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Life of Pi: Breathtaking puppetry and philosophy create stage magic

By |2022-12-30T20:03:21+00:0022 December 2022|Tags: , , , , , |

Not long left to catch Life of Pi in the West End. If you possibly can, I recommend you beg, borrow or steal to get one of the last remaining tickets – or plan ahead now for the five-time Olivier Award-winning play’s 2023/24 tour.

The Lesson: If knowledge is power, does ignorance kill?

By |2022-07-23T15:15:20+01:0019 July 2022|Tags: , , , |

How do you cope in a world gone mad? That seems to me to be the central question in two of Romanian-French playwright Eugene Ionesco's one-act plays, The Lesson and The Chairs, written in the aftermath of the Second World War

Operation Mincemeat: Oh my god, this World War II escapade actually happened?

By |2022-02-13T23:27:43+00:0013 February 2022|Tags: , , , , |

I have a sneaking suspicion that we have not seen the last of this little musical gem, which is - incredibly - inspired by a real-life World War II espionage episode demonstrating British pluck and eccentricity in spades. 

The Shark Is Broken: This play has helped me conquer a life-long fear

By |2021-12-05T15:57:25+00:005 December 2021|Tags: , , , , |

I was fascinated by the story behind the play telling the story behind the film. The Shark Is Broken is the brainchild of Ian Shaw who co-wrote it and stars as his own late father Robert Shaw.

The Choir of Man: Dedicated to the 2000 pubs closed during lockdown

By |2021-11-18T10:59:55+00:0017 November 2021|Tags: , , |

Here's a sobering statistic: 2,000 pubs closed during lockdown. Lost forever. The scale of that loss really struck me when I heard performer and (brilliant) poet Ben Norris recite it during The Choir of Man at the Arts Theatre. And, in fact, it's likely an underestimate.

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of): Serving up Jane Austen with a karaoke twist

By |2021-11-16T18:56:01+00:0012 November 2021|Tags: , , , , , |

There are some shows with modest beginnings that seem to have all of the industry behind them, willing them to succeed. Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) is one of them.

Back to the Future: Nostalgic screen-to-stage sci-fi custom-made for superfans

By |2021-10-05T12:20:56+01:005 October 2021|Tags: , , , , |

This is not a project born of outsiders wanting to cash in, but rather a long-held ambition, some 16 years in the making, of Back to the Future's creators.

The Last Five Years: The piano is the new star in Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander

By |2021-09-27T11:09:49+01:0027 September 2021|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

There's a line in The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown's semi-autobiographical musical two-hander about a relationship breakdown, that gets me every time.

Frozen: Disney’s big-budget blockbuster musical melted my heart

By |2021-09-13T11:15:37+01:0013 September 2021|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

While London has had to wait a long time for Disney’s own screen-to-stage adaptation, its September arrival makes it feel as if Christmas has come early to the West End.
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