135 stories by "Julia Rank"
The Monkhams in Rodney Ackland's play After October " first performed in 1936; this is its first London revival " could be
JM Barrie's Peter Pan first appeared in 1902, after pantomime had become established as a quintessential Christmas tradition in the late 19th
When Fifty Shades of Grey was new in 2011, there were apparently record-breaking library waiting lists for the book. Five years on,
The modernisation of myth is proving a popular theme in fringe theatre this autumn but it's not always an easy thing to
The swinging sixties might have launched the Beatles and the Stones and the Age of Aquarius, but it was also a time in which musicals with Victorian or Edwardian settings were a dime a dozen…
The synopsis of John Van Druten's 1931 play London Wall (filmed twice for television, but rarely seen since) calls to mind a British Mad Men. It's telling that Matthew Weiner's series begins…
[CONTAINS SPOILERS] Henry James's 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw is one of the ripest pieces of fiction for re-reading. One never ceases to marvel at Henry’s genius in creating a n…
The stereotypical image of the English Civil War is that of clumsy Roundheads and graceful Cavaliers – when I think of this period, it’s Keeping Up Appearance‘s pageant, in…
Egad: I adored this show from the very beginning. Dispensing with the original prologue written by playwright Thomas Baker, in which the audience is asked not to judge Susanna Centlivre'…
No one could accuse Bedrich Smetana of lacking in ambition: disappointed that Czechoslovakia (as it was then) rarely appeared on the cultural map of central Europe, he declared, "No other th…
Having recently hosted a transfer of All Star Pro's enjoyable production of Kander and Ebb's first show Flora the Red Menace, the Landor now presents the professional British premiere of the…
There's something very made-for-TV about playwright and Booker-nominated novelist Sebastian Barry's 1892-set play The Only True History of Lizzie Finn, which premiered in Dublin in 1995 and …
It's easy to label any show about the Great Depression as a timely revival. The Finborough Theatre recently presented Arthur Miller's unrelentingly pessimistic verbatim play The American Clo…
The Great Gatsby is one of the great twentieth-century novels – many would say it's the greatest. Recently released from copyright, 2012 marks three stage adaptations in London (this o…
When it's as cold as November in April, a vintage musical comedy filled with dazzling tunes and tap dancing is undoubtedly the best way to lift the spirits. Whether the plucky underdogs will…
Please note: This review contains spoilers. The isle is full of noises and the stage is filled with wailing, haunted, urchin-like figures. J.M. Barrie's 1920 ghost story (which Alfred Hitchc…
Landor Theatre’s Artistic Director Robert McWhir performed something of a theatrical miracle with his production of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens's sweeping epic Ragtime, which for …
Before Count Almaviva became a baritone and a lecher, he was a tenor and bit of a stalker. As Rossini's The Barber of Seville is an operatic adaptation of the first play in Beaumarchais's Fi…
Gilbert and Sullivan had a particular knack for choosing pertinent subjects, and exposing their absurdities with wit and style that could be interpreted as either satire or celebration of th…
There are few titles more vague than Freedom. In Rick Limentani's play (quite possibly the first ever written about opium farmers in Tajikistan), it's the name of a fried chicken takeaway th…
The Orange Tree Theatre is very good at Victorian and Edwardian plays with an 'upstairs-downstairs' theme, and Auriol Smith's most agreeable revival of St John Hankin's 1905 comedy The Chari…
No, I didn't know that Beowulf was a panto story either. It may well be the first time that this Anglo-Saxon epic poem of uncertain authorship with a mythical Danish setting been adapted in …
There surely aren't many celebrity librettists, but comedian, impressionist and recent Strictly Come Dancing contestant Rory Bremner seems to be something of an exception. Being in the midst…
Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's bittersweet Scandinavian waltz-time musical A Little Night Music (my favourite of the Sondheim canon) about love, lust and memory is one of the most perfe…
The enchanting Wilton's Music Hall resembles many things, including a bath house or forum with its high ceiling and immersive acoustics, making it an ideal setting for the grandeur and ruthl…
