Choreographer: David Nixon Beauty and the Beast is, of course, the classic story of Beauty selflessly leaving her home and family to go and live in the Beast’s castle where she sees him for more than just a monster. Northern Ballet’s return to the stage this winter version of this familiar tale, now a little over a decade old, but showing no signs of rusting. Set to a handpicked score of French and Russian music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the likes of Bizet and Debussy, this incarnation of the tale as old as time gives…
Author: The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East
The South East team is under the editorship of Peter Marcus. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Writer: Michael Frayn Director: Lindsay Posner Fresh from the West End, the revival of Michael Frayn’s 1982 Noises Off brings its brand of traditional British farce to Norwich. The play-within-a-play structure takes us across three acts of the production journey of Nothing On from its dress rehearsal beginning, behind the scenes, and on stage to the final curtain. With a set containing seven doors, it’s clear from the outset that this will be a door-slamming farce full of quick jokes, mistaken identities, and precision timing. The stage is a character in and of itself in this production with its careful…
Writer: James Graham Director: Daniel Evans & Sean Linnen Instant nostalgia comes to Norwich as the curtain opens on this revival of James Graham’s Quiz, to give us the stage, the screen, and the chairs that filled just about every home once a week at the turn of the millennium. The show, based on the headline-grabbing ‘Coughing Major’ incident in Charles Ingram’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire run pokes light-hearted fun at it all, while of course exploring whether Charles and his wife really were guilty (that’s for the audience to decide). Leading the show as Chris Tarrant, impressionist…
Writer : Kelly Jones, Shamser Sinha and Nicola Werenowska Composer: Georgia Shackleton Director : Elayce Ismail We gather in the imposing, philanthropic space of Colchester’s Old Library – it has its own atmosphere, like most of the venues on this carefully curated tour, which began in Bury St Edmunds Georgian Theatre Royal, and ends in November in the iconic candlelight of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe. The small acting area is populated with candles and anglepoise lamps. On the floor, a few white feathers drift in the draught from the door. The three actors enter through the audience – dressed in white,…
Writer: Steve Waters and Tangled Feet Directors: Nathan Curry and Kat Joyce In a year when environmental concerns have become headline news, both globally through extremes of temperature causing both wildfires and flash floods and more locally through river pollution, vehicle emission charges and government changes to net zero commitments, Steve Waters and Tangled Feet’s Murmurations takes on renewed relevance and urgency. First conceived for and performed at the National Trust’s Wicken Fen nature reserve, Murmurations is capable of being revised according to each location it is performed in. In this latest incarnation, performed in Essex Wildlife’s Trust’s Bedford’s Park,…
Music/Lyrics: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe The Rocky Horror Show debuted in 1973 and now struts its way back on to the stage for a 50th anniversary tour. At this point it seems unlikely that there would be many Rocky Horror virgins left, but for the uninitiated the musical is best described as the beautiful love child of a drag show and a 50s b-movie horror which tells the story of newlyweds Brad and Janet who find themselves in a very strange mansion. The Rocky Horror audience arrive in their fishnets, corsets, and very little else ready to sing along,…
Writer: Neil Gaiman Adaptor: Joel Horwood Director: Katy Rudd Based on Neil Gaiman’s short novel of the same name, The Ocean at the End of the Lane would on paper appear to be a story that simply isn’t compatible with the stage. Hailed as an instant classic of magical realism the book twists fantasy and reality around the reader’s mind to conjure stories and monsters. In the hands of Joel Horwood and Katy Rudd, however, the story lifts itself away from the pages and finds life on the boards. The story opens with an unnamed man (Trevor Fox) returning to…
Book: Kyle Jarrow Director: Tara Overfield Wilkinson Stephen Hillenburg’s SpongeBob Squarepants is a show that has played in more than 170 countries and has been running for over twenty years, which in of itself is a huge achievement, but when it comes to putting on a musical it has the potential to cause a sinking feeling. This show needs to be able to cater to children growing up watching SpongeBob right now, as well as the grownups who were watching it twenty years ago and are showing up for the nostalgia. A tricky task indeed, but thankfully one that proves…