Published articles

Olivia Colman: Revving it up

July 1, 2010

“It was terrifying,” Olivia Colman says of her National Theatre debut in 2009’s England People Very Nice. “It was the first time I’d done a play for nine years. I probably should have started at a pub theatre, because it was like starting again. And I wasn’t very good.” It’s hard to tell if Colman […]

Continue reading →

Calamity Jane, Upstairs at the Gatehouse

June 9, 2010

There’s a line in the show’s most famous number, Secret Love, about shouting from the highest hills. Maybe that should be Highgate’s hills, as director Thom Southerland’s latest ambitious musical production is one that deserves to be lauded at full volume. As rambunctious tomboy ‘Calam’, Katherine Eames goes off like a firecracker, even when her […]

Continue reading →

Tracy-Ann Oberman: Playing the diva

April 26, 2010

“I didn’t want to be in this,” admits Tracy-Ann Oberman. “I’d suggested Catherine to the producer, I thought she’d be brilliant. But I didn’t want to be in it at all, so I was a bit nervous when the producer came to me and said Radio 4 would really like me to be.” Oberman is […]

Continue reading →

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Upstairs at the Gatehouse

March 17, 2010

While the West End and touring versions of Buddy have played to much larger houses, the intimacy of a fringe venue enhances the pleasure of hearing some of rock’n’roll’s most notable songs being performed with such obvious affection. The tale of a country band struggling to be allowed to play rock’n’roll may not have much […]

Continue reading →

Lord Arthur’s Bed, King’s Head

March 5, 2010

There are moments during this short play by Martin Lewton that seem to border on genius, only to be followed by several more moments of utter bewilderment. Spencer Charles Noll and Ruaraidh Murray play gay couple Donald and Jim, who celebrate the first anniversary of their civil partnership by re-enacting tales of two Victorian cross-dressers […]

Continue reading →

Maurice, Above the Stag

March 4, 2010

The last thing gay theatre needs, one might suppose, is another story about a young man struggling with his attraction to men before settling into life fully reconciled with his homosexuality. But EM Forster’s 1914 novel, shocking even when first published in 1971, still has something to say about the importance of loyalty to oneself […]

Continue reading →

Jerusalem, Apollo Theatre

February 11, 2010

Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron is a master storyteller, charismatic and funny. We are as much in his thrall as some of the local villagers, although they are more there for the drugs he deals than the tales he weaves of giants and babies born dressed, speaking and walking. As the local council makes efforts to evict […]

Continue reading →

A Life in Three Acts

February 10, 2010

Now aged 70, gay actor Bette Bourne, gloriously bedecked in what he terms his “Golders Green drag”, delivers an inspirational evening as he recounts stories from his life in response to gentle prodding from Mark Ravenhill. A condensed version of last year’s scripted conversations, originally spread over three nights, the structure does tend to hamstring […]

Continue reading →

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Watersmeet, Rickmansworth

December 21, 2009

The importance of warming up a panto audience is highlighted by Rickmansworth’s latest rendition of Snow White, where the first act played out to a crowd seemingly unable to give anything back to the onstage cast. Exuberant efforts to engage the audience at the top of the second act may have been a reaction to […]

Continue reading →

Paranormal Activity? Pah. Sarah Greene is scarier

December 1, 2009

Cross-posted to TV Today I saw Paranormal Activity at the cinema this weekend. For those who haven’t yet seen it, or heard about it from the large amounts of online buzz around it, it’s a supernatural film shot on a single video camera (a la The Blair Witch Project). With all the best horror films, […]

Continue reading →

Scouts in Bondage

November 18, 2009

Every sketch show has scenarios which, while amusing in moderate amounts, outstay their welcome. Imagine such a sketch stretched out to the best part of two hours and you have Scouts in Bondage. Glenn Chandler’s comedy, a sequel to last year’s Boys of the Empire, sees a troop of 1930s Boy Scouts crash land in […]

Continue reading →

Busted Jesus Comix

November 5, 2009

Reviewed for The Stage Above the Stag, London November 3-28 Author: David Johnston Director: Prav Menon-Johansson Producer: Above the Stag Cast: Henry Blake, Erin Hunter, Caitlin Birley, Peter Halpin, James Morrison-Corley, Michael James-Cox, Rege Page Running time: 1hr Based on the real life trial and conviction of an underground comic book writer, David Johnston’s pitch-black […]

Continue reading →

Little Fish, Finborough Theatre

October 30, 2009

Escaping from a destructive relationship with her creative-writing tutor, Charlotte flees to New York to pursue a career as a writer - but rapidly finds herself a little fish in the Big Apple. Michael John LaChiusa’s new musical follows Charlotte’s life in a freeform fashion, jumping backwards and forwards in time but cleverly using her […]

