Central Reviews

Conductor: Michael Seal This season the theme from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is The Spirit of England and over the season they will be celebrating music written in England, about England or inspired by England. Notes from a Small Island, programmed and presented by Catherine Arlidge (whose day job is as a violinist in the orchestra), is ...

Writer: Frederick Knott Director: Ian Craddock Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Tony Wendice might well muse that, in the words of Rabbie Burns, “The best laid schemes o’ mice and men Gang aft a-gley”. After spending months scheming to get an old university pal to agree to murder Wendice’s wife, Margot, in the perfect murder, he has all bases covered. He has ...

Writer and Director: John Godber Reviewer: Hannah Powell This Might Hurt is a beautifully written piece of theatre that puts the NHS under some serious scrutiny. With his plays constantly being performed all over the world, John Godber has earned the right to be considered one of the most performed writers in the English Language. This Might Hurt is produced ...

Writer: Jonathan Maitland Director: Ian Talbot Reviewer: James Garrington Every leader – political or otherwise – should be afraid of their Geoffrey. The Geoffrey in question is Geoffrey Howe, one time Chancellor and Foreign Secretary, and staunch supporter of Margaret Thatcher. Never a political firebrand, and an uneasy speaker, he was a politician who lacked the charisma ever to catch ...

Writer: Eleanor Bergstein Director: Federico Bellone Reviewer:Scott Matthewman It is a safe bet that the vast majority of the audience for Dirty Dancing, as hinted at by its subtitle of The Classic Story on Stage, is familiar with the original 1987 film. This is probably the reason for the stage version’s attempt to adhere so rigidly to the script and ...

Writer: Richard Greenburg, from the novella by Truman Capote Director: Nikolai Foster Reviewer: Maggie Constable One cannot help but be charmed at Milton Keynes Theatre this week by Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Taken from Truman Capote’s famous 1958 novella, this stage adaptation by the award-winning playwright Richard Greenburg now features music and song. The much-loved 60s film of the same name, ...

Writer: Oscar Wilde Director: Nikolai Foster Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Does Wilde’s witty masterpiece have anything new left to say to 21stCentury theatregoers having been regularly performed and revived in the years since its first performances at the tail end of the 19th? In this Birmingham REP and Curve, Leicester co-production, director Nikolai Foster and designer Isla Shaw certainly think so ...

Book and Lyrics: Howard Ashman Music: Alan Menken Director: Tara Louis Wilkinson Reviewed: Scott Matthewman Before Howard Ashman and Alan Menken revitalised the Disney musical starting with The Little Mermaid, they took the off-Broadway world by storm with their comedy musical retelling of a B-movie about an extraterrestrial carnivorous plant that grows to enormous size when fed on human blood. ...