tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10386344140961444382012-01-31T04:22:16.135+01:00I'm a young(ish) Londoner with an enduring passion for all things theatrical. You'll find me at the theatre most nights; in the West End, London Fringe and the regions.Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.comBlogger1321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-61074353016172819862008-03-13T13:31:00.000+01:002008-03-13T13:32:11.006+01:00

After an exciting production of Saint Joan in 2007 (which has just won the Olivier for best revival), the National gives Shaw another try with Nicholas Hytner’s more conventional staging of his 1905 play Major Barbara, also in the large and open Olivier Theatre. Essentially this is a three act dialectical exercise exploring the morality of money and religion (with weapons manufacture and supply

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-74369003829496031632008-01-28T02:22:00.000+01:002008-01-28T02:33:13.874+01:00

Yes, I’ve seen the Vertical Hour, and I’ll post about it soon. In short I thought it simplistic and reductive, with the second act being much more bearable (less political, though there were moments), though the first act sent me to sleep. I’m just not a fan of Sir David Hare of late, I think he is smug and pretentious, plus taking the easy route and preaching to the converted. Also, in this

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-84426351223760035952008-01-28T02:20:00.000+01:002008-01-28T02:22:15.570+01:00

Round UpHere is a quick round up of some of the other things I’ve been to seen of late.Much Ado About Nothing, OlivierA very decent traditional production by Nicholas Hytner without any gimmick or clever device, just two powerful central performers (Simon Russell Beal and Zoë Wannamaker as Benedick and Beatrice) giving enthralling and intelligent performances, on which the whole of the rest of

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com315tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-3741055925901889332008-01-28T01:36:00.000+01:002008-01-29T13:56:17.696+01:00

SondheimI’m a great admire of the work of Stephen Sondheim, his output is extraordinary and varied, and his musicals are amongst my favourite (and inspire devotion, bordering on obsession, in many people). Sondheim’s shows are effortlessly witty and far more intelligent than your average musical theatre fare, he has also written in a dizzying array of styles and created some truly groundbreaking

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-54490700101092321782008-01-17T23:41:00.000+01:002008-01-18T02:51:02.012+01:00

Blogging What is the use of the blog? What am I using the web for, and how have (and how will) our social interactions be changed by the net? These questions have been in my mind over the last few months, partially due to circumstances leaving me less time to write for my blog (or no time really), and partly because I am a longstanding social networking refusnik with a mixed attitude towards the

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-28477245795619433092008-01-17T22:17:00.000+01:002008-01-17T22:18:35.666+01:00

La Cage Aux Folles at Southwark’s intimate Menier Chocolate Factory, is probably the most infectiously joyous musical production I have seen on the London stage since Trevor Nunn’s 2002 revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. This 1983 Tony Award winning Broadway hit, with a book by Harvey Fierstein (himself and actor and Tony Award winner) and lyrics and music by Jerry Herman, is given a rip

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-11588846449462189322007-11-28T01:26:00.001+01:002007-11-28T01:28:24.157+01:00

Arriving in the West End after several successful years on Broadway (it was the 2003 Tony Award winner, and is still running) and a film version, this musical is itself a based on the cult 1988 John Waters film of the same name. I have to say that I enjoyed the original (non musical) film, but the film musical was a little too bland for my tastes (general early 60’s pop tunes that won’t scare

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50876214651685425512007-11-26T01:38:00.000+01:002007-11-28T01:28:56.355+01:00

Sweet William, ArcolaAfter engagements in some of the more genteel regions of these Isles, Michael Pennington brings his one man conversation piece to the somewhat unlikely setting of the Arcola in Dalston (and it will play the Trafalgar Studios in February next year), hitherto known for rather more cutting edge work. This is a very worthwhile and interesting evening of somewhat gentle amusement,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-30233009000035249932007-11-26T01:25:00.000+01:002007-11-26T01:48:16.271+01:00

Round UpDue to my busy life (i.e. constant theatre going, film watching, exhibition attending and exhausted reading at inappropriate night time hours), and circumstances relating to my pecuniary needs combined with software integration problems (i.e. having to earn some money and buy a new computer, a ‘refurbished’ laptop which I’m not very happy with, for many laptop related reasons), I’ve not

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50895092743844330152007-10-23T17:58:00.001+01:002007-10-23T17:58:41.886+01:00

Warhorse is probably the most emotionally affecting production currently gracing the London stage, but it is neither exploitative nor melodramatic, traits which can sometimes transform ‘emotion’ into a cloying and fake sentiment when presented on the stage.I was sceptical, as one not particularly inclined towards animals (but certainly not hateful towards them either), that this classic children

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-83389641199152078972007-10-23T15:44:00.000+01:002007-10-23T15:45:36.809+01:00

Sadly my computer died the week before last, taking all my photographs and files with it (no, I didn’t back anything up). Well, it was created in the last century, so the machine had a relatively good innings.Anyway, I’m stumbling along without a computer for the moment, but a ‘reconditioned’ laptop is somewhere in the postal system on its way to me (the spec is actually inferior to my nearly

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-67560249332598520742007-10-10T08:04:00.000+01:002007-10-16T01:50:09.304+01:00

Despite expectation of intellectual nourishment and considerable emotional power (as widely reported by the newspaper critics), Shadowlands (Whyndhams) left me rather cold.Firstly, I’m no expert on CS Lewis, and don’t know much about his work beyond the Narnia books and his profound faith. So the story of his late romance with an American divorcee was probably less interesting to me than a more

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-82780958032107749542007-10-10T07:23:00.000+01:002007-10-16T02:14:02.234+01:00

