A Small Mind At The Theatre

The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel is perhaps the perfect antidote to the troubled times we are in, harking back to when things were perhaps simpler and mass media and the press were less in your face. Not to say that bigshot Charlie Chaplin didn't make a name for himself in more than just the movies he made. This though is a warm show, filled with love. This show is based on the very real tale of the 1910 ship heading course for New York, which aboard were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, unknown, but part of Fred Karno’s music hall troupe, and destined for different, but very major futures. Told by an Idiot's production with Theatre Royal Plymouth (and Royal & Derngate and Unity Theatre) breaks down the tale of the voyage of the SS Cairnrona with intriguingly created flashbacks of the life, generally of Charlie Chaplin. Therefore along the course of the voyage, we see Laurel's moment as understudy to Chaplin, the birth of Chaplin (brilliantly

Everybody's Talking About Jamie apparently, so this new musical leads us to believe, as it continues its first UK tour launched just a month ago. The musical written by local boy done very good Tom Macrae alongside Dan Gillespie Sells and Jonathan Butterell has been playing to packed audiences and rave reviews since launching in 2017, first in Sheffield and then in London, so we need to talk about Kevin's (aka A Small Mind) thoughts. Jamie New has a dream, a dream not many 16-year-olds harbour. He dreams to be a drag queen. However, while his mother Margaret and her best friend supports the idea and encourages him to live the life he wants, others including his father and school "bigshot" Dean think other things. However, when Jamie meets shop propriety Hugo, he finds his dreams may well become reality. Everybody's Talking About Jamie is proper theatre, feelgood, sharp writing and clinically but also nicely nuanced direction and choreography from Kate P

After what seemed an age, it was a delight to finally have a play to see at Milton Keynes Theatre, following an abundance, of admittedly very good musicals. So, was this turn towards straight play with Band of Gol d, a sparkling gem, or something you might have picked up in Ratners? Gina is down on her luck, short of money, recently split up from her husband and trying to look after her child while dealing with the loan shark she has fallen into a trap with. When she meets Carol and Anita through the course of her new job as a cosmetics seller, perhaps a very dark but profitable world may open up to her. Back in 1995, Kay Mellor's Band of Gold became a huge success on television offering groundbreaking roles for the likes of Cathy Tyson and Samantha Morton, and this play, written by Mellor herself follows the storyline in condensed form, of the first series. Unfortunately, any regard for the quality of this original series is lost in the wake of this broken and poorly create

Although I did slip into The Royal last year to see this production of The Last of the Pelican Daughters ahead of its Edinburgh Fringe adventures, I didn't put fingers to keyboard and review it. So, as it happened to be back and refreshed from its successful run there, it was time for another viewing and finally what I think of this show from the creators of the incredible Education, Education, Education ? The four Pelican daughters gather at the home of their late mother to celebrate what would have been her birthday, and also a little "discussion" of her estate, fuelled by more than a little resentment of second daughter Storm and her hope for the money to be shared "fairly". Add a mix of many lurking family resentments and the scene is set for what is a comedy, but also bitterly sad at times as well. So, first things first, this latest offering from The Wardrobe Ensemble is a long way from the sharpness, skill of characterisation and sheer incredibility

While I have now managed to see quite a few stage productions and some films of the works of the pairing of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, The King and I , their 1951 musical (their fifth together) has passed me by. So, fresh to story, and mostly fresh to the tunes, did this captivate the way this classic show should? Anna Leonowens travels with her young son Louis to Siam to teach English to the many, very many, children and many wives of the King. While there she hopes to influence the King and get him to bring his country up to date and follow perhaps the more open world of the Europeans. A quick glance at the programme of The King and I signals that this performance is going to be in quality hands, with both Annalene Beechey and Darren Lee as Anna and the King sporting remarkable biographies. It shows as they are quite amazing throughout the show. They form an amazing partnership together with their both very strong in character personalities sparking off one ano

