All stories by Neil Norman on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Revisor review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘Gogol meets Kafka in a dark farce’ by Neil Norman

Choreographer Crystal Pite and writer Jonathon Young’s first collaboration, Betroffenheit, hatched a new kind of theatrical/dance language. The soundtrack propelling the dance

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:04PM
Monday, March 2, 2020

Francesca Hayward: ‘Criticism of Cats never upset me, the performers all share a sense of humour about it’ by Neil Norman

In three years, Francesca Hayward rose from the Royal Ballet’s first artist to principal in 2016. Last year she reached a new

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AM
Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Isadora Now review at Barbican Theatre, London – ‘an intense and vivid tribute’ by Neil Norman

Viviana Durante’s all-female company is purpose-built for this triple-bill tribute to the “mother of modern dance”. The revival of two short pieces

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:57AM
Thursday, February 20, 2020

Message in a Bottle review at Peacock Theatre, London – ‘jukebox show of unusual depth’ by Neil Norman

This collaboration between Kate Prince’s hip-hop dance company ZooNation and singer-songwriter Sting is as successful as it is surprising. The judicious selection

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:34AM
Friday, February 14, 2020

Pina Bausch’s Bluebeard review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘unequivocal, uncompromising and still shocking’ by Neil Norman

Pina Bausch made this groundbreaking work in 1977. By deconstructing formal dance structures, applying abandoned theatricality and asking performers to excavate and

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:36AM
Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Aisha and Abhaya review at Linbury Theatre, London – ‘adventurous collaboration between Rambert and the Royal Ballet’ by Neil Norman

Inspired by Andersen’s The Little Match Girl and the plight of refugees, this artful collaboration between Rambert and the Royal Ballet is

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:01AM
Monday, January 20, 2020

Onegin review at Royal Opera House, London – ‘ferocious and captivating’ by Neil Norman

Choreographer John Cranko was the Marlowe to Kenneth MacMillan’s Shakespeare. Onegin is his masterpiece, created for Stuttgart Ballet in 1965 and revised

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:14AM
Thursday, January 16, 2020

Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia review at the Royal Albert Hall, London – ‘spectacular and thrilling’ by Neil Norman

Mexico is too often reduced to cerveza and tequila, bandidos, big hats and even bigger cacti. Billed as ‘A waking Dream of

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:36AM
Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Nutcracker review at Royal Albert Hall, London – ‘an inventive but muted staging’ by Neil Norman

Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall is a risky enterprise. Derek Deane’s Swan Lake worked well in the space but Birmingham Royal

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:03PM
Friday, December 13, 2019

Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘dazzling’ by Neil Norman

Imagine a cross between Giselle and The Wizard of Oz. Death by dancing and scarlet footwear. Matthew Bourne’s interpretation of Powell and

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:33AM
Friday, November 15, 2019

Dorrance Dance Triple Bill review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘tap-fest loses its sparkle’ by Neil Norman

From the industrial stomp of Tap Dogs to the sole-shifting beats of Savion Glover, tap dancing continues to evolve. Michelle Dorrance is

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:42AM
Friday, October 25, 2019

Natalia Osipova: Pure Dance review at Sadler’s Wells – ‘raw passion and beautiful ugliness’ by Neil Norman

Seven pieces in two hours. It’s a tall order for anyone even if you are one of the planet’s most celebrated ballerinas.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:18AM
Tuesday, October 1, 2019

La Fresque review at Sadler’s Wells – ‘laced with lyrical eroticism’ by Neil Norman

Enticement. Entrapment. Enslavement. And hair. Lots of hair. Following Angelin Preljocaj’s singularly sinister vision of Snow White, this latest work appears to

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:59AM
Wednesday, September 11, 2019

David Bintley: ‘At this point I simply want to make dance, not be stuck in an office’ by Neil Norman

Dancer, choreographer and artistic director David Bintley has led Birmingham Royal Ballet for 24 years, but this summer that all changed. He

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:00AM
Monday, August 12, 2019

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘bang on the money’ by Neil Norman

Every generation has its Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann on film, Rudolf Nureyev and Kenneth MacMillan in ballet. Now

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:04AM
Thursday, August 8, 2019

The Bright Stream review at Royal Opera House – ‘Shostakovich ballet suffers from comedy cliché overkill’ by Neil Norman