Continue reading →

Zombie Prom, Landor Theatre

October 23, 2009

An affectionate pastiche of both teenage musicals and fifties America’s obsession with all things nuclear, Zombie Prom is a fun show from start to finish. Teenage tearaway Jonny is distraught. His girlfriend, Toffee, has succumbed to parental pressure and broken up with him, so he commits suicide by jumping into the local power plant’s toxic […]

Continue reading →

Speaking in Tongues, Duke of York’s

September 29, 2009

At the heart of Andrew Bovell’s darkly structured play is how even the thought of infidelity can unravel into full-scale guilt if we let it, and that relationships tend innately to self-destruct unless we spend sufficient time on the difficult job of stopping them. John Simm and Ian Hart start out as two sides of […]

Continue reading →

Education by X Factor

August 23, 2009

Watching this year’s revamped version of The X Factor was an experience. For those who missed it, the “audition room” section of the show has been opened out into a Britain’s Got Talent-style show, complete with highly vocal audience. BBC News reporter Genevieve Hassan detailed her experience of the initial audition stages — the ones […]

Continue reading →

Lessons from The Street: We had a bargain, and we forgot

August 18, 2009

Cross-posted on TV Today And so we say goodbye to The Street, Jimmy McGovern’s remarkable series of standalone, but inter-related dramas relating the extraordinary tales of neighbours on the most ordinary of streets. After three years, ITV Studios, which made the BBC-commissioned series, has made so many talented people redundant that McGovern doesn’t want to […]

Continue reading →

The Great American Songbook, New End

August 12, 2009

It’s difficult to go wrong with a concert based on a repertoire founded in Tin Pan Alley and stretching to the golden days of the Hollywood musicals. Unfortunately, the New End’s latest production seems to try its hardest in places. Performers Ray Caruana, Louisa Parry and Paul Roberts each have a distinctive approach to interpreting […]

Continue reading →

Blink!, Above the Stag

July 16, 2009

A cabaret of songs from unsuccessful musicals will be made or broken by the selection of material. Save for a couple of misses, Blink’s repertoire provides for an evening packed with memorable and occasionally well-known numbers. A flexible approach to the brief accommodates shows that succeeded in Broadway but flopped in London (or vice versa) […]

Continue reading →

New page: theatre reviews

July 5, 2009

If you visit this blog, rather than just read the RSS feed, you’ll see a new link at the very top of the page to a list of all the theatre reviews I’ve so far written for The Stage.

Continue reading →

Dorian Gray, Leicester Square Theatre

July 3, 2009

The basement of the Leicester Square is transformed into a Victorian parlour-cum-bordello to provide the perfect setting for Linnie Reedman’s retelling of Wilde’s gothic fable. Matthew James Thomas is suitably boyish as Dorian, who starts off a rather louche aesthete, before surrendering his soul upon acquisition of the infamous portrait, here represented by an empty […]

Continue reading →

Zanna, Don’t!, Upstairs at the Gatehouse

June 15, 2009

Set in a fantasy world where everybody is gay and heterosexuality is regarded as taboo, Zanna, Don’t! is a musical with a none too subtle message. Mike Shearer makes an endearing Zanna, a magical matchmaker who cannot help interfering in his friends’ relationships, while being content to retire home alone to play with his magic […]

Continue reading →

Won’t somebody think of the children – instead of just blaming the broadcasters?

May 14, 2009

Previously posted on TV Today Every morning when I get into work, I find an inbox crawling with press releases, most of which are of little to no interest either to me directly or even to The Stage as a whole. This morning, I did see one which deserved additional reading, as it covered children’s […]

Continue reading →

La Cage aux Folles, Playhouse

May 12, 2009

No matter how brash, how funny, how camp La Cage aux Folles gets - and it is frequently all three at once - it is at its best in the moments of quiet, defined as they are by the freneticism that surround them. Philip Quast, returning to the role of Georges that he held in […]

Continue reading →

The Last 5 Years, Duchess

May 8, 2009

Jason Robert Brown’s high concept musical charting the five-year course of a relationship with alternating viewpoints, one moving forward in time and one backwards, is rarely as clever as it likes to think it is. As Paul Spicer’s writer Jamie meets, marries, betrays and then leaves his actress wife Cathy (Julie Atherton), her character travels […]

Continue reading →

Anton & Erin – Cheek to Cheek, London Coliseum

April 23, 2009

Audiences new to the world of ballroom dancing thanks to the success of Strictly Come Dancing are comfortably catered for by this show, devised by two of the series’ professional dancers. Stars Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag have been dancing together for more than 12 years, serving for half that time on the BBC […]

