Images not of performances mentioned Over the years, the Edinburgh Fringe has become known for many things; street performers, mad dashes from venue to venue and comedy acts that are simply impossible to resist. Improv comedy has always proved a popular choice at the festival, and some theatre companies have become so well known for it that they are amongst the top choice to see at the fringe. And when it comes to inventing a show on the spot, you can’t go wrong with the Show

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Get Up, Stand Up: The Bob Marley Musical, The Cher Show, and Jersey Boys. It’s safe to say that musicals telling the stories of real-life music stars aren’t exactly in short supply, and you’d be forgiven for wondering if perhaps there wasn’t space for another but with so many music stars out there with a story to tell about what really happened behind the glamour of their careers, it’s not really surprising th

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

Tasting notes are strings of adjectives, increasingly precise and sometimes obscure, meant as a sensory examination and evaluation of a drink. More informal, recreational tasting may usually involve a much less analytical process for a more general, personal appreciation (the gill girl, pribblebabble.wordpress.com, 2013). Although usually applying to a drink, in this case wine, the idea of a tasting note can allow be directly applied to day-to-day life and way in which we s

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

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

(Please note, the photographs in this review may not feature some of the cast members mentioned) #Pressreview - gifted After such a long period of no theatre or live music to capture the attention and imagination of young people, it is really no surprise to see the Theatre Royal Plymouth stuffed full to the rafters with happy audience members for the opening night of The School of Rock. Performing at venues up and down the country in its first, and majorly delayed (thanks cov

After starting life as a short performance in a school, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Tim Rice’s ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has gone from strength to strength and many a theatre fan now sees it as a classic. Over the years, productions of this sung through Bible story stage adaptation have bounced through the West End, over Broadway and all over the country in UK Tours, and in 2019 it returned to the home of variety, The London Palladium, in a sparkling new prod

They say that three is the magic number, and for Disney, three is the number spreading magic all over the glittering West End with The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and now Frozen delighting audiences of all ages. Over the years, Disney theatrical have pushed the boundaries of what can be done on stage when it comes to special effects, with The Lion King leading the way in terms of puppetry and Mary Poppins proving to be a shining example of special effects, but when it comes to F

Just as in life, ‘What If’ is a big and powerful question in storytelling and when it comes to theatre, the simple question of ‘What If?’ can take a story and completely flip it upside down. What if Donna had known whether Sam, Bill or Harry were Sophie’s father? What if the members of The Four Seasons had been able to get along better? What if Evan had simply told the truth? The possibilities are endless but let me take you away from all of that for a moment and apply the qu

(Please note, I could not find a cast board anywhere at the performance I attended, therefore I apologise in advance if I get any names of the cast wrong as I am unsure if there were any understudies on and cannot be completely sure as to which children were performing) Not another screen to stage adaptation, I hear you cry, and okay, maybe sometimes I have to agree, there’s a lot of them out there and a growing lack in new original work, but okay hear me out. Sometimes there

In today’s theatrical world, screen to stage adaptations are two to a penny but that doesn’t stop a stage musical adaptation from being a big box office draw. After opening in Manchester in early 2020, ‘Back to the Future the musical’ came roaring into the West End last Autumn, transforming the Adelphi Theatre into Hill Valley. Based on the 1985 film of the same name, Back to the future tells the story of Marty Mcfly (played here by Olly Dobson), who accidently finds himself

With a West End run coming up to celebrating 23 years and a statistic that states that 1 in 10 UK citizens have seen it, ‘Mamma Mia!’ is up there with some of the longest running and most well-known musicals in the world and after everything that we have been through in the last couple of years, this tonic of a musical, a Greek holiday wrapped up in stage show, is exactly what we all need right now. Now running again in London, the show is also hitting the road once more on a

For my 60th Birthday in 2021 I booked a trip to watch Les Miserables with a friend. It’s rare that I book an expensive seat as I go to...