To the Hampstead Theatre and the latest verbatim play from Robin Soans, Life After Scandal. This time he’s interviews several well know (and some rather more obscure, their infamy faded with time) ‘victims’ of scandal, and gives us an insight into how this notoriety has changed their lives. And it really is a mixed bag; the Hamilton’s are probably doing much better now then they every would have

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-30269095905816492212007-10-10T06:11:00.000+01:002007-10-10T06:13:02.164+01:00

Some ramblings (or hate filled communist rant depending on your inclination towards protecting ‘the youngsters’) on the whole Masque of the Red Death debacle (see my review a few posts below).Andrew Haydon wrote the following, in response to things I said on a Guardian message board:I'm deliberately not doing this on the Guardian blog thread where the same discussion has kicked off, but I'm

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-38852719245386849282007-10-06T01:34:00.000+01:002007-10-06T01:35:39.854+01:00

Rough Crossings at the Lyric Hammersmith is an ambitious and important new play, addressing the subject of slavery and the attitude of both white paternalists and the strong voices of black enfranchisement. Based on a book by Professor Simon Schama (a television historian and Columbia University academic) and adapted for the stage by Caryl Phillips, Rough Crossings tells the fascinating true

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-27439491258067835642007-10-05T04:14:00.000+01:002007-10-05T14:33:44.356+01:00

I arrived at the Battersea Arts Centre with the hype surrounding punchdrunk and their co-production with the BAC, The Masque of the Red Death, in the back of my mind. Was this really going to be the hottest ticket of the year? Well maybe, but that doesn’t mean I’d necessarily like it (and indeed much of the run was sold out before the production opened).An immersion experience, like the two

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-86666736194211934532007-10-03T00:19:00.000+01:002007-10-10T08:25:16.879+01:00

UPDATE, 10/10/07: Wow, what a journey the Ring was! Exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure (16 hours of music). When Siegfried died in Gotterdammerung last night I was nearly blown away by the music. Sir John’s Wotan was also exceptional. I do have some quibbles with Warner’s staging, particularly his rather eclectic choices of scenery (are we Victorian or 21st Century?) and dropping of

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-4146588312107590742007-10-02T02:20:00.000+01:002007-10-02T02:21:06.329+01:00

Can there be more exceptional musical production on the London stage at the moment, than Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry’s (book) 1998 Broadway flop Parade, seen here in an superb staging at the intimate Donmar Warehouse by choreographer turned director Rob Ashford (who actually appeared in the short lived Broadway production at the Lincoln Centre)? Apparently the show has

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50099126095853079562007-10-01T16:28:00.000+01:002007-10-01T16:31:06.678+01:00

Today I’ve had a colourful card through the post from the lovely people at See Tickets advertising the forthcoming production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The eye catching package introduces some of the principal cast and includes a sampler CD containing 3 songs (sung by the Broadway cast). The fourth track is a chat between Mel Smith and Michael Ball (Playing Mr and Mrs Turnblad

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-7861623587166196492007-10-01T01:31:00.000+01:002007-10-01T01:33:49.381+01:00

Despite being as familiar and formulaic as an episode of Friends or a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup, I Love You Because, at the Landor Theatre (a modestly sized pub theatre, with big musical theatre aspirations), is actually rather sweet and intermittently enjoyable, though not exactly memorable. It is the archetypal 21st century Off Broadway light romantic musical (Ryan Cunningham, book and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-18085839938926947752007-09-30T04:35:00.000+01:002007-09-30T04:38:17.196+01:00

Liverpool: Centre of the Creative Universe?Firstly let me declare that I have nothing against Liverpool, I have been there (for the theatre) several times and enjoyed myself. It is not my favourite English City (as a true born Londoner I count the capital as a nation unto itself, and above all other municipalities). If I had to list my favourites, Sheffield and Manchester would be higher than

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-55801811342984624462007-09-30T03:37:00.000+01:002007-09-30T03:39:00.764+01:00

After a consciously modern production of Etherege’s The Man of Mode at the National earlier this year, Jonathan Kent’s new venture at the Haymarket (the ambitious, some would say foolhardy, Theatre Royal Haymarket Company, with three shows announced over the coming year), opens with a rather muddled production of William Wycherley’s 1675 comedy The Country Wife. There are several problem with

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-7342002052437414232007-09-30T02:08:00.000+01:002007-09-30T02:11:12.256+01:00

The last time I saw Eugene Ionesco’s 1958/9 ‘absurdist’ play Rhinoceros, was in March 2005 courtesy of the Belfast based theatre company Kabosh. That was a brilliant production where the small audience huddled inside what was effectively a shed constructed inside of the Lyric’s rehearsal room. That production was taught and lean (at not much more than an hour), it didn’t have fancy sets,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-6811786408670556462007-09-29T01:42:00.000+01:002007-09-29T01:43:41.663+01:00

I attended a marvellous and huge Iraqi-Palestinian (mixed with Tunisian traditions) wedding held in a lavish hotel located on Tunisia’s stunning Mediterranean coast a couple of weeks ago. Tunisia is an interesting nation, a small, naturally diverse and beautiful country, it enjoys social and political stability, a relatively good economy (far better than other North African nations, and I didn’t

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-4429128475108180572007-09-28T05:21:00.000+01:002007-09-28T05:25:36.301+01:00

Some varied thoughts on some of my other cultural activities in the last few weeks (and more in the case of cinema).The Terracotta ArmyThe First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army, to give the exhibition its full title, is an absolute must see for anyone interested in history, art or culture in general. Probably the British Museum’s biggest blockbuster exhibition since King Tut in the 1970’s (and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-31169389207763761702007-09-28T01:51:00.000+01:002007-09-28T01:58:59.564+01:00

