A Small Mind At The Theatre

The 1990s movie Single White Female was a classic pulp fiction offering of the time, off the back of films such as Fatal Attraction and released in the same year as the legendary Basic Instinct , these were the ultimate times for erotic thrillers/bunny boiler films. So, the question is: is such a genre still relevant today, and, even more so, can a theatre play succeed in transferring the theme to a new medium altogether? Allie is a recently divorced mother trying to juggle single parenting with starting her own tech company. To help with expenses, she looks for a lodger and finds Hedy, who seems like the perfect solution. However, as they get to know each other, the lines between their lives start to blur, and what seemed like an ideal setup begins to fall apart. For those familiar with the original film, there will be immediate observations of changes that adaptor Rebecca Reid has made. While lifting the entire plot from the US to the UK is obvious, developing Allie into Bella's...

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 ...

It is now a quarter of a century since Legally Blonde first hit the screens, featuring Reese Witherspoon in the iconic role of Elle Woods, and now 19 years since the film became a Broadway musical. Legally Blonde is back on tour and now at Milton Keynes for a fresh take on the show. So, in the hands of director Nikolai Foster, who often likes to shake things up, is this pink spectacle as relevant and enjoyable as it has been in the past? Legally Blonde tells the story of Elle Woods, a UCLA sorority sister who tries to get into Harvard Law School to win back her boyfriend, Warner. During her time at Harvard, Elle begins to realise that things beyond Warner are becoming increasingly more relevant to her progress in life. The role of Elle Woods is in the hands of Amber Davies, a now very big name beyond theatre, thanks to her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing . However, more significantly here, is being fresh from victory at the WhatsOnStage Awards for her performance in The Great Ga...

The first Horrible Histories book, written by Terry Deary, first hit the shelves a remarkable 33 years ago and has since become a historic event in its own right, with the franchise growing and growing. There have now been 23 books, several TV series, a game show and a film. Also, of course, it is now a stage show, with both Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians on a current tour around the country. However, here, now briefly at Milton Keynes Theatre, as part of its own tour, is Horrible Histories - The Concert . So, given the franchise's past success, what is this concert version adding to the franchise? The quick answer is bundles of fun with lashings of subliminal education, as Horrible Histories is very much known for. The cast, created from a collection of mainstays of the original series or tours and a few extras, are as enthusiastic as possible for a production, very much initially aimed at an audience of children. Bold, big in character and overplaying everything, you canno...