Oliver!

Could there be more suitable seasonal fare? Child exploitation and abuse (with a whiff of pedophilia), robbery, murder and a hint of prostitution – perfect family entertainment!
Lionel Bart was so under-rated in his lifetime and is most remembered for this show – if only we could get revivals of Blitz!, Maggie May, Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be…..
This [...]

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The Full Monty

This is the musical of the film. The story was relocated from Sheffield to Buffalo NY for a Broadway audience, which is pointless (particularly when you export it back it to the UK) - Billy Elliott, with its 80’s social history and almost impenetrable Geordie accents,  has been hugely successful on Broadway without any such compromises.
The story remains intact but somehow it’s [...]

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Rope

Patrick Hamilton’s 80-year-old psychological thriller (subsequently filmed by Hitchcock no less) is more of a why-did-they-do-it than a who-done-it. Unfortunately, the story of two young men’s Nietzschean motiveless murder of another has become less plausible and the characters have become caricatures. This seems to have turned it into more of a black comedy than a thriller.
However, it could hardly get a [...]

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The Habit of Art

This isn’t Premiere League Alan Bennett, but it’s still one of the best new plays this year.
It centres on a hypothetical meeting between poet W H Auden and musician Benjamin Bitten late in their lives. Bennett, also late in his life, has lost whatever reserve he had and it’s his raciest play, full of absolutely [...]

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Nation

It’s such a shame the critics have virtually buried this, because it’s a lot better than they maintain.
The staging and design matches previous NT Christmas hits His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse. Tsunami’s, shipwrecks and underwater diving are all thrillingly created in highly effective and mostly low-tech ways. The music and choreography both compliment the action. [...]

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Cock

I’m not sure why it’s called that, unless it’s to mislead, court controversy or make box office callers blush!
The Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs has been turned into a bear pit, with seating in the round on three rows, which makes for a voyeuristic and intense experience for both actors and audience. There are no props, [...]

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A Christmas Carol in Wormwood Scrubs prison

This was my third spell in prison! The first was a thrilling Guys & Dolls in Wandsworth with the prisoners as the guys and Pimlico Opera ladies as the gals. The second was Beckett scenes in Brixton with the National Theatre, where the prisoners and visitors sat together captivated . This one is an initiative [...]

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Jiggery Pokery

Amanda Lawrence was one of the highlights of Kneehigh’s ‘Brief Encounter’, as she has been in other shows by this innovative Cornish company, so it didn’t take much to persuade me to see her solo show.
Her extraordinary likeness to Carry On’s Charles Hawtrey is merely the starting point for this solo tour de force where she [...]

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

This play starts with the longest nag in stage history, so 30 minutes in you’re just willing Maggie off the stage! This slows down the process of getting into the play, but things pick up when Brick begins to bite back and other characters arrive.
Much of the second act is a two-hander between Big Daddy and [...]

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The Priory

It’s called this because it’s set in a rented house which used to be a priory, not because it’s set in the rehab centre of the same name - even though the Royal Court audience often contains many who look like they have been or will be going there!
At first, it seems a contemporary spin on the [...]

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