January 2022 As we await the known unknowns of Omicron, one’s sanity becomes an object of speculation among one’s acquaintances. I am fed up. Jaded. Exhausted. None of this is normal. Normal has walked the plank. I tell you this not as aimless revelation but because I want you to know, as you read this, precisely who […]
2021. The year that tried to one-up 2020. Truly. (I think being a neurotic, worrisome person slightly prepared me for it) An extraordinary year for British theatre. Anyway, for my final blog of the last rollercoaster 12 months, I present my Top 5 shows of the year: 1) Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club- Playhouse, London Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club made […]
December 2021. A Covid tidal wave is crashing into us. Theatres are faced once again with critical and tough restrictions despite robust measures in place to keep their staff and audiences safe. The situation is dire and deteriorating. The number of Covid cases reported on Wednesday was the highest yet during the pandemic. You read that […]
Stunningly designed by Tom Scutt, London’s Playhouse Theatre is transformed into the Kit Kat Club – and Eddie Redmayne is its emcee – for this jaw dropping – expensive (the lowest price in the top two ticket price bands is £120)- production. In this grand, in the round space, these Kander and Ebb songs recall, […]
Sometimes playful, sometimes dark master of words and melody who became the most celebrated writer of musical theatre of his generation
What a triumph for the National Theatre to make a riveting nightmare out of this long-anticipated transfer. Two years after The Ocean at the End of the Lane’s first staging, Neil Gaiman’s dark fairy-tale has returned, this time to the West End. The story from Gaiman’s award-winning book is about the escape a lonely child finds in […]
Ian Shaw plays his film star father Robert in this behind-the-scenes tale of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster
David Hare is furious at the BBC after it rejects his Covid play, starring Ralph Fiennes
In this age of extremes, I often find myself at the sharp end of funding squeezes, local authority cuts, and am continually alarmed by the devastating demise of arts in our state schools. As you can imagine, it truly depresses me. So, I was delighted to be invited to a soft-launch of the National Youth […]
Bat Out of Hell is the first big musical to be staged at the theatre and it’s a night of delirious entertainment. It’s a tale of unrequited love from different sides of the track, with a parent determined to keep them apart. Story wise, it is post-apocalyptic Peter Pan. Jay Scheib’s totally electrifying production re-imagines the jukebox […]
