The Pianist - Review

Park Theatre, London

****

Music by Wladyslaw Szpilman

Based on the best-selling book by Wladyslaw Szpilman

Adapted and directed by Thom Southerland

Daniel Krikler and the cast of The Pianist

Thom Southerland’s adaptation of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s story of survival is a beautifully devastating work of theatre. The Pianist, already an acclaimed novel and Oscar garlanded movie tells of Szpilman’s life as a celebrated Warsaw pianist in the early 20th century.

Before the Germans invaded Poland in 1939 and thus trigger the Second World War, Szpilman, together with his parents and siblings lived a gilded life in the capital. But as Jews now under the Nazi regime, the Szpilman family was to be brutally torn apart. That Southerland manages to convey the horror of the Holocaust with an understated yet menacing sensitivity within the confines of the Park Theatre's space, speaks volumes for his gift as a director.

The dramatic power of this musical is driven by Daniel Krikler’s compelling performance as Szpilman mirrored, as it were, by the virtuoso piano skills of Malcolm Forbes-Peckham, immaculately attired throughout in white tie and tails, providing a breathtaking piano accompaniment to the narrative. That the musical’s score is entirely drawn from Szpilman’s compositions (with an occasional splash of Chopin) only adds to the evening’s powerful poignancy. 

A company of 10 actor-musicians support the two leading performers, giving a finely crafted haunting charm to Szpilman’s melodies. This band has been lavishly furnished with string and wind players, creating perfect harmonies and solos that have to be amongst the finest on London’s fringe theatre scene. Notably strong accompanying performances in the cast come from Nitai Levi as Szpilman’s brother Henryk and Rosalind Ford as the pianist’s mother.

Whilst the music may well be exquisite, the show’s lyrics, that have been transplanted onto the score in more recent years by a team of no less than eight lyricists, frequently lack depth. With too much schmaltzy sentimentality they mask instances of emotional impact.

Southerland’s creative partners however match him well with their inspired work. Andrzej Goulding’s design that sees Forbe-Peckham and his grand piano waltzed around the stage on a wheeled platform is simple yet phenomenal. And Goulding's set that opens the show as a bleak wooden wall, carries ingenious projections that serve well to suggest the charm of pre-War Warsaw. The wall in turn morphs through to the barbed-wire enclosure of the city’s infamous ghetto, and ultimately into the infernal cattle trucks that were to transport the city’s Jews east to be murdered in their millions. Stunningly suggestive visuals. Gareth Tucker’s sound design that enhances so much of the evening’s narrative, ranging from bomb-blasts to children’s laughter is equally well crafted.

The Pianist is already a fine tribute to Wladyslaw Szpilman. One world-class lyricist could yet transform this piece into a world-class show.

Runs until 28th November

Photo credit: Anthony Leary-White

Derren Brown: Only Human - Review

Apollo Theatre, London

***

Directed by Andrew O'Connor

Derren Brown

Towards the end of his press night performance, Derren Brown asked for the critics in the house to refrain from revealing what’s in the show. A not unreasonable request as no one likes spoilers and equally, a request that could make for this website’s shortest review ever….

To be clear, Derren Brown is a gifted entertainer. He may well have a robust understanding of psychology and the human condition but he is also, unquestionably, a sublimely talented illusionist. That being said Only Human, his solo show at the Apollo, and which at times requires a fair amount of audience movement, does not easily translate into the theatre's awkwardly Edwardian confines. Brown's various routines follow a consistent theme of appearing to predict the future. All well and good, but a bit of variety would not have gone amiss and at close to 3 hours, what would have ideally filled a one-hour TV Special, tends to drag.

The acts are also too low-tech. Punters splashing out more than a £100 for a ticket are entitled to see more than just some Polaroid photos, a few bits of paper and a family-sized packet of Smarties being used as props. While Brown may briefly use an onstage electric gizmo (that looks as though its been lifted from the first series of Dr Who) for one of his stunts, in all honesty there is not enough breathtaking trickery in the evening to win over more hardened cynics. Live projections attempt to enhance the evening’s visuals which in theory should be helpful, especially for those sat in the cheap seats. But for a 2026 West End show where the AV equipment deployed should be cutting edge, the televised images lack clarity and brilliance.

Ultimately this is little more than music-hall entertainment for the 21st century, where much like the real-life P.T.Barnum or L. Frank Baum’s fictional Wizard of Oz, Derren Brown is selling illusion and flim-flam. If one believes Brown's bona fide baloney then the evening will indeed be truly magical. Only Human ? Brown had (some of us) on our knees looking for the answer.

