All stories by Mark Fisher on BroadwayStars

Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Sound of Music review – charming musical nourishes the soul by Mark Fisher

Pitlochry Festival theatreIn our dark times, the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics offer a sugar-coated disguise for a show with political heft Elizabeth Newman’s six-year tenure as Pitloch…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM
Friday, November 15, 2024

The Scouse Red Riding Hood review – Grandma gets high in raucous adult panto by Mark Fisher

Royal Court, LiverpoolWolf-like property developers are set to evict the grandmother, who is on a night of drug-fuelled abandon, in this enjoyable show This is Liverpool, so the most frighte…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:48PM
Thursday, November 7, 2024

Fixing review – delightful off-road adventure about family mechanics by Mark Fisher

Alphabetti, NewcastleWritten and performed by Matt Miller, this tender solo show weaves in bittersweet childhood memories with car maintenance metaphors We have signed up for a 12-week cours…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:54AM
Friday, November 1, 2024

Kenrex review – Jack Holden is astonishing in a play that grips like a true-crime podcast by Mark Fisher

Playhouse, SheffieldThe actor plays a dozen roles with aplomb in a small-town US tale co-written with Ed Stambollouian What an astonishing performance. In a kind of true-crime version of Und…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:31AM
Thursday, October 31, 2024

Bright Places review – reflective yet raucous play about living with MS by Mark Fisher

Birmingham RepRae Mainwaring’s award-winning drama about a young woman with multiple sclerosis is given a playful production This play’s title refers to the patches of an MRI scan that i…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:06PM
Wednesday, October 23, 2024

The Whitby Rebels review – true-life tale of madcap mission to the Arctic by Mark Fisher

Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAn unlikely crew, including a vicar and two pensioners, sail a dodgy ship on a voyage to honour an explorer. But the sitcom setup fails to deliver much com…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12AM
Tuesday, October 1, 2024

The Lieutenant of Inishmore review – the fur flies as Martin McDonagh’s cat-loving thug returns by Mark Fisher

Everyman, Liverpool Julian Moore-Cooke is terrific as Padraic, avenging his pet, but the mix of humour and gory violence needs fine-tuning in this revival The joke at the heart of Martin McD…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM

Anna/Anastasia review – the seductive delusions of an imaginary duchess by Mark Fisher

Òran Mór, Glasgow A plain-speaking policeman finds himself confronted by one of history’s great impostors in Jonny Donahoe’s entertaining play Anastasia is attempting to look regal in …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:32AM
Sunday, September 29, 2024

To Save the Sea review – Brent Spar oil rig resounds with song in a Greenpeace musical by Mark Fisher

Tron, GlasgowNearly 30 years on, environmental activists’ occupation of the North Sea fuel store gets an ambitious, heartfelt musical treatment This time last year, Just Stop Oil protestor…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PM
Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves review – full-blooded fairytale leaps for the jugular by Mark Fisher

New Vic, Newcastle-under-LymeThe pack prowls the stage and falls from the sky in this dark and dynamic production combining Carter’s rich gothic language with impressive aerial skills The…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AM
Thursday, September 19, 2024

Abigail’s Party review – Mike Leigh’s excruciating suburban comedy still stings by Mark Fisher

Northern Stage, NewcastleVast amounts of shagpile set the scene for Jack Bradfield’s production of the grotesque classic about materialism and status chasing It ends with a blast of Prince…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:32AM
Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Romeo and Juliet review – star-crossed lovers double up and dazzle by Mark Fisher

Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotExuberant production sees spoken word and physically expressive BSL users mirroring each other as they audition to take the lead roles Unusually for a Sha…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:02PM
Thursday, September 12, 2024

Show & Tell review – Ayckbourn’s latter-day Lear blusters around the front room by Mark Fisher

Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughWhen the retired MD of a department store books a theatre company to perform at his home, relationships and reality begin to unravel If, like Alan Ayckbour…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:48AM
Friday, August 23, 2024

The Brenda Line review – humanity on the helpline for heavy breathers by Mark Fisher

Pitlochry Festival theatre Harry Mould’s sweet and sexually frank debut focuses on the female volunteers at the Samaritans in the 1970s charged with talking to ‘telephone masturbators’…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:36AM
Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Edinburgh goes bananas for cult show with a gorilla costume, a rocking chair and little else by Mark Fisher

Back for its 15th year, this festival favourite finds a bespectacled primate sitting silently on stage for 56 minutes – to wild applause The queue snakes around the bar, stretches down the…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AM
Monday, August 19, 2024

Chemo Savvy review – cancer comedy inspired by actor Andy Gray is less about death than about rebirth by Mark Fisher

