Tag: theatre

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

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I’ve got another lovely theatre visit to tell you about this Sunday – but if you want to see it in London, you’ll need to hurry, because it is only on in London until September 7th, then it’s back out on tour around the UK.

I can’t believe there’s many people out here who don’t know the story, but in case you don’t the four Pevensie children have been evacuated to escape World War II and find themselves living in a big house, owned by a professor. In the house there is a wardrobe that leads to the land of Narnia, which the children help free from the tyranny of The White Witch, with the help of Aslan the Lion and some talking animals. This is a really neat and compact adaptation – it’s a tight two hours ten including interval, which considering the 2005 movie was two and a half hours, and the 1988 tv series which I grew up on was 6 parts and nearly three hours in total. It’s still got all the stuff you remember – Mr Tunmus, the Turkish Delight, the Beavers, Father Christmas etc – so you won’t be disappointed on that front, but short enough that children (hopefully) don’t get too fidgety*.

I wouldn’t exactly describe this as a musical, but it has got some songs – wartime inspired in the “real” world and then folky ones in Narnia. The supporting cast are playing the instruments as well as dancing and playing multiple characters so they’re a really talented group. The children near me seemed to find Maugrim (the chief of the secret police) scary, but that was the only bit that seemed to be an issue- and I think the child in question was about five. There are some great bits of stage illusion and puppetry too so it would make a great alternative to a panto if you’re near Salford at Christmas.

Honestly it really flew by and I would totally recommend it, maybe not as a first show for children but certainly as an early theatre experience. It’s got some really clever puppetry and set design to turn a stage into a magical land. I don’t even think you really need to be familiar with the original book to enjoy 5)3 show.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is at Sadlers wells until early September and then it goes back out on tour around the UK. You can find tour dates here.

*the night I was there someone had been giving out bags of popcorn and the noise was insane for the first 20 minutes or so, but there wasn’t any restlessness before the interval.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Nye

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Happy Sunday everyone and I apologise profusely for doing a theatre show two Sundays in a row, but this one only has a couple of weeks left in London (and then a run in Wales) so I’m trying to give you the best chance to get to see it if you want to!

In case you don’t know, the Nye of the title is Anuerin ‘Nye’ Bevan – who was the Health Secretary who created the NHS. The play finds him faced with death and reliving the key moments of his life. Michael Sheen is playing Nye and is turning in an amazing performance as the former miner turned union official then politician and eventually minister. Apart from Sheen and Sharon Small as his wife Jennie Lee, the rest of the cast are all playing a variety of roles as you travel through the moments in his life. I knew the rough outlines of his life story but really that’s not necessary to follow the play – once you’ve got the idea that it’s all going on inside his head (and hopefully the pyjamas are the clue to that).

I’ve put the trailer in if you want a taste, but basically this is a really clever and well put together journey through one man’s life that also outlines what healthcare provision in the UK was like before the NHS and how it was brought about and the resistance it faced. As someone who has only ever known healthcare through the NHS, it is easy to not realise what the reality was before the NHS and this really captures that. It’s 2 hours and forty minutes (including interval) but it really flies by. And you get a rendition of Get Happy (one of my favourite Judy Garland performances) to boot.

It’s on at the National until August 16 and then it moves to the Wales Millennium Centre from the 22 to 30 August.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: The Midnight Bell

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I’m back in the country and back in the theatre this weekend, and this time it’s the new Matthew Bourne show, which was in my town this week. This is great to start with, because my local theatre didn’t use to be on the touring list for him, but now it is which is a good sign. The theatre was very full on Tuesday night and stayed pretty full for the q&a with Matthew Bourne himself afterwards.

So The Midnight Bell is a series of interconnected stories, all playing out at basically the same time in and around a pub in Soho in the 1930s. It’s inspired by the novels of Patrick Hamilton, which I will admit I haven’t read but during the Q&A (and in the programme) Matthew Bourne explained that he has mixed characters from different novels together, added his own and made it all a bit less bleak than the novels are. And it’s definitely darker than some of Bourne’s other works that I’ve seen (currently standing at six of his New Adventures shows plus the latest production of Oliver! which he choreographed) and perhaps less hopeful. But it is brilliantly atmospheric – dark and seedy with beautiful dancing and acting.

I think this is the best cast of dancers that I have seen for a New Adventures show – it’s got lots of their longtime company members all doing brilliant work. There are two people for each role, so there are lots of variations on who you could see, but almost all the names were familiar to me and I was excited to see Dominic North again, as well as Liam Mower. As I said at the top, the theatre was very full on Tuesday night, although I was disappointed to hear some people grousing at the interval about the fact that there was a gay storyline and a couple of couples left. But they missed out because the second half – set a month after the first act – has even more beautiful dancing and clever and interesting resolutions to the various storylines. I liked the device of having characters miming to old songs as well – it added to what you understand of the characters and their motivations and is something different that I haven’t seen Bourne do before – in the Q&A he said he liked it because it is “on the edge of not working, which makes it exciting” and I would agree with that.

