What makes a show a musical and what makes a show a play with music. It’s a thin line and one that many shows walk like a tightrope, especially when said show is about a musical act itself. ‘The Commitments’, currently touring the UK, walks this line, balancing music with story in a humorous and believable tale of a band trying to make it big. Based on the Roddy Doyle book, ‘The Commitments’ tells the tale of a group growing up in Dublin in the 1980’s, brought together by you

Okay, hands up in the air, I’ll admit. I’ve never seen the film ‘Sister Act’. Shocking, I know, as many of you may consider it a classic, but here we are. So, other than knowing a few of the songs and having a very basic idea of the plot, I walked into the UK Tour of ‘Sister Act The Musical’ at Theatre Royal Plymouth relatively blind. ‘Sister Act’ tells the story of singer Deloris Van Cartier (played here by Sandra Marvin), who after witnessing her gangster boyfriend Curtis (

Pantomimes are as much a part of Christmas as the decorations, the festive TV specials, and the roast dinner with all the trimmings. Up and down the country over the next month or so, audiences will be delighted with stories of fairy tales complete with popular music, outlandish costumes, big song, and dance numbers and plenty of audience interaction, and whilst theatres are now fully open again, Peter Duncan’s Panto Online will continue to provide at home entertainment this

These days jukebox musicals, seen as guaranteed crowd pleasers, are commonplace up and down the country, entertaining those visiting the glittering west end and sending audiences flocking to their regional theatres in their droves. These popular shows often rely heavily on a singer/group’s most well-known hits, the types of songs that have theatregoers proclaiming, ‘hey I know this one’ and sending them home with a tune stuck in their heads, but sometimes a show can deep dive

Catchy songs, custard pies and peddle cars, ‘Bugsy Malone’ is a classic. Seen as a gangster movie for kids, it takes us back to 1920’s New York, when Speakeasy’s were all the rage and gang warfare was rife. The popular 1976 film saw the entire cast consist of children, playing adult roles with their singing voices dubbed by adults, so how exactly does that transfer to the stage. Directed by Sean Holmes and choreographed by Drew McOnie, this Lyric Hammersmith production of ‘Bu

Pictures in this review may not feature the 2022 touring cast I feel the need to start this review with a little bit of truth about me. I will willingly put my hands up and say that I have never got Shakespeare, I have always struggled with it as a whole. I was never really shown it at school, other than that modern retelling of ‘Romeo & Juliet’. But other than that, I had to sit and read it and be expected to understand it and the whole act of having it drilled into me made

Co-produced by Figueteatret I Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre) and Theatre Royal Plymouth, and presented by Extraordinary Bodies, ‘Delicate’ explores the idea that sometimes in order to find your place in the world, things need to go wrong and fall apart. What exactly does the word ‘Delicate’ mean? The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as ‘needing careful treatment, especially because easily damaged’, but how does that apply to someone’s life. In this production, we are intro

With hits including ‘(You Make Me Feel) Like A Natural Women’, ‘Take Good Care Of My Baby’, ‘The Locomotion’ and ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’, singer/songwriter Carole King is the voice and talent behind many a famous tune, and she soared into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The stage musical adaptation of her story entitled ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ premiered back in 2013, with Broadway, West End and touring productions proving popular with theatre goers and the sh

Following on from such successes as ‘The Red’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, Original Theatre returns with their next online offering; Shomit Dutta’s ‘Stumped’. This interesting piece tells the story of two great playwrights, Samuel Beckett (played here by Stephen Tompkinson) and Harold Pinter (played by Andrew Lancel). The two were great friends and they shared a love for cricket, something that Pinter described as ‘the greatest thing that God created on Earth’, with t

Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, performer and producer Shôn Dale-Jones brings ‘Still Floating’ to the Theatre Royal Plymouth, revisiting his award-winning show ‘Floating’ from 2006 and twisting it with a present day tale of returning home and exploring how things have changed. In 2006, Dale-Jones played his on-stage alter ego Hugh Hughes in ‘Floating’, telling the surreal and comical tale of Anglesey floating away from the mainland, becoming an independent land under the rul

Please note that the photographs included in this review are of the 2021 cast After setting sail in its world premiere at The Hall For Cornwall last year, the musical adaptation of hit film Fisherman’s Friends (based on the film of the same name which is in turn based on the real-life story of Port Isaac’s famous shanty band) has returned to the stage, launching its hotly anticipated UK Tour at The Theatre Royal Plymouth. Men of the sea, devoted to their work, their families,

Springing onto the movie screens in glorious technicolour in 1952 and onto the West End in all dancing, singing spectacular in 1983, ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ is a staple in the world of classic musicals, harking back to the golden age of Hollywood. The story centres around Don Lockwood (played here by Sam Lips), a great star of silent movies in the 1920’s and the challenges faced in the move towards talking pictures. Lockwood is famed for performing alongside fellow star Lina La

Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot. I see no reason, that gunpowder treason, should ever be forgot. Touring the country and using some of the most beautiful country estates and houses as their backdrops, theatre company Three Inch Fools are spending the summer bringing two productions to family audiences: Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Gunpowder Plot’ You may think that you know the ins and outs of the gunpowder plot, a group of ca

After proving a hit and a star making machine on Broadway, Dreamgirls opened in London’s West End in late 2016, running through to early 2019 and now, after what felt like a long delay due to Covid, the show has hit the road on a UK Tour, bringing the glitz, glamour, and grit of showbusiness in the hard-hitting music industry. Loosely, shall we say inspired, by the story of musical legend Diana Ross and her experiences of the challenging industry, Dreamgirls tells the story o

Jukebox musicals, love them or hate them, have been around for quite some time and won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Mamma Mia, The Band, Sunshine on Leith, The Bodyguard and &Juliet are just some examples of shows based around the catalogues of popular artists from ABBA to The Proclaimers and whilst you may think that Jukebox musicals cater for the party audience, the light-hearted night out that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but Jim Steinman’s Bat out of Hell, ins

In the dying days of World War II, a meeting takes place between two men who were unlikely to ever cross paths, Norbert Masur, a representative of the World Jewish Congress and Heinrich Himmler, a prominent Nazi. ‘The End of the Night’ by Ben Brown and directed by Alan Scrachan tells the tale of this meeting, how Himmler’s trusted physiotherapist Felix Kersten made it all happen, and how it saved thousands of lives. Masur (played by Ben Caplan) believes that, with Hitler in h

‘Returning for yet another calamitous run! We can’t believe it either’ Mischief Comedy has achieved global fame for their unique brand of slapstick, wordplay, and improvisation, bringing their comedic talents to stages and screens all over the world much to the delight of their fans. It’s hard to believe that such success started from humble beginnings, runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and a small stage production in a pub theatre in London, but here we are. That original show th

Cher is an icon of the pop fame, that cannot be denied, and like many other famous faces of music such as Tina and Frankie Valli, she is the latest of a long line of world-famous talent to have their story brought to life on the stage in an all singing, all dancing jukebox musical. She may have found super stardom in The Sonny and Cher Show, becoming half of an iconic double act but this production is all about her. The Cher Show follows the star’s journey from her teenage ye

Grief is a powerful thing. It comes to us all at some point in our lives and everyone reacts to it in a different way, it affects...

(Please note, the photographs in this review may not feature some of the cast members mentioned) #Pressreview - gifted After such a long...