Some Quick Reviews, Part 2.Flight Path, Bush. Out of Joint visits the Bush (as part of a tour, of course) with a new play by David Watson, a young writer who clearly has great potential. Whilst I enjoyed the play, it is not quite a polished pearl, but it is an entertaining night out. The story of Jonathan and his chaotic life is told with real feeling and a great sense of naturalism and reality,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-79878730337469552912007-09-28T00:50:00.000+01:002007-09-28T00:53:15.691+01:00

Some Quick Reviews, Part 1.I’ve been madly distracted by life since coming back from Edinburgh a month ago, weddings, holidays, job hunting and house cleaning have taken most of my daytime attention, with the theatre taking up the evenings. So here is a round up of my thoughts on various productions, in brief (sometimes brief-ish):Twelfth Night, Chichester Festival Theatre: Patrick Stewart

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-76931632727791653892007-09-21T17:49:00.000+01:002007-09-21T17:55:39.871+01:00

Is it compulsory to like all new pieces by Complicite? It did feel a little bit like that as I left the Barbican Theatre having watched the companies’ latest play, A Disappearing Number. The crowds around me were loudly showing their approval for the show, but more on the cleverness and general importance of the company than on the merits of this particular piece it seemed (‘aren’t they clever!

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-1201483355406320962007-09-21T16:14:00.001+01:002007-09-21T17:07:38.871+01:00

I was slightly disappointed on my first acquaintance with Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets at the Almeida Theatre. I’d heard so much about the play and its importance in the American cannon (precursor to Miller, social realism and politics combined etc), but although I think it is decent piece, it certainly does show its age (especially compared to many a Miller play or even the recently revived

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-40508921642453792642007-09-21T15:48:00.000+01:002007-09-21T15:49:54.051+01:00

Kevin Spacey’s reign at the Old Vic has not been universally successful, and I was dubious as to the merits of adaptation of a tricky Almodovar film. Firstly, how could the Spanish-ness of the film, All About My Mother, be captured on the most venerable of British stages? Secondly, how could such a visually arresting and cinematic entity be transferred to the stage at all? Most importantly

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-55983363625299843032007-09-02T00:39:00.001+01:002007-09-02T00:39:56.566+01:00

I’m at a loss as to why Bad Girls the Musical, actually a flaccid excuse for a musical, came to be performed on the professional stage (it originated at the West Yorkshire Playhouse), let alone in the West End (and cluttering up a playhouse, the Garrick, too).The woeful derivative music (sub pop, thin and electric sounding) is bad enough, but the pointless plot and central casting characters

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-48903893518766268622007-08-29T00:15:00.000+01:002007-09-21T17:57:35.544+01:00

Woyzeck. Aurora Nova.A brilliant physical realisation of Georg Buchner’s 1836 play, where the eponymous (anti)hero, a dogsbody of a soldier, kills his lover after he is turned mad by a combination of his grinding life, strange medical experiments and his abuse at the hands of his drum major (who sleeps with Marie, Woyzeck’s lover). I’ve seen several productions of this play (and the superb Berg

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-53132969856300532092007-08-28T22:37:00.000+01:002007-08-28T22:38:15.762+01:00

Eugene O’Neill’s play The Emperor Jones was first staged in New York in 1920, arrives at the Olivier Theatre as part of the Travelex £10 season. Thea Sharrock’s production was initially staged at Notting Hill’s tiny Gate Theatre in 2005 (when she was artistic director there), and Patterson Joseph reprises his role as the eponymous ruler of a tiny Caribbean Island. This play has immense power

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-43549254117067408662007-08-28T16:18:00.000+01:002007-08-28T16:19:56.862+01:00

Notes on EdinburghWhilst in Edinburgh I took notes after each performance, or sometimes after several, I had a very busy schedule so often notes were kept to a bare minimum. Also remember that many shows in Edinburgh do not produce a programme, and if they do it will invariably just be a list of names on a scrap of paper (except for the International Festival and many play at the Traverse where

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-11691603613808887302007-08-16T16:08:00.000+01:002007-08-16T23:05:00.058+01:00

So, after a bit of Hollywood muscle tonight (I’m seeing The Bourne Ultimatum), I’ll be off to Edinburgh first thing tomorrow morning. My Fringe starts at 4pm, with Dai (Enough) at the Pleasance, a show about the lives of people in a Tel Aviv café in the moments before a suicide bomber kills them (all the characters are portrayed by one woman). Then I have another three shows that day (including a

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-41589882753951221042007-08-16T03:34:00.000+01:002007-08-16T03:39:44.972+01:00

Spirit and Life. Ismaili Centre.Spirit and Life is a real gem of an exhibition at the home of London’s Ismaili (a branch of Islam) community, the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington. The building is very striking (I’ve been around it on pervious open days), with its clean lines and Islamic geometry but in a 1980’s modernist shell (the calm roof garden and central prayer hall take you gently away

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-89879711396743819912007-08-16T00:57:00.000+01:002007-08-16T01:38:35.510+01:00

DarattI saw the excellent Daratt at the NFT (now officially BFI Southbank). A rare film from Chad, about a boy who goes in search of a man who’d killed his father during the bitter civil war, but forms an unlikely bond (he’s after revenge, when possible war criminals were given a general amnesty by the post conflict Truth and Reconciliation Commission). The film is extraordinary, in that it

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-51555378224935855382007-08-15T23:52:00.000+01:002007-08-16T01:04:07.231+01:00