This is on tour through until the autumn – check out the New Adventures website for dates and locations, and most of them also have a Q&A night too.

Have a great Sunday.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Sondheim Shows

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I did two Stephen Sondheim shows in just over a week and I have thoughts. I mean I always have thoughts, but I particularly do this time. You may remember from my post about Old Friends (which coincidentally has just finished up a run on Broadway) that I have seen a lot of Sondheim documentaries and love a lot of his music.

The first of the duo was Here We Are, Sondheim’s final show which he was working on for about the final decade of his life. It’s based on two Luis Bunel films and is as bonkers as you might expect considering that. It’s also, as you can probably tell from the video below possibly Peak Sondheim. There were a bunch of moments where the music reminded me of other Sondheim shows, which I don’t remember ever thinking at one of his shows before. I would not suggest you pick this for your first experience of Sondheim, but if you like him you will probably enjoy this – even though it has a lot less singing than I was expecting. The production at the NT had a brilliant cast – Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rory Kinnear, Martha Plimpton, Paulo Szot and Tracie Bennett have got five Oliviers, three Tonys and an Emmy between them – and they were great. I am so glad I saw it, but I won’t be running back to see it again the way I did with Follies.

The second show was the Southwark Playhouse revival of The Frogs, which is Sondheim’s musical based on the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes from 405BC. Sondheim’s version premiered in the mid 1970s and was described as “freely adapted” from the original, and then in 2004 Nathan Lane “even more freely adapted” it to the current book and Sondheim wrote a bunch of new songs for it. The plot is that the god Dionysus and his slave Xanthius are going to Hades to bring back George Bernard Shaw to raise the standard of drama being produced. If you’ve watched the recorded version of the original Old Friends concert or the Sondheim 80th birthday concert, the song from this that you will know is Invocation and Instructions to the Audience.

And it was such a good night. The cast was great, especially the ensemble who were rotating through different roles as well as acting as a chorus and the dynamic between Kevin McHale (of Glee fame) as Xanthias and Dan Buckley as Dionysus was great. I laughed a lot and came away humming the music. I definitely liked it more than I liked Here We Are – if another production of Frogs come around in a few years time I would go and see it again, and this is the one that I would be recommending to people of the two.

From my observations the night that I saw it, there was a considerable amount of the audience who were there to see Kevin McNally, rather than because they love seeing Sondheim shows. But that’s fine. Sondheim can be a hard sell, and a plot based on an Ancient Greek comedy might also not appeal to the casual theatre goer, but this was so good and so much fun hopefully they all went away as happy as me and might give another Sondheim production a go in future. I hadn’t actually been to Southwark Playhouse since it moved to it’s current location (which is more than a decade ago so shame on me) and so I was playing seat roulette a little bit but my front row spot on one of the sides was great and you really were quite up close and personal with the cast!

Both of Here We are and The Frogs finished yesterday, so it’s already too late for you to go and see them so sorry about that. And as ever with Sondheim who knows when they will be put on again. Oh and by the way, I’m still hoping for a DVD of the National Theatre Follies…

book adjacent, not a book, theatre

Book Adjacent: Giant

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Back at the theatre this week – and I was going to say for a play rather than a musical, but then I had a bit of a look back and realised that actually I mostly write about plays (and comedians) here rather than musicals, despite the fact that I think of myself as more of a musicals person than a play one.

Giant is a dramatisation of a moment in Roald Dahl’s life in the 1980s. He’s just about to publish The Witches, but is in the middle of a storm of criticism about a review he wrote of a picture book is deemed anti-Semitic. (If you want to read the review, it’s on the Literary Review website here, it’s paywalled, but you can see one of the key points). The play creates a fictional meeting at Dahl’s house (under renovation by his new wife) between the Dahls, his British agent and a representative of his American publisher. The American is an invented character, but Tom Maschler is real – a major figure in publishing (here’s his obituary from the Guardian if you want to know more about him) who escaped Vienna as a child after the Anschluss. The aim of the meeting is to try to get Dahl to apologise, but no-one seems willing to take Dahl on directly for various reasons.

This won three Olivier awards – best play, best actor and best supporting actor – for it’s original run at the Royal Court and has now transferred into the West End for a summer run. John Lithgow’s Dahl is towering in stature but starts as a charming old man before anger transforms him but the other performances are just as strong and the play itself is all the more remarkable for the fact that it is the author’s first. It’s the first time for a long time that I’ve heard a whole audience gasp in a theatre – and in my view deserves all the plaudits it has received both at the Royal Court and now for the transfer.

