Challenge Week 2019: Mind The Musicals

I really started something with all those Sunny Challenge Weeks… Since Sunny Afternoon closed I’ve also managed to do a Globe Challenge Week and a slightly more generic one last year – so for 2019, the Mind the Blog challenge weeks are back, and (hopefully) better than ever! My current plan is to devise three […]

A Hundred Words for Snow

“Love is life’s snow.” This poignant quote from Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen comes right near the end of Tatty Hennessy’s one-woman show, tying the strands of the story together absolutely perfectly. Following acclaimed runs at the VAULT Festival and Arcola Theatre, A Hundred Words for Snow has been out on a UK tour, which finishes this […]

Waitress

Based on the 2007 film of the same name by Adrienne Shelly, the musical adaptation of Waitress made its Broadway debut back in 2016 and has now made the leap across the pond to London’s West End, setting up shop at the Adelphi Theatre. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles is responsible for the music & lyrics and […]

Come From Away

Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical began life following a visit to Gander, Newfoundland on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; it was workshopped the following year, before making its debut in 2013 in Ontario. Several other productions followed (in both Canada and the USA), before it made its Broadway debut in 2017 […]

Dracula

There is a danger in taking well-known & beloved works of literature and adapting them for stage or screen – just ask Sarah Phelps, who recently bore the brunt of conservative Agatha Christie fans’ ire for not simply recreating previous screen versions of her chosen stories. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of my favourite novels of all […]

No Show

Guest reviewer: Ellen Casey The lights come up on a lone performer, clutching an accordion and baring her teeth in a grin. She stands for a moment, assessing the audience and allowing the quiet in the room to go on for a few seconds past comfortable – and then she begins to play. A few […]

Bohemian Rhapsody

This post has been rather a long time coming… Many of you reading this will know me either for my usually quite forthright opinions about theatre, or my dedication (let’s say) to the Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon. What you’ll be less aware of is that my first love was Queen. It goes back so far […]

Coming up in 2019…

Once again I start off with the intention of looking after myself more – it worked for a short while in 2018, but I very quickly slipped back into old habits… I have at least blocked out regular nights off for half of the year already, so fingers crossed I can stick to that. This […]

End of 2018 report

Gone are the days of one show or one venue to rule them all! Obviously I will still happily make repeat visits to shows – or follow them around on tour – if I really enjoy them, but variety has very much been the spice of life in 2018. That covers venue as much as […]

Favourite shows of 2018

As I ended up seeing more different shows than last year (and almost as many in total, thanks to some repeat visits), I decided enough was enough – it’s finally time to branch out from the weird top 12 idea. Beginning with a short list of around 40 (admittedly this doesn’t sound very short), I […]