Monday, December 9, 2013
On Saturday I attended an up-beat Christmas concert in St Paul’s Covent Garden, the actors’ church. It included numbers from musicals, carols, some traditional Christmas hymns and readin…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:36AMFriday, December 6, 2013
Churchill, Bromley: There's a lot to commend in this show. Andrew Agnew gives us an unusually avuncular Scottish Buttons who spares us all that excruciating 'be in my gang' st…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:14PMThursday, December 5, 2013
Olivier, National, London: Bunny Christie's designs, with their deep black, angular shapes, lamp posts and reversible flats pushed downstage, make imaginative use of the Olivier's …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:10AMOne of the USPs of the franchise chains of stage schools is that they can – and a lot of them do – bring members of the various sites together for large scale performances in...
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:00AMWednesday, December 4, 2013
Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury: Paul Hendy, whose company Evolution Pantomimes has eight different shows running this year, has a great gift for scripts which work in specific places and this o…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:49AMTuesday, December 3, 2013
Arts Theatre, London: Irreverent, witty, fast-paced and outrageous, this enjoyable show offers a musical version of the key points of Dickens' life punctuated with some sort of account …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:35PMMonday, December 2, 2013
Brighton Dome Studio: Already very good when I first saw it earlier in the year, this show for pre-schoolers has really bedded down and matured on its tour - with two out of four new cast me…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:22AMFriday, November 29, 2013
Polka Theatre, London: Rosamunde Hutt has a real gift for sparkly interpretations of children's books - as many of her Unicorn shows have demonstrated - and it's good to see her in…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:57PMMonday, November 25, 2013
Little Angel Theatre, London: It is quite a challenge to create a Christmas show which works well for both adults and children and charms rather than offends, but this pretty, witty piece su…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:53AMFriday, November 22, 2013
Soho Theatre, London: This no-frills showcase makes no attempt at a classy ensemble opener or finale and there is no music. It simply presents the work of 27 students - 20 women and seven me…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:53PMFriday, November 1, 2013
Canada Water Library, London: This powerful, atmospheric reworking of Buchner's 200 year old play as a three-hander is set in the aftermath of the First World War with graphic flashback…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:47AMWednesday, October 23, 2013
Churchill Theatre, Bromley: This brave, uplifting, affirmative, feminist - yes, feminist - piece explores the experience of poor, working class young women in the East End by turning the Fif…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:55AMFriday, October 18, 2013
Lyric Hammersmith: It's an inspired idea to set a story about shepherds, sheep and wolves in the heart of English wool country especially if the production emanates from York and you ca…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:53AMThursday, October 17, 2013
Garrick, London: This slick entertaining show is the usual mix of pantomime, song and serious historical titbits all spiced and spliced with deliciously irreverent incongruities and puns, su…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:42AMTuesday, October 15, 2013
Hackney Picture House, London: Marrying live acting with projection based on illustrations, that many of the young audience will recognise, is an ingenious way of introducing theatre to unde…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:23AMMonday, October 14, 2013
Unicorn Theatre, London: The stage is festooned with sandcastles, helium balloons and an empty toy chest, which later turns into a pretend ship. The attractive sandpit is in France and that&…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:25AMFriday, October 11, 2013
Little Angel, London: A talented trio of intense, black-clad puppeteers control avian puppets in this extraordinarily effective, pared down version of Macbeth which plays up imagery and symb…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:29AMMonday, October 7, 2013
When Peter Glanville, Artistic Director of Little Angel Theatre, started the Suspense Festival (Puppetry for adults … no, surely not?) it seemed to some of us to be something of a wacky id…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:00AMWednesday, October 2, 2013
Greenwich Theatre, London: A trademark Theatre Centre four-hander, Roy Williams' disturbing new play explores the riots of 1958 and 2011 through a skilfully written and directed series …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:03PMMonday, September 30, 2013
Polka Theatre, London: Tinsel streamers, flashing lights, maps, pinboards, primary colours and giant flat screens festoon the stage and much of the auditorium in this show for nine to 13 yea…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:19AMTuesday, September 17, 2013
Unicorn, London: In effect this one woman show, aimed at over 4s, is a two-hander with Verity Quinn's witty set as the second actor. Dora is an elderly lady waking up to her sea of clut…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:08PMFriday, September 13, 2013
Unicorn, London: Unless you caught it at The Globe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year, this glitteringly energetic all-rapping version is Othello as you've never seen or heard i…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:07AMThursday, September 12, 2013
Rose, Kingston: This moving, rather charming, lyrical three hander for early years audiences makes imaginative use of puppetry, shadow puppetry, physical theatre, music, song, comedy and poi…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:14PMWednesday, September 11, 2013
Criterion Theatre, London: I often criticise showcases for trying to be unnecessarily arty. This one is so commendably straightforward that it almost errs towards being dull. Sandwiched betw…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:28AMFriday, August 16, 2013
Scoop, More London: The plot is familiar and timeless but in Lisa Kuma's seamless translation/adaptation the text sounds so fresh and modern it's as if you've never heard it b…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:58AMScoop, More London: An irreverent, pantomime-style musical theatre take on the youth of Oedipus sits happily in The Scoop which is about as close to a Greek amphitheatre as London gets.
Read…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:38AMMonday, August 12, 2013
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London: The Sound of Music set has sprouted some cheerful, green, giant stalks wobbling in the wind and there are hay bales on stage. The scene is set for a w…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:38AMWednesday, July 31, 2013
Hever Castle, Edenbridge: It is fun to see a version of The Wind in the Willows featuring a villain as entertaining as talented Benjamin Lawlor's Weasel. Played like a cross between a n…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:39AMFriday, July 26, 2013
Science Museum, London: This show is an enjoyable but faintly valiant attempt to create dynamic, vibrant live theatre out of an introduction to the nine different forms of energy.
Read the …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:34PMTuesday, July 16, 2013
Mulberry and Bigland Centre, London: This colourful, musical, exotic reduction of the play to "the one hour's traffic of our stage" for eight actors in NT's Primary Theat…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:05AMMonday, July 8, 2013
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London: This exuberantly energetic version of Shakespeare's bittersweet story of jealousy, loss and reconciliation is described as "re-imagined for …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:59AM 
