JOHN Mortimer, who would have celebrated his centenary this year, is perhaps best remembered for creating the immortal Rumpole of the Bailey. His largely autobiographical play A Voyage Round My Father first came to public attention 60 years ago, as three short radio plays. Later adapted for film and for television and stage plays, this…
SALISBURY’S multi-award winning Studio Theatre, now based in Ashley Road, has recently celebrated its 70th anniversary, but in all that time and all those plays, it has never produced a work that centres on LGBTQ characters and issues (to be fair, no-one had ever heard of the ever-expanding LGBTQ categorisations for the great majority of…
IF you are old enough to remember a time when many houses did not have indoor toilets and when soft loo roll did not exist (torn up newspaper was often used), you can wryly sympathise at the slightly disgusted puzzlement of the young cast members of Stronghold of Happiness, a play-within-a-play, adapted by Dorset writer…
OVER the years since the 1984 release of the concept album from which this show evolved, it has developed quite a cult following. But it has always had a mixed reception from critics and audiences, here and in other parts of the world. The original production ran for three years in London’s Prince Edward Theatre,…
WHEN you walk on stage and immediately feel that the entire audience is on your side, sympathetic to what you have to offer and on the same comedy wavelength, it must be very tempting to relax, become self-indulgent and not work too hard. That was the sort of reception Matt Tedford received when he set…
VERY often you can get the flavour of a show from the audience. Arriving for a matinee performance of this musical whodunnit from the Olivier Award-winning team responsible for Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, and thinking of the response to their success at the Edinburgh fringe festival, I was surprised that the majority of the audience…
DESCRIBED as one of the most popular children’s stories ever written, Roald Dahl’s work has survived several re-writes – in order to make it more acceptably politically correct – and two blockbuster film versions, since it was first published in 1964. When it was first suggested that it would make a good stage musical, there…
‘You lucky people, if it’s laughter you’re after, Trinder’s the name’ it was with those words that Tommy Trinder, one of the most consistent best all round comedians of the twentieth century usually started his act, and with slight alterations they would make a good prologue to the Theatre Royal Bath and Birmingham Rep’s production…
IT’s just like watching a ferret down a rathole, was a description of a very strong-willed lady as she began a discussion about a new contract. The ferocious intent that description conjures up could well be applied to actor, singer, comedian, and writer Tracey Collins in the way in which she swept onto the Tobacco…
IN the 1990s, when this story began, Take That was one of the biggest bands around, and after their reforming in 2006 after a lengthy absence, they are still big players. This show, featuring the greatest hits sung and danced by Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne, and Alexandra O’Reilly, is also big….