Giant is at the Harold Pinter Theatre until August 2.

concerts, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Typsy

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Back at the theatre this week – this time for a one man show. And if you want to see it you’ll have to be fast because it’s a one week run and it ends tonight. Also, it was mostly sold out, so you could be out of luck anyway. But still, here I am, being timely.

Typsy is Trevor Ashley’s latest cabaret show where he’s playing Liza Minnelli – and also Judy Garland, sometimes in the same song. This isn’t limited to songs that you think of as being performed by Liza, it expands out to other musical theatre standards. There are witty lyric changes, chat at the audience between them and plenty of jokes. And I really liked that it’s not just relying on all the old Liza cliches – it’s referencing the newer stuff too – from the documentary, to the appearance on Drag Race to Michael Feinstein. It’s also got a wonderful seven piece band – including what may be the hardest working winds player I have recently seen – swapping between clarinet, two saxophones, flute and piccolo at a rate of knots.

Ashley was recently at the Menier playing Roger de Bris in their wonderful production of The Producers, and is transferring with the cast to the West End for the run this autumn (yes, I’m going again), but that was the first time I had seen him in anything. He’s an Australian and has a string of musical theatre an cabaret credits down there – and that experience really showed in this. I saw it on the first night of the one week run and it felt like he really knew what he was doing and what the plan was. There were a couple of rough edges, but they only made it feel spontaneous and unrehearsed. And the Menier is a really nice space for a show like this – intimate enough that you feel close to the action, but big enough that there’s space for a good sized band and still for a bit of dancing.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this pop up again somewhere in London – it sold very quickly when it was announced, and Liza-related shows are always popular especially when they’re done well. And this is done well.

Typsy is at the Menier Chocolate Factory until tonight, The Producers is at the Garrick Theatre from September. You can find out more about Trevor Ashley on his website

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Operation Mincemeat

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It’s Olivier Award Sunday everyone and although I have everything crossed for Simon Lipkin in the Best Actor in a Musical category for his turn as Fagin in Oliver and for Ballet Shoes in some of the other categories, I thought today was a great opportunity for me to talk about last year’s Best New Musical winner Operation Mincemeat, which I saw in the West End in mid-March.

Operation Mincemeat is a comedy musical devised by the group Split Lip, based on a deception operation carried out by British intelligence during World War Two. The Allies want to invade Sicily, but the island is swarming with Nazi troops. So they need to come up with a plan to disguise the invasion plans. There is a five person cast who all play multiple roles across the course of the show, with quick changes coming out of your ears.

This got total rave reviews when it opened – but I’ll admit that their Olivier Award performance left me more confused than enthused. Add in a complicated ticketing policy and it’s taken me a while to get around to it which is a bit of a more fool me situation because it’s so good. It’s funny and clever and it’s going to point out a few issues going on with the plan as well as highlighting some of the people that tend to get forgotten about in the history books.

I saw the new cast – because the original team have just opened the show on Broadway (press night was actually the same week that I went to see it in London) and they’re all giving cracking performances in what must be quite indimisating circumstances- given that the original cast was the four creators and the winner of the Olivier award for best supporting actor for his role in the show.

This has just extended again in London – so there’s plenty of time to go and see it – and as I said they run a range of schemes for tickets. Find the details here.

Operation Mincemeat is at the Fortune Theatre in London

Side note: I thought that this was the only West Emd Theatre I hadn’t been inside – it was previously the home to The Woman in Black for about 30 years and I don’t do horror – but then I realised that I haven’t been to the new Soho Place theatre yet so I haven’t actually completed my set yet. Still at least it’s an excuse to go and see something else…

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Dr. Strangelove

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It’s a theatre in your cinema pick this week – and I actually only saw this yesterday, but because there is a very small window to see these in cinemas I’ve bumped it straight to the top of the list.

This is the stage version of Stanley Kubrick’s movie Dr. Strangelove, with Steve Coogan in the starring role as not one, not two, not three but four different characters. If you haven’t see the original movie, it’s a political satire and very black comedy about nuclear war, when a general goes mad and orders a preemptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union and the efforts to try and stop the attack happening.

It’s been a long time since I saw the movie – when I was at uni I think – but despite the fact that this is set in the Cold War, there’s a lot about this that feels quite applicable to the world we live in today. And the staging is really well done too, with a clever use of screens to create various different things including the iconic big board in the war room. As well as Steve Coogan, this also has Giles Terera who I first saw back in Avenue Q days but has now had a long career with plenty of dramatic roles as well has his Olivier award winning performance in Hamilton.

It’s basically a really solid two and a bit hours of theatre with good performances and a clever adaptation of a movie classic. Definitely worth a look if it’s coming near you.

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: Oliver!

