IF Florence Foster Jenkins had been alive today she’d have been a TikTok sensation, says Paul Townsend, director of Glorious! at Strode Theatre in Street this week. Jane Sayer, who plays the role of “the worst singer in the world” at Street, is simply sensational. Her astonishing portrayal of the larger-than-life personality who, at the…
In 1865, when Fleetwood pharmacist James Lofthouse realised that the small bottles, containing a mixture of liquorice, eucalyptus and menthol which he had concocted to help his fishermen friends cure sore throats, were causing problems at sea, he set about trying to find a better way to deliver his soothing medicine. The throat lozenge he…
FOOTBALL fans have now become so fanatical in their support for their team that they very rarely allow themselves the pleasure of admiring top-quality performances and skill if it comes from the opposing team. In so doing, they rob themselves of a tremendous amount of enjoyment and satisfaction. Theatre audiences, although they may have a…
FRED Broom’s production of The Pirates of Penzance, for Salisbury’s Celebrate Voice festival at the Guildhall, could justifiably be called the very model of a modern G and S feast. You need all sorts of things to make this happen. Of course, talented and versatile singers and actors, a stunning accompanist, inspired ideas and colourful…
DEBORAH Warner’s tenure at Bath Theatre Royal’s Ustinov Studio continues with the exciting introduction of opera to the intimate space … and what better start than Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Not many people study the classics in school these days, so the background to the story that has given music the timeless hit Dido’s Lament…
ON a day when our political perceptions were finally torn up and thrown to the winds, what could be better than a village hall full of the sort of community that wraps its warm and dependable arms around you and demonstrates the comforting power of good people working together and driven by good intentions … …
BILLY Howle, in John Haidar’s production at Bristol, may well be one of the greatest Hamlets of our times. The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduate comes to the role without all the expectations piled on David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kenneth Branagh, Andrew Scott, Maxine Peake, Cush Jumbo et al. Instead he brings an electrifying…
THE green willow of longevity encircles Maddy Prior and her latest band, more than 50 years after the founding of Steeleye Span and now touring the UK in celebration. More or less every British folk performer has done time with the band over the years. Three years from the start, Dorset-born Rick Kemp from Little Hanford,…
WHEN you set out to present the musical Mack and Mabel, you take your theatrical life in your hands. When it was first produced on Broadway it received eight Tony award nominations, but won none of them and only ran for only eight weeks. When it arrived in England it was only the persistence of…
SHAKESPEARE’S ninth play, The Comedy of Errors, is a gift for a director keen to play with perception, time and identity. Set in Ephesus, it starts in a flashback as Egeon, imprisoned and under sentence of death for breaking the immigration laws, tells of his earlier life. He was happily married when his wife Emilia…