THERE is a review of Terry Gilliam’s marvellous production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods, on at Bath Theatre Royal until 10th September, that describes it as “overstuffed”. This, presumably, from someone who, by an accident of tardy birth, missed the Pythons, the traditions of pantomime, the illustrations of fairy tales and perhaps the whole steam-punk …
IT is 35 years since Alfred Uhry’s play Driving Miss Daisy was first performed, and two years later the multi-Oscar winning film was released. To mark the anniversary, the exciting Barn Theatre in Cirencester invited Simon Reade to mount a new production, which opened this week with a cast of Susan Tracy, Mensah Bediako and…
THE announcement of Deborah Warner’s appointment as new artistic director of Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio came just weeks before COVID-19 swept across the world. The growing band of fans of the venue, in which Laurence Boswell created exciting and memorable work during his tenure, just had to wait. What would Warner bring to the…
THE results of the 2022 Great Taste Awards, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, based in Gillingham, include 529 Great Taste star products from the south west. From blood orange marmalade to hot and cold smoked salmon and kimchi, the awards demonstrate the amazing variety and creativity of food producers around the region, the…
THE combination of Jim Steinman’s words and music, and the wide vocal range and dynamic delivery of those numbers by Meat Loaf, created a string of international best sellers in the 1970s and 80s that have become pop classics. Since its premiere in Manchester in 2017, this show, which incorporates 19 numbers from the Bat…
THERE are few more delightful ways to spend an evening than enjoying glorious ballet and dance, with a delicious dinner, under an open-sided marquee, in a beautiful walled garden. OK, the stars weren’t much in evidence on Sunday evening for the last of the three performances of Ballet Under The Stars, but we had stars…
AMERICAN playwright August Wilson wrote a cycle of ten plays about his home city of Pittsburg, and Jitney was the first written, and the last performed. It is set in the early 1970s in an area of the city where licensed taxis didn’t venture, so was served by unofficial “jitneys”. The action takes place in…
A NEW reserve at the Countryside Regeneration Trust’s Bere Marsh Farm, near Shillingstone, has been opened in memory of the pioneering farmer and conservationist Angela Hughes, who died in 2009. Angela was a dairy farmer who championed wildlife-friendly farming and was committed to protecting and conserving the natural world. She owned East Farm at Hammoon,…
MONDAY 18th July 2022 was one of the hottest days on record in this country, and the heat lasted into the night, which in many places saw record temperatures. It was not a night to be in 1950s style clothes under theatre lighting. So, firstly, congratulations on the professionalism of the Swan Theatre cast for…
EVERYTHING about Les Misérables is on the grand scale. Author Victor Hugo first had the idea of writing a novel about social misery and injustice in the early 1830s, but it was 1862 before the 1,462-page novel was published. Despite a luke-warm reception from some critics, the show, now in its 36th year in London,…