, all the more so as it is delivered in deadpan, matter-of-fact style by Liz (Bethany Monk-Lane). What happens next pivots the play from a relatively straightforward, well-scripted comedy drama to something altogether darker and more surreal. A difficult and life-changing decision is reached. And there are consequences.

This is where we reach the central theme of the play: justice and who gets to decide what it is. It’s also where the audience is challenged almost as much as the cast themselves. I say almost – apparently no two performances will be the same, though we don’t know to what extent, the performers given the chance to create a unique theatrical experience every night. The audience is swept up in a whirlwind of emotional twists, witnesses to a macabre turn of events – it’s compelling and disturbing, definitely not one for the faint-hearted.

Writer and co-producer Sam Smithson wrote A Good Time Was Had By All during lockdown, never expecting it to actually be performed. As he says: “The play could only exist in my head … It didn’t matter how it was going to work because, to me, it was never going to happen.” But happen it has, and the result is a play that will linger in the memory long after the journey home, a great script and an impressive ensemble cast who impress with their sharp delivery and impeccable timing.

A Good Time Was Had By All is a Not Quite Ready production, a radical theatre company founded in 2018 with the aim of producing daring new writing that “challenges the forms, narratives and content of commercial theatre” and of providing opportunities for artists at the beginning of their careers.

Hampstead Theatre – until 30 April 2022

Reviewed by Claire Roderick

3***

Robert Lindsay gets a chance to chew the scenery in Alexis Zegerman’s play about a physically failing patriarch and his fractious family.

Lindsay plays Professor Richard Myers, a leader in the field of genetic embryonic research whose physical and mental prowess is slowly and irreversibly eroding as his Parkinson’s disease progresses. Myers’ family descend on his house in a rare visit to attend the ceremony where he will be presented with a prestigious award and are shocked to see his condition. Myers is being cared for by his third wife, Megan (the wonderfully harried Alexandra Gilbreath) and her methods are called into question by controlling daughter Dot (Lisa Dillon), eventually leading to arguments about the family finances and her father’s will. Dot’s half-brothers, twins Thomas (Alex Waldmann) and Anthony (Sam Marks) are a little more reasonable than Dot with their stepmother, but friction grows. It is immediately obvious where the money has gone, following a well-worn trope of family melodramas.

Lizzie Clachan’s inspired set shows bedrooms and corridors in the brownstone house that are lit as picture frames before the play starts, drawing comparison between the happy snapshots of all the babies that Myers has delivered and the miserable relationships within his own family. The action can then switch seamlessly between the main living room set and bedrooms, allowing director Roxana Silbert to add a little pace to the meandering plot. There is a lot crammed in here – every single character has issues, and the overload may mean that you stop caring about any of them. This is a comfortable New York family with a successful and bullying father whose abrasive personality and god complex has damaged his relationships and his children. Lindsay plays his anger and frustration well, but the way the supposedly ailing character moves around the stage changing direction and using chairs easily with an occasional hand tremor thrown in does not convince, making any sympathy disappear. His bullying of his children, especially his gay artist son Thomas, and his neglect of them to further his career and legacy allows the three actors to show their emotional range as they recall their childhoods, but this is nothing we haven’t seen before. There are some wonderfully observed moments and truths about caring for a sick loved one and the trauma of parenting a sick child, and these shine like nuggets of gold amongst the overwrought family dynamics.

The Fever Syndrome of the title is the rare genetic mutation that Lily, Dot’s daughter, has, with her increasingly serious seizures following the trajectory of the mounting tension as both her body and her family attacks itself. Dot’s panic over the money is explained, but there is no resolution. Bo Poraj and Jake Fairbrother are the outsiders visiting with their respective partners, Dot and Thomas, and both are in the firing line as the entire Myers clan attack their weak spots too. The ridiculous final scene is essentially a monologue from the professor – this is delivered skilfully by Lindsay, but rings hollow after all the previous drama.

An exceptional cast does their utmost with the lengthy script in this play that tries a little too hard to include as many plot points as possible. Sit back and enjoy the performances

New Victoria Theatre, Woking – until 10th April 2022

Reviewed by Elaine Bateman

4****

We went to see Billionaire Boy with our two boys aged 11 and 13. The show really portrays the story written by David Walliams.

Our boys favourite characters were Joe, played by Matthew Gordon and Bob played by Jake Lomas. They said they were funny and kind. My personal favourite was Mrs Trafe played by Emma Matthews she was so animated and funny with a fantastic voice. We were amazed how quickly the cast changed between scenes too! There were a lot of very funny parts in the show and some of the younger children in the audience were laughing out loud. There was also some audience participation which I love. All the cast are extremely talented and played their parts exceptionally. The show would appeal to all ages.

A real feel good show with a good moral that money can’t buy you everything. I would thoroughly recommend this show to families. If you have read the book you will love the show and if you haven’t read the book you will also love the show. Fantastic performance