Descending, on a hot, clammy but rainy evening, to the very intimate Arcola Studio 2, in the former garment factory turned into one of London’s best theatres, is very reminiscent of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Hamlet Project, a condensed version of the great Shakespeare play, actually originated at last year’s festival, getting respectable notices.Firstly let me say that this is a great

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-45781238200230162732007-08-14T04:49:00.000+01:002007-08-14T04:51:32.511+01:00

The DomeIt was a depressing but also happy experience visiting what was formerly known as the Millennium Dome, now the O2 (don’t you just love sponsorship? I’m still calling it The Dome).Depressing because of the tacky and homogenised corporate parade of restaurants housed on the main drag, or some of the truly awful concerts planned in its various venues (but each to his own).Happy because

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-90376426363991201622007-08-14T03:53:00.000+01:002007-08-14T03:54:35.882+01:00

Whilst I admire the principal of free outdoor theatre at The Scoop (the amphitheatre next to City Hall on the South bank of the Thames), Helen of Troy is a pretty bad example. I’ve enjoyed Phil Willmott’s production at this venue over the last 5 years, but Helen of Troy seems too dumbed down, with pretensions to relevancy (American Imperialism or knife crime anyone?). You don’t need to shoehorn

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-28990922805776274282007-08-14T03:17:00.000+01:002007-08-14T03:26:54.810+01:00

We don’t see many of the French playwright Jean Anouilh’s works, he seems to be quite out of fashion at the moment. The Waltz of the Toreadors give me some reason as to why this is the case. However Anouilh’s work falls into several categories, this being one of his black comedies, so is not wholly representative of his oeuvre which includes more serious allegorical pieces and histories.

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-68802623552450787842007-08-14T02:12:00.000+01:002007-08-14T02:13:57.651+01:00

You couldn’t ask for a better traditional staging of Hobson’s Choice than this production directed by Jonathan Church at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Harold Brighouse’s 1915 play is set in Salford in the 1880’s revolves around the haughty, snobbish and arrogant Henry Horatio Hobson, a widower, father to three grown up daughters and proprietor of a shoe shop in which they all work (him far

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-73947189377866457892007-08-14T00:23:00.000+01:002007-08-14T00:29:51.401+01:00

Firstly a confession; I actually enjoyed Les Miss and Miss Saigon, and also thought a previous West End version of Martin Guerre wasn’t too bad either (but I was a teenager then!). So I must have a soft spot for grand, sweeping, lush scored musicals, which are dreadfully unfashionable and sniggered at by many intellectual theatre types (however, I don’t actually have to watch them very often).

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-12972636772320685642007-08-13T23:40:00.000+01:002007-08-13T23:41:41.992+01:00

Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre is one of the most brashly unsubtle, in-your-face, crass and cynical shows imaginable. It is probably also the cheapest looking musical currently in the West End, with production values akin to a large armature groups. When I sit down to watch such a below par, cheap and tacky money making machine, my heart cannot fail to bleed for the people for whom this is a

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-36819203262742281522007-08-02T01:35:00.000+01:002007-08-02T01:43:49.113+01:00

Absurdia at the Donmar Warehouse comprises of three short absurdist plays (although the plays may feature absurd situations they are not wholly absurdist in the philosophical sense), two dating from the 1950’s by N.F Simpson and a new work by Michael Frayn. I felt that the Simpson plays were superior to Frayn’s effort, with Simpson at least offering a few different jokes to divert us. Douglas

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-18284838064567872452007-08-01T03:09:00.000+01:002007-08-01T03:10:38.737+01:00

The Enchantment is a collectors’ item of a production. Written by Victoria Benedictsson, who is almost unknown in Britain, an obscure but apparently influential writer (to Strindberg and Ibsen in particular), The Enchantment receives its UK premier at the Cottesloe Theatre. The play was written in 1888 and premiered after her death (by suicide, also in 1888) in her native Sweden in 1910. At

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-77361973688839571902007-07-30T04:44:00.000+01:002007-07-30T04:45:44.188+01:00

Jude Kelly’s first big musical production as artistic head of the Southbank Centre is Carmen Jones, the 1943 Oscar Hammerstein (book and lyrics) re interpretation of the opera Carmen, retaining Bizet’s music with slight re-orchestrations. The Royal Festival Hall’s huge open stage now contains a South American style faded colonial street front, lampposts and rubbish bins, completed with the

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-57320636323225038892007-07-30T03:15:00.000+01:002007-07-30T03:50:58.323+01:00

After a run of successes and West End transfers (particularly the Olivier laden, Broadway bound and generally superb Sunday in the Park with George), expectations were high for the Menier Chocolate Factory’s brand new musical from Richard Maltby and David Shire. Take Flight is certainly an enjoyable show, often intelligent, and well worth seeing, but without it ever being superb, so it doesn’t

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-5981360384995673822007-07-30T00:22:00.000+01:002007-07-30T00:27:57.983+01:00

A few non theatre related thoughts:The Simpson’s MoveWhat a strange creature The Simpson’s Movie is. After 20 years on television, gaining worldwide recognition and universal praise, their arrival on the big screen (perhaps before the brand fades too much) seems just as hyped and cynical as all the other summer ‘blockbusters’ (i.e. rehashes, remakes and derivative crap). Unfortunately this

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-41859407919682911022007-07-27T06:08:00.001+01:002007-07-27T06:08:55.348+01:00

I’m sorry to say that I found The Great Theatre of the World at the Arcola a slight, portentous and pretentious piece. It’s a Spanish Golden Age play, a religious allegory on human existence meant for a Catholic feast, by Calderon de la Barca, here adapted by Adrian Mitchell and directed by ex Royal Court artistic director William Gaskill. Mitchell has brought a forced ‘ordinary’ lyricism to