Gilded Balloon at the Museum, EdinburghAlan McHugh’s play is about grief and the agony of treatment – but also hope and laughter in the face of adversity What a lovely thing to have done…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12AM
Friday, August 16, 2024

Willy’s Candy Spectacular review – even the Sad Oompa Loompa can’t save this parody by Mark Fisher

Pleasance Dome, EdinburghThis unfunny spoof of Glasgow’s dismal Wonka-themed attraction is as short of ideas as the event that inspired it How we laughed at Willy’s Chocolate Experience,…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:31AM
Thursday, August 15, 2024

Beyond the jokes: comedians switch to theatre at Edinburgh festival by Mark Fisher

Cancel culture, faltering fatherhood and the life of a tennis champ are dramatised as standups including Ivo Graham, Anna Morris and Adam Riches take a theatrical path this summer Sam Kissaj…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:00AM
Wednesday, August 14, 2024

L’Addition review – superbly absurd comedy is waitering for Godot by Mark Fisher

Summerhall, EdinburghTim Etchells’ looping performance piece with Bert and Nasi replays a simple restaurant scene over and over with hilarious results Like a volley of Ken Dodd jokes or on…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00PM
Sunday, August 11, 2024

At the fringe with your kids? Edinburgh festival shows for families by Mark Fisher

Younger audiences can choose from fart jokes, dancing lizards, acrobatic bees and plenty of other monkeying around Pleasance Courtyard, 11.30am, until 25 August Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AM
Saturday, August 10, 2024

Precious Cargo review – Vietnam’s ‘operation babylift’ orphans look back by Mark Fisher

Summerhall, EdinburghBarton C Williams, flown out of Vietnam at the end of the war, recounts his experiences of racism in Adelaide and tells the stories of others relocated around the world …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:51PM

Yurts, a cruise ship, my flat: all the city’s a stage at the Edinburgh fringe by Mark Fisher

From the backseat of a moving car to a swimming pool, what constitutes a venue at Scotland’s sprawling arts festival never fails to surprise Of all the extraordinary things about the Edinb…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:17AM
Friday, August 9, 2024

Comala, Comala review – haunting and hallucinatory musical theatre from Mexico by Mark Fisher

Zoo Southside, EdinburghThe mezcal’s on hand for this strange, song-filled journey into the land of the dead If Juan Rulfo’s magic realist novel Pedro Páramo has the feel of a séance, …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03AM

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show review – startling comedy sprung from class war and grief by Mark Fisher

Roundabout @ Summerhall, EdinburghA hard-up dramatist is determined to pay tribute to her mum in Kelly Jones’s deftly handled play, produced by Paines Plough In Michel Tremblay’s Le Vrai…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
Thursday, August 8, 2024

So Young review – spirited cringe comedy uncorks shock and awks by Mark Fisher

Traverse, EdinburghA couple visit a bereaved friend only to find a surprise awaits in Douglas Maxwell’s comedy of social embarrassment Instead of Chekhov’s gun, we have Maxwell’s whisk…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:55AM
Wednesday, August 7, 2024

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me review – raw and radical country connection by Mark Fisher

Summerhall, EdinburghWith big hair, long dress and Appalachian accent, Charlene Boyd finds common voice with the singer in a personal and political show The most powerful country songs are t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:59AM
Tuesday, August 6, 2024

VL review – electrifying comedy about teenagers’ race to lose ‘virgin lips’ by Mark Fisher

Summerhall, EdinburghThe schoolboys from the 2018 comedy Square Go are back and on their way to a disco with high hopes and fears On the way out, I hear someone tell his friends he had been …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:53AM

Nation review – chilling vision of a town gripped by fear and hatred by Mark Fisher

Summerhall, EdinburghWriter and actor Sam Ward dissects how a community breaks down in this vivid one-man show It is not the kind of topicality Sam Ward would have wished for, but the curren…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05AM
Monday, August 5, 2024

The Sound Inside review – fiction spills into real life for two unworldly writers by Mark Fisher

Traverse, Edinburgh When a disappointed novelist teaching creative writing encounters a student fascinated by Crime and Punishment a dangerous passion is sparked At one p…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00PM

Cyrano review – Virginia Gay has a nose for romance in gender-swap update by Mark Fisher

Traverse, EdinburghThe actor-playwright trims Rostand’s classic and plays the lead with charisma in a breezy, feelgood show The joy of Virginia Gay’s irreverent version of the Edmond Ros…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AM

Penthesilea review – three tribes go to war in gripping, grungy battle by Mark Fisher

Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh In Eline Arbo’s taut production of the neo-classical play, Ilke Paddenburg’s Amazon queen presents a fearsome clash of sensuality and aggression When two tribes g…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:52AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic