On paper, Hadestown really shouldn’t work. A broodingly melancholy musical based on Greek myth via modern industrial and socioeconomic concerns, with a fusion steampunk and New Orleans setting, a meandering plot and distinct lack of catchy show tunes? And yet… The packed crowd exuberantly cheered as each character came on, and their delirious delight sustained … Read more
London ticket prices, eh? At least for £395 you get to gawp at two Hollywood stars in Plaza Suite, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick on high form in a sub-par play just down the road (which is sadly not paved for most of us with precious metals). In this wildly radical, techtastic reboot … Read more
Don’t be fooled by the pink spangly costumes and cheesy grins. This gloriously written tragicomedy with sensational performances across the board is a piercing elegy to the ties that don’t just bind but suffocate down the years. Set in the ‘public front room’ of the clapped-out Blackpool Sea View motel during the sweltering summer of … Read more
Bieito has always looked for ways to challenge orthodoxy and present a new vision of an opera, but a good director’s job is to add touches to an opera that adds to it or delivers its message more strikingly rather than changing it. The first noticeable innovation in this production is that it is not … Read more
Plaza Suite just swept into town headlined by Hollywood couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, but the actual headlines have been blaring that this is the most expensive show in London history, with top-price seats fetching an eye-watering 395 smackeroos. Our own thespian royalty were out in force for Sunday’s opening gala, from David … Read more
It might just be the hottest show in heaven or hell right now as the Broadway production of Hadestown prepares to transfer to London. The show will start previews on February 10 ahead of the official opening on February 21. This week, excited fans and total newbies saw the show debut the track Wait For … Read more
Look, I don’t give one star lightly. But to charge audiences £135 for barely 70 minutes (no interval) of incompetent plotting, dire dialogue, poor characterisation and some acting that wouldn’t look out of place on a bad 1960s sitcom is enough to make the entire Theatreland give up the ghost. I must stress that certain … Read more
In a transcendent evening at the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London, the convergence of cinematic brilliance and orchestral grandeur took centre stage. The juxtaposition of a film about making it in the showbiz world opening at a legendary venue usually reserved for the most successful acts created a meta moment of sheer brilliance. Despite … Read more
Fairy tales by the brothers Grimm inspire hugely enjoyable Christmas productions at both Covent Garden theatres, and there is nothing grim about them, apart from the usual grisly ends of the wolf in Red Riding Hood and the cannibalistic witch in Hansel and Gretel. Wolf, Witch, Giant, Fairy, at the Linbury Theatre, downstairs from the … Read more
David Tennant and Cush Jumbo’s glorious interpretations of Macbeth and his wife should be the headline grabbers but it is director Max Webster whose ground-breaking production of The Bard’s great Scottish tragedy might have just changed theatre forever. It certainly blew every other Shakespeare adaptation I’ve seen this year out of the cauldron. Staring at … Read more
