Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady is so well-known and loved, most people can sing chunks of the score from memory. Which makes it a bit embarrassing to admit I’ve never seen it on stage before tonight, but then it has been over a decade since there was a major revival. The plot of the… Continue reading My Fair Lady
Month: March 2023
LCB Snow White at the Peacock
London Children’s Ballet presents Snow White with a cast of 50 dancers aged 9–16 from 13–16 April 2023. The LCB creates a new West End ballet each year performed by young dancers. Outreach work takes ballet into schools, care homes and special needs centres in and around London. Choreographer Gavin McCaig trained at the Dance School… Continue reading LCB Snow White at the Peacock
DanceWest Fest in Hammersmith and Kingston
DanceWest Fest, formerly Ignition Dance Festival, returns this spring to the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith (19 & 20 May) and Rose Theatre, Kingston (17 June) with an evening of new commissions. It will feature four new commissions from Lea Anderson, Jamaal Burkma, Gerrard Martin and James Wilton Dance, emerging artist commissions from Emma Skyum Poulsen and Dani Harris Walters and… Continue reading DanceWest Fest in Hammersmith and Kingston
The Rite of Spring
Choreographer Seeta Patel’s mission is clear. She merges contemporary movement with classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance in one almighty clash of the cymbals where East meets West to form an energetic powerhouse of movement fed by a live classical orchestra. Stravinsky’s monumental The Rite of Spring meets Bharatanatyam. It couldn’t get better. The evening opens with… Continue reading The Rite of Spring
Dance of Death
Maeterlinckian symbolism and Munch’s angst find their way into Strindberg’s play, which dissects the everyday hell that is marriage and other people. He wrote Dance of Death in 1900—it feels personal. It is. His existentialist legacy lingers in Huis Clos (1944) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962). And many a film and television drama—provide… Continue reading Dance of Death
Something Different
When the spark flickers in a relationship and threatens to go out, what’s to be done? The solution to reigniting the conjugal flame in Keith Singleton’s Something Different at The Mac, Belfast is a surprising one. Martin and Susan live in cosy, if unexciting, familiarity and companionship in “a humble home in a standard suburb”.… Continue reading Something Different
Hot House
Hot House is the new work by Richard Chappell Dance, which premièred last night to a full house. The company celebrates its 10-year anniversary and has been the recipient of a Gillian Dickinson Commission, allowing them to not only create Hot House but also to be in residence at Dance City. The evening opened with… Continue reading Hot House
Metamorphosis to tour
Tour dates have been announced for Frantic Assembly’s new adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, a collaboration between poet, playwright and broadcaster Lemn Sissay and Frantic Assembly’s artistic director Scott Graham. The new production will première at Theatre Royal Plymouth from September 12–16, before a UK tour arriving at The Lowry, Salford November 14–18. Metamorphosis is a depiction… Continue reading Metamorphosis to tour
The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Almeida Theatre’s 2021 production of Macbeth, available online for a brief spring 2023 season, is a dark and savage reading of the play. It opens with a graphic reminder that there’s a war going on and closes with the hint of one to come, and all the male characters spend the play in remnants… Continue reading The Tragedy of Macbeth
Oldham Coliseum says farewell
Oldham Coliseum has declared: If we’re going out, we’re doing it our way. This Friday, they celebrate all things Coliseum with script-in-hand performances of scenes and songs from favourite productions of the past decade, comedy, pantomime and appearances from special guests. The Coliseum’s theatre professionals have crafted this one-night-only event in just two short weeks… Continue reading Oldham Coliseum says farewell