Writer: Eleanor Bergstein Music Supervisor: Conrad Helfrich Director: Federico Bellone Choreographer: Gillian Bruce Reviewer: Sue Collier Dirty Dancing is set in the summer of 1963, an era of great American social change. This is the time of President John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights Bill and Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. It is also a time when a ...
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Music: Giacomo Puccini (Act III – Franco Alfano) Director: Annabel Arden Reviewer: Dawn Smallwood Turandot is last of Puccini’s operas and is based on Carlo Gozzi’s play of the same name. This season, Opera North is staging this new production in a concert format following the successful Wagner’s Ring Cycle last summer. This is an opportunity to appreciate Puccini’s rich ...
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Writer: Deborah McAndrew Based on a novel by: Anne Bronte Director: Elizabeth Newman Designer: Amanda Stoodley Reviewer: Ron Simpson Not before time, Anne Bronte is being rescued from her position as the “third” sister in every way, the one who, in Lip Service’s Bronte parody, Withering Looks, has just popped out for a cup of sugar. In fact, her novels ...
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Original Script: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli Director: Sally Cookson Writer in the Room: Mike Akers Music: Benji Bower Designer: Katie Sykes Reviewer: Ron Simpson La Strada was devised by the company, a largish ensemble with as many dancers and musicians as actors, under the direction of Sally Cookson and with Mike Akers on hand as ‘writer in the ...
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Book: Richard Morris & Dick Scanlan New Music: Jeanine Tesori New Lyrics: Dick Scanlan Director: Racky Plews Musical Director: Rob Wicks Reviewer: Rob Atkinson On the face of it, the traditional “boy meets girl, they have issues, but end up happy ever after” musical theatre story is unlikely to be aided by the addition of a subplot around what they ...
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Writer: Charlotte Brontë Director: Sally Cookson Music: Benji Bower Reviewer: Beverley Haigh 2017 marks the 170th anniversary of the first publication of Charlotte Brontë’s most famous work. Fittingly, Bristol Old Vic in collaboration with The National Theatre has brought Sally Cookson’s devised adaptation to the stage in a ground-breaking reimagining for modern audiences. As an enduring and landmark piece of ...
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Writer: Michael Morpurgo Adapter: Samuel Adamson Directors: Timothy Sheader and Dale Rooks Reviewer: Ron Simpson The Children’s Touring Partnership is halfway through a four-month tour of the Chichester Festival Theatre/Regent’s Park Theatre production of Running Wild, a wonderfully elaborate production to take on the road. It is advertised as being for six-year-olds upwards, and Michael Morpurgo, Samuel Adamson and the ...
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Writer: Willy Russell Producer: Adam Spiegel Director: Glen Walford Reviewer: Rob Atkinson There can be few theatrical challenges more daunting than a one-person show, the spectacle of a lone actor taking on the responsibility for the entertainment of a whole audience over the span of a couple of hours. When that show consists of what is essentially an extended monologue, ...
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