The Shawshank Redemption

“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” Based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, but probably better known from the 1994 film starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, the stage adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption (written by Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, […]

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

If you’ve seen Moulin Rouge! The Musical and loved it, I’d advise you to read no further – this is not going to be pleasant. Pretty much as soon as the film came out in 2001, people were clamouring for a stage version so they could visit Baz Lurhmann’s fantastical Moulin Rouge club for real, […]

#FilmFebruary: Dear Mr Scott

Thank you for blaming the flop of your recent film, The Last Duel, on millennials. It annoyed me at the time, as you had fallen into the classic trap of confusing Gen Z for millennials (those of us in the latter group are ever so slightly older) – apparently it’s easily done, but that doesn’t make […]

#FilmFebruary: Mind the Blog’s Films To Be Buried With

I listen to a lot of list-based podcasts, consequently I’ve been trying to work out my dream meal (Off Menu), dream festival (The Line-Up), and dream pub (The Moon Under Water) for quite some time now. But as it’s #FilmFebruary, and I managed to bag a ticket for the most recent live recording of Films To […]

Dirty Dancing

“Are you having the time of your life?” Can someone remind me the name of the song that’s most associated with Dirty Dancing, as I just can’t recall it… (Says the person who tweeted the same joke before the show started, groaning all the while.) As you may have guessed, the stage version of the […]

#FilmFebruary: “We need to let go of the idea of what ‘best person for the job’ looks like in our mind”

You’ve seen the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (or one of its many cousins) knocking about for a few years now – but what’s that all about? Do you mean to say that awards ceremonies aren’t meritocracies? Basically, yeah. And it’s not just the glitzy end of season parties that have a diversity problem; improvements still need to […]