Month: May 2024

9 reasons why we can’t wait for June 2024 starring Kiss Me Kate

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

  1. Kiss Me Kate at the Barbican

It’s the young leads of this classic musical we’re most excited to see. Charlie Stemp won our Best Theatre Actor monsta last year (Crazy For You, Gillian Lynne Theatre) and we saw Georgina Onuorah in Cinderella at the same venue. Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar are the main leads here at the Barbican 4 June through 14 September 2024. Tickets Our preview review

  • Read on for reasons including Slave Play, Tom Holland as Romeo, The Constituent and Alma Mater
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THEATRE REVIEW: Heathers: The Musical @SohoPlace

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Friday 24 May 2024, runs through 6 July 2024 and then tours the UK RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

‘What’s your damage, Heather?’ The moment we realise we’re not the target audience for this musical of an 80s cult film is when we start to see young women dressed in different coloured blazers as if part of the terrifying clique of bullies called Heather at its heart.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see this production in London and across the UK
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THEATRE REVIEW: Boys From The Blackstuff at the National Theatre

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 25 May 2024, runs through 8 June and then onto the Garrick Theatre 13 June through 3 August 2024 Tickets RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Songs including Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Dury, Depeche Mode’s New Life and Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division play before curtain up to set the scene as the UK in 1982 or thereabouts.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is an adaptation that is always sensitive to the elements that made the original so human with a real sense of place and time
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THEATRE REVIEW: A View From The Bridge starring Dominic West, Kate Fleetwood & Callum Scott Howells at Theatre Royal Haymarket

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 25 May 2024, runs through 3 September 2024 2024 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

The unnaturally blond hair and high-pitched giggle of Scott Howells’ Italian immigrant Rodolpho turns the stomach of West’s dock worker Eddie Carbone and the head of his niece Catherine.

  • Read on for reasons including how this production about immigrants who just want to work will have resonance in this election period and is brilliantly performed
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THEATRE REVIEW: Romeo and Juliet starring Tom Holland & Francesca Amewudah-Rivers at the Duke Of York’s Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Monday 20 May, opens and runs through 3 August 2024 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Outside it’s 1 of the hottest days of the year and inside this historic venue the most remarkable thing about this very Jamie Lloyd production of the Shakespeare classic is the absolute inferno of chemistry between its 2 leads.

  • Read on for reasons including how this Romeo and Juliet is very Jamie Lloyd and how Holland is well cast
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THEATRE REVIEW: Jerry’s Girls starring Cassidy Janson, Jessica Martin & Julie Yammanee at the Menier

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Sunday 19 May, opens 22 May and runs through 29 June 2024 RUNTIME: 110 minutes (with 15-minute interval)

Janson (pictured centre) played to more than a thousand people each night in musicals & Juliet (Shaftesbury Avenue) for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Olivier Award, and Beautiful at the Aldwych and here she plays tribute to the work of composer/lyricist Jerry Herman with hits from shows including Hello Dolly! and La Cage Aux Folles in a far more intimate setting.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is the perfect introduction to Hello Dolly!
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THEATRE REVIEW: Bluets starring Ben Whishaw & Emma D’Arcy at the Royal Court

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN?: Saturday 18 May 2024, opens 24 May and runs through 29 June 2024 RUNTIME: 80 minutes (no interval)

Whishaw is perhaps best known as the voice of Paddington bear or the face of Q in the Bond films and last trod London’s theatre boards in Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre in 2018.

  • Read on for reasons including why this is a a cult piece with the occasional laugh which many may find absorbing yet offputting
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GIG REVIEW: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey at the IndigO2

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

SETLIST: In The Name Of Love; Science Fiction; Lies; Lay Your Hands On Me; Runaway; If You Were Here; Shooting Star; Psycho Killer; The Gap; Day After Day; Sister Of Mercy; No Peace For The Wicked; You Take Me Up; Who Can Stop the Rain; Doctor! Doctor!; Hold Me Now; We Are Detective; Storm On The Sea; Love On Your Side

WHEN?: Friday 17 May 2024, tour runs through 28 July 2024

We tell Bailey before this gig that the 1st concert we ever went to was the Thompson Twins at the old Hammersmith Odeon, now the Eventim Apollo, on our 14th birthday 40 years ago and he’s genuinely thrilled.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is the most comprehensive set we’ve seen Bailey give
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THEATRE REVIEW: Passing Strange starring Giles Terera at the Young Vic

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By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 15 May, opens 21 May and running through 6 July 2024 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Spring into summer feels like the perfect time for this coming-of-age musical with a sting in its tail to debut in London about an African American youngster – the Youth – who flees to Europe to find himself through sex, drugs and protest art.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is entertaining and thought-provoking and well worth your time
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FILM REVIEW: Challengers starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor & Mike Faist

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this story of a love (match) triangle with a tennis backdrop is that its screenplay was written by Justin Kuritzkes whose wife Celine Song was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Past Lives, our film of 2023.

  • Read on for reasons including its success in making tennis riveting and occasionally raunchy
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