Book: James Lapine Music and Lyrics: William Finn Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer: Selwyn Knight The Hoover family is one dysfunctional family. As the programme notes suggest, while the characters may seem to have little in common they are glued together by that single familial bond. Olive Hoover is the youngest family member. She’s bullied at school and harbours dreams of ...
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Writer: James Lapine Music/Lyrics: William Finn Director: Mehmet Ergen Designer: David Woodhead Musical Director: Arlene McNaught Reviewer: Ron Simpson Little Miss Sunshine is a sort of jollier Grapes of Wrath for the 21 st century. The hint is there in the family name “Hoover” – the Joads in Steinbeck’s classic spend time in squalid Hoovervilles, named for President Hoover. The ...
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Book: James Lapine Music and Lyrics: William Finn Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys The epitome of dysfunctional, the Hoover family travel 800 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico in grandpa’s beaten up VW camper van to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, so the youngest member of the clan, the unlikely Olive, can compete. So goes William ...
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Book/Lyrics: James Lapine Music/Lyrics: William Finn Writer: Michael Arndt Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer: Jo Beggs Nobody expected the quirky US 2006 road movie to be the massive success it turned out to be. A struggle to get made, a small budget, and with a location shifted from one end of the country to the other, it could so easily have ...
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Book: James Lapine Music and Lyrics: William Finn Director: Mehmet Ergen Reviewer: Maryam Philpott William Finn’s adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine promises much, wacky scenarios, a loveable misfit family and the most musical of themes, self-belief. And while no one likes to be upstaged, the success of Finn’s production, receiving its European premiere at the Arcola Theatre, relies on the glittering ...
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Writer: James Lapine Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Director: James Brining Reviewer: Ruth Jepson Mother told me never stray from the path… The path has strayed from you. Most people will know Into the Woods from the recent all-star movie, and turn up expecting tall trees, and green woodlands. It’s therefore rather surprising to walk into a set which ...
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Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Original Book: James Lapine Director: Matthew Xia Reviewer: Matt Forrest It’s Christmas time, which invariably means that across the land, Panto season is upon us. All over the country pantomimes will be in full swing, most loosely based on the fairy tales so familiar with our childhood, but imagine a production which has interwoven ...
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Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: James Lapine Director: Tim McArthur Reviewer: Stephen Bates “Be careful of what you say, children may listen” warns Stephen Sondheim in a show which delves into the grim side of fairy tales and asks us to consider what we are telling our kids and how well we are equipping them to cope with ...
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