Writer: John Godber Director: Jane Thornton It’s more than a couple of years since this reviewer studied GCSE drama but John Godber’s Teechers, updated for its 2026 tour with new references and a soundtrack featuring the best songs of the past few years, immediately transported me back to ‘the new hall’ where a 15-year-old performed for a stoney-faced examiner guided by teachers who’s impact on me I never really understood until I had left – much like the three characters who brought the story of a year in the life at a normal British school to life with the energy…
Author: The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The South East team is under the editorship of John McRoberts. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Writer: Danny Robins Director: Matthew Dunster and Gabriel Vega Weissman Five years after it originally thrilled the West End 2:22 A Ghost Story has arrived in Portsmouth, bringing Danny Robins’ Olivier nominated play to the historic Kings Theatre. Albert Road’s historic theatre, which has plenty of ghost stories of its own to tell, provides the stage for Robins’ modern classic asking the question do ghosts exist or can we explain life’s ghostly happenings through science. Director Matthew Dunster returns for the UK tour alongside Gabriel Vega Weissman, delivering a technically precise show which had its audience on the edge of…
Writer: Michael Cooney Director: Ron Aldridge The surname Cooney is synonymous with the English farce, a particular subset of stage comedy that relies almost as much on the number of doors a set has as on the number of actors. Ray Cooney’s West End farces are built on strange coincidences, verbal misunderstandings, and a series of escalating stakes that always threaten to explode in the faces of their protagonists, typically men who have subverted societal norms and are attempting to hide it. Whether that’s the bigamist taxi driver in Run For Your Wife or the philandering doctor at the heart…
Book: Joe Penhall Music and Lyrics: Ray Davies Director: Edward Hall The swinging sixties and anarchic rise to rock and roll stardom for The Kinks comes to the fore in this riotous jukebox musical, Sunny Afternoon. Penned by Joe Penhall and Ray Davies, the production is back on tour after COVID-impacted plans thwarted an attempted revival in August 2020. The musical charts the chaotic rise to stardom for The Kinks, against a backdrop of the British music Invasion of America in the 60s and personal turmoils that threatened to tear the four-piece apart. As iconic frontman Ray Davies, Danny Horn…
Writer: Agatha Christie Adaptor: Ken Ludwig Director: Lucy Bailey There is moustache twiddling aplenty as Agatha Christie’s iconic Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, investigates a poisonous love triangle in this lavish production of Death on the Nile. Ludwig’s adaptation gets us on board the S. S. Karnak, where Poirot and a number of guests are travelling along the Nile as part of a group returning an Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. The omens are pretty obvious from the start, and become even more looming as heiress Linnet (Libby Alexandra-Cooper) and new husband Simon’s (Nye Occomore) are tracked down by stalker Jacqueline, former fiancé…
Director – Phyllida LLoyd Reviewer – Steve Turner With so many great songs and so much of a story to tell it’s quite an accomplishment to manage to fit all of this into a show that runs for about two and a half hours. Domestic abuse, parental abandonment and casual racism would seem to be a difficult fit for a jukebox musical such as this, but the fact that the Tina Turner Musical leaves the audience with a sense of joy is a testament to how well this spectacular show is written and performed. As Tina, Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy brings…
Writer : Robert Louis Stevenson Adaptor: Jake Smith, Director : Kirsty Tallent Cast adrift from its Devon origins, Stevenson’s classic adventure fetches up at the lost town of Dunwich, one of many Suffolk references in Jake Smith’s fast-paced adaptation. This tale of “buccaneers and buried gold” may be less familiar to families these days, but it’s still popular enough to see the Hispaniola dock twice in the county town this year. The cruder comedy version at the Wolsey was a hit this summer. And expectations were high at Eastern Angles after last year’s brilliant Christmas Carol. Many of the same creatives…
Writer: Joe Tracini Director: Andrew Lynford Norwich Theatre Royal’s Christmas Pantomime returns with Cinderella, a production that delivers plenty of familiar panto charm. This year written by and featuring Joe Tracini, the show is a welcome and noticeable step up from the previous year, delivering a performance that feels brighter, bolder, and more cohesive than its predecessor. There’s a clear sense of increased investment onstage, both in production polish and in narrative flow, and it makes for a more satisfying festive outing. As Cinderella, Georgia May Foote delivers a warm, charming performance, pairing an easy likeability with vocals that glide…