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50331280955589301812007-07-27T05:33:00.000+01:002007-07-27T05:34:08.484+01:00

Watching The Seventh Seal in a brilliantly re-mastered digital print at the Curzon Soho, I could have been watching a newly minted avant garde allegory on the problems facing the world in 2007 (religious zealots and terror gripping society anyone?), but of course the imagery is so famous any cinema lover would recognise it from a mile off. The pure beauty of Ingmar Bergman’s seminal black and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-1938519389936446202007-07-27T04:53:00.000+01:002007-07-27T04:54:16.708+01:00

After my fascinating trip to the newly opened Wellcome Collection (a hotchpotch of medical, scientific and sociological artefacts amassed by a prolific collector and allied exhibitions) earlier this month, I took myself off to the equally interesting Huntarian Museum, located behind the Royal College of Surgeons imposing 1813 portico in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (and opposite that other brilliant and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-59775672757530210562007-07-27T03:40:00.001+01:002007-07-27T03:40:56.285+01:00

Attending the Gershwin’s Lady Be Good at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, on a day when torrential rain had lashed London and I had personally braved the torrents on Kingsway and Long Acre (getting soaked through, despite my sturdy brolly), I was not generally optimistic about the evening. But the rain held off, and despite slightly chilly temperatures, the show turned out to be a light as

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-28304220444563439352007-07-24T00:38:00.000+01:002007-07-24T00:39:56.613+01:00

Matthew Bourne’s muscular and sexually charged The Car Man arrives at Sadler’s Wells for a welcome summer season (to 5/8/07). I’ve long been an admirer of Bourne’s dance works, from his gay Swan Lake, and the vibrant jazz scored The Play Without Words to his striking West End choreography for My Fair Lady, but I’d not seen The Car Man before, which was premiered in 2000. A re-imagining of Bizet

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-26259041729958572302007-07-23T23:43:00.000+01:002007-07-23T23:46:50.416+01:00

Calling (Old Red Lion Theatre) is a promising debut full length play by Debora Espect, a three hander set in a modern day mental hospital. It’s a pleasingly simple affair with one patient, Rebecca, a motor mouthed ‘chav’, firm friends with the more obviously deluded David who thought his mother was Satan and tried to kill her, and the geeky introverted Scott, mourning for a ‘girlfriend’ he never

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-38160752116575127692007-07-23T22:23:00.000+01:002007-07-23T22:31:04.526+01:00

The Finborough Theatre, an admirably programmed studio space above the Finborough (Arms) pub in Earl’s Court, continues to dust off forgotten gems from theatrical obscurity, resurrecting playwrights who haven’t been heard of much outside academia for generations.Their latest production is Ours, by the Victorian dramatist T.W Robertson, who was a pioneer of naturalism in the theatre (and partly

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-20595534949274651052007-07-23T16:53:00.000+01:002007-07-23T16:54:26.428+01:00

The delightful West End Whingers (the delightful part is supposition, as I’ve never actually meet them) are very interested in the use of food onstage, and often fascinate us with their descriptions and worries about it (is it is real, whether it is genuinely eaten etc).Well, after the cake business at The Hothouse (a cake is sliced in two by a sword and eaten like a huge sandwich, only a few

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-66026533294656262872007-07-22T02:02:00.000+01:002007-07-22T02:19:12.426+01:00

Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre) is the first play by the London based Iraqi scientist/academic Hassan Abdulrazzak, which ultimately gives short shrift to the American presence in his native land. This play uses several styles (first person and third person perspectives, and flashbacks amongst them), which mainly work because of artistic director Lisa Goldman’s well executed production on a

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-18666358033893767172007-07-21T02:40:00.000+01:002007-07-21T14:10:19.899+01:00

HairsprayLondon (specifically the theatrical graveyard that is the Shaftesbury Theatre) gets the 2003 Tony Award winning Broadway musical version of John Water’s 1988 cult film Hairspray, in October (starring Michael Ball in drag no less. Beware the mad women, reportedly fans, who will be in attendance nightly). But the world has got the film version of the musical of the film (if you see what I

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-28094626688517313482007-07-21T01:59:00.000+01:002007-07-21T02:00:49.132+01:00

Here are my top tips for the coming weeks in the mainstream theatre (all stuff I’ve seen, no sage predictions!). Due to short runs this only really covers the mainstream theatre, mostly in London.Elling, Trafalgar Studios. Surprisingly delightful comedy about mental illness, starring John Simm.Pygmalion, Theatre Royal Bath then touring. Wonderfully funny classic play directed by Sir Peter Hall

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-90249610637278471682007-07-21T01:46:00.000+01:002007-07-21T01:50:10.833+01:00

Owen McCafferty’s 1997 play Mojo Mickybo is set during a hot Belfast summer in the early 1970’s, where two boys’ innocent friendship is eventually soured by the growing troubles. The two hander gets a lovely production at the intimate Trafalgar Studio 2 (and at the Arcola before that) directed by Jonathan Humphreys and starring Martin Brody and Benjamin Davies as the title characters (plus a

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-16934505584165692562007-07-20T16:03:00.000+01:002007-07-20T16:22:18.141+01:00

I’ve been lucky enough to see a few excellent exhibitions lately (and one not so good one), which I describe below:Wellcome CollectionFirstly I went to the newly opened Wellcome Collection on the Euston Road. Set up by the Wellcome Trust (a medical and scientific charity funding research into all sorts of interesting and complex projects), to display their huge collection of artefacts brought

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-59791876411611946712007-07-20T02:14:00.001+01:002007-07-20T02:14:49.414+01:00

