Laughter is something that the Edinburgh Fringe is certainly not short of, comedy is a part of its beating heart, something that people go to the festival for. But not all comedy productions set out with the sole purpose of making you laugh. In Playing Latinx, a solo show by Guido Garcia Lueches, comedy is used as a tool to convey an important message in a way that both entertains and educates. Taking place in Cairns Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, Playing Latinx takes the form

Please note, photos included are general Showstopper images, not show specific What does it take to construct a musical? A storyline, music, lyrics, choreography, set, costumes; all of that and you are only skimming the surface, all of that and there is possibly months and months of work to be done in order to get it all running smoothly. That is, of course, unless you are about to witness an entire musical, plot, songs and all, pieced together in just 2 hours. Madness, I hea

When it comes to stage productions, taking a classic story and giving it a twist is hardly something new, from ‘Unexpected Twist’ and ‘Bleak Expectations’, to Say It Again Sorry’s fringe hit ‘The Importance of being… Earnest’ to name but a few. And now here we are with the Olivier Award winning ‘Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort of), a show that takes the classic Jane Austen story, throws it into the mixing pot and tops it up with dashes of Six, lashes of Jukebox musical fun and even

These days, screen to stage adaptations is about as common as Sunday roasts and train strikes, but something that is perhaps a little bit less common in the world of theatre is a radio to stage adaptation, but here we are. ‘Bleak Expectations’ a comedy by Mark Evans premiered on BBC Radio 4 back in 2007, and has proved wickedly popular since, with the show still being broadcast on a regular basis on BBC Radio 4 Extra. A pastiche of the works of Charles Dickens, it follows Phi

What do you get when you mix a little bit of ‘Hamilton’ with a dash of ‘Six’, add a little drop of ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World’ and throw in just a smidgeon of ‘Horrible Histories’ for good measure? Well, dear reader, I’ll tell you what you get. If you add all of those things together, you get ‘Operation Mincemeat’, the little musical that is making a big impact and taking the West End by storm. In real life, Operation Mincemeat was a little known plot th

Please note - The photographs in this review feature the original cast, not the cast that are currently starring in the production It isn’t uncommon for stage productions these days to have had other lives before they even reach the stage itself, with screen to stage adaptations becoming increasingly popular and the idea of audience members having some idea of what to expect helping to put bums on seats. In the case of this particular production, it was Deborah Moggach’s 2004

Many adults these days would be able to look back at their childhoods and say that they can remember settling down to watch the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and his friends in The Hundred Acre Wood and would probably remember the warm fuzzy feelings that came with it. Even now, the famous honey loving bear is just as popular, with today’s children still being drawn into his world. And now, Pooh, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Piglet and Christopher Robin have made

Up and down the country, from the glittering West End to our much-loved regional theatres, stages are a new constant revolve. One show out, one show in, and the cycle starts again. But, nevertheless, some productions stick around a little bit longer, a year here maybe, a 3 three stint there? It’s pretty common, but what is more uncommon is that sometimes a show can run and run, the revolving door of change nowhere to be seen. The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and for

Okay, hands up in the air, time for some honesty. I did not know anything about ‘The Ocean At The End Of The Lane’ before I was kindly invited to the press night of the stage adaptation at Theatre Royal Plymouth. Beyond the knowledge of it being based on a novel by Neil Gaiman (Good Omens, Stardust, Coraline), I knew nothing of the plot, and made the decision not to look it up before going to see the show. Because, after all, sometimes going into something blind can be worth

London is big, it is bold, it is in your face; it surrounds you with noise and hits you full force. The theatre world that calls London home can be just as big, can be just as bold and can be just as loud, but not always. Like the night plunging the city back into winter weather after a sunny day, some shows sneak up on you, catch you unaware with their different style of approach, delving deeper and presenting you with the unexpected. Vault Festival, London’s smaller but jus

It’s no secret that most of the attention and, in turn, audience attendance, goes to the bigger and perhaps better known large theatrical venues but up and down the country there are smaller theatres and performance spaces that are not only a hub for creativity but also a hub for their local communities. As the world opens up again, as people get used to going out again and as the cost-of-living crisis hits, these smaller venues are struggling to keep afloat more than ever. T

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

Oh look, what a shock. She’s writing about a mischief show again. But let’s be honest here, is that really a surprise? Mischief Theatre has something that just keeps on dragging me back, and the most addictive of the lot for me, ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’. People may, and do, ask me why I keep seeing it, how on Earth I am not bored of it yet and I give the same answer every time. How can I get bored of something that is different every single time. Different cast combinations

It’s perhaps one of the most popular Christmas movies around, with merchandise flooding the shelves every year and a family rewatch becoming a tradition for many, and since it’s stage debut in 2010, Elf has proven just as loved on stage as it is on screen. With success across North America and beyond, 2022 saw the festive musical return to the London stage for its second run since 2015, returning once more to the vast Dominion Theatre. It is maybe safe to assume that most peo

Roast dinners with all the trimmings, meeting up with friends and family, exchanging presents, watching tv and constantly reaching for ‘just one more’ chocolate; all things that one would associate with Christmas and on top of all that, many families consider a trip to the theatre to also be a tradition. And whilst pantomimes may be the go-to, many may be looking for something else. Just off Mount Pleasant Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, stands the Trinity Theatre, a grand churc

It’s the biggest public vote theatre awards in the UK, and the build-up has well and truly kicked off for the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards, with nominations announced in full. Winners will be revealed at a star-studded ceremony on Sunday 12 February at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the heart of London’s West end. The ‘Best performer in a musical’ nominees are Courtney Bowman for ‘Legally Blonde’, Katie Brayben for ‘Tammy Faye’, Divina De Campo for ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, Jo

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

Please note that the photographs featured here may not feature all of the cast members mentioned in this review. Billed as ‘theatre as live as it gets’, the UK Tour of ‘An Improbable Musical’ invites the audience to witness the creation of a brand new musical every night, based purely on tiny suggestions from audience members and made up as it goes along by a gang of world class improvisors. Fans of ‘Showstopper: The Improvised Musical’ and ‘Mischief Movie Night’ may think th

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