Runs until 30th January 2027

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

High School Musical - Review

Troubadour Theatre, London

****

Music adapted, arranged and produced by Bryan Louiselle

Book by David Simpatico

Directed by Joseph Houston and William Whelton

Tobias Turley and the cast of High School Musical

Just opened at Wembley’s Troubadour Theatre, High School Musical is a glorious celebration of all that is wonderful in musical theatre performance. Drawn from the movie of 20 years ago, talented Manchester duo Joseph Houston and William Whelton have taken Disney’s original, restaging it with imagination and flair for the present day.

Yes, the story may be sweet and shallow but it oozes humanity and heart. Set in the all-American East High school, as basketball jock Troy and geeky brainiac Gabriella discover a surprising love amidst the chords of a song, the strength of their self-belief and the support of their friends sees them outwit the jealous bully Sharpay, that all leads towards a deliciously predictable happy ending.

The cast’s star billings are headed by McFly’s Harry Judd as Coach Bolton and Kaycee Stroh – a Disney High School Musical original cast member - as Ms Darbus the school’s drama teacher desperately trying to stage the eponymous musical. The real performing strengths of this young company however rest with the actors playing East High’s pupils. Tobias Turley and Leonor Correia are Troy and Gabriella, both investing beautifully in the credibility of their characters. Not only that , their singing is exquisite too. Matching them in vocal charm – and possibly stealing the evening’s dance-based laurels are Caitlin Tipping as Sharpay and Luke Bayer as her brother Ryan. Their deftly executed routines are immaculately delivered.

This is an evening where the show’s entire ensemble are quite simply magnificent. On Andrew Exeter’s stunning baseball court/gym of a set – that is equally brilliantly lit by Rory Beaton, choreographer Aaron Renfree has drilled his company into imaginative routines that are performed with pinpoint precision, while the imaginative technical touches that include creating the scoring of a spectacular basket in the show’s nail-biting basketball climax makes for a magical coup de théâtre.

The massive space at Wembley lends itself to this gorgeous spectacle of Americana. A simple story, beautifully told and flawlessly performed. Take your teens (or your teenage selves), grab some popcorn and go see this slam-dunk of a show.

Runs until 3rd January 2027

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt, France, 1940 - Review

Arcola Theatre, London

**

Written and directed by Julia Pascal

Helen Goldwyn, Ariella Barnett, Anja Fahlenkamp, Mai Weisz, Anna Eckhard, Pat Dynowska

Hannah Arendt was one of the 20th century’s leading Jewish thinkers whose phrase “the banality of evil “ was drawn from her seminal work on the trial in Jerusalem of Adolf Eichmann, published in 1963. Eichmann had been the architect of Hitler’s Final Solution, with Arendt’s writing chillingly dissecting the calm evil that fuelled the Holocaust.  

Julia Pascal’s play however has scant commentary on Arendt’s study of evil’s banality. Rather, her 90-minute one-act drama focuses on the chapter of Arendt’s life who, as a German Jew had fled to France in 1933, that saw her in May 1940 being interned with thousands of other Jews in the Gurs prison camp, on the orders of the French government. There is therefore a distinct feeling that the play’s title, much like a tabloid newspaper’s sensational and attention grabbing headline, has been thrust exploitatively on to Pascal’s script in the hope of attracting an audience.

A talented all-female cast perform the piece, with imaginative movement and frequent moments of beautifully performed singing, mostly a capella. But the drama is disjointed and short of describing - in sometimes prurient detail - the appalling and inhumane degradation of life in Gurs, says little else, least of all about Arendt.

As an educationally historical play, the work disappoints, Pascal’s style proving so abstract and disjointed that she fails to make any coherent argument as to the banality of evil. That being said, a spin-off from the narrative is an explanation of a little of the history of the artist Charlotte Salomon, another internee at Gurs, who was later to be murdered by the Nazis in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The banality of a clumsily constructed drama, albeit one that’s brilliantly performed.

Runs until 8th November

Photo credit: Alex Brenner

The Gang of Three - Review

Richmond Theatre, London

*****

Written by Robert Kahn and Tom Salinsky

Directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward 

Hywel Morgan, Colin Tierney and Alan Cox

Returning after its 2025 premiere at London’s King’s Head Theatre, The Gang of Three is a fabulous dissection of the Labour Party between 1972 and 1980 and a fascinating glimpse into the skullduggery and disloyalties of parliamentary politics over the same era.

Labour grandees Tony Crosland, Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey are played, respectively, by Alan Cox, Hywel Morgan and Colin Tierney who all give performances that are as sparkling as Robert Kahn and Tom Salinsky’s script. This is an exquisitely crafted drama that layers frequently funny, fictional dialogue over a factual framework of modern history. As the story unfolds each of the three actors increasingly and uncannily evolves into the character that he is playing.

