Tag Archives: Aylesbury Waterside

Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Drag culture is in flux at the moment. For decades, occasional nights hosting karaoke in gay bars have been the best most acts could hope for: in recent years, though, the ascendancy of TV reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race from cult hit to mainstream phenomenon has seen an influx of American-style drag performance alongside more traditional, British ...

Writer: Craig Warner based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Patricia Highsmith’s crime novels stand out because, unlike many of the genre, her murderers are less pursued by the police than by their own psyches. Nowhere is this set out more plainly than in the opening scene of this adaptation of her first novel, Strangers ...

Reviewer: Scott Matthewman As selection criteria for picking members of a musical theatre four-piece go, having once been in Les Misérables is one of the least restrictive, thanks to the musical’s longevity, cast size, and various touring company and concert productions. However, it has given performer-producers Scott Garnham and Simon Schofield a strong brand with which to tour. After a Christmas residency ...

Writer: Andrew Ryan Director: Chris Nelson Reviewer: Scott Matthewman It is a recurring thread in many modern pantomimes that the titular heroines, from Sleeping Beauty to Cinderella, are among the least served in terms of scripted character. That’s certainly the case with Aylesbury’s version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where the characters of Muddles, Dolly the Nurse and ...

Book: Tom Hedley and Robert Carey   Music: Robbie Roth  Lyrics: Robert Carey and Robbie Roth  Director: Hannah Chissick Reviewer: Scott Matthewman In the pantheon of 1980s movies, Flashdance has achieved cult status far exceeding its own gaudy ambitions. The tale of a welding apprentice who supplements her meagre wages from a Pittsburgh steel firm by dancing in a local club, but who has ambitions to ...

Book: Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan Music: Marc Shaiman Lyrics: Scott Whittman and Marc Shaiman Director: Paul Kerryson Reviewer: Scott Matthewman The big, brash and beautiful Broadway musical Hairspray is perhaps the most sweet-natured take on a John Waters film one could possibly imagine. But while the original film’s lapses into poor taste are softened by the onstage cutesiness, there remains a ...

Writer: Dave Simpson, from the book by E Nesbit Director: Paul Jepson Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Edith Nesbit’s 1906 novel The Railway Children saw a step change in her writing of previous novels for children, most notably of the trilogy of books featuring the siblings who first appear in Five Children and It. Compared to the slight but fun magical adventures ...

Writer: Ira Levin Director: Adam Penford Reviewer: Scott Matthewman Ira Levin’s 1978 comedy-thriller Deathtrap, which became one of Broadway’s longest running plays, is a postmodern masterpiece. Revolving around the machinations of a struggling playwright of thrillers, several of the play’s twists and turns involve the writing of a play, also called Deathtrap, which mirrors events on stage. Levin’s witty script ...