Tuesday 29th May 2025 at the Grand Opera House, York ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Carrie Hope Fletcher stars as the wayward Calamity in this affectionate touring production of the classic musical. Adapted from James O’Hanlon’s screenplay by Charles K Freeman, the show, with Nikolai Foster directing (and Nick Winston co-directing and choreographing), takes an understated approach, bringing warmth... Continue Reading →
Review: The Thankful Village (Touring)
Thursday 24th April 2025 at York Theatre Royal ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Badapple Theatre’s warm-hearted drama looks at the lives of women in war-time. When war hits and the men-folk of Thankful head off to do their duty, three women are left counting the days, scouring the news and navigating tensions in their own lives. The lofty Victoria... Continue Reading →
Review: Bat Out of Hell The Musical (Touring)
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 at Leeds Grand Theatre ⭐️⭐️⭐️ From “Bat Out of Hell” and “Dead Ringer for Love”, to “I’d do anything for love” and “It’s all coming back to me now”, Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf have some cracking hits to their names. In Bat Out of Hell, The Musical, those hits are... Continue Reading →
Review: North by Northwest
Wednesday, 26th March 2025 at York Theatre Royal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ North by Northwest is the latest whirlwind from Wise Children and it’s quite a ride. Totally in keeping with Emma Rice’s flair for the unexpected, inventive, and fun, this show really goes out on a limb to put its own stamp on the Alfred Hitchcock spy thriller.... Continue Reading →
Review: Murder on the Orient Express (Touring)
Tuesday, 25th March 2025 at the Grand Opera House, York ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ken Ludwig adapts Agatha Christie’s classic thriller for the stage, bringing a blend of wry humour and melodrama to a famous tale of and mystery aboard a train. Mike Britton’s locomotive set is a pivotal element of success for the production - literally, in... Continue Reading →
Review: Now That’s What I Call a Musical (Touring)
Tuesday, 18th March 2025 at the Grand Opera House, York ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s 1989 and a school reunion is taking place, with two BFFs parted by years and circumstances waiting for their own long overdue reunion. With past and present running side by side, Now That’s What I Call a Musical takes both the characters and... Continue Reading →
Review: Fluff (Touring)
Sunday, 16th March 2025 at Theatre 41, Monkgate ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fluff is a pretty clever piece of storytelling in which one actor takes on various roles to gradually unravel the truth about our confused lead. It’s no spoiler to say that the show centres on dementia and Fluff’s relationship to it, but the story told delves... Continue Reading →
Review: Animal Farm (Touring)
Thursday, 13th March 2025 at Leeds Playhouse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Staging George Orwell’s iconic Animal Farm is a daring move. It’s such a brilliant piece and its messages about power and exploitation are pretty perfect for staging right now (need I say more?). But almost every character is an animal - how do you stage such a... Continue Reading →
Review: Mr Jones at Union Theatre, Southwark
Thursday, 27th February 2025 at Union Theatre, Southwark ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reviewer: Charlotte Dawes Almost 60 years on from the harrowing mining disaster, Mr Jones explores the unfathomable loss of the forever-altered Welsh village of Aberfan. On the morning of 21 October 1966, the last Friday before half term, a landslide of coal waste crashed into the... Continue Reading →
Review: Only Fools and Horses The Musical
Tuesday, 25th February 2025 at Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House ⭐️⭐️⭐️ From the pens of Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan comes the musicalised stage version of classic sitcom Only Fools and Horses: wise-crackingly, eyebrow-liftingly and elbow-nudgingly nostalgic and entertaining, but not necessarily a cracking musical. Caroline Jay Ranger directs, and it’s a likeable cast... Continue Reading →