Author: The Reviews Hub - London

Book: Julian Fellowes Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics: Glenn Slater Director: Laurence Connor There’s something faintly bizarre about a musical encouraging us to “stick it to the man”, written by two septuagenarian straight white male members of the House of Lords. You certainly wouldn’t expect an anti-establishment message to come from the minds behind Downton Abbey and The Phantom of the Opera. And yet that is exactly what School of Rock Is – a message about the importance of self-expression over rigid societal expectations, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and with a book by Julian Fellowes. It helps, of course, that…

Writer: Tom Wells Director: Caroline Leslie The Kitchen Sink returns to London over a decade after its acclaimed debut at the Bush Theatre and it hasn’t aged a day. Hull playwright, Tom Wells, anchors the intimate drama in Withernsea, yet his down-to-earth depiction of small-town family life feels universal. The play follows struggling parents, Kath and Martin, and their almost-grown children, Billy and Sophie, as they stumble through a year together. What feels particularly wholesome about this family drama is that there is a minimum of in-fighting. The family certainly bicker but it is clear that they ultimately care for…

The middle eight of a song is typically a turning point. It’s a moment of difference to peak the listeners’ interest, keep them on their toes, and draw them a little closer. True to its name, beneath the Middle Eight Hotel is a venue that aims to do just that. With more that 10,000 live music events taking place in the capital every year (according to an Expedia study in 2017), standing out from the crowd is a challenge. To do that the Middle Eight has found virtuoso saxophonist Leo Green who brings together a variety of different artists to…

Writer and Director: Joshua A Thomas Watered-down, over-priced beers, sweaty DnB tents and uncomfortable sleeping bags can only mean one thing – a summer music festival. What better way to spend the last weekend before graduation than one last drunken uni celebration with friends? For Billie, Finn and Ryan, it’s a no brainer. Billie has her act together with a military precision plan for her next chapter, Finn is laid-back but confident and ready to settle down in his new flat, but Ryan is completely lost. Clinging on to the day-drinking and nights he can’t remember, he doesn’t want to…

Devised by Oliver Bennett and Vladimir Shcherban Pass the Hat is a gem of a piece devised by HUNCHtheatre’s Ukrainian-born founder Vladimir Shcherban and performer Oliver Bennett. It’s based on Bennett’s attempts to discover the truth about his grandfather: could he have been fathered by the famous London busker, Henry Hollis? Using an inventive mixture of street performance and documentary evidence, including Hollis’s memoir, Farewell Leicester Square, and old photos and film footage, Bennett transforms himself effortlessly into the cheeky East End busker himself, as well as assorted characters from his grandfather’s past as he imagines them. As a lad,…

Choreographer and Director: Marikiscrycrycry Tupac Shakur was 25 when he was fatally shot in 1996. The rapper and poet left behind a large body of work, but his death means that anyone examining the emotional basis for his work is denied the opportunity to interrogate the artist directly. Artist and choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe, who performs under the name Marikiscrycrycry, has formed the three-act, 45-minute piece He’s Dead around the question of whether Tupac suffered from depression, as the lyrics to some of his works suggest. The unknowable nature of the question has led them to consider Black people’s mental…

 Writer and Director: Jonathan Crewe Jonathan Crewe’s play Under the Radar tries to use the enclosed confines of a submarine as a microcosm of society where misogyny, toxic masculinity and megalomania play out. Returning to the Old Red Lion for a second run, this is almost three plays in one: character piece about two people trying to overcome their daddy issues, an examination of male-female relationships and, in its later stages, an absurdist piece, but it gets a bit submerged in its own bilgewater. Reporter Lee Stilling is covering the launch of Captain Martin Christensen’s private two-berth submarine, a 43-hour…

Director: Charlotte Peters Writer: Marcus Brigstocke The Red examines a man’s relationship with alcohol as he confronts the death of his father. Written by comedian Marcus Brigstocke, the play joins Benedict (played by Sam Alexander) on the day of his father’s funeral. He heads to the family wine cellar, holding a letter from his father. John (Bruce Alexander) has left behind a handsome wine collection. His son surveys the vintages of “varying quality”; boxes of Taittinger waiting for a happier moment. As he reads the letter, his father appears in the cellar – years younger, freshly retired. Benedict’s father asks…