A Small Mind At The Theatre

This Sunday I had the honour of attending the celebration event of the Royal & Derngate 10th Anniversary. This was a record of the overwhelmingly successful years since the two theatres were brought together following a £14.5 million merger and refit to bring the two venues together in a single access complex. While I am a mere beginner at Royal & Derngate, with not yet three years of visiting under my belt, it was delightful to be invited to this event. Our hosts for the event were Jack Shaloo and Katie Bernstein (who interestingly only for me perhaps, I saw as understudy as Little Sal in Urinetown in London in 2014) who presented the show via an always entertaining and often really funny song routine. Accompanied by Dougal Irvine on guitar (who was also the creator of the music and lyrics) and Ollie Hance on piano. The witty song took us through the shows and different areas that the theatre has worked on through the years and sledgehammered a way to introduce each of th...

While I had seen several theatre musicals this year at the local Royal & Derngate, I had yet to experience the full London effect until I settled down in my seat at the Apollo to watch Urinetown. I had grown to like musicals more this year after my first live one Blood Brothers in March and finally decided to make the effort in the big city. Also despite publicity and negative comments regarding the title Urinetown, this made it appeal to me slightly more to my bizarre mind. I am glad I did, what I witnessed was two glorious hours of fun, frolics, dark (very dark) humour, blood, dance and some singing as well. It is a musical. On arrival in the theatre the set from Soutra Gilmour cuts an imposing, perfect dystopian figure. Tough steel work, dull and grim, perfect. Before the show begins the creepy Officer Lockstock (Jonathan Slinger) starts to prowl the stage and is soon joined by Little Sal (understudy Katie Bernstein on my evening). As the show begins these two break the fourth...