It’s all just a matter of time, it’s all just a, it’s all just a matter of…’   Meet Benjamin Button, the extraordinary case of a gentleman born as an old man. He lives like no other, against the ebb and flow of the tide, in a world where tide and time wait for no man, and all he wants to do is life a little life.   Based on a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the musical is taking London by storm. Having premiered back in 2019 at the South

Since premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, The Choir of Man has gone from strength to strength, gaining success and accolades across the globe. With an all-male cast of vocalists and musicians, and a roughly 90 minute no interval running time, The Choir of Man opens its arms and brings the audience into The Jungle, their local pub where they are each a member of the pub choir.   In this ensemble piece that balances, music, song, comedy and poetry, we are guided through

Since its publication on this day in 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has had countless stage and screen adaptations and has gained international recognition as one of the most famous love stories around. In today’s modern age, you may call it a will they, won’t they tale of mismatched lovers with its settings of grand country estates, beautiful period costuming and its tale of dropping one’s own pride and not being too judgemental of others. Over the years, its popula

Production images of Jack Baldwin, Laurence Pears and Charlie Ives, rehearsal image of Charlie Richards. in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was the peak of technical achievement in movie making, crammed full of special effects and action sequences beyond much of what had been seen before. Now, with such advances in technology, it would be easy to look back at it and call it basic in comparison, and most would probably agree with you. But that basic-ness here lights a

Photos of a previous cast. Okay, hands up, I’ll start this with some brutal honesty. Me and the works of the great William Shakespeare have never really got on. Throughout school, I was never shown any of it beyond that Romeo and Juliet movie, and never had the opportunity to experience it live in my time as a student. I was simply presented with pages of text and expected to understand, leading to me always struggling with the wordy complex language and leaving me with a fe

Chocolate box cottages, rolling green fields, viewpoints out to the sea and little spaces buried into hillsides, the glow of bedroom windows the only light in dark cold evenings. That’s the image of Devon that is painted to many, but what sits beneath that perfect ideal? Villages where teenagers are left with little to do, their limited resources leading them to experiment with alcohol, drugs and loud, wild parties, small places with big skies where they are often forgotten.

The Orient Express, the train described as ‘Poetry on Wheels’ is stuck in a snow drift, trapping its passengers in a cold, dark claustrophobic warren of narrow corridors and sliding doors. The conductor is trying to contact a rescue team, the train company manager is trying to keep spirits high, and a world-famous detective is trying his best to keep his head down and get to London in a hurried response to an emergency telegram. But when a passenger is found brutally murdered

20 years ago, Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’ opened at the National Theatre, and a classic was born. The show become a launch pad to stardom for many of its original cast members including Dominic Cooper, James Cordon, Sacha Dharwan, Russell Tovey, Jamie Parker, Andrew Knott and Samuel Barnett, whilst, in its own right, became famous for being a stark look at the education system through the positives and negatives of examinations and knowledge for knowledge’s sake.   20 y

Picture the scene. It’s a murder mystery play. Written by Agatha Christie. Already a recipe for success, just look at the mega power that is ‘The Mousetrap’. But wait, it’s a courtroom drama, and it’s being performed in London County Hall’s Council Chamber, giving the sense of a real court room. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that we are on to a winner here. This is ‘Witness For The Prosecution’.   Christie herself named ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ as her favourite play and

Back in London for the first time since 2015, Patrick Barlow’s hit comedy The 39 Steps has recently taken up residence at the Trafalgar Theatre where it continues to delight with its small cast, low budget tale of espionage.   This adaptation of John Buchan’s spy novel along with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film adaptation tells the tale of Richard Hannay (played by Tom Byrne), a civilian left bored at home who finds himself drawn into the world of spies after meeting a beautiful

