Comedy

Writers:  Gary Barlow and Tim Firth Design: Robert Jones Musical Staging: Lucy Hind Director: Matt Ryan Orchestrations: Steve Parry Reviewer: Rob Atkinson To judge a musical theatre rendition of a story against its original movie production, or even against the in-between incarnation of a stage play, is to risk comparing chalk with cheese; they’re simply different animals with different types ...

Book: Terence McNally Music and Lyrics: David Yazbek Director: Adam Lacey Reviewer: Selwyn Knight It’s hard to believe that it’s over 20 years since the film, The Full Monty, burst onto cinema screens, telling the story of a group of Sheffield steelworkers made redundant from the only living they’d ever known. In 2000, the action was moved to Buffalo, NY for ...

Reviewer: Clare Howdon Plunge Theatre Company certainly have an exceptional marketing team. It was difficult to walk around Edinburgh for five minutes, without noticing at least one of Clingfilm’s wonderful posters, eerily reminiscent of filmic comedic classic The First Wives Club. This combined with the 11pm time-slot generated intrigue and high expectations for what the company advertised as ‘an all ...

Reviewer: Clare Howdon Following on from a successful storming of the USA, performer Sam Wills is returning to his Edinburgh Festival Fringe roots with a brand new and eagerly awaited show. Starting off at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010 and bagging the prestigious Foster’s comedy award nomination for Best Newcomer, The Boy with Tape on his Face has gone from ...

Writer and performer: Luke Kempner Reviewer: Stephen Bates Luke Kempner lifted himself above the masses of comedy impressionists with his hit show The Only Way is Downton, which made it into London’s West End. Since then, he has been out to prove that the only way is not downhill with similar shows and a venture into musical theatre, playing Marius ...

Reviewer: Clare Howdon Magnificent Bastard Productions return to the Fringe yet again this year with another take on their sell-out, award-winning formula Shit-Faced Shakespeare, with this year’s victim being the Bard’s tragedy Hamlet. For those not au fait with Shit-Faced Shakespeare, the premise of each show is simple; a group of classically trained actors perform an abridged Shakespeare play with ...

Writer: Mark Watson Reviewer: Tom Ralphs Originally a work in progress show at the 2017 Fringe, Mark Watson’s main Fringe show this year is a delight from start to finish. The subject matter is empathy and Watson’s desire to understand, and empathise with, everyone he meets. The nervous energy that drives Watson’s delivery works perfectly for the subject matter, and ...

Writer and Presenter: Gyles Brandreth Reviewer: Stephen Bates Until recently, when he and two other members of his family shared all the roles in a production of no less than Hamlet in London, few would have associated the name of Gyles Brandreth with the art form of theatre. The former doyen of Countdown’s Dictionary Corner and, for five years, Conservative ...