By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
Have you ever wondered whether there might be a finite number of people in the world and that all of us have past lives that occasionally bubble to the surface when paths cross?
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: **** RUNTIME: 120 minutes (including 20-minute interval)
WHEN?: Saturday 7 October (matinee), runs until 7 October 2023 Then Leeds Playhouse 18-28 October Tickets & HOME Manchester 31 October – 11 November 2023 Tickets
We took our 1st tentative steps out of the closet in Devon in 1993, the year that this Jonathan Harvey (Mother Goose, Duke Of York’s Theatre) play premiered at London’s Bush Theatre starring Jonny Lee Miller.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
TRACKLIST: I Just Came To Dance; Sorry Daniel; Bitch With A Broken Heart; I Wrote A Song; Me, Myself And I; Tatiana; Somebody New; I Wish I Could Hate You; A Little Bit Sad; MTJL; Breathe; Something Real; Nervous (In A Good Way); Better Days; Porn Lied To Us; Miss America; Written By A Woman
Muller has co-written all but 1 of the 17 songs here and there’s a line in the downbeat, reflective and extraordinarily vulnerable MTJL (Maybe That’s Just Life) that says: ‘I wish I was a better singer, or better than I am. I wish one little thing would go to plan.’
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Thursday 14 September 2023 RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes (no interval)
Roger gives a five-star performance of a three-star play in which she is the uncanny embodiment of the French singer who performed in cabaret and chanson styles and was the country’s most popular singer in the 1940s.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2 RUNTIME: 110 minutes (no interval)
WHEN?: Saturday 30 September, booking through 21 October 2023
Andrew Scott (Present Laughter, Old Vic) is 1 of this country’s finest actors but this intricate, multi-character Chekhov drama is ill-suited to a 1-man show.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ***** RUNTIME: 170 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
WHEN?: Saturday 30 September 2023 (matinee), booking through 28 September 2024
You may know Rebecca Lucy Taylor as indie pop star Self Esteem, this is her West End debut and she is, as her character Sally Bowles might put it, deliciously divine.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
Joker Out lead singer Bojan woke up on his band’s tour bus this year, saw London’s Palace of Westminster and decided the city should be the venue for the lyric about the quintet’s relationship with its fans.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
TRACKLIST: Padam Padam; Hold On To Now; Things We Do For Love; Tension; One More Time; You Still Get Me High; Hands; Green Light; Vegas High; 10 Out Of 10; Story
There were 18 months between the 1st time we saw Kylie live on the Enjoy Yourself tour at the now-no-more London Arena in Docklands in 1990 and the 2nd on the Let’s Get To It tour at the old Wembley Arena.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: *****
WHEN?: Saturday 23 September (matinee), opens 3 October runs through 6 January 2024 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) UPDATE: Transfers to the Samuel J Friedman Theatre on Broadway from 25 March 2025
We’re sitting on the end of the 3rd row for the 3rd preview at this sold out 986-capacity venue and watch a single tear slide down the cheek of Bernadette Peters during a very moving Send In The Clowns.
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
There’s something extraordinarily self aware about the winner of the BBC Music’s Sound of 2018 title penning a tune asking: ‘Honestly, did I live up to the hype?’
