by Diana Miranda
Track Listing
Track 1: Dirty Dancing – Eleanor Bergstein (writer). Coming to the Dominion Theatre for a limited run and featuring the dialogues, songs, and choreography from the original 1987 film, this is a fan-pleasing show.
by Romy Foster
It’s opening night at Theatre Peckham and I am one of the first to see The Wonderful performed in front of a real, live audience (they only had their dress rehearsal THAT DAY). I followed the yellow brick road through the foyer to my seats and eagerly awaited this Peckham-ised twist on the lovable children’s classic, The Wizard of Oz.
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by Olivia Rose Deane
Burnt Lemon have taken their acclaimed 2019 Edinburgh Fringe hit Tokyo Rose on the road with a retooled cast, score and book and a good deal of anticipation. The bones of this new version of the show remain the same, telling the story of Iva Toguri, a Japanese-American radio journalist wrongly convicted of treason in 1945. As in the original, themes include xenophobia, cultural identity, and scapegoating, all with a six-strong female cast. The show opens with the high-energy and undeniably catchy “Hello America” – attention well and truly grabbed. Unfortunately, the number also represents the pinnacle of what is otherwise a flat, one-note production. The book (by Baldwin and Yoon) is generally good, retaining some of the smart, self-referential moxie that made the show charming in 2019, but is let down by the weakness of the score.
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by Laura Kressly
Everyday life isn’t often a particularly generative setting for compelling storytelling, but the many hospital dramas out there show that medicine is an exception. Though they aren’t part of most people’s daily routines, they are for the nurses who work in them. Long, exhausting shifts are dictated by the rhythms of their rounds, but these are punctuated by literal life-or-death crises. Amidst the moments of high drama, there are series of small, precise actions that keep patients safe and looked after. It’s in these little moments that this physical theatre collage excels.
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by Grace Bouchard
Heart-thumping music blaring, performers Ayden Brouwers and Lizzie Morris take the stage. As they dance towards each other, vibrant disco lights hitting their slow moving bodies, they ask “How do we look?” and “How do you look?”. It is at this point that we realise why we are here. We are here to look, and to observe. Simply through the act of being in the room with them, I am complicit in demonstrating the impact the cis gaze has on transgender bodies.
by Amy Toledano
Fat Rascal Theatre Company has created magic in their gender-swapped, musical parody of Beauty and the Beast. This show offers an interesting look at the ideologies behind most classic fairy tales and quite literally turns it on its head with a sharp book, catchy score and brilliant performances.
by Amy Toledano
Held holy by many musical theatre enthusiasts, Spring Awakening is about the turmoil and angst of growing up. The pain of self-discovery and the frustrations at growing up rapidly, and still being treated as a child by the adults around you, are one of its primary themes. And while The British Theatre Academy did their best to relay this to their audience, unfortunately they only remained at a surface level – it never really goes to the dark and vulnerable places that this show so desperately requires to make an impact.
by guest critic Amy Toledano
It is rare that a large-scale musical can be performed to its full potential in a tiny, unventilated room above a pub, but MKEC’s latest production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee does exactly that – and then some.
by guest critic Lara Alier
Visual poetry, movement and live music. Words that float and linger in the air like these two performers in the space.
Marah Stafford and Nicolas Hart perform a physical theatre piece devised from the poems of Jacques Prévert. The whole show is accompanied by Ben Murray on the accordion and piano.
The Play's The Thing UK 