Book, Music & Lyrics: Irene Sankoff & David Hein Director: Christopher Ashley The unlikeliest of source materials have provided the most fruitful works in musical theatre in the past decade: the wives of Henry VIII in Six, a founding father of the US in Hamilton and a teenage character in a Shakespeare tragedy in & Juliet. Come From Away, now on its first UK tour, has as its source, the consequences of the grounding of all flights in the aftermath of 9/11. As unlikely a premise as it is, it has proved to be a phenomenal word-wide success. In the…
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.
Writers: Ian Rankin & Simon Reade Director: Loveday Ingram A dinner party isn’t quite John Rebus’ normal environment. Certainly not one in a swanky Edinburgh town house. The newly retired Detective Inspector is here as a plus one to his ‘friend’ lawyer Stephanie Jeffries (Abigail Thaw). Wheeler dealer host Paul Goodwin (Neil McKinven) and his wife Harriet (Teresa Banham) have staged a murder mystery game for the amusement of their guests – maybe not so much amusement for Rebus. The fellow dinner guests include dodgy casino owner Jack Fleming (Billy Hartman) and his young, social media influencer girlfriend Candida Jones…
Writer and Performer: Ben Harrison Musician, Performer & Composer: David Paul Jones A show about memory, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me allows writer Ben Harrison more familiarly known as the co-artistic director of theatre company Grid Iron, to exorcise some of the demons of his 80s teenage years spent in Norfolk. Different from his peers, the self-proclaimed posh boy in a floral shirt was as far away from his hero Morrissey’s Manchester and those working class laments as it was possible to be. Harrison found solace in the melancholy tunes and longing lyrics of not only The…
With British political party season approaching, Count Binface has stolen an (imperial) march on his rivals by launching his manifesto early. And such is the widespread low opinion of the political class currently and general gloom that some of the satirical policies of the dustbin-headed leader of the Recyclons, hailing from the planet Sigma IX, border on the genuinely compelling. As with any political leader, this alien agitator isn’t immune to gaffes, his Star Wars-inspired introduction beset by a few technical gremlins and a false start. But he sweeps on and off the stage with authority more-or-less intact, despite his…
Passionately political but whimsically daft, thoughtful and with an esoteric breadth of learning yet engaging and accessible, Andrew O’Neill’s latest show is impressively wide-ranging and delightfully varied but has a strong central message. A non-binary, vegan, anarchist and metaller who practices ritualised magick, plays the electric guitar and beats a drum, both for their radical views and Whitney Houston’s creative peak, O’Neill’s identity contains multitudes. There are shades of Harry Hill in the rhythms and silliness of the wrong-footing non-sequiturs with which they open both halves of this show. And Eddie Izzard in their surreal blur of the legendary and…
Writer: Steven Antin Music: Christina Aguilera, Sia, Diane Warren, Todrick Hall & Jess Folley Additional Material: Kate Wetherhead Director: Nick Winston Choreographer: Nick Winston Designer: Soutra Gilmour Writer Steven Antin has re-worked his own 2010 movie script and to a certain degree un-cheesified the original storyline for the palates of a 2020s audience, in this stage adaptation of Burlesque. That said, fans of the movie will be delighted to know that all of the familiar characters and over the top shenanigans remain firmly intact. In a nutshell, Ali (Jess Folley) runs a wholesome diner, inherited from her mother, selling peach…
Uncharacteristically dressed in a suit, as opposed to his usual, retro, bowling shirt vibe, but with his collar open, Christopher Macarthur-Boyd looks as if he’s just left wedding celebrations. Which he discloses, he has. There’s a grim irony in this though, as he also reveals that this show, kicking off the Scottish leg of his tour, is the first time he’s appeared on stage since breaking up with his long-term girlfriend. Ultimately slumping on his mic stand for support, there’s a rare melancholy to his performance that underscores its entirety, the rawness of the split still patently apparent. You might…
Writers: Oliver Emanuel & Gareth Williams Director: Andrew Panton Musical Director: Gavin Whitworth A note pushed under a door is the start of a relationship between two people and between people and paper. The detritus that makes up our lives: tickets, menus, postcards, paper lanterns, origami roses and cranes. Many, if not most of us have that box of paper memories that transport us back in time and place. Memories. Treasures. The late Oliver Emanuel and Gareth Williams’ A History of Paper started life as a 2016 radio play and arrives in Glasgow after successful outings at Dundee Rep and…