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In case you don’t know, Oliver! is the musical by Lionel Bart, based on Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist. It’s a while since I read the original novel, but from my memory the plot of the musical is somewhat simpler, and the character of Fagin is less evil, more sympathetic and comedic than the book. It’s a mainstay of school productions (I was in one at my primary school, the friend I went to see it with was in one at his secondary school) and the movie adaptation (it won six Oscars!) is a mainstay of Christmas television schedules. The casting of the role of Nancy for a revival of the show in 2008 was the subject of a Saturday Night TV singing contest. I don’t know how you can exist in this country without knowing at least one of the songs from this show. And this is the point where I will admit that it is not my favourite musical by any means, and that it would not usually be high on my list of shows to see. However…

And the however is that not only has this production – a sort-of transfer of one that ran in Chichester last summer – had pretty good reviews, but but it also has Simon Lipkin, who is getting the sort of rave reviews actors dream of. If that name sounds familiar that’s because he’s in that original cast of Avenue Q that I went to see in the anniversary concert in November, and then also a late night show the next night with his friend (and fellow Q star) Jon Robyns. And I’m one of the few that saw him not once, but twice in the doomed X Factor musical I Can’t Sing, which was actually way better than the length of run suggested*. That is to say, I’m a fan and so I will brave Oliver to see him giving what one reviewer called a “career defining performance”.

And I’m really glad I did. It’s absolutely cracking. It’s directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne and designed by his regular collaborator Lez Brotherston and even from our cheap seats at the back of the stalls it looked amazing. We missed a bit of action on the catwalks (can’t be sure how much unless I go and see it again from better seats, which to be fair isn’t out of the realms of possibility). The orchestrations are good, it all whips along faster than I remember it doing, and – wonder of wonder – the child actors barely annoyed me once. But Lipkin really is the star turn. You find yourself waiting for him to reappear – a Pied Piper of pickpockets, dancing and weaving his way across the stage. He’s menacing when he needs to be, but he also cares (in his way) about his gang of children. Plus he’s a man in guyliner and we all know that that’s strongly my thing in musicals. One review described him as a piratical dandy and I would go with that. Here’s the show’s section from the Royal Variety performance – if you just want a taste of Fagin, skip to 3’40…

Anyway, this is rightly selling out all over the place and has just extended until 2026. Who knows how long this original cast will last though – they’ve all been doing it since Chichester so they’re already nearly a year into their commitment at this point and it’s worth seeing – not just for Lipkin, but for Shanay Holmes as Nancy too, and Aaron Sidwell as the very evil Bill Sykes. There aren’t a lot of family musicals in the West End at the moment that aren’t based on Disney shows, so it’s good to have one that is – and if you are thinking of taking kids, the shows at the start of the week start at 7pm (rather than 7.30) so you’re out of the theatre by quarter to ten.

Have a great Sunday!

Oliver! is at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue, and booking until March 2026.

*I Can’t Sing was definitely better than the Spice Girls musical Viva Forever, which opened around the same time, lasted slightly longer, got similarly bad reviews but remains the only show I’ve ever been to where the audience didn’t know it had finished until the actors jogged back on clapping for bows.

book adjacent, theatre

Book Adjacent: Ballet Shoes

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Ballet Shoes is a new adaptation of the beloved children’s novel (and one of my favourites) by Noel Streatfeild. The book tells the story of three sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – who are adopted by an eccentric traveller who brings them home to his great niece Sylvia and her former Nanny, Nana. They live in Gum’s (Great Uncle Matthew) house in London while he is away, but after he fails to return from an expedition, their money starts to run out and the household starts to take in boarders to make ends meet. These include (fortuitously) a pair of tutors who take over the girls education when Sylvia can’t afford the school fees anymore, and a dance teacher who arranges for the girls to take classes at a theatre school. And thus begins the girls theatrical careers and another vitally needed income stream for the family.

This has been lightly modernised and a few bits of the plot have been simplified – for example the two tutors are down to one, it’s a single man with a car not a married couple and there are less plays that the girls are in – but it’s still very much the same story. Financial troubles and orphans are a staple of books from this era – for adults and children (see Miss Buncle and all the parentless girls at the Chalet School) but it’s also a found family with a sprinkling of showbiz glamour which is one of the reasons why the book still works today – and why it translates so well to the stage. There is comedy and tension and plenty of excuses for dancing and fun. It’s full of excellent performances, the set is beautiful and time just flew by. And the changes worked so well I found myself re-reading the original book this week to check that I wasn’t misremembering that it wasn’t always like that!

It’s only on for another two weeks – so if you’re in London and have a free evening it’s really worth trying to see it. I saw an understudy playing Sylvia – who was wonderful but I would happily use that as an excuse to go again and see Pearl Mackie play her, but I’m not sure I have an evening that works for it.

Ballet Shoes is at the Olivier at the National Theatre until February 22.