Tag Archives: Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Book: Richard Morris & Dick Scanlan New Music: Jeanine Tesori New Lyrics: Dick Scanlan Director: Racky Plews Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman Based on the 1967 movie devised as a Julie Andrews vehicle, the 2002 Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which is revived here, expands upon the original film’s appropriation of 1920s music by grabbing and adapting songs and styles from ...

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Carl Czerney Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman Since 1998, Janet Lewis’ English Youth Ballet (EYB) has been working with young dancers around England, giving children and young adults the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside, and be trained by, professional ballet dancers. The result is an evening of ballet in which the stage is full of young hopefuls ...

Book: Alan Janes Music and Lyrics: Buddy Holly and others Director: Adrian Rees Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman Alan Janes’ Buddy, the granddaddy of jukebox biography musicals, opened in October 1989. Which means that, at the spritely age of 27, this musical is now five years older than its protagonist was at his death in 1959. And truth be told, that age is beginning ...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi  Director: Ellen Kent Conductor:  Vasyl Vasylenko Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco, telling the story of the persecution of Israelites by the Babylonians, has over the decades come to be treated as an allegory for contemporary oppression in Europe. The work’s most famous choral tune, Va, pensiero, better known as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, has resonated from ...

Writers: Barry Took and Marty Feldman, adapted by Tim Astley Director: Tim Astley Reviewer:  Scott Matthewman Round the Horne remains a milestone in radio comedy history. The 1960s sketch series fronted by Kenneth Horne was, on the face of it, merely a rebadged version of its predecessor, Beyond our Ken, which ran for six years. But the name change came about when ...

Directors: Christopher Hampson (Perpetuum Mobile) and David Nixon OBE (Madame Butterfly) Reviewer: Maggie Constable Two contrasting dance pieces in one evening at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre this weekend-what a delight! Europe’s Best Dance Company, Northern Ballet, brings us Scottish Ballet’s Perpetuum Mobile and the acclaimed Madame Butterfly. We commence with the former, a seventeen minute aperitif as light and fizzing as ...

Book: Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop Choreographer: Lynne Page Director: Terry Johnson Reviewer: Pete Benson In the early 60s Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop Company in an ensemble collaboration between writer, director and actors created Oh What A Lovely War:a series of sketches punctuated by songs that tell the narrative of the First World War. It has stood the test of time, ...

Writers: Claire Sweeney &Mandy Muden Director: Ken Alexander Reviewer:Scott Matthewman We British have a very curious attitude to sex and sexuality. For the most part, it is not something we talk about – but when we do, it is most often with a hand over our mouths, covering a smirk, stifling an embarrassed giggle. And then there’s the other end ...