Continue reading →

Jet Set Go!, Jermyn Street

April 3, 2009

The love lives of a transatlantic cabin crew are played out in a variety of enjoyable numbers in this bawdy musical comedy, which unfortunately relies too much on anecdote to allow a real story to take flight. Zipping along at a fair pace, each of the characters starts out as a broad caricature - the […]

Continue reading →

Successful mission

February 19, 2009

This article first appeared in the February 19, 2009 issue of The Stage Jon Cassar, executive producer of hit US series 24, tells Scott Matthewman about how the writers’ strike affected the show, how it mirrors current affairs and its future When it first hit the air in November 2001, Fox Broadcasting’s 24 quickly established […]

Continue reading →

2008′s panto reviews

December 22, 2008

Only three to do this year (four if you count an additional Christmas-themed show). And now they’re all done and available online, so the holiday starts here! 09/12/08: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Elgiva, Chesham 17/12/08: Cinderella, Civic Centre Aylesbury 22/12/08: Aladdin,Watersmeet, Rickmansworth And the additional Christmas show: 19/12/08: Christmas with the Rat Pack […]

Continue reading →

Paul Kasey: The man in the steel mask

December 19, 2008

Originally published in The Stage Costume actor Paul Kasey has played a variety of monsters on Doctor Who, from Autons to Ood. As he prepares to play the Cyberleader in this year’s Christmas special, he tells Scott Matthewman how he got the job “I do get asked by children if I can go and put […]

Continue reading →

An overview of reviews

December 1, 2008

I’m about to enter full-on panto reviewing mode again, although given my out-of-town location and lack of driving ability the number of productions I get allocated is far fewer than some of our more hardy reviewers. Before I do, I wanted to make sure that my own record of what I’ve reviewed for The Stage […]

Continue reading →

Lee Mead

December 20, 2007

Originally published in the December 20, 2007 issue of The Stage The winner of BBC1’s Any Dream Will Do, Lee Mead, took to the stage as Joseph - of Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat fame - in July. He talks to Scott Matthewman about becoming the West End’s leading man “I was quite naive,” admits Lee Mead […]

Continue reading →

A 100-word biography

September 28, 2007

As I mention on my About page, I’ve recently been lucky enough to have received a commission for my first professional piece of fiction — a short story for an anthology based around a certain TV show. The story itself has been approved, is currently being typeset and the (small but historic) cheque has long […]

Continue reading →

Showpeople: Daniel Boys

September 27, 2007

This interview first appeared in The Stage, September 27, 2007, as promotion for I Love You Because at the Landor Theatre. Read my review Daniel Boys, who came sixth in the BBC’s talent hunt Any Dream Will Do? will be playing the role of Austin Bennet in the musical I Love You Because, a genderswapped […]

Continue reading →

I Love You Because

September 27, 2007

Reviewed for The Stage Landor Theatre, London September 19-October 20 Author: Ryan Cunningham Composer: Joshua Salzman Producer: Landor Cast: Daniel Boys, Debbie Kurup, Richard Frame, Jodie Jacobs, Mark Goldthorp, Lucy Williamson Director: Robert McWhir Running time: 2hrs Witty tales of New York romance are a staple of both musical theatre and TV sitcom, and I […]

Continue reading →

Lucas Grabeel: Musical youth

September 6, 2007

This article originally appeared in the September 6, 2007 issue of The Stage As one of the stars of dazzling Disney success story, High School Musical, Lucas Grabeel is finally enjoying the Hollywood high life. In The Stage’s second instalment examining the growing musical franchise, he talks to Scott Matthewman about his shaky start in […]

Continue reading →

Top of the class

September 6, 2007

This article originally appeared in the September 6, 2007 issue of The Stage Rob Gilby, managing director of Disney Channel UK, reveals how the company is responding to the enthusiastic High School Musical audience in Britain Our marketing of the films has been driven by the sense of ownership the kids have. They’re demanding it […]

Continue reading →

A new chapter

April 5, 2007

This interview originally appeared in the April 5, 2007 issue of The Stage Executive producer of Doctor Who Julie Gardner tells Scott Matthewman about the changes being made to the show, in front of and behind the camera, including a welcome move to larger production studios Julie Gardner spends a lot of time on Doctor […]

Continue reading →

Curtain Up: Any Dream Will Do

March 29, 2007

This article first appeared in the March 29, 2007 issue of The Stage — BBC1 and Lloyd Webber launch second musical talent show to find star of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Scott Matthewman BBC1 returns to the musical theatre talent show arena this weekend, as Any Dream Will Do begins its search […]

