IT’S a rare occasion when any entertainment involving pop music asks the audience to resist the temptation to sing along with every song they recognise – but that was the request to the excited audience who gathered in the Bristol Hippodrome to watch The Bodyguard. The reason was that, left to their own devices, this…
AND the show went on … “The show must go on” is one of the best known theatrical sayings, and it was never truer than at Bath Theatre Royal on the opening night of London Classic Theatre’s three day run of Abigail’s Party. Ten minutes into the show, Rebecca Birch, who was playing the leading…
HUMAN beings have been ringing bells for around five millennia – and this ancient art is still alive and thriving today, from the ringtones on your mobile phone to the great bongs of Big Ben, preceding BBC Radio 4 news. If you are lucky enough to live near a church with a set of bells…
JUST as the world’s press is full of news of striking movie actors, fighting for their place against the invisible but encroaching forces of Artificial Intelligence, up comes Bath Opera with a production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro played out on a film set, where the casting couch is king and #MeToo is finding…
WHEREVER you go these days – doctors surgeries, pharmacies, schools, shops, banks … – there are signs saying that zero-tolerance policies exist and that customers mustn’t be rude and abusive to staff. And you can’t even blame Boris for that one, or Brexit. Most of us agree that manners have been diluted and rudeness is…
FIRST of all, congratulations to every one of the huge cast involved in Wincanton Primary School’s end of term Year 6 and Year 5 show, Peter Pan. It was directed by the teachers of the two classes, who chose Mark, Helen and Naomi Johnson’s version of the familiar story with its script by Sue Langwade….
IF you thought politics was the most cut-throat game in town, you might have second thoughts, after watching this tale of competitive dancing in Australia. The running out of Jonny Bairstow in the recent Ashes Test match pales into insignificance compared to the underhand dirty tricks that the dancers indulge in to come out top…
DIRECTOR Robert Graydon was determined to find “something royal” for his 2023 show at Yeovil’s Swan Theatre, and when it became clear that The King’s Speech was not available, he settled on Royce Ryton’s 1972 play Crown Matrimonial. It could hardly have been a happier choice. The play, set in Queen Mary’s drawing room in…
WHEN Sasha Regan sets out to direct a new all-male production of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, she doesn’t adapt or change the original – she simply wants to tell the story and transport the audience “into a make-believe world full of laughter and tears.” And she does just that brilliantly in this revival of…
ROBERT Harling’s family-inspired play Steel Magnolias was first performed 35 years ago, since when it has become a regular choice on stages across the English-speaking world. Many people know it from the classic 1989 film, and its popularity crosses professional and amateur productions. But it’s not all plain sailing – the professional national tour that…