Curtains comes with much to live up to, created by the legendary pairing of John Kander and Fred Ebb, no less than Cabaret and Chicago among their work, this was their final show working together before the death of Ebb in 2004. It also forms what on paper looks a brilliant concept, a "musical whodunnit". So, does it fill with intrigue and thrills, or does it end up being more of a whocares? When Jessica Cranshaw, star of Robbin’ Hood!, a musical set for Broadway, is murdered onstage, detective and not shy of the stage himself, Frank Cioffi, arrives to solve the case. Can he solve it though without getting distracted by the cast and the thrill of the greasepaint? First and foremost with Curtains is that it looks fabulous. The set from David Woodhead evokes the look of the theatre perfectly, simple and effective. Added to this costumes from Gabriella Slade look sublime as well, making it a visual delight, all creating the era extremely well. Elsewhere perhaps the

In my theatrical exploits, I have rarely ventured into the world of the theatre of standup comedy, often due to a mixture of terror at being targetted in the audience, partly due to the concern that I will have an evening of not getting the comedy, and also the fact that wise people keep telling me, you can't see anything. Therefore my comedy to date has been a mixture of the occasional, I saw them on the TV and liked their stuff variety, or that I am stalking Sara Pascoe once again. However, on the night of 20th February 2020, I found myself in the Charles Bradlaugh pub (more familiar to me as my Monday night quiz haunt) and attempting to convince those I was with to sit as far away from the stage as we could. As it happened we ended up in a neutral zone of not at the back but also not at the front, in the nether region where the lighting doesn't quite show the horror upon your face as you are caught in the glowing lights of the mischievous comic out for audiences blood.

The creators and cast of Once sure know how to get an audience onside as a fifteen-minute pre-show good old knees up was more than enough to get the crowd clapping. It's a noble effort of extra material on what is in itself quite a long show already, but is it worth the effort, or does all this pre-show jollity mask an insubstantial show? Once is based upon the 2007 film of the same name written by John Carney, and it has to be said it is slight little tale and benefits greatly from the magnificent songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. Tale goes as such, Guy (Daniel Healy) discards his guitar and plans to do who knows what, Girl (Emma Lucia) stops him, gets him to fix her "hoofer" and rekindle a romance of old that inspired all his music. However, do the guy and girl fall for one another instead? Despite its simple, well-told tale of boy meets girl, Once , even at over two hours is a riveting show, full of invention, big characters and the aforementioned song

Alistair Beaton's theatre adaptation of Hans Fallada's original book surprises from it's very beginning with the appearance of Jessica Walker as the narrating statue, Golden Elsie, and then for its complete duration makes you challenge everything that you and they in war-torn Berlin lived by. Thinking theatre is often the best, and Alone in Berlin, the latest offering from Made in Northampton (with York Theatre Royal and association with Oxford Playhouse) makes you think more often than many an offering. The original novel is a sprawling and deep, nearly 600-page, piece, therefore, Beaton makes two main characters our eyes on the world. Otto and Anna Quangel have lost their son fighting in France, and they challenge their own beliefs and the beliefs of the nation with a fight back against what is ripping their country and the world apart. Set mostly within the Quangel's home, this play and Jonathan Fensom's brilliantly claustrophobic set exhibits everything

Being of about the right age when Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine first started to make it big, I was quite a fan. Even going so far as to have a few old vinyl singles and a couple of her albums on this new fangled CD system, in what was an admittedly limited music collection. In this collection was my favourite Estefan album, Cuts Both Ways, which included the track Get On Your Feet , which of course inspired the title of this relatively new musical of the life of the Estefan's. So, does it captivate this distant original fan, and or does it resemble a dad doing a bit of Latin dancing? On Your Feet! is a telling of the Estefan's battle for success beyond the Latin market and interspersed with snippets of what made them who they were with family flashbacks, and it's safe to say that it is an endless mix of success and failure. Where it works; vibrant colours from costume, backdrops, some superb choreography, and excellent music from the superb, occasiona

While settling down to write my third review of a ballet (only also the fourth I had seen), it strikes me that I am still limited in my understanding and slightly feel a fraud for attempting to even write a review of one. However, then I think what I always do at this stage, that I shall be here to offer advice to those potential new audience members who are thinking of challenging themselves with a bit of different art, advice as to whether to take the plunge. So, here as a bystander to proper ballet knowledge, I offer my thoughts of Sleeping Beauty by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia. The tale of Sleeping Beauty needs little introduction, and as my previous encounter with the Siberia ballet, Cinderella attested to, this can be the best way of getting into ballet as a layman. Knowing the story well, goes a long way to enjoying ballet, and who doesn't know about Sleeping Beauty and the knitting needles? This production immediately captivates with the colour and energy of