A Small Mind At The Theatre

There is no question that Rifco Theatre Company, the producers of Frankie Goes To Bollywood , now running at Royal & Derngate as part of a UK Tour, have come up with a cracking title for their show. However, as Bollywood descends upon Northampton, the question is, is this a gimmick title attached to a shallow show, or are we heading for Bollywood dreams? The show, unsurprisingly, follows a character named Frankie and tells the story of her dream to become a Bollywood star, a dream she shares with her best friend, Goldy. Following an opportune encounter with a famous Bollywood director, Frankie is invited to audition for his next movie, and her adventures begin. However, will the dream be the one she truly imagined? What is evident with Frankie Goes To Bollywood on stage is the love for creating a big, bold production. The staging is colourful and tries very hard to be epic, just like the Bollywood movies that it tells its story through. Unfortunately for all the boldness on offer,...

The iconic 2004 teen movie Mean Girls has, despite 22 years passing, maintained relevance in modern youth culture; its “cautionary tale” still resonates. Therefore, back in 2017, original screenwriter Tina Fey created her musical adaptation of the story, maintaining the original's female empowerment and recognition of individuality while adding a little sprinkling of modernity, such as the arrival of mobile phones. It was such a success in London following a US debut that this UK Tour, now reaching Milton Keynes, was inevitable. Cady Heron, a teenager who has been home-schooled in Kenya, relocates to Chicago and confronts the fiercely competitive world at her new high school. Guided by the outcasts Janis and Damian, she strives for belonging but is soon drawn into the superficial "Plastics," ruled over by Regina George. Cady’s attempts to navigate both social circles spiral into rivalry, manipulation, and payback. While Mean Girls  may miss its target audience for this m...

Formed in 2011, the theatre group The Wardrobe Ensemble has created many shows for both adults and children. Over the years, they have established a rich connection with the Royal & Derngate, staging several productions here, including the recent Mog: The Forgetful Cat . With Party Season now opening at the venue, the focus returns to an adult-centred show. Party Season tells its story through three children’s parties over the course of one weekend. The usual social situations occur, awkwardness, one-upmanship, and the true chaos of such events as children descend on a single house. Though the setting is children’s parties, Party Season goes deeper. It explores what it means to be a parent, and in one amusing moment, what it is like not to be one. Party Season is a return to the triumphant balance that The Wardrobe Ensemble has between buffoonery and stark, human emotional storytelling. The simplicity of seeing a switch from the cast doing Gangnam Style to an emotional monologu...

During the late 90s and early 2000s, the dance-pop group Steps was a mighty presence in the British charts. They accumulated two number-one albums in the UK and 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles, including two number ones. They were juggernauts of lightweight pop. It is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2024 for a musical to be based on their hits. Now, writer Shaun Kitchener brings enough campness to keep Alan Carr and Julian Clary in work for decades. Here & Now , the show everyone was waiting for, is at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. So, the question is: has it been worth the wait? Here & Now is, fundamentally, a ridiculous concept that should not work. Set in a supermarket, yes, a supermarket, our eclectic cast of characters go through the typical dramas of many a musical as love and drama unfold against a backdrop of jukebox music. It should never work, but it does, extremely well in fact. A huge amount of the success here has to go to writer Shaun Kitchene...

Sunny Afternoon , the Kinks-inspired jukebox musical, debuted on stage in 2014. Featuring Ray Davies' music and a book by Joe Penhall, it first found success in London before a UK tour in 2016/17. Now arriving at Milton Keynes Theatre with a new 2025/6 tour, the question remains: with some songs now over 60 years old, is Sunny Afternoon still relevant to today's audiences? While this is a jukebox musical, this show follows, via this system, the story of the formation and eventual success of The Kinks rather than creating a random story from the songs. Opening with the band The Ravens, the group is safe and sophisticated, with their prim-and-proper lead singer. However, the true band of the future, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Mick Avory and Pete Quaife, are itching for freedom, to break away, especially writer Ray, who wants to create songs that mean something to people. Enter the suits of management, and the rocky creation of The Kinks begins. I had the pleasure of seeing Sunny A...

The intellectually leaning Inspector Morse first appeared in print in the works of Colin Dexter in 1975 and became even more prominent in popular culture in 1987 when John Thaw took on the role in a series that would run for fourteen years. As well as generating a couple of spin-off TV series, Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep have now finally taken the detective to the stage in Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts , an original story written by TV series contributor Alma Cullen. So, as the play arrives at Milton Keynes Theatre this week with Tom Chambers now taking the eponymous role, does the Oxford intellectual make a smooth transition to the stage? Our story opens with Morse enjoying a stage production of Hamlet with a would-be love interest, Ellen. As expected, things quickly turn towards the need for a detective in the house as one of the players mysteriously collapses and dies live on stage. House of Ghosts opens excellently, drawing the audience in as a classic Hamlet scene suddenly ...