Monthly Archives: July 2017

The full title of Committee, the verbatim musical, is The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Takes Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company. The music is by Tom Deering. The book and lyrics by Hadley Fraser and Josie … Continue reading →

History plays about royalty have always been popular. Corruption and intrigue are good for the box-office. Helen Edmundson’s Queen Anne concentrates on the sickly Queen’s disintegrating friendship with Duchess of Marlborough who behaves very badly. The gossiping Court and the … Continue reading →

Vivienne Franzmann’s powerful story about the human and financial cost of surrogacy, with a big emotional performance by Justine Mitchell as the infertile wife, raises and addresses ethical and legal problems which will keep the audience involved long after the … Continue reading →

Gregory Doran, artistic director of the RSC, wanted to see what would happen to Shakespeare’s The Tempest if the very latest technology was applied to it. He enlisted Intel and Imaginarium to create a live fluid digital environment. The play … Continue reading →

The major problem with Matthew Dunster’s adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities is that it is very difficult to know what is going on. All the modern “refugee crisis” additions get in Dickens’s way and makes Timothy Sheader’s versatile … Continue reading →

Julian Fellowes’ bland adaptation of Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows is inferior to both Alan Bennett and Will Tucket’s more pastoral versions. The music and lyrics by George Styles and Anthony Drewe are not as good as those … Continue reading →

F Murray Abraham gave a sterling performance in Daniel Kehlmann’s The Mentor, revelling in the sheer Salieri-like nastiness; but he could not save the flawed play.

Audra McDonald has won many awards in New York for her solo performance, a tribute to the great Billy Holiday (1915-1959), the legendary jazz singer and song writer, famous for her raw and expressive vocal delivery and improvisational skills. I … Continue reading →