Harold Pinter’s rarely performed 1958 play The Hothouse, is a brilliantly unsettling comic gem. The wide Lyttleton stage is filled with an industrial scale set consisting of a dilapidated office replete with dowdy late 1950’s furniture, an eerie white tiled stairwell and a soundproofed room above, perfectly conjured by designer Hildegard Bechtler. Ian Rickson, in his first job after leaving

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-74002485257366657532007-07-19T16:52:00.000+01:002007-07-19T17:00:42.099+01:00

David Storey’s 1969 play In Celebration (Duke of York’s) brings us firmly into an England that is thoroughly different to today’s society, but strangely recognisable too. Storey was brought up in a mining family in the North, and this familiar background is also the setting for his play. The Shaw family are coming together to celebrate Mrs Shaw’s 60th Birthday (and 40 years of marriage

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-64449640161530852182007-07-19T16:29:00.000+01:002007-07-19T16:30:20.296+01:00

Lord Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat arrives at the Adelphi Theatre (replacing Lloyd Webber’s own Evita), with a huge critic-proof box office advance and much hype, all due to the hit BBC1 programme ‘Any Dream will Do’, where the public got the chance to cast the title role. The winner, Lee Mead, was greeted with ecstatic applause and screams when he first appeared,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-41792020632206449982007-07-18T17:15:00.000+01:002007-07-18T17:16:52.381+01:00

Sir Peter Hall once again returns to one of his favourite playwrights, George Bernard Shaw, whom he has championed for many years (and in doing so given us some superb productions of his plays). Of course we have also seen another Shaw recently, the startlingly relevant Saint Joan in a wonderful production by Marianne Elliott at the National Theatre. Here at the Theatre Royal in Bath, Sir Peter

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50955324833580241722007-07-17T17:15:00.000+01:002007-07-17T17:29:11.015+01:00

Little Nell at the Theatre Royal Bath, is a curious play. Written by Simon Gary and inspire by Claire Tomalin’s book on the subject, the play explores Charles Dickens’s relationship with Nelly Ternan, or Little Nell (nothing to do with the other, fictional Little Nell). Dickens meets his future mistress at the age of 45 when she was only 18, part of a theatrical family performing in a play he

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-49746376962696311442007-07-13T18:44:00.000+01:002007-07-13T18:45:45.886+01:00

Saint Joan, in a beautiful production by Marianne Elliott, fills the Olivier Theatre with self-possessed style and composure. It’s not that this is a showy or consciously big production (that goes for the acting too), just that the concept, performances and execution of the piece are so good, everyone in the huge auditorium can’t help but being captivated by it (or they seemed to be when I went)

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-89212970296787174482007-07-13T16:42:00.000+01:002007-07-13T16:43:04.503+01:00

The full galaxy of British screen talent is once again assembles, no not for James Bond, this time for the fifth instalment of the Harry Potter saga. I’ve always enjoyed the films, from the rather wooden first attempt, through to this latest episode, where the acting is much more grown up. Indeed, Harry is so grown up that he starts to discover… girls, and even kisses one (which produced

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-55541940074008159172007-07-12T06:09:00.000+01:002007-07-12T06:23:18.189+01:00

Cape WrathTalking of David Lynch, Channel 4’s new drama Cape Wrath (Tuesday nights C4 & E4), looks a bit Lynch lite. I saw quite a few bits and pieces lifted from the great mans oeuvre (creepy motel anyone?). Unfortunately it’s not half as good as anything Lynch has made, but it was entertaining enough. I watched the first two episodes and enjoyed the unrestrained sex, violence, angst, longing

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-53086152946311071752007-07-12T05:41:00.000+01:002007-07-12T05:46:08.813+01:00

To the Prince Charles Cinema to catch up with David Lynch’s latest film Inland Empire for the bargain price of £3.50 (not bad for over three hours entertainment).I’ve always been a fan of Lynch’s work, I particularly loved Mullholland Drive, which Inland Empire was loosely billed as a follow up too. One of the things that makes his previous work so interesting is his wonderfully stylish and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-71918647113344687752007-07-12T05:02:00.000+01:002007-07-12T05:03:00.630+01:00

Heston Blumenthal, Street PerformersWhilst in Manchester I enjoyed as much as I could of the inaugural biennial Manchester International Festival.Firstly there was a splendid festival pavilion, which was like a big white plastic tepee. Inside you could freely watch a host of musical performances; I caught some rather nice jazz and relaxed for a while. Next door to the pavilion was Heston

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-64031539047972484852007-07-12T04:23:00.000+01:002007-07-12T04:24:18.660+01:00

Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre is now 30 years old and a grande dame of the British Theatre, but it still has the ability to excite, creating some of the best theatre in the country. Greg Hersov’s production of The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is very enjoyable indeed, containing some great performances. But crucially Hersov makes The Tempest a comprehensible and enjoyable evening out,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-25795164072540275942007-07-12T03:27:00.000+01:002007-07-12T03:28:43.822+01:00

Monkey, Journey to the West is a new musical work in the form of a modernised Chinese grand opera, conceived by Chen Shi-Zeng (a NYC based Chinese director), composed by Damon Albarn of Blur fame, and with a brilliant design concept and animation by Jamie Hewlett (Albarn’s collaborator on the cartoon band, Gorillaz). The ambitious work was co-commissioned by and as the centrepiece for, the first

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-52194440568934573642007-07-12T02:29:00.000+01:002007-07-12T02:30:19.423+01:00

Sweeney Todd is a brilliant musical reintroduction to the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall, with an orchestra, ensemble and large chorus easily accommodated on the huge stage, but the space is also a curse which can make the semi-staged concert performance look cobbled together and awkward (the open stage is not designed for theatre, but concerts). I have no hesitation in praising the

