Category: Theatre Reviews

I watched this as part of the National Theatres offer of providing free You Tube access to some of their resided shoes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This version from 2017 sets the comedy about mistaken identity, gender-swapping and unrequited love in an art-deco style era.

It starts with a shipwreck and twins Viola and Sebastian become separated with each believing the other is dead. Tamsin Greig stars as Malvolia (instead of the male Malvolio), Olivia’s housekeeper. The story contains many misunderstandings, gender-swapping, disguises and unrequited love.  They have also swapped the gender of Feste the fool who here is played by Doon A ship is wrecked on the rocks.

It is amusing enough but personally, I think if the setting of Shakespeare is being updated the language should also be updated as otherwise, it feels a bit weird.

6/10

It was available for free on Youtube due to the Coronavirus lockdown.

I like the story of Jane Eyre (except the part with St John Rivers) and the various adaptations I have seen, but I did not like this version.

They had a very minimalist set, and the cast played multiple roles including men with beards playing little girls. It was overlylong, and lack of set, the strange music and songs that popped in and out, and the multiple roles were very distracting.

4/10

This is a recording of the 1999 National Theatre musical production starring Hugh Jackman, Maureen Lipman and Josefina Gabrielle.

It is set a century ago features farm girl called Laurey Williams and 2 rivals foher love –  cowboy Curly McLain and the evil farmhand Jud Fry.

The musical is overly long and include a ballet section in the middle.  Although the start and end clearly suggest it was recorded at the National Theatre, much of it looks a lot more like a studio.  Parts of the curtain call are missed and the credits go up over what is left of it.

6/10

This is the first of the free National Theatre productions that are being made available for a week starting each Thursday at 7pm on YouTube during the CoVid-19 lockdown in the UK.

This is a mildly amusing comedy about a man played by James Cordon who ends up mixed up between 2 bosses who each have secrets of their own.  This leads to a lot of confusion, and during scene changes, there are weird unnecessary musical interludes in front of the curtain.

For me, the funniest parts were the parts with genuine audience participation (particularly the unplanned heckling), although the part with the audience plant went on for too long and was too outlandish at the end to be beleiveable.

5/10

This us a recording of the recent version staged at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

The recording stars Bonnie Langford and Tom Lister, in the classic musical about putting on musical.

The filmed version changes view a lot so that you have a clear view of everything and the main action occurring on stage. It also includes a short interval of a couple of minutes.

8/10

I went to the Saturday matinee and sat in the rear stalls for £27 (no discounts except no booking fee due to ATG theatre membership).

The play, by Frederick Knott, was turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock.

This adaptation is set in 1963. The action takes place in one flat where a husband has planned the murder of his wife, but things don’t quite go to plan. this is part of a UK tour.

To save money on the cast, one of the actors plays 2 roles with a wig, moustache accent the main differences. There is also no curtain, so it starts rather suddenly at the beginning and after the interval.

The seat was comfortable, and the view was good (helped by not having anyone in the seats) but there was some distracting noise from the front of house staff and latecomers entering the auditorium.

7/10

I managed to get a bargain ticket in the Official London Theatre New Year’s Sale. The ticket cost me £20 in the stalls for a Thursday matinee and I understand the full normal price of the seat was £75!

The theatre is strange inside with an escalator and lots of doors into the incredibly wide auditorium.

At the Thursday matinee, I saw there were a lot of school parties, some of which were a bit unruly. It wasn’t full, so it was possible to move seats at the interval.

It is based on the film of the same name about a wannabe rock star who impersonates his flatmate to make money being a supply teacher at a private school. He teaches the children how to have fun, and they secretly enter a rock group competition.

I saw an understudy playing the lead role of Dewy Fin, Alex Tomkins. I thought he did well, but there was no notice in the programme or over the PA to say it was an understudy, which in my experience is unusual.

It was nice at the end during the finale when they announced the name of the child actors and some of the adult leads.

The seat had a good view, and the show was enjoyable enough, but I wouldn’t want to pay full price for it.

6/10

This is the latest offering from the Mischief Theatre Company. I saw the Saturday matinee on 4 January from a seat in the stalls.

Although the characteristics of the characters in this are similar to the Cornley in The Play that Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, they are different characters.

The premise is a charity magic show – we’re things go wrong. As with the other “Goes Wrong” stage shows, there is interaction with the audience. This starts about 20 minutes before the start. If you are in the first few rows, the performers are more likely to interact with you, although the pre-show part involves more people mainly if you are on the ends of rows or if there are empty seats in your row. The circles are safer (although at one point a performer was in one of the boxes)

This show was very funny, and the tricks were great. I couldn’t tell exactly how some of the magic was done from my seat, (but for some of it, I think they possibly plant a stooge or stooges were in the audience.

The seat cost £52.50. This is more than I would normally want to pay, but based on previous “Goes Wrong” shows I particularly wanted to experience this from a seat in the stalls rather than in a circle seat, for my first visit to this show. I would consider going back to see this again.

10/10

A hilarious farce with a terrific cast. Great escapism following the doom and gloom following the election. The only possible issue was that the stalls bar was so popular it was too full for any other customers, and as the stalls are down stairs, you can hear and feel a faint rumble each time a tube goes past.

10/10