Monthly Archives: December 2011

Stephen Schwartz, composer of Godspell and Wicked, originally wrote Pippin in 1967 whilst he was still at College. It was a big success when it transferred to New York in 1972 and its success was due entirely to Bob Fosse’s … Continue reading →

Joe Penhall, author of the riveting and schizophrenic Blue/Orange, has written a play which asks why Darwinism and religious doctrine should be mutually exclusive. A husband (Ben Daniels) walks out on his wife and his ten-year-old son without saying anything. … Continue reading →

Jane Juska, a lonely retired high school English teacher in America, separated from her husband and grown-up son, and celibate for 30 years, felt her life lacked drama. She placed an advertisement in The New York Review of Books in … Continue reading →

There is something likeable about a comedian, who can read out his bad reviews and publish them on his website. His main targets include the audience (whose IQ he insults, patronises and flatters continuously), other stand-up comedians (whose delivery and … Continue reading →

To go or not to go? That is indeed the question. Thomas Ostermeier, artistic director of the Schaubuhne Theatre in Berlin, has said Hamlet is “dramaturgically a complete mess”, which is a bit rich coming from a director who mucks … Continue reading →

You will remember in his epistle to the Ephesians St. Paul said that wives should submit themselves to their husbands, which may be one reason why this crude farce goes down better with men than women. The comedy, which is … Continue reading →

In this version Orpheus is delighted when Eurydice dies and goes to hell and he doesn’t want her ever to come back. The French critics at its premiere in 1858 thought Offenbach’s operetta vulgar, indecent, coarse and grotesque. Wagner described … Continue reading →

The phrase, “Kitchen Sink”, conjures up the 1950’s and the Royal Court’s angry young men and Joan Littlewood’s Stratford East and her slice-of-life dramas. Tom Wells’s play is a series of short scenes tracing what happens to one family over … Continue reading →