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-46660735165541584612007-07-05T02:12:00.000+01:002007-07-05T02:15:18.609+01:00

The last production I saw at the London Coliseum was a brilliant revival of Britten’s Death in Venice, and the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet, now playing a short summer season with hopes of boosting the ENO's finances with some populist fare, couldn’t be more different.The Baghdad set Arabian tale, by Robert Wright and George Forrest, actually takes its musical lead from tunes by Alexander Borodin

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-28452017299300063432007-07-03T06:28:00.000+01:002007-07-03T06:32:02.389+01:00

A bit late on this one, for several good reasons:Rafta RaftaNicolas Hytner directs Rafta Rafta, Ayub Khan-Din's (East is East) adaptation of Bill Naughton's 1963 play 'All in Good Time' on an impressive set (design by Tim Hatley) faithfully recreating a northern terraced house. We meet the Dutt family; Mr Dutt’s son Atul has just married Vina, and the couple come to live in Atul’s small bedroom,

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-67823724473565743722007-07-03T05:51:00.000+01:002007-07-03T05:52:58.124+01:00

Smoking BanJust for the record, and to happily disagree with a good friend of mine; I thoroughly approve of the exemption of theatres from the smoking ban when artistically necessary.I hail the smoking ban as a superb step towards a better society, and I hate smoking. Finally liberation to visit any pub I want or sit anywhere at the local Indian restaurant. But I do think it is silly to ask

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-54664026357991959222007-07-03T05:32:00.000+01:002007-07-03T05:33:27.005+01:00

One of the highlights of my year, make that the highlight of the year, is my annual pilgrimage to the Edinburgh Festivals every August. Some of my greatest moments in the theatre have been in this beautiful and highly civilised city, from tiny fringe venues (including a lift one year) to the lofty magnificence of the Edwardian theatres; the whole city is alive with every kind of art every August

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-83601043512153534102007-07-03T03:24:00.000+01:002007-07-03T03:28:52.318+01:00

Tony Kushner’s 1990 two part epic Angels in America (part one: Millennium Approaches, part two: Perestroika), subtitled ‘A Gay Fantasia on National Themes’ no less, receives a bright production at the Lyric Hammersmith, courtesy of bold young director Daniel Kramer (Bent, Hair, Woyzeck). Kushner’s play is legendary (with a lauded NT production in 1993), but I’d never seen it either onstage or on

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-92025215331914471702007-06-26T04:17:00.000+01:002007-06-26T04:19:05.842+01:00

Gosh, everyone wants to have a go at our esteemed theatre critic fraternity don’t they? From Nick Hytner calling them dead white men, then withdrawing it, to the general position of the newspaper critics in the brave new world of the blogs, the paid critics lot is not a happy one (apart from the very fact of being paid to go to the theatre in the first place). As you may have seen from several

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-22438336524619995382007-06-26T02:58:00.000+01:002007-06-26T03:04:51.447+01:00

I ventured to the cinema (I seem to be seeing an unusually high number of films on TV and DVD lately, and not enough at the cinema) to see La Vie En Rose, and shed a tear by the end of the two hour and forty odd minute journey we (Edith and me) had gone on together. The film is a very emotional, and very satisfying telling of the story of The Sparrow’s devastatingly sad, although equally

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-48894959048461916212007-06-26T02:36:00.000+01:002007-06-26T02:38:43.680+01:00

The Pain and the Itch at the Royal Court, the latest play by the blunt American writer Bruce Norris certainly did whip up some brouhaha in the USA (it debuted in Chicago and successfully played off-Broadway), particularly in its treatment of a child actor featuring in the play, whose character is essentially (but only eventually) the moral meaning of the piece. Some people have complained that

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-18571648992793497792007-06-25T00:49:00.000+01:002007-06-25T00:50:24.584+01:00

Not far from the spectacular fantasy epic of The Lord of The Rings in Drury Lane, the Royal Opera House stages Into the Woods, Sondheim’s take on the fairytale genre in its 420 seater Linbury Studio Theatre. Here we follow Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and his beanstalk and a barren Baker and his wife on a quest that takes them into the woods so that they can live happily ever after. But of

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-19017784333049223802007-06-25T00:48:00.001+01:002007-06-25T00:48:50.857+01:00

The latest Turkish play at The Arcola, part of their Orient Express season, is Pera Palas by Sina H Unel; it’s an ambitious story combining three time frames, giving us an overview of social change in the country through three interlinked generations. Pera Palas is actually a grand European style hotel in Istanbul, popular with wealthy Western visitors, which each of the generations in our story

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-39162522641467713682007-06-25T00:47:00.000+01:002007-06-25T00:48:03.744+01:00

I enjoyed Matt Charman’s first play, A Night at the Dogs (at the Soho Theatre 2 years ago), much more than I did his second, The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, at The Cottesloe. The first play deals mostly with male protagonists in quite a laddish set up, the second is much more balanced with both sexes fully represented, and I think that Charman’s female characters are too weakly drawn and

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-38302573624960512792007-06-25T00:46:00.000+01:002007-06-25T00:47:11.772+01:00

Due to ongoing problems with my internet connection and computer over the last week, I’ve not been able to write the reviews I’ve wanted to (I had to post the LOTR review in an internet café). So instead, here are a brace of slightly truncated reviews for your delectation.NakamitsuAlthough Nakamitsu closed last weekend, I think it’s well worth a mention. The Gate Theatre in Notting Hill has

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-12141347045255372012007-06-21T18:19:00.000+01:002007-06-21T18:20:24.271+01:00

