Again, here’s many reviews in a single post. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I get a better definition of normal. A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON A very big miss. There’s a terrific pl…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 07:14AMIt seems almost unbelievable that London has had to wait twenty-seven years for a professional production of Falsettos, the seminal 1992 Broadway musical about a New York family that breaks …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 12:37PMRazor-sharp, ice cold, meaner than a box of snakes, and VERY funny. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s thermonuclear family drama goes off with the force of a fifteen-kiloton bomb. We’re in a plan…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 03:59PMNo, this isn’t an orange advert from 1985. Playing catch-up again: three small musicals, in (coincidentally) diminishing order of size, seen over the last month or so. The Secret Diary of …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 12:01PMCast Robert James Waller’s dazzlingly awful 1992 novel out of your mind. While you’re at it, you might as well forget Clint Eastwood’s almost-as-stinky 1995 film adaptation. This is, y…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 01:34PMOh, come on. You didn’t think a David Mamet play about the Me Too movement with a thinly-disguised Harvey Weinstein figure as the central character was actually going to be good, did you? …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 12:42PMThere’s a danger sometimes in waiting until the end of the run to see a show that everyone has praised to the skies and back again. When you go in after hearing an almost neverending choru…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 11:23AMSee all those stars on the poster? Matthew Warchus’s stellar revival of Present Laughter deserves every last one of them, and so does Andrew Scott. This is a blissfully funny, absolutely p…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 11:30AMYes, five: the UK tour of Lincoln Center’s revival of The King and I in Manchester, Fiddler on the Roof, the last night of the National Theatre revival of Follies, and The Play That Goes W…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 05:17PMIf you’d asked me to place a bet, I wouldn’t have put money on William Finn and James Lapine‘s Little Miss Sunshine – yes, an adaptation of the 2006 film – arriving in the UK befor…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 06:50PMThere’s a moment late in the second act of Jeremy Herrin‘s star-driven revival of All My Sons, which just opened at the Old Vic, when Sally Field‘s Kate Keller appears to age twenty ye…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 06:36PMWe’re all familiar by now with preshow announcements about cellphones and smartphones, right? After last Wednesday night’s performance of the National Theatre‘s very, very wonderful ad…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:53PMMad props, or something, to the very intense woman seated three seats down the front row from me at Wednesday afternoon’s performance of Bruce Norris‘s Downstate, a play so relentlessly …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 07:38PMIn the closing moments of the first act of Local Hero, the new musical based on Bill Forsyth‘s 1983 film, Texan oil executive Mac steps outside a pub in the run-down Scottish village of Fe…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 05:02PM(Yes, I’m playing catch-up. The production closed two weeks ago. Deal with it.) Meet the Baum family: Moe and Rose, comfortably-off Manhattanites who lose almost everything in the 1929 sto…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:33PMThe original Broadway production of Rags in 1986 was a notorious flop, running for just four performances. Despite the short run, it received five Tony nominations, including a nod for Best …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 05:56PMIt’s back, and it’s (even) better. The first time around, Dominic Cooke’s revival of Follies at the National Theatre was simultaneously thrilling, breathtaking, and slightly flawed. Co…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 07:23PMOn paper, Come From Away looks wince-inducing. A musical set against the backdrop of 9/11 following the story of people stranded in a small town in Newfoundland when their flights were force…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:06PMActually, this time the ride could be bumpier. In describing Ivo van Hove‘s fascinating stage adaptation of the classic 1950 backstage drama All About Eve, it’s possibly helpful to start…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:05PMAnother one crossed off the list. I’ve loved Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley‘s score for Violet since the first recording of it was released in 1999, but somehow I’ve never managed to…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:38PMIt’s not giving anything away to say that Lynn Nottage‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat, currently receiving its British premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, basically involves two hours of w…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 05:12PMAndré de Shields knows the value of silence. At the very beginning of Hadestown, the Anaïs Mitchell folk opera currently playing a pre-Broadway tryout at the National Theatre, he steps for…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 05:17PMAnother op’nin, another revival of Kiss Me, Kate. The Crucible‘s Christmas musicals are usually worth looking forward to, and this one is no exception. In terms of execution, it’s up t…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:18PMFun fact: if you were once married to a king, you can still belt out the big notes even after you’ve been beheaded. Six, the clever one-act musical currently touring prior to a second Lond…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:48PMIn the title role in Nottingham Playhouse‘s revival of Alan Bennett‘s The Madness of George III, Mark Gatiss delivers a breathtaking, stunning, dazzling star turn. Well, delivered, it’…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:50PMIt’s probably damning Kinky Boots with faint praise to say that it’s one of the better recent-ish musicals adapted from recent-ish films. It might also raise your expectations slightly t…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 03:23PMTake one Shakespeare comedy. Fillet out most of the poetry, throw in an eclectic set of songs by Shaina Taub, add a brightly-coloured Notting Hill streetscape (by Rob Jones), a thirty-mem…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 03:44PMBy the time the lights fade on the final scene of the Bridge Theatre‘s production of what one must assume is the unrevised first draft of Martin McDonagh‘s very very very uneven new play…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 01:53PMUnderstudies do a tremendous job in difficult circumstances, and often don’t get enough credit for it. I say this upfront because at the performance I saw of Alan Bennett‘s new play Alle…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 04:44PMIt’s probably as well to say this upfront: Stefano Massini‘s The Lehman Trilogy, at least as adapted into English by Ben Power, is basically an extended theatrical stunt. Three (superlat…
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 03:55PMGood news/bad news. Danny Rubin and Tim Minchin‘s new musical adaptation of Rubin and Harold Ramis‘s Groundhog Day deserves every single one of the five-star reviews it received last …
SOURCE: oneapostrophe.wordpress.com at 06:08PM
