CD & DVD Reviews

Reviewer: Helen Jones In 2010 Brian May produced an album Anthems with West End star Kerry Ellis providing the vocals. The album was so successful that they toured together. Now, seven years after the first album, their second album Golden Days has been released. This time it is billed as a true collaboration between the two artists. It includes two ...

Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Glenn Slater Reviewer: Mark Clegg Based on the 1989 one-man play, the new musical version of A Bronx Tale has a startling pedigree. The musical’s book is by Chazz Palminteri who not only wrote the original play, but also wrote the screenplay for (and starred in) the 1993 movie adaptation. The show is co-directed ...

Music and Lyrics by Gayla D. Morgan Reviewer: Mark Clegg Remember 101 Dalmatians? When in the first five minutes Roger and Anita find love dog-walking in the park? Well, A Dog Story takes this idea, adds a big dose of modern cynicism and creates a musical that seems as slight as the soundtrack’s thirty minute running time. Roland (David Perlman) ...

Composer: Alan Menkin Lyricist and Book: David Spencer Reviewer: Kelyn Luther Alan Menkin and David Spencer originally tried this musical out in 1987 in Philadelphia. Having had 28 years to revise the material, the new refined version was premiered in Quebec in 2015. This CD is the original cast recording of that production and the only commercially available recording. The ...

Lyricist: Alfred Uhry Composer: Robert Waldman Reviewer: Kelyn Luther On paper, The Robber Bridegroom is an intriguing musical- based on a fairy tale and with a bluegrass-inspired music score that should have gelled perfectly. However, on listening to Roundabout Theatre Company’s recording, it’s a bit of a mess. The Robber Bridegroom is based on Eudora Welty’s novella which sets the ...

Music and Lyrics: William Finn Reviewer: Bryony Luther Falsettos is a groundbreaking musical that explores what makes a modern family. It focuses on Marvin, a neurotic gay man who has left his wife and child to start a relationship with his partner Whizzer but wants everyone to get along as a family. The first act focuses on the domestic dramas ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg Cameron Macintosh achieved universal acclaim when he brought Mary Poppins to the stage over a decade ago. And so it comes as no surprise that he has reunited the team behind it – writer Julian Fellowes and song writing team Stiles and Drewe – for a crack at reimagining another classic musical. Unlike Poppins, Half a Sixpence ...

Writers: Julian Harries and Pat Whymark Director: Pat Whymark Musical Director: Pat Whymark Reviewer: Michael Gray Toad Hall? Wolf Hall? The inspiration behind this bit of harmless fun is mostly Mantel – a Tudor rose projected onto the boards, Thomas Crudwell given a brief mention – but the Bard is in the mix too, together with Adele and Geoffrey Chaucer. ...