Shostakovich’s ballet about a farm workers’ collective in the Russian Steppes was briefly popular in 1935 until an article in Pravda damned

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:13AM
Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Giffords Circus: Xanadu review at Chiswick House – ‘the little circus with a big heart’ by Neil Norman

This year’s theme at Giffords Circus is the Summer of Love, circa 1967, and the acts assembled by the redoubtable Nell Gifford

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:27AM
Wednesday, June 12, 2019

San Francisco Ballet review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘youthful vigour and physical dexterity’ by Neil Norman

The San Francisco Ballet concludes its London season with another scintillating trio of UK premieres. The company’s youthful vigour, physical dexterity and

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:40AM
Friday, June 7, 2019

Cinderella review at Royal Albert Hall, London – ‘no shortage of spectacle’ by Neil Norman

Created in 2012 for Dutch National Ballet, Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella is stirred but not shaken from its traditional roots. The shift from

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:04AM
Monday, June 3, 2019

Sergei Polunin: Rasputin review at London Palladium – ‘eye-rolling theatrics and thundering melodrama’ by Neil Norman

There can be no ignoring the irony. Ballet’s ‘bad boy’ Sergei Polunin as the ‘mad monk’ Rasputin has an undeniable appropriateness. It

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:25AM
Thursday, May 23, 2019

Four Quartets review at Barbican Theatre – ‘anaemic response to TS Eliot’s enigmatic poem’ by Neil Norman

It is possible to make a non-narrative ballet from a literary classic, as Crystal Pite’s The Tempest Replica and Wayne McGregor’s Woolf

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:34AM
Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Royal Ballet’s Kevin O’Hare: ‘We have a breadth of new talent. I can’t help but be a proud parent’ by Neil Norman

The former dancer took over as director of the Royal Ballet in 2012 with a reputation as a safe pair of hands.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:00AM
Monday, April 29, 2019

Israel Galván: La Fiesta review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘magnificent surrealist flamenco’ by Neil Norman

There is a sadness at the heart of Israel Galván’s latest work. Inspired by the end of a flamenco performance when all

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:14AM
Friday, April 5, 2019

English National Ballet’s She Persisted review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘wondrous and rewarding’ by Neil Norman

When US senator Mitch McConnell admonished fellow senator Elizabeth Warren in 2017, who refused to be silenced, with the phrase “Nevertheless, she

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:37AM
Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Romeo and Juliet review at Royal Opera House, London – ‘lacks sizzle’ by Neil Norman

Kenneth MacMillan brought psychological depth and sexual passion to the classical repertoire with his first three-act ballet. Not that you’d know it

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:24PM
Monday, March 18, 2019

The Thread review at Sadler’s Wells, London – ‘impressive reworking of traditional dance’ by Neil Norman

Three years in the making, this project from choreographer Russell Maliphant and composer Vangelis is all Greek to me. Straying well beyond

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:17AM
Monday, January 21, 2019

Asphodel Meadows/The Two Pigeons review at Royal Opera House, London – ‘a perfect pairing’ by Neil Norman

The contrasts could hardly be more pronounced. Youthful vigour versus dulcet experience; aesthetic abstraction versus trad narrative; cool objectivity versus tear-jerking melodrama.

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:11AM
Thursday, January 17, 2019

Manon review at London Coliseum – ‘an exemplary performance from Alina Cojocaru’ by Neil Norman

This touring production of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon is stripped to kill. Originated by the Royal Danish Ballet its spartan design is cool,

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:47AM
Monday, December 24, 2018

Circus 1903 review at Royal Festival Hall, London – ‘agreeably old-fashioned mix of circus and theatre’ by Neil Norman

It is hard to imagine a less circus-like environment than the auditorium of the Royal Festival Hall. Yet Circus 1903 is more

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:15AM
Friday, December 21, 2018

2018: Best dance of the year by Neil Norman

It was a year of peaks and troughs in 2018, of rising stars and returning veterans, old dogs and new tricks. Classical

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:00AM
Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Les Patineurs/Winter Dreams/The Concert review at Royal Opera House – ‘a very mixed bill’ by Neil Norman

This Royal Ballet triple bill is a classic example of ‘Chequers Deal’ programming. The attempt to please everyone results in a deeply

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:43AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards