What goes up must come down, and when it comes to Cornley Drama Society when can go right must go wrong. Mischief Comedy have made a name for themselves as the masters of funny, and their flagship show 'The Play That Goes Wrong' has called the Duchess Theatre it's home for the past eleven years, filling the space with laughter, chaos and calamitous silliness eight times a week, with this double role-ing play within a play proving to be a masterclass of all things slapstick hi

Spandex, knee high boots, nineties fashion, fourth wall breaks, chorus members appearing from nowhere, and oodles upon oodles of ABBA. I could only be talking about one thing and that, of course, is Mamma Mia, the all singing all dancing spectacular that has been delighting audiences with its bouncy carefree lightheartedness for nearly 27 years. Sophie (Ellie kingdon) is getting married and upon finding her mother Donna's (played at this performance by Emma Odell) diary, she

Having just recently finished their second London run, this time at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Just For One Day The Live Aid Musical may have turned off the lights and put away the hand held microphones for now. But, worry not,  it won’t be long until the music starts again and we are once again whipped into a frenzy of song fuelled nostalgia and rallying calls to action as the production prepares to head out on its first UK tour.  The tour kicks off in Leicester in March next

Please Note - As the current cast only began performances on Monday 2nd February, the photographs in this review feature the previous cast. Written by the creators of South Park. That should act as your warning really, as South Park is known for being loud, naughty, and rude, pushing satire to the extreme and running with it as they say the things that others wouldn't dare to. So knowing all of that, you should walk into their popular musical The Book of Mormon, which has bee

A sailing from New York to London, with a stowaway, a nightclub singer, a gangster pretending to be a minister and a romance on the rocks, it could sound like the beginning of a bad joke but no, this is Anything Goes, a musical that combines the book writing of Guy Bolton and P.G Woodhouse with the music of Cole Porter, here performed by Exeter Footlights, the musical theatre society of the University of Exeter in their on campus theatre, the Northcott. Anything Goes tells th

Sunday 23rd March 1997, a brand new crime drama premiered on television starring John Nettles and Daniel Casey as two police detectives in the quaint English countryside. Those detectives; Barnaby and Troy. The show; Midsomer Murders. The pilot episode, The Killings at Badger's Drift became the highest rated single drama of 1997, and say they say, the rest is history. Nearly 29 years on, Midsomer Murders remains incredibly popular and is perhaps the epitome of cosy crime thes

Happy international Swing Day, and no I am not talking about seats on ropes that you find in the playground and how that one person would always say that they once swung on it all the way around. No, I am talking about the often hidden heroes that are swings in the theatre industry, those talented performers ready to jump on stage in a different role at a moments notice and how we would be completely lost without them. Whilst the word Understudy (or Thunderstudy if you are lo

The story of a war time secret mission, absolute ear worm musical numbers, cheeky clever comedy, 5 performers and countless characters, and that's Operation Mincemeat in a nutshell. A nutshell decorated with 88 five star reviews and a dash of critical acclaim, of course. Having opened Off West End in 2019, playing at the New Diorama Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and Riverside Studio, this musical comedy has called the cosy (putting it nicely) Fortune Theatre home since 2023 bo

Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma marmalade. Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma marmalade. Yes, dear reader of my theatrical ramblings, that has been stuck in my head on a pretty much continuous loop since Friday, the day on which I finally got to see one of the worlds most famous bears, Mr Paddington Brown himself. As a long time fan of this little bear from deepest darkest Peru, the excitement levels for this one were sky high, even more so when the way in which he would be portrayed on stage w

First published in 1936, the children’s novel ‘Ballet Shoes’ has enjoyed two screen adaptations, but it wasn’t until 2024 that the classic tale of found family, childhood, performance and dreams made its way to the stage, calling the National Theatre home for a highly successful run. So successful in fact that it returned for another run over the festive period in the Olivier auditorium, much to the delight of theatre goers as this production charms all and raises smiles from

The Tube, the rat run, the pain in the backside, call it what you will but the London Underground is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, connecting the city and inspiring many similar infrastructures around the world. Millions upon millions use it, and whilst many of us may not look up from our phones and books to truly take in what is happening around us as we travel under London, Cockfosters, back for another sell out run, explores it in great and hila

The festive season in the UK comes with plenty of traditions, from the famous Christmas dinner, crackers, television specials and lights, to travel chaos, overcrowded shops and adverts that don’t always make sense, but perhaps one of the most iconic festive traditions is the good old fashioned pantomime, with its cheesy lines, pop favourites, familiar gags and water pistols, guaranteed to bring a smile to the face to even the most scrooge like of audience members.   This year

It’s like painting the Forth Bridge, as soon as you finish you start again. It’s only been a couple of months since the Piccadilly Hotel closed up shop at the Noel Coward Theatre when ‘The Comedy About Spies’ played its final performance (let’s hope it comes back one day) but it is no rest for the wicked for Mischief Comedy, the masters of funny, as they present their second new production of 2025 ‘Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’.   Having premiered as a BBC Festive special back

Having celebrated its 19th anniversary back in September, the Apollo Victoria theatre was that famous shade of green long before the cinema screens. Wicked, known in full as Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz has been delighting audiences for much longer than a clock click of the Time Dragon, ever since its San Francisco tryout way back in 2003, and its much more recent star studded two-part film adaptation has sent its popularity to supersonic proportions, not tha

February 1895 ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, the play that would go on to be known as Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, premiered both representing and mocking late Victorian society with its story of double lives, society ideas and romance, sending Oscar Wilde to new higher levels of fame.   Just 3 months later in May 1895, Oscar Wilde was arrested for ‘Gross indecency for Homosexual acts’   Now, 130 years later, Max Webster’s staging of that masterpiece fresh from a festive pe

Just as I made a ‘if I had a nickel’ joke between ‘Vagabond Skies’ and ‘Saving Mozart’ just a few months ago, I feel compelled to make another, for if I saw two shows that push the once hidden stories of musically gifted sisters overshadowed by their brothers and forced to be the traditional wife, I would have two nickels, which wouldn’t get you far in today’s expensive world, but it is a little odd. But, whilst ‘Saving Mozart’ celebrated the story of Nannerl Mozart with soar

In a time whilst some may argue that London is simply flooded with jukebox bops, screen to stage adaptations and revivals, new and original musicals are deservedly celebrated as breaths of fresh air, injecting a taste of something new on the horizon and ‘Bloody Mary and the Nine Day Queen’, having spent its recent and short London run nestled under the Southwark and Waterloo arches of the Union Theatre, may hear the bright lights of bigger venues calling its name sometime soo

Making a name for itself as the ideal London home for Disney musical spectaculars, the glistening winter of ‘Frozen’ has transformed into the blistering heat of ‘Hercules’ as the myth comes roaring to the stage complete with catchy tunes, powerhouse vocals and some wonderfully whimsical puppetry.   Hercules (played at this performance by Felipe Bejarano) is the son of Zues and Hera (Joel Benjamin and Ellie Mitchell), loved and celebrated as a mighty god. That is until his unc

Whilst some shows have showcased a strong sticking power, hanging around for decades with productions that continue to both delight and bring in the audiences, a partnership lasting 50 years is perhaps something less common, but something that equally warrants a grand celebration. And that is exactly what Penn & Teller, world famous magicians, have set out to achieve with their first ever West End residency, celebrating the 50 years that they have been performing together.  

Is a man innocent until proven guilty? How do you prove a case of murder without a corpse? And how exactly do you solve a crime that happened 400 years ago?   All of these questions are picked apart and truly explored in ‘The Daughter of Time’, a fascinating and interesting production currently playing at the quaint Charing Cross Theatre. Inspector Alan Grant (Rob Pomfret) is laid up in hospital with a broken leg after another case went wrong in the 1950s and in order to stav