IN the last line of the lyric of the title song of this show are the words that sum up this whole production … “and we’ll have love, laughter, be happy ever after”. From the moment the curtain rises to the wholehearted finale, BLOC, the only local company to present shows at this 1,904 seater…
YOU would do well to come to this the second stage play version of an Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus novel never having read any of his 25 Rebus novels, or seen the character depicted on TV by John Hannah and/or Ken Stott. If you have done either of these you probably have a very firm…
WALKING past the stage door after the show, I was overtaken by a petite young lady desperately attempting to explain to her very large companion (he could have been cast as an arch tough guy in Peaky Blinders) that what they had been watching was not a narrative tale, but one full of serial symbolism….
FOR many in the varied press night audience at Bath Theatre Royal, Big Brother would have been a TV show they had seen since childhood, and Room 101 a favourite radio, and later television comedy show. Perhaps that’s why it was necessary for the Lindsay Posner production of Ryan Craig’s adaptation of the iconic 1949…
WITH echoes of the tragic illness and death from multiple sclerosis of the great cellist Jacqueline du Pre hovering like a ghostly spectre in the background, this highly emotionally charged two-hander explores the relationship between a 42-year-old internationally renowned violinist Stephanie Abrahams, newly diagnosed with MS, and her psychiatrist Dr Feldmann. For two and a…
IT would seem that Colin Ingram, the producer of the current tour of Grease, has the same philosophy when it comes to selling something to the public as Tesco founder Sir Jack Cohen, who is credited with saying ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’. From the start, this production leaves nothing hidden, putting everything out…
IT was a courageous act by BLOG when they choose My Fair Lady for their 2024 production at Bath’s Theatre Royal. I can almost here the cries of “How can you say that, My Fair Lady is one of the all time great musicals, so why did it take courage to choose it ?” The…
READING recent reviews of performances and plays seen at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, it would appear that practically every presentation and performance was a smash hit, including Scaffolding. It was therefore a little with the attitude of ‘go on – show me how good you are’ that I arrived at the Bristol Old Vic’s Weston…
IT is common practice nowadays to take a successful musical film or a drama (some with a minimum of music involved), and adapt it for the stage as a musical. A few have benefitted from the transfer, others, like Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, have fallen by the wayside despite good reviews and audience reaction….
ART, Yasmina Reza’s award-winning hit play, is a very odd thing, when you think about it. It is a play by a French woman dramatist, about three men (the women are only referred to as peripheral characters and frankly get a pretty bad rep), about male friendship and about art. These are very French themes…