Central Reviews

Music and Lyrics: Sting Book: Lorne Campbell Director: Lorne Campbell Reviewer: James Garrington New musicals as striking as The Last Ship don’t come along very often. Strictly speaking, this is not a new musical, though – it premiered in 2014 in Chicago before transferring to Broadway for a brief run. Since then it has been reworked, and it’s this new version ...

Conductor: Barry Forgie Reviewer: David Robinson Dunkirk and The Battle of Britain, two of the most pivotal moments in World War Two, one on a French beach and the other in the skies above the English Channel, both it would seem worthy of revisiting and celebrating on a regular basis. One was a miraculous naval escape and the other a ...

Reviewer: James Garrington Cabaret artist Stage Door Johnny is, he says, a fan of musical theatre and Less Miserable is his “love letter and hate mail to Broadway and the West End.” Anyone who has seen any of the Forbidden Broadway series will know the sort of thing – popular show numbers parodied and sent up, and for many who ...

Writer: Bryony Lavery, from the book by Graham Greene Director: Esther Richardson Reviewer: Selwyn Knight There’s a power vacuum in Brighton’s underworld. Gangleader Kite is dead and the remains of his gang are in thrall to Pinkie. Just 17, Pinkie is a natural leader for the gang, ruthless and cunning, but can he win over Kite’s protection clients or will they ...

Reviewer: Selwyn Knight It’s not entirely obvious now exactly when Jethro Tull was formed. A group of Blackpool musicians, including Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond and John Evan, was playing locally in the mid-1960s. They subsequently moved to London, where they never got repeat bookings so went through several name changes; eventually, their agent named them Jethro Tull after the 18thcentury ...

Writer: James Graham Director: Jeremy Herrin Reviewer: Dave Smith Local boy James Graham (who is from the village of Annesley and used to work at the Royal Centre as a doorman) has become not only one of this country’s most successful playwrights in recent years, he’s almost certainly been the most prolific. In just the last 12 months, he’s had ...

Music and Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz Book: Winnie Holzman Director: Joe Mantello Reviewer: Nicole Craft With Wicked having won over 100 major international awards, being in its 12th year in the West End, having a second go at a UK tour and possessing an instantly recognisable protagonist thanks to its Wizard of Oz roots, it would be easy to assume everybody ...

Writer: Louis Sachar Director: Adam Penford Reviewer: Dave Smith Having got his tenure as Artistic Director at Nottingham Playhouse off to a solid start with local mining paean Wonderland, Adam Penford here significantly raises the bar with this unendingly inventive and entertaining adaptation of Louis Sachar’s modern classic novel Holes. This is a clever and intelligently directed combination of humour, silliness, ...