Author: The Reviews Hub - Central

Writer: Torben Betts Director: Philip Franks Danny is a washed-up pop star, well past his heyday as a teen heartthrob in Dance Party 5. In an opening that could have been drawn from Writing Spooky Stories 101, Danny crashes his car outside a creepy farmhouse on New Year’s Eve. The occupants, his extended family, aren’t injured, but the car isn’t driveable. And – wouldn’t you know it – there’s no mobile signal and the weather is closing in. There’s no possibility of continuing their journey so they are forced to accept the hospitality of Mrs Bateman, who gives them the…

Conductor: Richard Balcombe The loss of Burt Bacharach in February of this year was a terrible loss to the music industry. A prolific composer, he had huge success with lyricist Hal David in the 1960s and 1970s. Later, the partnership with David would end and time and tastes would move on, leaving no apparent place for his classy melodies and orchestrations; nevertheless, he continued composing, collaborating and performing pretty much to the end. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), under the baton of conductor, Richard Balcombe, opens proceedings with an overture comprised of a medley of hits. The sound…

Writers: Joshua King, Simon Paris and Say It Again, Sorry? Director: Simon Paris As the play starts we find ourselves in a drawing room, with what seems to be a perfectly traditional production of the Oscar Wilde classic. Things very soon begin to fall apart, though, as within a moment or two we arrive at the point when Jack is due to enter and it becomes apparent that one of the lead actors has failed to arrive at the theatre. At this point, the play could go anywhere, but the choice made by the writers here is to find an…

Writer: Reginald Rose Director: Christopher Haydon It’s the hottest day of the year so far and twelve men have already spent three days in a stifling courtroom listening to the evidence mount up that a sixteen-year-old boy stabbed his father. The case seems open-and-shut: the boy is from the wrong side of the tracks; he and his father have a difficult relationship; and, of course, there’s the damning evidence of the eyewitnesses. We join proceedings as the judge ends his closing remarks – reminding the jury that, among other things, should they reach a verdict of guilty then the accused…

Music: Andrew Lloyd-Webber Lyrics: Tim Rice Director: Timothy Sheader Jesus Christ Superstar is best known as the revolutionary musical that shocked audiences in the 1970s.  Opening on Broadway in late 1971, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber created a novel score which is a sung-through rock opera.  The show hasn’t been without its controversies as some religious groups consider it to be blasphemous. The story itself deals with the final seven days in the life of Jesus Christ, including the Last Supper and his crucifixion from the perspective of the famed traitor Judas Iscariot.  Symbolism is currency in this production…

Music: Chris Passey and Verity Quade Writer and Lyrics: Emily Beecher Directors: Sarah Meadows and Michelle Payne Busy-body, perfectly slim-body-dressed Bea (Joanna Kirkland), bent on an aspirational mission to see her offspring acquire at least two foreign languages before learning to walk, is a seemingly incongruous organiser of a Council-owned Community Centre drop-in mothers’ and babies crèche. There’s a noticeable Brum-based caustic craic to the earthy banter and an equally noticeable wince to Bea’s delicate ears. Just quite why she’s there is never explored. As with the other characters, Sophie, Chantel and Esme, backstories are superfluous. They just need each…

Writers: Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe Adaptors: James Nicholas and Mark Webster Directors: Oliver Hume and Mark Webster In 1841, Edgar Allan Poe wrote what is often taken to be the first true detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. In it, he introduces many of the enduring tropes of the genre – a seemingly impossible crime that takes place in a room locked from the inside; the eccentric but brilliant detective who relies on close observation to identify apparently trivial clues and a process of deduction to solve the crime; the reliable friend to narrate the…

Book: Ed Curtis Director: Jonathan Church The Drifters Girl centres around the story of Motown boy band The Drifters and their razor-sharp manager Faye Treadwell. Treadwell made her name in the music industry thanks to her steely determination and laser-precise business acumen. She became one of the first prominent female African-American music managers, blazing a trail for countless others to follow in the decades to come. With the music of The Drifters themselves providing the soundtrack, this is a vocal powerhouse of a show. Their musical legacy holds countless classic songs which ultimately are the primary draw of the show…