Writers: John Cleese and Connie Booth Director: Caroline Jay Ranger Nostalgia sells and it sells especially well when the source material is Fawlty Towers, a TV show held so close to the hearts of the UK public that it is frequently voted the greatest British sit-com of all time. John Cleese has taken a trio of his and Connie Booth’s original scripts: The Hotel Inspectors, The Germans and Communication Problems and woven a seamless narrative around the three to create this stage version of the beloved show. The script is staggeringly close to the original material, with whole portions of…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Scotland
The Reviews Hub - Scotland
The Scotland team is under the editorship of Lauren Humphreys. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. We aim to review all professional types of theatre, whether that be Commercial, Repertory or Fringe as well as Comedy, Music, Gigs etc.
Writer: Lewis Hetherington Directors: Dominic Hill & Joanna Bowman Once again, the Citizens theatre proves itself to be in a class of its own with this season’s festive family show Beauty and the Beast, the first since its radical makeover and reopening. Writer Lewis Hetherington has created theatrical magic in sticking largely to the original elements of the 1740s tale but with gloriously modern sensibilities. Belle (Israela Efomi) lives with her widowed, but eternally upbeat father (Tyler Collins), sister Bright (Holly Howden Gilchrist) and loving cat Mr. Mittens (Michael Guest), in a shack in the woods after her father’s fortune…
Stand-up inspired by negative or even middling reviews tends to be a mixed bag, sometimes tonally too recriminatory or doubling down on the issues identified. And so it proves with Urooj Ashfaq’s sophomore show. The Indian comic was crowned best newcomer in Edinburgh for her 2023 debut but latched onto criticism of that show that called her “conservative”. This affront gives How To Be A Baddie its pique and attitude, with Ashfaq’s irritation with the label still palpable after countless tour dates. However, while she argues convincingly that definitions of edgy and safe comedy differ greatly in India and the…
Once again Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre has delivered a fabulous, fun-filled feast of entertainment for all the family. This year’s offering Jock and the Beanstalk takes the traditional panto tale and gives it a gallus Glasgow twist. Our hero Jock lives in Cowcuddles on the Clyde with his larger than life mammie Dame Tina Trott, his brother and the family cow Buttercup. The trio don’t have a bean to their name and the rent is due to Giant Glaickitguts whose castle in the sky brings perpetual darkness to the tiny town. When Jock goes in search of some much needed cash,…
Writers: Harry Michaels & Alan McHugh Director: Kathryn Rooney Choreographer: Jane McMurtrie With glittering costumes, gorgeous lighting and a host of Glasgow’s stage favourites, this year’s pantomime, The Little Mermaid, marks a sparkling return to form for Glasgow’s King’s Theatre. Largely following the plot of the familiar fairy tale: mermaid Ariel (Jasmine Jules Andrews) rescues Prince Eric (Benjamin Lockhart) from a watery grave. It’s love at first sight for the aquatic princess, who yearns to be reunited with her love. She makes a deal with the devil (her aunty the Sea Witch, played with glee by Hannah Jarrett-Scott), gains a…
This Glasgow date of Nick Helm’s latest show, No One Gets Out Alive, took a distressingly literal turn when it halted abruptly two-thirds of the way through due to a medical emergency in the audience. With the arrival of an ambulance delayed by more than an hour, presumably because the show took place on Bonfire Night, most of the crowd had to leave before it resumed. Gamely though, Helm belatedly finished the show at the venue’s bar for those who stuck around. No longer able to grandstand quite so brashly, as he performed without a microphone for most of this…
Book, Music & Lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda Choreographer: Andy Blankenbuehler Director: Thomas Kail The musical that answers the question: “How does a Bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” Hamilton has finally arrived in Scotland’s biggest city. Every superlative in the book has been thrown at this theatrical mega-hit and deservedly so. A decade on from its first outing at The Public Theatre in New York, there is no way that any other than…
Original Music: Black Sabbath Music Consultant: Tony Iommi Director: Carlos Acosta While the name may sound like the product of a random oxymoron generator working overtime, Black Sabbath – The Ballet is an excellent example of what can be achieved by pushing the envelope both in theatre and music. The texture, layers and skill of Tony Iommi’s compositions are revealed as far more than simple three-minute heavy rock anthems, and the dance and movement that accompanies them blurs the boundaries between traditional ballet, modern dance and everything that lies between and beyond it. The Ballet breaks into three thirty-minute acts,…