Tag Archives: Birmingham

Writer: Emma Reeves from the novel by Jill Murphy Director: Theresa Heskins Reviewer: Nicole Craft Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch has been entertaining children for the best part of three generations. Continuing to go full circle, the television series (two versions of!) inspire yesterday and today’s youngsters to seek out the books; the books inspiring those who haven’t discovered the ...

Writer: Jon Brittain Director: Donnacadh O’Briain Reviewer: James Garrington New Year in Rotterdam, and Alice has decided that it’s finally time to tell her parents that she’s gay. She drafts and redrafts – not an easy email to write, she’s been in this relationship for seven years without telling her parents back home, who she feels sure will disapprove. But ...

Book, Music and Lyrics: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe Reviewer: Gemma Fincher Still packing out theatres in its 46th year, the iconic cult classic musical, The Rocky Horror Show is back in Birmingham with an all-star cast. Initially written as a stage play in 1973 by Richard O’Brien, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was produced largely as a parody of the science fiction/B horror movies ...

Writer: Ursula Rani Sarma from the book by Khaled Hosseini Director: Roxana Silbert Reviewer: James Garrington For the many fans of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, there is a lot here that will be familiar, but there’s also a lot that’s been changed, and not always for the better. Of course, adapting a big novel for the stage will inevitably bring many ...

Writer: Gareth Armstrong Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Many literate folk would profess to at least a passing familiarity with The Merchant of Venice and its antagonist, Shylock. It’s well known that Shylock is the stereotypical jew of the times – a character driven by hatred of the Christian world, who seeks revenge for the persecution he and his kind suffered each ...

Book and Lyrics: Gerome Ragni and James Rado Music: Galt McDermot Director: Jonathan O’Boyle Reviewer: James Garrington One of the sad things about Hair the Musical is that it is famous – or infamous – as much for its nudity as for its themes and music. When it first appeared in 1967 for a brief run in New York this was ...

Writer: Evan Placey, based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson Director: Tessa Walker Reviewer: Selwyn Knight We all feel we already know the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde after countless adaptations of its central story – had the word been coined in 1886, one might even have described it as an early meme. But one feature of ...

Book: Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer Music: Green Day  Lyrics: Billie Joe Armstrong Director: Racky Plews Reviewer: Gemma Fincher Green Day‘s explosive rock musical American Idiot is back in Birmingham as it celebrates its 10th anniversary and also the 15th anniversary of the influential, Grammy-award winning concept album on which it is based. Winner of two Tony Awards, American Idiot tells the ...