33 times?! How can you possibly see the same show 33 times and still enjoy it? Don’t you get bored?   Bored? How could I possibly get bored when this is the show that never fails to make me happy, to make me smile from ear to ear, cheer, whoop and holler, and laugh. It makes me laugh every single time.   This is The Play That Goes Wrong, my favourite, my comfort, my emotional support show, and I don’t care what people may think when I tell them how many times that I have seen

Things move very quickly at the Fringe, and the action is thick and fast with shows coming and going all over the place. Of course, you do have some shows that return to the festival on a yearly basis, but I think that it may be a rather difficult job to find one that has a history as vast of News Revue.   Now in its 45th year, News Revue is a current affairs parody show that sees a cast of four, accompanied by a talented musician, play a multitude of well-known figures from

A theatre nestled in the arches under a railway bridge seems an appropriate home for a show about a train journey, and ‘Cockfosters’ at The Turbine Theatre is exactly that. James (Sam Rees-Baylis) and Tori (Beth Lilly) board the Piccadilly Line at Heathrow for the long 38 stop journey to Cockfosters, and along the way meet a cacophony of fellow travellers, from man-spreaders, buskers and partygoers to sports fans and tourists. This hilarious Rom-Com has had a number of sell-o

What is it really like to be a performer in musical theatre? What really happens backstage? What do the cast members really think of each other and think of their audience? Well, if you would like to know the answers to these important burning questions and would like them set to fun, catchy show tunes, then look no further then Alexander S. Bermanges ‘I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical’, playing at Gilded Balloon at the Museum. This production is a deep dive into the world o

I love a murder mystery. I’ve seen a fair few on stage, ‘The Mousetrap’, ‘And Then There Were None’, ‘Witness For the Prosecution’ and yes, I do call ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ a murder mystery. I am that person who delights in shows such as ‘Midsummer Murders'’, ‘Vera’ and I will admit to watching ‘Death in Paradise’ on repeat. Safe to say, I’m a fan, and that is what brought to a show that I saw last year at the Fringe ‘It’s a Mystery’, a celebration of all things Murder My

Charlie thought that he had done everything right with his life; he’d found a girl and gotten married, he had a good job, and he thought that everything was going to plan. But when his marriage breaks down, and he’s let go from his job, he is forced to sit back and re-evaluate his life. A simple text ‘Anyone fancy a pint’ in the group chat leads Charlie down a different and unexpected path in ‘Did You Mean To Fall Like That’, a one-man show written by Stephanie Martin, direct

There are many many different genres and types of shows available to see at the Edinburgh fringe but take a stroll down the royal mile and I can pretty much guarantee that you will end up with at least half a dozen flyers for various improv shows. Coming from a girl who absolutely loves a good improv, the range of choices in the genre at the festival can be a little overwhelming. There are musicals, hospital drama, murder mystery, crime scene investigation, the list could go

What do Titanic, Pretty Women, Dirty Dancing, Beaches, Legally Blonde and The Notebook all have in common? Well, they all fall into the genre of movies that have come to known as Chick Flicks and you may think that there is not much more to them than being crowd pleasing entertainment for a girl’s night, but that is where you are mistaken.   Enter KK Apple and Kerry Ipema, the double act behind ‘Six Chick Flicks’, (...or a Legally Blonde Pretty Woman Dirty Danced on the Beach

Unless you have filled up your diary far in advance, a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe can be filled with off the cuff decisions as you find yourself with hands full of flyers and surrounded by walls of colourful posters advertising the multitude of shows on offer. And with so much going on, plans can change at the last minute and hidden gems may suddenly present themselves.   Picture the scene, after a few days escaping it under greyish skies and a ferocious wind, the heavens o

There are over 3000 shows to choose from at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the ranges of genres is so vast that you couldn’t even begin to name them. That being said, there is one genre that perhaps boasts the most shows involving at least an element of it, and that is improvisation. Over the years, the Fringe has played hosts to many famous names of improv, and it continues to be an incredibly popular element with many a show. And one of the best things about a improv show is tha