A Small Mind At The Theatre

The film director Baz Luhrmann is a somewhat unique person, the creator of colourful, cartoon-like characters, broad landscapes, and an exceptional user of contrasting music styles. As a result, his work is a Marmite entity, and this musical of Luhrmann's first film, Strictly Ballroom , very much falls into another area between those jars of Marmite in itself. It embodies the sheer ridiculous cartoonish world the film inhabited, but under the direction of Craig Revel Horwood, sometimes becomes a muddled mess, with less clarity than the film. However, is it worth your precise theatre time? This is a maybe. It doesn't start well, well, when it started after a ten-minute technical delay, that is, as there is an introduction from director Craig Revel Horwood that feels like it goes on forever and makes the toes curl with the inane content. Even before that, we had also had the announcement that the star of the show Kevin (Clifton) from Grimsby was not performing, so, before the sh...

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...

This new stage adaptation by Roy Williams of Michael Rosen's Unexpected Twist is a very important piece of theatre. Much like a pantomime's appeal, this special little production could be key to a lifetime of theatre activity for young people who experience it. The production, directed by James Dacre, ticks so many of the boxes to make this interesting for them, talk of mobile phones, streetwise kids at the stories centre, R&B, and beatboxing. It is as down with the kids and as cool as any Royal & Derngate Made in Northampton production I have seen and in arrangement with The Children's Theatre Partnership this is something very special. Not to say that this show is just for kids, as this is as much for grown-ups as well. Rosen's story takes Charles Dickens Oliver Twist , and wait for it, twists a new story from it while linking brilliantly to the trials of life and families in 2023. You see, every modern character in this story sees their world collide with a...

The grotesque world of Roald Dahl has thrilled and repulsed children of all ages for decades and the current trend of new versions of his work through films is showing no signs of that diming with Matilda , The Witches  already out, and even a new "origin" film Wonka due for release this year. So, it is no surprise to see this musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory relaunch for a UK tour at Milton Keynes Theatre. First performed at Leeds Playhouse in November 2022 ahead of this tour, this is a reworking of the original production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 2013, and while it still has much of the original in this version, there are a few surprising changes and a few more obvious ones for a vigorous tour. So, the question is, should you seek out that golden theatre ticket to see the show? For those unfamiliar with the story, there must be someone, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tells the tale of Charlie Bucket, a child of a poor family, who spends muc...

The 2011 British comedy film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was a surprise success at the box office, maybe thanks to having a star cast including the likes of Judi Dench and Bill Nighy. Such was the success, that it spawned a sequel in 2015, and then even a rather curious TV series about The Real Marigold Hotel . So, with all that success, maybe it is no surprise that reaching Milton Keynes Theatre this week as part of a UK tour is a stage version of the story. So, is this a further success in the series, or spreading the same old story too thinly? The simple answer is that  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as a stage show, in this incarnation, does seem very thin. This is a safe, tremendously simple British comedy, which for the first act at least presents very little drama or story-telling, and just a sort of getting-to-know-the-assembled old folks, who, as the story states, have come to the hotel, to retire, and escape life, or find new love. None of that simplicity is to t...

Matthew Bourne over the years has become perhaps the most recognisable name in ballet in the UK and despite ballet feeling at times for the elite, Bourne has managed to make ballet more for the masses than any other director out there. His innovation in storytelling and attention to detail brings his work a great style and flair to proceedings. This time around, this tour is revisiting an earlier work from 2012, Sleeping Beauty , and fresh from opening at Plymouth and then an eight-week run at Sadler's Wells, the tour for 2023 begins at Milton Keynes Theatre. So, the question is, is it something worth staying awake for? Well, Sleeping Beauty is, put simply, a delight in nearly every respect. As is characteristic of Bourne's work, this is effortlessly accessible ballet and to some extent, contemporary dance. Where some pieces can get confusing in the storytelling, especially if it is a less familiar story, Bourne has a way of making you know exactly what is going on. Most peopl...

The global star that is Cherilyn Sarkisian, more commonly known to us as Cher, has been around in the public eye for so long now that there is very nearly no generation alive that hasn't been touched by one iteration of her. Therefore it is perhaps apt that  The Cher Show , which premiered in Chicago in 2018, tells the life of Cher through three performers, who are so different in many ways, despite in essence the same person. Those "characters", in order, are Babe, the young, on the edge of stardom version, and the “babe” to Sonny Bono in their first global hit, I've Got You Babe . Then for the seventies period, Babe becomes Lady, the more hungry for fame and strong Cher, and the one fighting her corner as Sonny drives her to react badly to their partnership and relationship. Finally, the eighties bring us Star, the final incarnation, the film star, the star of adverts, the singer of Believe and Cher ready with a tweet or two on Twitter. It is an excellent format and...