A Small Mind At The Theatre

I would like to think that whenever you were born, you would be familiar with the existence of Saturday Night Fever. If you are it would probably be because of one of three things, the tremendous music, the John Travolta strut, or the white suit. However, beyond the iconic badges like this, can Saturday Night Fever still bust the moves in 2019? By day Tony Manero sells paint, by evening he gets it in the neck from his family, by night he shakes his impressive dance moves at nightclub 2001 Odyssey. In between, he plays for the ladies and gets into scuffs which make him limp before his big dance contest. And yes, that's pretty much the storyline there in this version, that fails to use the strands of the original film to better effect, and pursue making it a feelgood music show instead. So, you need to decide if you want your Saturday Night Fever to be just about the music, dance, flashing lights and the opportunity for Richard Winsor as Tony to try to out pose John Travolta...

The 1973 film of The Exorcist is famous more for its content than its quality, and few, even die-hard fans would deny it's of its time to a certain extent. It is also a bold film to choose to stage, involving tricks aplenty and a heavy reliance on not turning the whole thing into a farce. So, does this stage version from John Pielmeier (original book by William Peter Blatty) work, or are we in for a demonic night of theatre? The story, should you not know, is thin and relatively basic, revolving around the possession of 12-year old Regan by a demon calling himself playfully Captain Howdie. It is a sweeping statement to call it a story of satanic child abuse, but that if anything makes it clear to some of the strong content that contains within, and trust me when I say strong. The first thing to know from this version over the 2017 original London staging (originally performed in 2012 in the US) is that for the tour it has been split by an interval, unfortunately, bar takings...

9 to 5 - The Musical is a 2008 show based on the original 1980 film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and music legend Dolly Parton, who with this musical writes the music and lyrics expanding its content extremely successfully beyond the main song 9 to 5 itself. However, the question, is this worth your time in 2019? Simple answer, yes. This two-hour feast of colour, tunes and broad characters provides a ridiculously camp and surreal night of entertainment. The story such as it is (deliberately corny book by Patricia Resnick), revolves around three bold females dealing with the inequality in the workplace, while their lecherous boss seeks a crude conquest of one one of them "girls". It is a fascinating study in fact if you think deeply about how things have taken a long time to change, and not as one character refers, resolved in ten years. However, deep thinking isn't really the point of 9 To 5 , even if it attempts to have a message at its core. In the leads ...

Motown the Musical has had international success both sides of the Atlantic, much like the music it tells the story of. However, despite that success, this jukebox musical, which at times feels like it is on speed dial, due to the intensity of the music, is a mixture of quality, especially when it comes to that second act. Motown the Musical is as much about the music, as it's founder Berry Gordy, and that's no surprise as this 2013 musical is based on his autobiography, To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown. And it is safe to say that despite the talent around him, busy bringing icons of music to the stage, this show is also mostly about Edward Baruwa who plays Berry Gordy. Baruwa gives an exceptional performance, maybe one of the strongest individual ones I have seen on the Milton Keynes stage to date. His depth of emotion in not only his acting but also the emotion he puts through his own renditions of Gordy's songs is exceptional, his v...

I first saw this rebooted version of the sixties musical back in 2016, when at the compact little Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester, director Jonathan O'Boyle first presented it on the stage. The intimacy of the venue, where you were never more than a few metres from all the cast, was perhaps one of its greatest impacts. So, in a space like the thousand-odd seater, Milton Keynes Theatre, the question is, does it still work? The answer is mostly yes. Hair first launched onto the stage in 1967, at the height of flower-power and more importantly for the, admittedly at times light story, the Vietnam War. These hippies are living it high, permanently and fighting the fight against that war, and all it represents. After fifty years, perhaps its relevance wains in that respect, but what we are left with is a kaleidoscopic collection of music and tripping theatre. There is no denying that Hair is an excellent show, but despite revelling in the original version of this version back in 2...

Thirty-nine years after the instantly successful film of the same name debuted at cinemas, Selladoor Productions brings this touring production, headlined by Mica Paris and Jorgie Porter around the country. However, throughout the whole production, even this forty-odd-year-old who watched the spin-off series, and yes, probably enjoyed it, wonders, what is the point? Fame , the musical version, first on stage in 1988, is not the film of the same name. While the format, auditions, freshman year, etc, and the iconic Fame song are here. Very little else from the film is, music and characters are different, the storyline is reworked, it's a sort of Fame hybrid. That doesn't really matter to be fair, each year would be different. New keen students would bring new tales to the Fame Academy each year in any case. In fact, this musical, conceived by David De Silva, with a book by Jose Fernandez, lyrics by Jacques Levy, and music by Steve Margoshes, lives in a world where the Fame fi...

The musical version of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables has been thrilling audiences for over 30 years, and in London is has run continuously since October 1985, so, it is safe to say that it comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on it's UK and Ireland tour will some pedigree. I don't need to sell the name to you, and I didn't need to sell it to myself, because despite never having seen the full version, it is still one of my favourite musicals, thanks to seeing two different School Edition productions and the 2012 film. However, how does this version, the 2009 reimagining of the original stage show stand up on this tour production? After 19 years as a prisoner, Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing bread, is freed by Javert, the officer in charge of the prison workforce. After Valjean promptly breaks parole, he uses the profit from stolen silver to reinvent himself as a mayor and factory owner, but Javert vows to recapture Valjean and is on his trail across the ye...

As a theatre reviewer, I sometimes attend styles of shows that I am a general layperson of, ballet is one. I have seen two before, and both while visually good to watch, I generally didn't know much about the detail they were going into, maybe it didn't matter? Also occasionally when I attend shows with unfamiliar history, I might seek an advisor as my plus one, and as it happened by luck rather than selection, my plus one on this evening was a former ballet dancer. I should plunder their wealth of knowledge perhaps? Actually, I choose not to, but more on this later. Victoria is a new ballet from Cathy Marston, who over the years has illustrated through ballet a great many famous stories, from that of Jane Eyre, Elephant Man and Lady Chatterley's Lover . Here though, Marston brings her choreography to the life of Queen Victoria, taking her diaries as the very driving force of the production. It is, with a little help from the detailed programme story, a cleverly create...

As the audience take their seats for Green Day's American Idiot , a television screen drip feeds snippets of media coverage of both the 9/11 terrorist attacks and President Bush's subsequent war on terror. It's a significant part of the storyline that follows, although the story of disillusioned youths attempting to find themselves is nothing new. These three particular disillusioned friends are Johnny (Tom Milner), Will (Samuel Pope) and Tunny (Joshua Dowen). Johnny and Tunny drop their homes in pursuit of "finding themselves" in the city, while Will has more homely issues dealing with his now pregnant girlfriend Heather (Siobhan O'Driscoll). It's a strong enough story to create a show around, and with Green Day's remarkable lyrics on American Idiot (and a few extra choice songs in the second act), it proves affecting sometimes in a surprising way. The first act is unquestionably the strongest, the best first act I have had the pleasure to ...