The Lord of The Rings (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), a new musical based on the JRR Tolkein books, is a strange beast, more a play with music, as the songs are mostly decorative, and certainly not the prime drivers of the convoluted plot. The show is said to have cost over £12 million to produce, and it seemed like the very model of a big brash spectacular show with all the reliable theatrical

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-59837703675325216292007-06-16T00:25:00.000+01:002007-06-16T00:29:46.660+01:00

Exclusive CultureA little post script to the Hytner/Dead Whit Males debate, especially after Nick Hytner withdrew his comments, but told critics to stop going to the theatre quite so much. And just to reiterate, that whilst I agree with a more representative media, I don’t junk people because of their age, race or experience, nor do I think directors should get into a strop when one of their

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-39773272678133472832007-06-15T23:40:00.000+01:002007-06-15T23:41:33.227+01:00

London is such a great city, partly due to the sheer variety of experiences on offer, one of those experiences being food. Walking through Southall, Chinatown, Dalston or Golders Green you feel immersed in the multicultural melting pot of the city. Happily for everyone, London’s multi ethnic mix means excellent (and often cheap) cuisine form all over the world. You really haven’t lived until

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-32774154631193932702007-06-15T05:30:00.001+01:002007-06-15T05:30:57.990+01:00

Sir Antony Sher is a superb actor, certainly one of the greatest of his generation, but he dose not live up to my high expectations in Kean at the Apollo. Jean Paul Satre’s play, a version of an earlier play by Dumas, is about the great Regency actor Edmund Kean, of whom the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously said, ‘Seeing him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning’.

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-74060166486060906752007-06-15T04:22:00.000+01:002007-06-15T04:35:03.783+01:00

Why oh why is the Old Vic reviving a lamentably awful 1939 play, Gaslight, by Patrick Hamilton? This production, by the usually dazzling playwright and director Peter Gill, must be the worst mistake at this address under Kevin Spacey’s artistic directorship. For any of you who fondly recall the film version starring Ingrid Bergman, I am reliably told that the (original) stage version is quite

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-4839476784468318012007-06-15T03:05:00.000+01:002007-06-15T03:06:21.730+01:00

After my ordeal at The Drowsy Chaperone (see review below), it was very pleasing to see an unashamedly old fashioned, un-cynical, non pseudo musical. I will even go so far as to say that watching Rodgers & Hart’s fluffy 1937 tuner, Babes in Arm at the Chichester Festival Theatre, was a joy; for joy is what great songs, memorable music and vibrant choreography spell.Martin Connor has adapted the

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-60431502578193390472007-06-15T02:13:00.000+01:002007-06-15T03:07:16.069+01:00

Director Rupert Goold’s vision and actor Patrick Stewart’s stunningly vivid acting combined to make Goold’s recent arctic production of The Tempest for the RSC one of the most memorable stagings of the play seen for many years. Goold’s latest and equally inventive production is Macbeth at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre, and it happily reunites the director with Stewart. This production is actually

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-91654371098850386242007-06-11T17:45:00.000+01:002007-06-11T17:47:03.793+01:00

The Drowsy Chaperone arrives from Broadway at The Novello, but any hint of wit or sophistication implied by the name of the theatre is not present in the show. I have to say at the outset that I disliked this show on Broadway, and I continue to dislike it here. The production is a faithful recreation of the US version, again directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, but with a new British

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-2614155121954731382007-06-06T17:33:00.000+01:002007-06-06T17:34:32.904+01:00

Harold Pinter’s 1978 play Betrayal (Donmar Warehouse), follows the triangular relationship of two old friends, Jerry and Robert, and Emma, the woman to whom Robert is married and Jerry has an affair with (Jerry also being married). The three hander (excepting the brief appearance of an Italian waiter), is a powerful exploration of the nature of love and friendship, but also the contained, even

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-50696107133218684182007-06-04T01:54:00.000+01:002007-06-04T01:55:00.441+01:00

Alaska at the Royal Court Upstairs is the thought provoking and sometimes alarming first play by DC Moore (he has chosen the very literary sounding DC rather than using his first name), a recent graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. In a taught 70 minutes, directed by Maria Alberg, we get a slice of life in modern Britain, angst, violence, intolerance and all. It is interesting

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-59573510408498237592007-06-04T00:18:00.000+01:002007-06-04T00:19:46.322+01:00

Philistines at the Lyttleton Theatre (NT), is a beautifully acted and unexpectedly moving revival of Maxim Gorky’s first play, directed by Howard Davis (also responsible for the stunning Mourning Becomes Electra at this address in 2003). When we think of naturalism and early 20th Century Russia, we think of Chekhov and country estates, but in Gorky’s play, premiered in 1902, we are in a crowded

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-21996275597875186932007-06-03T22:27:00.001+01:002007-06-03T22:30:07.056+01:00

Cymbeline is Cheek by Jowl’s second production of the year at the Barbican Theatre, following their superlative Russian production of Three Sisters last month. This is a adequate production of an inferior Shakespeare play, but the staging, on a vast open space built on top of the normal auditorium, means that much of the clarity Cheek by Jowl are know for is lost in the ether, many of the words

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1038634414096144438.post-90759860604439826022007-05-31T17:20:00.000+01:002007-05-31T17:24:11.330+01:00

Lindsay Posner’s traditional revival of Bock, Harnick and Stein’s classic 1964 Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof, lands at the Savoy, after its original run at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The story of the Jewish dairyman Tevye, his family and their little village of Anatevka in 1905 Russia, their world about to change, never fails to charm me, even if this production can be a little stilted at

Seanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17789034764982239963noreply@blogger.com1