59 stories by "Tim Wright"
Children are just revolting aren't they They're snivelling maggots that need discipline, discipline and more discipline. Agatha Trunchbull's teaching mantra may not fill most with hope but i…
'It's your pub' says Winston, about the Three Kings Barber shop in London. The African barbers at the shop don't drink, so the barber shop has become the hub of the community. It's the place…
It's a sensible time to be tackling Timberlake Wertenbaker's modern classic Our Country's Good. The role of theatre in society is ripe for the examination, as cuts bite arts institutions and…
It's fitting that the once industrial space of the Tobacco Factory is now the dystopian setting for the latest outing of the Factory Company - a gender-bending A Midsummer Night's Dream.
There's something undeniably irrepressible about Kinky Boots - it's a fully sequined, unabashed romp through a true ish story of a shoe factory threatened with closure until a radical idea t…
'Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people' writes Angela Carter in her 1992 book Wise Children and that is the starting point for Emma Rice's furiously fast adaptation in this, the fir…
Having the entire Motown back catalogue to work with must be a dream starting point for any jukebox musical. There are decades worth of hit after hit to cram in. And cram them in Motown The …
'Alright me babbers' is the shrill cry from the Ugly Sisters at this year's panto offering from the Bristol Hippodrome. The local references are lapped up by a fervent audience who are ready…
This Christmas, instead of merely treading the boards at Tobacco Factory Theatres, the actors are treading in between the boards in a delightful adaptation of Mary Norton's The Borrowers, a …
'Some would say change is inevitable' and nowhere more so than Clybourne Park, a street in Chicago in the 1950s where the first blackfamily are about to move in.
Jukebox musicals are tricky things to get right. Especially if the artist concerned hasn't had a particularly eventful career. Thankfully, The Four Seasons at the centre of Jersey Boys have …
If people really do have layers, then Yasmina Reza's God Of Carnage is 80 minutes of stripping them away. Removing the layers of politeness and civility one by one until you're left with the…
As one of the final so called mega-musicals of the 1980s, Miss Saigon could be forgiven if it felt a little dated by 2018. Thankfully, there's not one bit of tiredness about this re-booted v…
There's an old rocking chair with a threadbare cushion in the corner of small living room near Brooklyn Bridge, New York. In it sits Eddie Carbone, our tragic hero, reading the paper. He sme…
Pop music and musicals make good bedfellows for two main reasons. Firstly, pop music has a kind of duality - a song can mean entirely different things in different contexts. Secondly, pop mu…
The song-writing partnership of Carole King and Gerry Goffin was such a formidable force in the sixties that even Lennon and McCartney often spoke about wanting to emulate them. It's with th…
In our new series, BroadwayWorld UK writers nominate the shows they'd love to see revived
A looming European referendum, a Labour party internally divided and drastic spending cuts. You could be forgiven for thinking that James Graham's This House is set just a few years ago. In …
Charting the rise of Cilla Black's pop career is tough ask for a musical. She may have been an entertainer of superlative quality, but she lacks the back catalogue that is the engine room of…
The Bristol Old Vic has opened it's 'Year of Change' in spectacular fashion in this riveting new translation of Chekhov's final play The Cherry Orchard.
Setting a musical in 1960s Baltimore against a backdrop of increasing racial tension between white and black American's doesn't exactly scream feelgood musical. Yet Hairspray manages to achi…
There were more than a few raised eyebrows when the all new Factory Company from Tobacco Factory Theatres announced it's first play would be a Shakespeare. Having moved the acclaimed Shakesp…
Families are tricky things. They have the capacity to love and frustrate us like no one else. It is little wonder they provide such a rich vein for dramatists. In Andrew Bovell's Things I Kn…
Tim Wright reflects on drama schools charging fees for auditions
I loved Hamilton when I saw it. I paid 57.50 for a seat in the middle of the top tier of the newly refurbed Victoria Palace Theatre. It was pretty expensive, but I made my peace with it. The…
