Book: Kevin Del Aguila Original Music & Lyrics: George Noriega & Joel Someillan Director: Kirk Jameson Reviewer: Mark Clegg DreamWorks Animation’s 2005 movie Madagascar does not immediately seem to be a suitable basis for a theatrical musical. The film follows a group of very cartoony zoo animals as they escape their enclosures and blunder around New York before getting recaptured ...
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Book: David West Read Music: Max Martin and Friends Lyrics: Max Martin and Friends Director: Luke Sheppard Reviewer: Jo Beggs What if Juliet had woken up, discovered her beloved Romeo dead, and thought ‘Meh…what the hell…I’m only young and it would be a shame to waste all this”. When Anne Hathaway gets a night away from the kids and turns ...
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Music and Lyrics: Maury Yeston Writer: Peter Stone Director: Thom Southerland Musical Director: Mark Aspinall Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood The sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 is one of the most tragic maritime events on record, where sadly 1517 souls were lost. Many will know and have watched James Cameron’s 1997 Oscar-winning film, Titanic, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo ...
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Book: Peter Stone Music and Lyrics: Maury Yeston Director: Thom Southerland Conductor: Mark Aspinall Reviewer: Donna Kelly When composer Maury Yeston first announced he was going to write a musical about the Titanic, it was understandably met with scepticism. A musical about the biggest disaster in maritime history in which 1,503 people lost their lives hardly seems fitting. But instead ...
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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 ...
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Writer: Patricia Highsmith Adaptor: Craig Warner Director: Antony Banks Reviewer: Matthew Forrest The play opens with a somewhat distorted projection of the American flag, which soon fades leaving just the blood red stripes: it’s a vision that draws you in from the get-go. Strangers on a Train is that all too familiar of tales that sees the American dream turn ...
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Writer: Craig Warner, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith Director: Anthony Banks Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys A chance meeting on a train introduces Charles Bruno and Guy Haines, two wildly different men but with problems in common. As the journey progresses, a hypothetical plan is hatched between the pair: what if Bruno kills Haines unfaithful wife in return for Haines ...
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Writer: Alan McHugh Director: Bob Tomson Reviewer: John Roberts The Empire Theatre’s annual pantomime may have undergone a change of producer, but that doesn’t mean the largest Christmas show in Merseyside has lost any of its glimmer and shine, in fact this year’s offering of Cinderella starring Duncan James (Prince Charming) and Jodie Prenger (Fairy Godmother) still provides a winning ...
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