A Small Mind At The Theatre

The iconic musical Singin’ in the Rain has gone down in history as one of the greatest musicals, and perhaps even those who have never seen the show will be very familiar with that one scene, the title track, because of both the film itself and for non-musical fans, that all-time classic Morecambe & Wise parody sketch of it. Now 70 years, almost to the day, of that film's debut, this new stage version, first performed in March 2022 at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, reaches Milton Keynes Theatre on a national tour. Set in the 1920s, Singin’ in the Rain tells the story of movie celebrity couple Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont and the film company they work for, Monumental Pictures, battle to get into the newly emerging “talkies motion picture”, despite the technical issues and Lamont’s unique voice. When Lockwood meets fellow actor Kathy Selden in a chance encounter, he becomes smitten and needs to find her again. Leading the cast as Don Lockwood, and in the iconic role made fam...

This weekend I found myself back at Cripps Hall Theatre to see the alternate cast performance of The Addams Family Musical , and it was every bit as entertaining as the first. For my Team Cousin IT review click here , but for now, let us talk about Team Thing. Leading the cast in this version was Ben Mineards, and he presented an accomplished performance bringing a delightful physicality to the role of the head of the house Gomez and dealt some brilliant comic timing. Eleanor Butt played with a slick deadpan nature his wife Morticia, and I have to say her vocal skills extremely impressed me. Her singing was strong, confident and was one of the strongest singers across both productions. I really enjoyed both Violet Clarke as Wednesday and Mia Leader as Pugsley. They provided great humour and worked excellent as the sibling partnership. Robson Scott meanwhile was a delightfully enthusiastic performer as Uncle Fester and had great charm which helped in this characters role as the narrator...

In a parallel universe, this second cast version of Masque Theatre’s production of Constellations by Nick Payne did not fall foul of serious rehearsal impediments to Covid. However, alas, both cast members Gemma Knight as Marianne, and Anthony Burgess as Roland fell to Covid at different times and in this universe, the best part of three weeks of rehearsals was lost. However, on the evidence of their performance, it impacts less than you might think on the final product. Foremost, this is the same show as my previous review of Constellations , so for that click here to see the gist of the production rather than going over the same ground here. Repetition is for Constellations itself, not my review. However, there is much that feels different in this version performance-wise. Knight and Burgess bring their own dynamic to the show. They are older than the other performers, so, they bring more experience of life to the show’s feel. Little nuances that you only earn from living life. You...

I first saw the stage musical version of The Addams Family five years ago, and this, the school edition presented by NMTC Youth Society offered an intriguing prospect of how the somewhat dark humour that the main show might have been toned down. It came as quite a delight, in the end, to discover that, mostly, it hadn’t been toned down at all. Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s book, and Andrew Lippa’s lyrics, constantly relish in death and the methods of. And in a very subtle, and clever moment, the show even has a covid joke, which for once, I actually liked. The shows can stop doing it now though. Gomez is of course the main player in this musical, and what a truly brilliant performance Joe Jeffery brings to the stage. It is a total show of confidence and his stage presence is brilliant for someone so young. I also absolutely loved his comic timing, making the most of every little joke in the show. Hatti Taylor equally shines as Morticia, a slinky and stylish performance, which rel...

We have all; I am sure, said something that we instantly regretted, or in a tone that we felt could have been better, and this interweaving and fantastical play Constellations , written by Nick Payne, explores the ways one relationship can be affected by just simply saying and doing something in a different way. Payne’s play is an immense achievement in the clever scene and character creation, and over one-act, leaves an impact rarely achieved in such a short space of time. It is simply a two-hander play charting a relationship over an initial meeting at a barbecue to, well, you will have to see the show to find out where. However, the clever structure actually gives us a glimpse of the end of the play in the second scene, as this play uses parallel universes and bends time throughout. Masque Theatre, like a lot of productions of this play, has different actors performing this play, and the evening I saw this, Brooke Gillingham and James Lickman were the actors portraying the character...

The stage show Lord of the Dance possibly needs little introduction to most people, as it has become a legend and now, in this touring version, subtitled rather immodestly, 25 Years of Standing Ovations, it reaches a landmark anniversary. Those that do not know of the show would probably well know its spiritual fathers Michael Flatley, and even more likely Riverdance , from which Lord of the Dance sprung with a proper spring in its step. During the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, Riverdance hit the world by storm as Michael Flatley and his troop of dancers possibly presented the most famous part of Eurovision ever, certainly of the non-singing variety at least. Here, this touring show brings that same style Flatley created from traditional Irish dancing across the country once again and it is truly something special to see. The concept of the show is simply a battle between good and evil told through dance, and some captivating and stunning songs performed by Celyn Cartw...

This touring play called Catch Me If You Can could easily be mistaken for the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, or indeed the later musical that spun from it. However, this is very different, a rather intriguing adaptation of a 1965 French play, Trap for a Lonely Man, by Robert Thomas and adapted here by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert. Equally intriguing is the appearance of Dallas legend Patrick Duffy in the cast. So, should you be catching this play as it tours around the country? That is the first mystery to solve. Daniel Corban’s wife Elizabeth has gone missing days after their marriage. Calling Inspector Levine to his honeymoon retreat in the remote Catskill mountains, Corban is desperate to find her. Then in the company of a local priest, Father Kelleher, she returns. Or does she? In this constantly twisting and turning play, that is the sum of the story that should be shared here. To experience this play's labyrinthian twists and turns is much of the fun of this p...