THERE has never been a time when the eyes of the world have been so focussed on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, so a revival of Gore Vidal’s play The Best Man could not be more relevant. Bill Kenwright’s new production, starring Martin Shaw as the would-be president of the United States and Jack Shepherd as the…
HOWARD Coggins and Stu McLoughlin, aka Living Spit, are a force to be reckoned with. This Bristol based comedy duo are simply hilarious; their Six Wives of Henry VIII, described as a tragically hysterical history, is just about the daftest, cleverest show I have seen all year. They have clearly built up quite a following…
LAST night’s performance of Kenneth Grahame’s delightful classic The Wind in the Willows was quite unlike any version of the story I had seen or heard before. Completely capturing the innocence of the original, this was a purely musical adaptation of Grahame’s book using traditional English folk melodies – some well-known, others less so –…
IN September 1941 the German army laid siege to Leningrad, and the blockade lasted until January 1944 – the longest and most destructive siege in history. It is thought that more than one and half million people died during the 872 day blockade. Half a million children were evacuated. The Leningrad Radio Orchestra continued to…
Bizet: Symphony in C Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Kirill Karabits: Conductor Steven Osborne: Piano Cynthia Millar: Ondes Martinot The BSO is 125 years old this year, but it’s showing no signs at all of senile decay. This was an ambitious start to what promises to be another outstanding season at…
GRAHAM Harvey is best known as the agricultural story editor of The Archers – but he is so much more than a contributor to the world’s longest running radio soap opera. The clue is in the word “agricultural” because Harvey is passionate and knowledgeable about farming – real farming, farming that cares about the soil,…
THIS is one of those “clever trick” plays which make up an ever-increasing part of Alan Ayckbourn’s work. There are plays that run concurrently on two stages, plays set on three different floors, all staged at the same level, plays that move forward and backward in time, and so on. The clever trick in this…
OPERA Project returned to Bristol’s Tobacco Factory earlier this week with its staging, in English, of one the most powerful works in the repertoire – Tosca. Following the company’s hugely successful production of that other Puccini favourite Madam Butterfly in 2014, this co-production with the venue is both gripping and compelling, the familiar if complex…
RUTH Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, and Marilyn Monroe, died a decade apart. One became a cause celebre in her final weeks, the other was a celebrity in her life. Both were bottle blondes. Actress Joan Ellis (no relation) imagined the last moments of both women for her solo show…
IT Shoulda Been You, a new(ish) musical comedy by Barbara Anselmi and Brian Hargrove, is currently enjoying what could well be its English premiere in the intimate setting of Cooper Hall, Frome. Originally performed on Broadway in 2015, where it was nominated for no fewer than twelve awards, this production was very nearly a UK…