Review of Murder On The Dancefloor at St. Albans The Martyr Church, Northampton

When you see the expanse of theatre that I do, sweeping from the cream of the West End, TV and film, onto fledgeling students, to youth theatre, amateur theatre, huge touring shows, it is quite a challenge to get the balance right in a review.

Most especially when going to a show such as Murder on the Dancefloor by St. Albans Charity Players. This is community, am-dram of the highest order, it is no frills, often loosely performed, but also occasionally unexpectedly very impressive as well. However what is key with this is that you look beyond any flashes of fluctuating quality and step back and see the importance that shows like this have to that community.

Murder on the Dancefloor takes dance show Strictly Come Dancing as its background and shakes an interactive murder mystery stick at it. It is always truly silly, as one of the character names, Crane Breville-Hardwood suggests. It is filled with the most garish of typical dance scene dresses, all overdressed, over made up and blinding colours. Also, those costumes adorn the most ridiculously over the top characters, caricatured within an inch of their lives.

So we have the insanely camp Marcus Hillery played with brilliant relish by Brian Roberts, then the creepy Lawrence Bough (Derrol Barnes) peeping on the ladies dressing rooms, and you have the costume mistress, Roxy Rhinestone (a gloriously bitchy performance from Jerry Delaney). Wherever you look in Murder on the Dancefloor you see the brightest and weirdest people, and for the best part the cast bring them vibrantly to life.

Colin W Gasson's script is clever enough to offer intrigue and it weaved a spell around many present, myself included, who failed to spot the actually rather obvious culprit, despite it in true Agatha Christie style laying the blame at potentially everyone. However, on reveal (once the inspector had got up to speed), it actually turned into a rather good solution, which I was sad to have failed to spot. The event was also enhanced by some lovely little performances from Top Hat Theatre school.

It all created what was a simple, yet thoughly entertaining afternoon. It ended rather dramatically and caught pretty much all of us unawares with the staging, and was a little surreal at times. However, this is just simple harmless entertainment and at the end of the day, something that I enjoy as much as the stars of the big stage. The theatre is at all levels, otherwise, it doesn't exist at all.

Performance reviewed: Saturday 28th October 2017 (matinee) at St. Albans The Martyr Church, Northampton.

Murder on the Dancefloor ran until Saturday 28th October 2017.

Review of & Juliet at Milton Keynes Theatre

First performed in 2019, & Juliet has become quite a global success, and now, as part of a UK Tour, it has arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre for a two-week run. Featuring a book by David West Read, it tells the what-if story of the survival of Juliet at the end of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet . Primarily a jukebox musical, it more specifically features the works of Swedish songwriter Max Martin (and friends, as the credits describe). The question is, does & Juliet provide more than the standard of many a jukebox musical before it, and does it honour the tragic tale from which it has sprung? Our story opens with William Shakespeare presenting his latest work, Romeo & Juliet , for the first time. However, when his wife, Anne Hathaway, learns how he intends the tale to end, she is away with his quill and planning on her reworking of the story. At the core of this touring production's success is Geraldine Sacdalan's powerhouse performance as Juliet. Her Juliet ...

Review of Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

This production of The Great Gatsby performed by Northern Ballet was my fifth encounter at the theatre of a full ballet production and as before, I happily share my review of the show with nearly zero knowledge of-the-art form and more of a casual theatre-goer. You could say that this is a poor direction to come in on a review, but I would say that casual audience are the ones to review this for. Over the years, Northern Ballet has set quite a high benchmark for ballet productions, and any audience member who is worth their salt as a ballet fan would no doubt have tickets for this new touring version of the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby , lovingly created by David Nixon OBE. So much is Nixon part of the very fabric of this show, that he not only provides the choreography and direction but also the initial scenario and costume design (assisted by Julie Anderson). So, discounting those ballet fans already sitting in the audience, what does this offer for the more casual theatre-goer ...

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

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