49 stories by "Lesley Bates"
Salisbury Playhouse is going all out to cater for every age range with this charming family musical, aimed at the tiniest tots
As a script writer and dame, Andrew Pollard’s panto pedigree is impressive. Aladdin is the fifth he’s penned for Salisbury Playhouse and
Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse: Glyn Kerslake seems to have taken root at Salisbury Playhouse with numerous appearances in main house shows and this, his fourth Christmas appearance, in…
Salisbury Playhouse: Who knew that the fountain of youth bubbles beneath Stonehenge just a spit away from Salisbury Playhouse where Mother Goose is in residence this Christmas?
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Nuffield Theatre: Blue spangled icicles, frosty haze and glittering snow fill the stage of the Nuffield as it continues its tradition of producing alternative Christmas shows with a quirky n…
Salisbury Playhouse: The second of Salisbury Playhouse's autumn season in-the-round productions is much more successful than the first, breathing fresh air into Rattigan's linked o…
City Hall, Salisbury: I can't vouch for previous incarnations of Grumpy Old Women, of which there have been many in stage, television and book form, but the current tour strikes countle…
Salisbury Playhouse: With Worst Wedding Ever, writen between Broadchurch series one and two, Chris Chibnall succeeds mightily in giving vent to his comic gifts, not so much in evidence in th…
Playhouse, Salisbury: In a season dominated by new writing and with a special commission from Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall up next in the main house, Salisbury Playhouse's choice o…
Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse: It's London's year at Salisbury Playhouse - in the main house, Dick Whittington is scouring its streets for gold while the theatre's intim…
Salisbury Playhouse: Dick Whittington was a Salisbury lad searching the streets of London for gold to repair the cathedral spire. Who knew?
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Salisbury Playhouse: More drama than comedy hit production week as Salisbury Playhouse was forced to recruit a new recruiting officer at short notice when actor Jem Wall, who was to play Ser…
Nuffield Theatre, Southampton: Although there is much to admire in Theatre Alibi's reinvention of The Old Curiosity Shop, transporting Dickens' tale of addiction, homelessness and …
Nuffield Theatre. Southampton: An elderly African man, nursed gently by a Vietnamese woman, looks back on the journey that brought them and so many others from their own lands to another sho…
Salisbury Playhouse: Life's got a lot of dangerous corners, observes Freda Caplan, in this polished revival of JB Priestley's first original play at Salisbury Playhouse. But there …
Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse: More than a little happiness will be spread throughout the Christmas season with this foot-tapping, feel-good feast of British songwriting talent in Sali…
Bournemouth Pavilion: Su Pollard has to be one of the loudest, meanest bad fairies on the panto stage.
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Poole Lighthouse: I wish I was a kid again then I could have joined in the snowball-slinging 50 minutes of sheer delight that was Snow Play without drawing undue attention.
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Lighthouse, Poole: Don Maclean must be one of the country's top dames and certainly one of the most practised, with 39 pantos under his belt, many of them in falsies and frocks.
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Salisbury Playhouse: As a Gregorian chant echoes round the auditorium, a shaft of light illuminates a model of a cathedral topped by a soaring spire.
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Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse: UK premieres of Olivier award-winning playwright Simon Stephens' latest are becoming almost commonplace.
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Salisbury Playhouse: Stepping Out has been a crowd pleaser for nigh on 30 years - and still is if the rapturous reception to Richard Harris's tap dancing comedy at Salisbury Playhouse o…
Salisbury Playhouse: For his first outing, Salisbury's new artistic director Gareth Machin has taken a punt on Howard Brenton's Epsom Downs and it romps home a winner.
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Salisbury Playhouse: Marilyn Monroe flirtatiously fighting with her white skirt above a subway grating in Billy Wilder's film The Seven Year Itch has to be one of the most iconic images…
