An Intervention + Wagatha Christie preview

This might need some explanation… From the relative lack of posts over the past few months, you’ll have realised that I’ve not got back to pre-pandemic levels of commitment & motivation; I’m still going to see quite a lot of things, but I’ve been less inclined to write about them. Between the excessive heat, my […]

Spooks & Sparklers 2022

The foulest stench is in the airThe funk of forty thousand yearsAnd grizzly ghouls from every tombAre closing in to seal your doom Too old for trick or treating? Local fireworks display cancelled? You could stay in and binge-watch a Netflix boxset, or plan a scary movie marathon – or you could try something a […]

Walking With Ghosts

Following in the footsteps of the likes of David Suchet and Ian McKellen, celebrated Irish actor Gabriel Byrne brings his memoir, Walking With Ghosts, to the stage. This brief West End run comes off the back off an engagement at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre earlier this year, and a stint on Broadway will follow next month. […]

Cock

“But that’s what this is, isn’t it? The ultimate bitch fight.” Watching Mike Bartlett’s play Cock today, it seems strange to think that it was actually written 13 years ago, as it covers themes that are so resonant with life in 2022. Presumably it has had some tweaks over the years, as language and laws […]

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, […]

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 […]

Favourite shows 2021 (in-person)

It’s quite nice to go back to this, although when I had a look through my list of shows it wasn’t too hard to choose a top 10 – the hardest thing was getting them in the right order… I haven’t seen all of the shows that have been put on since things reopened, for […]

Cabaret

“There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies. And there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany… And it was the end of the world.” The Kit Kat Club is the place to go if you want to leave your troubles behind; based on the past five years (at least), […]

Love Theatre Day 2021: Brave new world?

Happy Love Theatre Day, everyone! This year I actually feel like marking it, not because all of London’s West End theatres are now back open for business (though that is obviously excellent news), but because I’m just about working out where theatre of all kinds fits into my peri-pandemic routine – note that I’m not […]

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

This GBM Productions musical version of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover originally had a limited run at the Shaftesbury Theatre, but has now been given a digital revival by Stream.Theatre. The show features music from John Robinson and book by Phil Willmott, and was directed by Sasha Regan. It seems to be the year of […]