By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Saturday 29 January (matinee), opens 4 February runs to 19 March 2022
5 scenes. 2 actors. 65 minutes. A father. 3 clones of his son.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Saturday 15 January (matinee), runs to Saturday 22 January 2022
We’re here because Lin-Manuel Miranda co-wrote this musical and we’re big fans of his In The Heights rather than his mega hit Hamilton.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: Saturday 1 January 2022, opens 20 January, booking to 28 May 2022
Garlanded with 10 Tonys in 2020 and based on Baz Luhrmann’s brilliant 2001 film, this jukebox musical focuses on the spectacle of the story of a visitor to Paris in 1899 who falls in love with a performer at the titular club at the expense of the tale’s romance.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 75 minutes (no interval)
WHEN?: Sunday 5 December (matinee), ran until Sunday 12 December 2021
Khan plays 20-year-old Quasim, the titular very special guest star, who has been invited home by middle-aged couple Michael and Phil to spice up their sex life.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: Saturday 11 December, opens 16 December, booking until 5 February 2022 Note: this production did not open and is currently paused because of Covid. Previews resume 29 December 2021
The stage is a dry ski slope for this tale of a family skiing holiday that goes wrong when an avalanche hits.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Tuesday 7 December, opens 17 December, booking until 22 January 2022 UPDATE: now extended to 29 January 2022
This production is so powerful that at 1 point a woman in the audience bursts into tears and has to leave while at another a young man is audibly sobbing behind our front row seat.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN?: Sunday 5 December 2021, booking until 9 January 2022
RUNTIME: 125 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
‘I think you know the story of Dick Whittington better than we do,’ says RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 1 star Cheryl Hole, lead in this adult pantomime, to the audience at its finale and it would be difficult to disagree.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2
WHEN?: Thursday 2 December 2021, opens 7 December booking until 26 February 2022
RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
The best thing about this prequel to His Dark Materials based on the 2017 book is the theatre debut of Samuel Creasey (pictured above right) who reminds of a young James Corden in the leading role as 12-year-old Malcolm Polstead.
WORTH A LOOK? *****
WHEN?: Monday 15 November, opens 10 December 2021 booking to 14 May 2022 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
We’ve followed Buckley’s career from BBC1 casting show I’d Do Anything, through West End and films including Romeo and Juliet and predict this will be the role that will catapault her to superstardom.
WORTH A LOOK? ****1/2
WHEN?: Sunday 14 November 2021 (matinee), opens 25 November runs to 31 December 2021 RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including 20-minute interval)
2 of the older male characters are duetting at the tail end of this show: ‘Perhaps we could be friends,’ sings 1, as they alternate the next 3 lines. ‘That suits me very well.’ ‘I love your furry snout.’ ‘I love your musky smell.’
