Reviews

Hairspray is a well established and well loved musical.  It's 21 years since it first appeared on Broadway, and is the winner of 8 Tony and 4 Olivier awards. Based on the 1988 film by John Waters which tells the story of Tracy Turnblad a girl who doesn't fit in but is born to stand out, the show has everything, a heart warming story, touching moments, hilarious comedy and a […]

Shrek and the fairy tale company have been on a huge tour around the regional theatres since the spring of 2023 and now at the end of its journey it has taken up a summer residence at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, West London. This production has all the glamour of a West End show. Excellent direction and tight choreography by Samuel Holmes and Nick Winston that still feels fresh after […]

A Chorus Line is a musical that tells the stories of seventeen different dancers at the final recall audition for a Broadway show in the 1970s. The director, Zach (Adam Cooper), assisted by choreographer, Larry (Ashley-Jordan Packer), gets each dancer to talk about themselves rather than perform, and to tell the truth about why and how they are where they are today. It explores the separate stories of each dancer […]

To begin, Your Lie In April is based on the manga of the same name by Naoshi Arakawa, with which I am unfamiliar, so I cannot draw any direct comparisons. However, audience members did say that the characters of Ryota Watari and Tsubaki Sawabe, performed by Dean John Wilson and Rachel Clare Chan, had been cut down considerably. This is to be expected when translating a series into a musical […]

Very occasionally a show comes along that stuns the world of musical theatre. Fairly recently it was Hamilton that sent shockwaves out when it opened at the Victoria Palace in 2017, and, way back in 1984, the same thing happened when Starlight Express opened across the road at the Apollo Victoria. Now, Starlight Express is back, and it is just as thrilling and entertaining as it always was – with […]

When writing this review the only words I can find are WOW, WOW and WOW!! Unfortunately our reviews need to be a little longer than just four words! So, where to begin. I had no preconceived idea as to what to expect from this show. I’d read the blurb and had a basic understanding, but nothing prepared me for the two and a half hour emotional rollercoaster I was a […]

Knowing only the title, I visited Leicester’s Curve for opening night of Here You Come Again on Tuesday 11 June, and I haven’t seen anything quite like it before. Surprisingly for a musical, it’s a two-hander with musicians. We have Kevin – a northern forty year-old Dolly superfan struggling with self-confidence, played by Steven Webb – and Dolly needing no introduction, played by Tricia Paoluccio. Dolly ‘comes to life’ from […]

Having seen the concert version of Babies at the Lyric Theatre in November 2023 we enter The Other Palace auditorium filled with anticipation. Will the Babies fledge in to a fully blown musical or will it need a longer gestation period? As we enter the auditorium we see a newly-conceived open set. Lockers and tables are scattered around and two towers dress the back of the stage. Lights down and […]