Agatha Christie may be “the Queen of Crime” novelists, but what happens to her in the theatre has sometimes been downright criminal. For far too long her work has been consigned to the repertory dustbin, to be dusted off and wheeled out to prop up many a musty theatrical season.
Review: Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is full of glimpses of, and glances towards, other shows from South Pacific to Pacific Overtures, too, as well as its operatic source. But it remains a striking, occasionally strident, example of musical theatre craftsmanship. I wish it hadn’t been burdened here by over-production, but there’s no question that audiences are getting their money’s worth, and that it will be a massive hit all over again.
Review: The Merchant of Venice
I’ve never seen a production of this play resonate quite as powerfully before, either. Ian McDiarmid charts Shylock’s disastrous pursuit of a pound of Antonio’s flesh with a relentless determination that undoes him.
Review: Memphis
The Broadway Tony winner makes a triumphant transatlantic crossing, thanks especially to the firebrand presence of Beverley Knight
Review: Matilda
The RSC have hit the musical jackpot once again with Matilda, a show of bite, bile and some brilliance based on Roald Dahl’s popular children’s story about a young girl who is utterly neglected by her horrible parents and finds a refuge in books and storytelling.
Review: Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!, here I go again! And again and again — and still I can’t resist it. I reckon I’ve now seen it at least 14 times around the world from San Francisco to Stockholm, and last Monday, I was back at the original London production as it celebrated its 10th anniversary (coinciding neatly with the 35th anniversary of Abba’s Eurovision song contest win with ‘Waterloo’ that launched their international careers).
Review: Made in Dagenham
British musicals have been in the doldrums for a while now — as well as I Can’t Sing!, there was also the early closures of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Stephen Ward and Tim Rice’s From Here to Eternity. At last we have an original new show worth celebrating.
Review: King Charles III
Last year we had two speculative theatrical imaginations of our reigning monarch the Queen’s interactions with her Prime Ministers: a whole slew of them in The Audience, and with just one of them, Margaret Thatcher, in Handbagged (which coincidentally has just transferred to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre).
Review: Jersey Boys
No, it’s nothing to do with cow milkers in the Channel Islands; but Jersey Boys is a musical that’s the cream of the crop of pop compilation musicals that have lately become a theatrical epidemic. One of these was a 60s jukebox show called Oh What A Night, and it’s a pity that it therefore stole the title this one should have had
Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
The National Theatre is on another amazing run of hits that has turned it into Britain’s most successful theatre, bar none. Every single show now playing there is worth seeing, but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is unmissable. Like War Horse that has given the theatre its biggest-ever hit, it is based on a book but it translates it into something thrillingly theatrical that hugs the audience in its warm embrace.