THEATRE REVIEW

THEATRE REVIEW: Boys From The Blackstuff at the National Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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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THEATRE REVIEW: Passing Strange starring Giles Terera at the Young Vic

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

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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THEATRE REVIEW: John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers – The Play starring Adam Jackson-Smith & Anna Jayne Casey at the Apollo Theatre

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 4 May, opens 15 May and runs through 28 September 2024 RUNTIME: 110 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) Update: Extended through 4 January 2025

In an era where box sets are king and series with multiple episodes are the norm it seems scarcely believable that beloved 70s, Torquay-set sitcom Fawlty Towers mustered just 12 episodes.

  • Read on for reasons including how theatre is the natural setting for this superior farce
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Comeuppance at the Almeida

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 27 April 2024, runs through 18 May 2024 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (no interval)

A revival of playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 play Appropriate starring Sarah Paulson is tipped to earn multiple Tony nominations tomorrow (Tuesday 30 April 2024).

  • Read on for reasons including how Jacobs-Jenkins is fast becoming 1 of the world’s most interesting young playwrights
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THEATRE REVIEW: The Picture Of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: **

WHEN?: Saturday 27 April 2024 and runs through 11 May 2024 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (without interval)

The tech breaks down after 40 minutes, the spell is broken, the show is paused and we leave never to return.

  • Read on for reasons including why this is the emperor’s new clothes of theatre
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LAST NIGHT THEATRE REVIEW: Nachtland starring Jane Horrocks & John Heffernan at the Young Vic

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 20 April (matinee) and runs through 20 April 2024

What would you do if you found a painting apparently by Hitler in the attic of your dead father-in-law’s home while clearing it?

  • Read on for reasons including how Nachtland poses lots of difficult questions with answers ranging from the unpalatable to the freakishly bizarre
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