Monthly Archives: January 2016

GUYS AND DOLLS, a landmark in American music theatre, premiered in New York in 1950 when it ran for 1200 performances. It has first-rate songs by Frank Loesser and a first -rate book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. The … Continue reading →

Grey Gardens, a bizarre American musical, with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michel Korrie, takes its inspiration from a 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, which had (and still has) something of a … Continue reading →

Bertolt Brecht’s anti-fascist propaganda is a montage of short scenes describing everyday life for German citizens in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Brecht is repetitive and Phil Willmott’s production would benefit from some judicious cutting. The inclusion of some Nazi … Continue reading →

Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803) wrote only one novel, an erotic and psychological masterpiece. It’s a brilliant study of sexual intrigue and when Les Liaisons Dangereuses was first published in Paris in 1782, it was an immediate succes … Continue reading →

Charles Dodgson, Oxford don, obsessed with mathematics, logic and photographing little girls, published the most famous children’s book in 1865. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has been staged, filmed, televised and endlessly analysed ever since. Damon Albarn, Moira Buffini and … Continue reading →

At the funeral service of Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey in 1888 the Very Rev Dean Stanley pronounced A Christmas Carol to be the finest Charity Sermon in the English language. The present adaptation is written by Patrick Barlow. The … Continue reading →

If you liked the Mischief Theatre Company’s The Play That Went Wrong, you will love their latest show, Peter Pan Goes Wrong. They are experts at slapstick and the technical disasters have been brilliantly worked out and hilariously executed. Adam … Continue reading →

Tom Stoppard’s metaphysical Cold War spy thriller is not so much a “who done it?” as a “how did they do it?” Stoppard said he wanted it “to be light on its feet, an entertainment, with some science in it.” … Continue reading →