Category Archives: Theatre reviews

War Horse, New London Theatre

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I promised myself that I wouldn’t see Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film before experiencing the ’s multiple award-winning play. Over Christmas, I caught a repeat of ′s documentary, Making War Horse, about how the NT worked with Handspring Puppet Company to adapt and expand upon ’s original novella.

Every single one of my friends who has seen has raved about it. That’s unique – I usually can’t get my friends to agree on anything, so the unanimity was reassuring. Disconcerting at the same time, though – could any one show be as good as everyone was suggesting?

Last night, I got to find out that not only was it as good as everyone said, but they were downplaying it somewhat: it’s a beautiful, emotional piece of storytelling that feels like one of the great theatrical pieces of all time.

I don’t have the time, or the tear ducts, to devote to writing a full review. All I can say is that Handspring’s work on the horses is stunning. Each of the principal horses is controlled by three performers (billed in the programme as ‘Head’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Hind’), who imbue the animals with such nobility and character that the people operating them just fade away. It’s a phenomenal achievement, and one I am truly grateful I have at last witnessed.

I’m not sure if the Spielberg film can possibly be as good as the theatrical version. However, it’s certainly going to be easier to get a ticket for it – although the play is set to tour next year.

War Horse, New Theatre5Scott Matthewman2012-02-02 14:08:52 I promised myself that I wouldn’t see Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film before experienc…

Legally Blonde – The Musical, Aylesbury Waterside

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When ’s Waterside Theatre opened in October 2010, its marketing tagline talked of “Bringing the to Waterside”. As it launches its second spring season, that promise is certainly being fulfilled: in May, it will play host to the Lincoln Center’s revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific that recently played at the Barbican, whose stars (including Samantha Womack, Dan Koek and Alex Fearns) will all be joining the production in Aylesbury. The season will also see Hull Truck’s production of Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van and the ’s Travelling Light, starring Anthony Sher.

And it is in evidence this week, too, as the touring production of – The Musical comes to town while its big West End sorority sister is still running (for now) at the . Last week, of course, the Olivier award-winning West End show posted closing notices. That must be frustrating for Aylesbury in a couple of ways: first, the show they’ve been promoting has been in the theatrical headlines because it’s not been doing well enough to stay open. Also, because there’s nothing like a closing notice to indicate the possibility of cut-price tickets for the show. With Chiltern Railways’ annoying-but-better-than-most train service into the capital, the touring version of Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin’s musical faces stiff competition from its West End counterpart.

The good news is that, one or two patchy spots apart, it withstands the comparison well.

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Legally Blonde – The Musical, 3Scott Matthewman2012-02-01 10:18:09When Aylesbury’s Waterside Theatre opened in October 2010, its marketing tagline talked of “Bringing the West End to Waterside”. As it launches …

Crazy for You, Novello Theatre

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Sean Palmer (Billy) and Clare Foster (Polly) in Crazy for You. Photo by Roy Tan.Roy Tan

Nobody loves a Gershwin tune more than I do. In the parlour game of whittling down my favourite tunes into the eight discs I would take with me should Kirsty Young cast me away onto Radio 4′s fabled desert island, a huge number of the songs that make my all-too-long shortlist have music composed by George with lyrics by “his lovely wife Ira”.

Which is one of the reasons why I ought to adore Crazy For You, which is currently playing in the ’s in a transfer from a summer run at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. And by the end of the show, I did wholeheartedly. But it didn’t half make it hard to love.

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, Novello Theatre4Scott Matthewman2011-11-30 15:18:24
Roy Tan
Nobody loves a Gershwin tune more than I do. In the parlour game of wh…

The Colored Museum – Talawa Theatre Company, Victoria and Albert Museum

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Back in March, the – home of the theatre and performance galleries which once housed part of their collection in the , Covent Garden – opened its doors on a Friday evening for a series of theatrically-based events. Some were more successful than others: a “cardboard representation of the ” turned out to be less the meticulous recreation of some of Theatreland’s most magnificent architecture, more a load of upturned cardboard cubes loosely arranged along walkways that claimed, and failed, to emulate the layout of W1 roads.

One of the definite highlights of that evening, though, was cramming into the museum’s Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre to hear Timothy West and his son, Samuel, read from an original Shakespeare First Folio book. It was a presentation that clearly asserted the theatre and performance galleries’ determination to be an intrinsic part of the V&A – something that many people, myself included, worried may not happen when the Theatre Museum closed.

One thing that the V&A’s Covent Garden venue allowed but which the South Kensington museum has traditionally not is the possibility of regular live theatrical performances. So the fact that this week the same lecture theatre at the V&A is playing host to a production brings pleasure by sheer virtue of the booking alone. The fact that it’s an unmissable piece of theatre helps too.

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The Colored Museum – , Victoria and Albert Museum4Scott Matthewman2011-10-19 10:59:31 Back in March, the Victoria and Albert Museum – home of the theatre and performance gallerie…

Soho Cinders in Concert, Queen’s Theatre

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Most new take a while to see the light of day, maybe peeping over the parapet with workshops, or even a concept CD, long before they hit . Few, however, gestate quite as long as Soho Cinders, a musical from and (Honk!, Just So, the expanded stage version of Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Betty Blue Eyes) which, as Mark Shenton notes today, has been in development for most of this century already.

