______ 30 August 2023 ______ 3*** ______ No specific knowledge of the hugely popular cartoon ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ is required to follow the musical, currently on its premiere UK tour; as I have none myself. First appearing on stage in 2016 in Chicago it is a fun entertainment, largely aimed at young people, but with many […]
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______ 28 August 2023 ______ 2** ______ First performed in the 1960s and then regularly during the 1970s, ‘The Mating Game’ is one of a plethora of ‘sex’ comedies from that era; this one concerning a successful TV talk show host whose amorous couplings never reach their longed-for conclusion. As he tries to finally lose
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______ 26 August 2023 ______ 4**** ______ Well known stories don’t come much bigger than ‘The Hound of the Baskerville’s’; countless film and TV adaptations have sat alongside stage versions over many decades. Transferring Conan Doyle’s great stories for the theatre is not something for the faint of heart – these are tales of surprising
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______ 21 August 2023 ______ 4**** ______ The ‘police procedural’ TV drama has, in the last few decades, become something of a fallback for those in the industry; the schedules are overloaded with them. Stage versions of the genre are, however, rare. Peter James’ full-length novels about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace all contain the word
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______ 14 August 2023 ______ 4**** ______ The art of comedy is, at its very basic level, to make us laugh. Farce adds further elements to the mix; freneticism being an example. British farceur, Ray Cooney, throws everything he has at his 1983 play ‘Run For Your Wife’ and the results leave the audience caught
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______ 7 August 2023 ______ 4**** ______ The ultimate backstage musical; 42nd Street hit the stage in 1980 and is based on the 1930s film of the same name. It is, in many respects, a jukebox musical with songs picked from a variety of sources. It is a big show and deserves a big production.
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_____ 31 July 2023 _____ 4**** _____ Take an onion and gradually peel away the layers of skin one at a time; in this action you have the methodology of Richard Harris when he wrote ‘The Business of Murder’. A huge success when it was first performed and ran for many years in London with
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