Author: The Reviews Hub - East Anglia & South East

Writer: Christy Lefteri Adaptors: Nesrin Alrefaai and Matthew Spangler Director:  Miranda Cromwell Christy Lefteri’s bestselling 2019 novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo, adapted now for a stage production, tells the story of beekeeper Nuri and his wife Afra’s journey from war-torn Syria to England and their harrowing ordeal along the way. The narrative explores the various struggles they face and aims to shine a light on the genuine struggles of refugees. Nuri, played by Alfred Clay, is a bereaved father who struggles to hold everything together for himself and his wife without allowing himself to experience his own emotions. Clay walks…

Music: Marc Shaiman Lyrics: Scott Wittman Writer: Roald Dahl Adaptor: David Grieg Director: James Brining Charlie and the Chocolate Factory begins its first UK tour following its hit West End and Broadway Productions. The pure imagination of Roald Dahl is brought to life in this travelling production telling the tale of young Charlie Bucket who wins one of five golden tickets, finally gets his grandfather out of bed, and heads beyond the gates to the world of Willy Wonka and his impossible sweets. In a place where nothing is what it seems and no one leaves the way they arrived,…

Choreographer and Director:  Matthew Bourne Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, arguably one of the most iconic of the New Adventures repertoire, reawakens for its tenth anniversary celebration. While the Tchaikovsky score will be familiar to all, this is not your Disney classic; Bourne’s show brings fairies, vampires, and a whole host of supernatural cast for a timeless love story that never follows the narrative you might expect. While some of the traditional elements of the story remain; there are finger pricks and extended snoozes of course, Bourne brings in an entirely new subplot and character with Caradoc (Paris Fitzpatrick) who’s determination…

Director: Eloise Lally Lucrezia Borgia, the twisting narrative of a mass poisoning and a rather complicated mother-child relationship is perhaps one of Donizetti’s least known operas. The piece is based on Victor Hugo’s novel, which was released just one year apart from Le Roi s’amuse which went on to become the internationally renowned Rigoletto, whereas this markedly similar tale sank into some obscurity. This new production from the English Touring Opera, then, is here to (attempt) to show why it deserves its place with the classics. The narrative of the opera does not, perhaps, have the depth or complexities you…

Writer: Roddy Doyle Director: Andrew Linnie  In a week which has already seen Irish arts heralded at the Oscars, another of its exports, The Commitments, raises the roof as this rock and roll musical reaches Dartford’s Orchard Theatre as part of its UK Tour. Roddy Doyle’s story sees wannabe music mogul Jimmy try to put together a rock and roll group made up of friends and acquaintances in Ireland in the late 1980s. The band, made up from a collection of edgy, awkward and angsty youngsters, battles internal conflict, creative differences and personality clashes as they look to be the…

Music/Lyrics: Bob Dylan Writer/Director: Conor McPherson Inspired and created from the lyrics of Bob Dylan, it would be easy to assume Girl from the North Country would be yet another Jukebox musical doing the rounds. The combination of the script, setting, and standout cast however show that it’s here to prove itself as so much more. Set in 1930s American heartland the narrative shows us the lives of a series of drifting wayward souls who cross paths for a time at a wintery guesthouse owned by Elizabeth and Nick Laine in Duluth, Minnesota. Each at a turning point in their…

Music/Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper Book: Harvey Fierstein Director: Chris Cuming Kinky Boots based on the 2005 film about a Northampton shoe factory which gives itself a makeover to survive by creating high quality boots for drag queens, has just strut its way into Norwich in the hands of the NNOS team. Charlie Price (Dominic Sands) takes over his father’s failing shoe business with little interest in the product and less of an idea of how to save the workers from unemployment. A few words and a chance meeting later send him down a path he never expects and he changes the…

Writer: Agatha Christie Director: Ian Talbot and Denise Silvey To give a sense of just how long The Mousetrap has been continuously running; the show first opened before Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, and is still running both in London and touring around the UK today. The story follows a murder in London, reported on sporadically from the ever-present radio, seven strangers are snowed in at a boarding house and discover that one of them is, in fact, the murderer! The boarding house stage is warm and welcoming to match the cosy mystery which crowds the characters into the increasingly…