And it’s a very 21st century piece – a modern day Cinderella story, with rent boy Robbie using the wages from his escort services to fund his law studies, in order to prove that his wicked stepsisters have illegally taken over his late mother’s coffee shop. The ball becomes a fund-raising bash for a good-looking mayoral candidate whom Robbie has been seeing on the side, although he’s there to escort the wealthy businessman who’s bankrolling the mayoral bid. And when he’s exposed as a rent boy and runs off, it’s not a shoe he leaves behind, but a mobile phone…

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Soho Cinders in Concert, Queen’s Theatre5Scott Matthewman2011-10-10 10:14:16Most new musicals take a while to see the light of day, maybe peeping over the parapet with workshops, or even a concept CD, long before they hit the …

The Office Party, Product Solutions HQ (nr Pleasance Theatre, Islington)

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People who have been following this blog (or clicking on random links on Twitter and/or Facebook) probably know that I’m Online Editor for , that I work in the digital team, and have a project management role as well as my editorial and critical one.

Except I’m not. I actually work in marketing for a company called Product Solutions. And last night was our annual office . As these type of events tend to be, it was a lot of fun, with a few surprises, some bad behaviour from people who’d had a little too much to drink, and old rivalries between the company’s divisions rose to the surface once more.

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The Office Party, Product Solutions HQ (nr Theatre, )4Scott Matthewman2011-10-05 21:59:58People who have been following this blog (or clicking on random links on Twitter and/or Facebook) probably know that I’m Online Editor for The Stage, …

Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary, Aylesbury Waterside (via the Royal Albert Hall)

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Last night I went to the Waterside Theatre, where the venue’s small studio area, the SecondSpace, had been converted into a big-screen cinema for a live relay of The ’s 25th anniversary gala at the . It’s the first time I’ve been in the SecondSpace when it’s been in use as a performance area: the ingenious, adaptable design allows the seating to retract fully away into the walls and for a partition to be removed, making for a large open-plan bar area which was used for drinks receptions at the venue’s grand opening and at the gala night for last year’s pantomime.

Because of the retractible nature of the seating, I had expected that they wouldn’t be quite as comfortable as the luscious, generously proportioned seats in the main auditorium. And they’re not – but they are far better than I’d imagined, even if the fidgety old couple at the end of our row did cause the whole bank of seats to vibrate every time they shuffled around.

I wasn’t there to review the seats, though, but to see a transmission of the souvenir performance marking 25 years since The Phantom of the Opera blasted onto the stage (the actual anniversary is next weekend). A specially constructed set in the Albert Hall took over the whole of the choir and organ end of the auditorium. The upper level boxes were cleverly extended round to include Box Number Five, which the “Opera Ghost” demands is kept for his sole use. The main stage space saw the orchestra perched atop a series of ornate archways, with a lighting rig doubling as a faux proscenium arch that occasionally descended to show activity in the ‘fly tower’ above.

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Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary, (via the Royal Albert Hall)4Scott Matthewman2011-10-03 11:26:45Last night I went to the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, where the venue’s small studio area, the SecondSpace, had been converted into a big-screen cinem…

Noël and Gertie, Cockpit Theatre, London

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When we think of , we tend to think of the witty older gentleman who had built a reputation as playwright, songwriter and master of the well-turned epithet. We don’t tend to remember that he started out as a young child actor, during which period of his life he first met , the actress with whom he would come to work on numerous occasions and form a lifelong friendship.

The late drama critic and broadcaster constructed this revue of Coward’s work in the early 1980s, using the relationship between Coward and Lawrence to showcase some of the former’s songs and plays. The result is an evening of biting wit, poignancy and unbridled fun.

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Noël and Gertie, , 4Scott Matthewman2011-10-02 16:54:12When we think of Noël Coward, we tend to think of the witty older gentleman who had built a reputation as playwright, songwriter and master of the we…

Honk!, LOST Theatre

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The LOST Theatre in Stockwell is currently playing host to a new production of Honk!, a family musical based on ’s tale of the Ugly Duckling, written by and , who wrote the songs for musical , which closed last weekend.

Eighteen years after it first hatched at the Watermill theatre as The Ugly Duckling, it’s readily apparent why so easily slotted into the Disney style of musical with their extra songs for Mary Poppins: Honk! is a prototype Disney animation as if it were played out on stage rather than storyboarded. With a bit of polish, one could easily see the story on the silver screen as a classic, line-drawn animation with songs that infect the head as well as progressing the story. And it’s easily better than The Princess and the Frog, the House of Mouse’s recent attempt to revive the genre.

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Honk!, LOST Theatre3Scott Matthewman2011-09-30 12:18:09The LOST Theatre in Stockwell is currently playing host to a new production of Honk!, a family musical based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the …