Continue reading →

Love, Laugh and Live

December 1, 2006

Reviewed for The Stage Theatre Museum, London November 26, 28 Cast: Jonathan Eiø, Lucy Thatcher Running time: 2hrs This evening of songs on three themes started weakly with a thesaurus reading which, as with all the scripted attempts at humour throughout, never quite worked. Thankfully, the warmth and vivacity of the two stars and their […]

Continue reading →

Gates of Gold

November 24, 2006

Reviewed for The Stage Trafalgar Studios 2, London Author: Frank McGuinness Director: Gavin McAlinden Producer: Charm Offensive Cast: William Gaunt, Paul Freeman, Michelle Fairley, Josie Kidd, Ben Lambert Running time: 1hr 25mins (no interval) It is somehow appropriate that in presenting a fictionalised version of Irish theatrical couple Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, Frank McGuinness […]

Continue reading →

Porgy and Bess

November 10, 2006

Reviewed for The Stage Savoy Theatre, London Author: DuBose Heyward Composers: George Gershwin, lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin Director: Trevor Nunn Producers: Richard Frankel, Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, Marc Routh, Howard Panter for Ambassador Theatre Group, Tulbart Productions Cast includes: Clarke Peters, Nicola Hughes, Cornell John, Dawn Hope, OT Fagbenle, Melanie Marshall, Lorraine […]

Continue reading →

Beautiful Thing

August 3, 2006

This review first appeared in the August 3, 2006 issue of The Stage July 19-September 9 Author: Jonathan Harvey Director: Tony Frow Producer: NML Productions Cast: Jonathan Bailey, Gavin Brocker, Steven Meo, Carli Norris, Michelle Terry Running time: 1hr 40mins Jonathan Harvey’s urban gay fairytale remains his best and funniest theatrical work to date and […]

Continue reading →

Black and White Sextet

February 7, 2006

Reviewed for The Stage Rosemary Branch, London January 31-February 26 Author: William Shakespeare, adapted by Robert Pennant-Jones, who also directs Producer: Rosemary Branch Cast: Ben Onwukwe, Richard Earthy, Fliss Walton, Matt Reeves, Jason Eddy, Cleo Sylvestre Running time: 2hrs There is no reason why director Robert Pennant-Jones’ audacious filleting of ‘Othello;, reducing Shakespeare’s classic to […]

Continue reading →

Two things on my mind

December 11, 2005

My local newspaper, The Bucks Herald is running a short story competition — and when I say short, I mean short. You get the opening line, and then just another 50 words. Now, I had trouble writing drabbles — stories of just 100 words. In those, you have to make every word count; with half […]

Continue reading →

A less bleak future: high definition television (HDTV)

November 17, 2005

This article first appeared in the November 17, 2005 issue of The Stage — Next year sees the 80th anniversary of John Logie Baird’s first demonstration of his television equipment and the 70th of the BBC’s first transmissions with Marconi’s 405-line system. While we have progressed significantly from both, 2006 will see the first large-scale […]

Continue reading →

Seventh heaven: BBC7 and Doctor Who

September 14, 2005

An interview with producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Gary Russell of Big Finish, makers of audio dramas revolving around cult sci-fi shows such as Doctor Who, Sapphire and Steel and the Tomorrow People. Written for The Stage, September 2005, this version (which originally appeared on The Stage website, from where it is still available) is an extended version of the one which appeared in print the same week.

Continue reading →

When Harry Met Sally, Theatre Royal Haymarket

March 7, 2004

Can Alyson Hannigan fake an orgasm? That’s the unvocalised question that many visitors to When Harry Met Sally, now playing at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, will have in the back of their minds before the curtain rises on the stage adaptation of the Rob Reiner comedy. The answer is that she can — but the […]

Continue reading →

Thoroughly Modern Millie, Shaftesbury Theatre

October 23, 2003

A review of the West End production of Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Amanada Holden and Maureen Lipman. Written for Gay.com UK in October 2003.

Continue reading →

Shakespeare’s R & J, Arts Theatre

September 10, 2003

Romeo and Juliet, as played by an all-male group of four actors who are playing schoolboys putting on Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Written for Gay.com UK, September 2003

Continue reading →

Civil partnerships: the fight’s not over

June 30, 2003

A plain language summary of the issues contained within the Government’s white paper on civil partnerships for same-sex partners. The consultation paper went on to form the basis of the Civil Partnerships Act, which came into law in 2005. Written for Gay.com UK.

Continue reading →

← Previous Entries