Tag Archives: Musical

Writers: Gary Barlow and Tim Firth Director: Matt Ryan Designer: Robert Jones Reviewer: Julia Beasley Getting naked for charity was a cheeky move by 11 female friends in North Yorkshire over 20 years ago. Modestly poised with sunflowers, teapots and currant buns,  their Women’s Institute nude calendar started life as a local controversy. It was all quietly subversive and heaps ...

Music and Lyrics: Cindi Lauper Book: Harvey Fierstein Director and choreographer: Jerry Mitchell Reviewer: Kelyn Luther The original film, Kinky Boots, was written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, the latter of which wrote Calendar Girls (the musical adaptation is running at Theatre Royal Plymouth from 22nd July 2019). Charlie Price (Joel Harper-Jackson) inherits a shoe factory from his father, but ...

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 ...

Writer: Dennis Kelly Music & Lyrics: Tim Minchin Director: Matthew Warchus Choreographer: Peter Darling Reviewer: Leah Tozer Just because I find myself in this story, it doesn't mean that everything is written for me. Ah, the wisdom of children – the whimsical wonder and childlike delight that children can’t wait to outgrow and adults wish for once again is often ...

Music and Lyrics: Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx Director: Cressida Carre Reviewer: Dominic Corr We’re back on Avenue Q, running for fifteen years the street is still offering up an evening of filth, wickedness and yet holds a mirror up to its audience more than ever. Just when you thought bright colours and puppets were for kids, Avenue Q proves ...

Book and Lyrics: Bill Russell Music: Janet Hood Director: Bryan Hodgson Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Ghosts are a staple of AIDS texts. At the end of LongtimeCompanion, one of the first films to address the AIDS crisis, survivors are greeted on the beach by those they have lost to the virus. In The Inheritance, the most recent play documenting the epidemic, ...

Writers and Composers: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoe Roberts Reviewer:  Richard Maguire The West End may be awash with American musicals at the moment, but if Operation Mincemeat is anything to go by, the best place to see new British musicals is the fringe. This clever, whacky and quintessentially British show about a Second World War plan to ...

Writer: Emma Reeves based on the novel by Jill Murphy Director: Theresa Heskins Reviewer: Dominic Corr Long before the boy who lived, there was a young witch who despite great intentions would always end up face first on the floor or in more trouble than she started. The Worst Witch saw a series of delightful children’s books by writer and ...