Emotional Striptease
Beginning
by David Eldridge
Putney Arts Company at Putney Arts Theatre Studio until 18th May
Review by Harry Zimmerman
Laura’s thrown a housewarming party at her new flat. Danny is the last man standing. It’s meant to be, isn’t it? Or is it? They are both single. They both really like each other. But can they take that final leap?
David Eldridge’s play is a poignant real-time examination of relationships, with two emotionally vulnerable people reaching out at the end of a party; a wry, funny and touching meditation on the loneliness of being single in the era of social media dating.
“I’m 38 and I’ve been sensible my whole life, Danny,” says Laura. Tonight, though, things might, just might, turn out differently ….
Read more…Cross Purposes
Jesus Christ, Superstar
music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice
Regent’s Park Theatre Company at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 18th May and then on tour until 17th August
Review by David Stephens
Regent’s Park Theatre Company’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar at New Wimbledon Theatre reimagines the iconic rock opera with a bold, concert-like aesthetic that both energises and challenges the traditional format of musical theatre. However, while this approach injects the show with vibrant energy and a unique visual style, it also introduces some limitations, particularly in the realms of emotional depth and character connection.
Read more…A Mega Hustle (6,1,4)
Sleuth
by Anthony Shaffer
Bill Kenwright Productions at Richmond Theatre until 18th May
Review by Mark Aspen
Those of us who enjoy cryptic crosswords will love Sleuth. And there is plenty of sleuthing in Anthony Shaffer’s best-known play. The mood was set on press night by being told, critically, that the cast would be “smaller than you think”. But don’t worry if you are not the cryptic sort. If you enjoy detective stories, you will love Sleuth. If you enjoy games, you will love Sleuth. Plays with plays are commonplace, but Sleuth is a whodunit within a wheredunit, within a whydundit.
Sleuth is about revenge and about the self-sustaining spiral of revenge. A cuckolded husband arranges to meet his wife’s lover, ostensibly to discuss the circumstances of a divorce, but a trap is set… then another, and another. It is a brilliantly written detective thriller, set within a psychological thriller whose dark mood darkens as the play progresses.
Read more…Owls and Howls Taunt Aunt
Awful Auntie
by David Walliams, in a stage adaptation by Neal Foster
Birmingham Stage Company at Richmond Theatre, until 12th May
Review by Heather Moulson
A young girl’s bedroom forms the deceptively simple setting, where the (quite literally) awful Aunt Alberta makes an effervescent entrance in her splendid tartan suit. There is no messing around with Auntie, she makes her motives clear from the start.
Neal Foster, who has a natural gift of comedy, plays the eponymous harridan, Aunt Alberta, the flamboyant focus of this stage version of the children’s book Awful Auntie from the pen of one of Britain’s best-known comedians. Foster is also the adaptor and co-director, an ambitious task carried out skilfully and successfully.
Read more…Solitude Sometimes Is
The Slaves of Solitude
by Simon Roberts, adapted from the novel by Patrick Hamilton
The Questors at the Questors Studio, Ealing until 11th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
There’s nothing in the shops, people keep asking if your journey is essential, people with unpleasant political opinions just can’t keep quiet, and the Prime Minister’s voice is everywhere. Thankfully we’re not back in lockdown. Rather, the Studio at Ealing’s Questors Theatre is whisking us away to the beer-sodden wartime world of Patrick Hamilton’s novel The Slaves of Solitude, courtesy of a new adaptation by Simon Roberts.
In 1943, the fictional commuter town of Thames Lockdon, spinster Enid Roach endures a miserable winter at the Rosamund Tea Rooms, among a motley cross-generational assortment of people displaced by the war. She has a half-hearted romance with an American GI who takes his meals at the boarding house, enjoys a fractious friendship with her rival Vicki Kugelmann, and clashes with the pompous Mr Thwaites.
Read more…Caught Courting
Consent
by Nina Raine
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 4th May
Review by Heather Moulson
Against a traditional court-panelled backdrop, a party of four close friends celebrate the arrival of a new baby. Kitty and Edward’s union appears watertight, while Jake and Rachel’s partnership is brittle.
Read more…Heaven Scent
The Lovely Bones
by Bryony Lavery, after the novel by Alice Sebold
Putney Theatre Company at Putney Arts Theatre until 27th April
Review by Denis Valentine
It is always a challenge for a show that has been adapted from not only an award-winning book but also a film to stand comparison. What the Putney Theatre Company has accomplished here with The Lovely Bones is nothing short of a triumph and fully deserves to be recognised as a top tier piece of theatre.
Read more…You Can Run, but You Can’t Ides
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 4th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s more political plays, and its themes of the perils of populism and corruption make it particularly resonant in our own charged political age. On the Judi Dench Playhouse stage, a young student falls asleep while reading and apparently dreams a five act tragedy.
From Alex Marker’s stark set design adorned with two marble benches, to the militaristic costumes designed by Carla Evans, Caesar’s Rome is unmistakably fascist, as its elite stride around in medal-laden uniforms, and faceless police officers beat and abduct protestors on the street. Caesar himself is played with great relish by Max Fisher and comes across as a mixture of Mussolini, Don Corleone, and Juan Peron. It hopefully shouldn’t be a spoiler to note that the actor playing Caesar needs to get a strong performance in early, and Fisher delivers a portrayal large enough to cast a long shadow over the events of the second half.
Read more…Pink Power
Legally Blonde, the Musical
by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach, based on the novel by Amanda Brown
TOPS Theatre Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre, until 27th April
Review by Polly Davies
I enjoyed the film of Legally Blonde. It didn’t strike me as an obvious choice for a light-hearted funny musical, but I have been converted by the TOPS production of the Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin musical at Hampton Hill Theatre. This convinced me that I was wrong. A light, fluffy and funny musical wrapped around a life affirming message to be true to yourself. It worked at all levels. The band was good, the dancing was great, the funny bits were funny, and the message wasn’t lost. It was a fun evening. And the costume designer Lynn Hume really deserves a shoutout. With so much story to cram into two acts the audience needs to know whom we are dealing with, and the costumes were just right.
Read more…Trip of a Lifetime Goes with a Bang
Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical
by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell
Adama Entertainment and associates at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking until 27th April, then on tour until 26th October
Review by Mark Aspen
Rat-ta-tat-tat! The startling opening of Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical, as the proscenium is sprayed with machine-gun bullets, overwhelming with its noise and disorientating strobe flashes, is a self-inflicted spoiler. It goes straight to the climax, the violent deaths on 23rd May 1934 of a notorious, yet celebrated pair of murderous lovers. Nevertheless, this works superbly dramatically, notching up the intensity and the inevitability of the tragic tale. After all, most of audience will know the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow through the acclaimed, but controversial, 1967 film.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 