Broadway on Tap
42nd Street
by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer
HEOS Musical Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 1st April
Review by Vince Francis
The musical 42nd Street comes from a long line of adaptations from literature in all its varied forms, think West Side Story (inter alia) and Shakespeare, Guys & Dolls and Damon Runyon, even Madama Butterfly and Pierre Loti. This example was originally written in 1932 as a “scandalous potboiler” of a novel, by Bradford Ropes, a perhaps relatively unknown novelist and screenwriter, but one with a fairly impressive string of novels and films to his name. The Amazon blurb tells us the novel reveals;
“ … the needy, seedy, slangy side of that grimy gulch called Broadway, once upon a time, a twisted comic valentine to musical comedy and to every one of the human vices. It’s Valley of Dolls decades before Valley of the Dolls.”
Read more…Relay Race
Gone Too Far
by Bola Agbaje
National Youth Theatre Rep Company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, until 1st April
Review by Eleanor Lewis
An errand to the corner shop to buy milk and a scrambled journey through the rest of that day’s events on a housing estate in Peckham don’t immediately scream Entertaining Plot Line with Wide Ranging Cultural Education and Lots of Comedy, but that is the basis of Bola Agbaje’s excellent play Gone Too Far, and it works a treat.
Two brothers are dispatched by their irritated mother (Jessica Enemokwu) to fetch milk and while on this mission they encounter a kaleidoscope of racism, confusion, resentment and rage amounting to a general struggle for identity and validation everywhere they look. Issues pop up at every turn: social media’s current fave, the white, middle-aged ‘Karen’ appears, wearing her assumptions on her sleeve; the Police make recognisable fools of themselves; the local gang leader occupies a fatherly role, giving thoughtful lessons in respecting each other, but sells drugs to anyone who’ll buy, including the pitifully vulnerable.
Read more…Rich, Wry and Relevant
Force of Habit
by Roz Wyllie
Kibo Productions, in partnership with Solace Women’s Aid, at the Barons Court Theatre until 1st April
Review by Gill Martin
‘There should be a siren when love starts to leave,’ laments the rueful Martha, ‘but it’s not like that. It’s a daily creep.’ That’s the plaintive line that sums up a love story that ends not with a bang but a whimper.
Kibo Productions opens its first show of the year with Force of Habit, directed by Leo Bacica, a bittersweet romantic comedy, that is rich, wry and relevant.
We, the audience in the very intimate space of a fifty-seat theatre below the bustling Curtain’s Up pub in Baron’s Court, West London, witness the passion and the pangs as two actors break the fourth wall to share their lives.
Read more…Tomorrow, Today
Young Writer’s Festival 2023
Arts Richmond at The Exchange Theatre, Twickenham, 26th March
Review by Heather Moulson
The Young Writer’s Festival, showcasing the best of poetry and prose from the authors of tomorrow never fails to amaze with the quality of the creativity of young minds. The event is the highpoint of Arts Richmond’s yearly competition to encourage writing by children and teens. There was an impressive turnout for this annual celebration of young talent, and we were treated to a promising line-up of readers all clad in black, and all with a solid theatrical background, an interesting variety of ages and talent.
Read more…Death in Bruges
The Dead City (Die tote Stadt)
by Erich Korngold, libretto by Paul Schott
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 8th April
Review by Patrick Shorrock
It is always wonderful to see an opera company operating at the height of its powers. This new production of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt from ENO blazes with the conviction that this opera deserves the very best an opera company can give it. This brilliant production – both musically and theatrically – is very much proof that ENO is not an opera company on its last legs, despite its brutal treatment (and temporary reprieve) by the Arts Council.
Read more…Cutting Edge Drama
The Gut Girls
by Sarah Daniels
The Questors Student Group at The Studio, Questors Theatre, Ealing until 1st April
Review by Michelle Hood
“Offal by name, and awful by nature” shouts one of the five young women working in a slaughterhouse, at the beginning of Sarah Daniels’ 1988 play The Gut Girls at The Studio in the Questors Theatre, Ealing. We are back in 1897, in the Deptford Foreign Cattle Market, where five women toil thirteen hours a day slaughtering, cleaning and cutting-up cows, pigs and sheep.
The play provides a glimpse into the gruesome bloody world of slaughtering, and introduces us to the bawdy beer-swilling women working there – a grisly reminder of the macabre jobs of yesteryear. But the real impact of the play is what happens to these women when a curb is introduced on imported animals, which means the slaughterhouse has to close. We then follow the blood, guts and tears of these bawdy hard-working women as they search for new roles, given the stigma of working in the slaughterhouse, a position in society barely above the status of whores and charlatans.
Read more…In Two Minds
Jekyll & Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Maggiemarie Casto
Maggiemarie Productions at OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 25th March
Review by Heather Moulson
A stark set, predominately dark, and the original characters of Utterson and Lanyon express concern about a menacing stranger, and about murders. A lot of material is covered by the time Jekyll comes on. Jekyll & Hyde looks to be an interesting interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s terrifying novella, The Strange Case of DrJekyll and Mr Hyde. The simple set is designed by Karl Chaundy, with Patrick Richards as the thoughtful lighting designer.
Read more…Sororal Sorcery
Wyrd Sisters
by Stephen Briggs, adapted from the novel by Terry Pratchett
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 25th March
Review by Steve Mackrell
“When shall we three meet again? Well, I can make next Tuesday”. That kind of sums up this collision between the fantasy world of Terry Pratchett’s vivid imagination and the collected works of Shakespeare, in a play that revolves around the story of – well, I’ve got to say it – (ouch) Macbeth!
Wyrd Sisters is a 1988 cult novel written by Terry Pratchett, as part of his Discworld series, and adapted into a stage play in 1996 by Stephen Briggs. This production by the Richmond Shakespeare Society, at Twickenham’s Mary Wallace Theatre, certainly went down well with an enthusiastic audience. Not being an aficionado of Terry Pratchett, I found it quite hard to be won over. However, given the energy of the enthusiastic company of ten actors playing multi-roles, and a comic script littered with Shakespearean asides, I found myself warming to the concept.
Read more…Ex Aspirations
Charlotte and Theodore
by Ryan Craig
Theatre Royal Bath at Richmond Theatre until 25th March, then on tour until 1st April
Review by Daniel Wain
Ryan Craig’s new play Charlotte and Theodore has echoes of Oleanna and Educating Rita, being a two-hander set in the world of academia. As it follows the changing fortunes of its protagonists (first colleagues, then lovers, then married with two kids) and their intersecting story arcs, it is perhaps most resonant of A Star is Born.
The poignant, if wryly witty, tale tracks Teddy and Lotty’s relationship through a series of flashbacks. It starts with the literally high-flying Lotty about to jet off to Chicago, leaving house-husband Teddy looking after the kids. We then skip back to their first encounter, with eager young student Lotty applying to become celebrated philosophy professor Teddy’s research assistant. Craig’s plot then traces her rise and his fall, until an epilogue which leaps back to happier times and their first date.
Read more…May We Have Some More
Oliver Jnr
by Lionel Bart
Dramacube, Esher Orange Cast at Cecil Hepworth Playhouse, Walton until 19th March
Review by Heather Moulson
At one time Oliver! was the most successful British musical, and even a junior version seemed an ambitious venture. So I was intrigued to come to the Cecil Hepworth Playhouse to see the Esher Orange cast, all in their early teens, perform their version, which will be a precursor to versions by younger casts earlier in the spring. Once again Dramacube did not disappoint.
Mark Aspen 