Opening to Jenkins having just resigned as deputy leader from the Labour Party's shadow cabinet, the play explores the trio’s friendships and bitter rivalries that dated back to their times at Oxford. Kahn and Salinsky's script scorches as Crosland and Jenkins caustically remark on their “ersatz camaraderie” while damning the left-wing Tony Benn as akin to a “vicar with a speech impediment”. 

Libby Watson's simple design, a book-cased wall and a red Chesterfield sofa elegantly frames the evening's one-act 90-minute narrative, itself copiously oiled with claret and gin. The trio mark Callaghan’s rise and fall that was to culminate in Margaret Thatcher's sweeping into 10 Downing Street in 1979. Throughout, the Machiavellian machinations of Westminster’s political machine are laid bare, the text at one point describing MP’s (who typically had responsibility for voting in the Labour Party’s leadership ) as the “most duplicitous electorate” - a phrase that has sadly proved timeless in its prescient truth.

There’s an intriguing glimpse of (hitherto largely unreported) intimacy between Crosland and Jenkins during their student years that only adds yet another immaculately researched fragment of history to the play.

If you lived through those years, the evening is unmissable. For everyone else, this is political drama of the highest calibre that deserves a West End showcase.

Runs until 17th October, then on tour

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Don Black's From The Heart - Review

Garrick Theatre, London

*****

Lyrics by Don Black

Directed by Nick Winston

The cast of One From The Heart

It is a rare show indeed that can translate the intimacy of a cabaret venue onto a West End Stage. Don Black however pulls it off in style, with From The Heart, a revue of his work that has been 30 years in the making and which now plays at the Garrick Theatre for the next 10 days.

In an evening of simply charming excellence, five stars of musical theatre deliver a five-star selection of Black’s cabaret-inspired compositions, many of which are likely to be unfamiliar to the audience, but, as the show’s title number suggests are all written from the heart. And as that title number’s lyrics explain, a song can frequently tell more in its 32 bars and three minutes then either a book, a film or a play.

Don Black introduces each song with the patter that one would expect from an evening of fine cabaret. At 88 it is possibly unfair to expect Black to tread the boards each night to deliver these intros and so in a neat twist of artistic flair, his spiels have been pre-recorded. Black’s pre-music career was as a stand-up comedian and it is clear that this boy from Hackney still possesses a gift for spotting the wry humour of the world around him, a gift that makes his speeches sparkle and his lyrics soar.

The quintet kick off the evening with From The Heart before Clive Rowe takes over with the gloriously satirical Doctors, a spoof that needs to be heard to be believed. Next up, Michael D. Xaver sung Me Too, carrying a humour that resembled Cole Porter in its sharp cynicism. In a moment (one of many) of self-revelation, Black shared with the audience that his sole bucket-list dream was to have a revue such as this play on a West End stage. This provided the perfect intro Frances Mayli McCann singing I’ve A Hundred Things To Do Before I Die. Caroline O’Connor then shone as a waitress in The Reluctant Star. Later in the evening Shona McGarty was to excel in the beautifully bluesy Things A Lady Shoudn’t  Do.

Black had added a handful of duetted and trio numbers into his setlist. Rowe and Xavier singing Fizzy or Still, two reformed alcoholics contemplating the merits of different bottled waters echoed the style of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin’s Well Did You Evah?. The three ladies combined to sing Straight Men, a hilarious lament on the lack of said gentlemen in their lives.

The evening wasn’t all frivolity. Black’s wife Shirley died 8 years ago following a marriage that had lasted nearly an incredible 60 years. It is an understatement to say that she remains much missed, but it is a mark of Black’s songwriting craft that he could channel his grief into lyrics. As Clive Rowe sung I’d Go To Bed Earlier, the bittersweet poignancy of the lyrics was tangible.

The show’s run will see a surprise guest take to the stage each night. For the opening night Michael Ball sang Love Changes Everything from Aspects of Love marking 37 years since he first sang the song in the show’s London premiere.

Black’s most famous numbers formed the show's finale. McGarty got the ball rolling with Diamonds Are Forever before all the cast joined her for a medley of Black’s Bond themes. A lighting tricolore of red, white and green washed the stage for Getta Bloomin' Move On! (The Self Preservation Society) from the movie The Italian Job before Clive Rowe gave his trademark sweetness to Ben, a song originally recorded by Michael Jackson. Rowe also performed a beautiful (if repeated) Love Changes Everything, though at least for the rest of the run Rowe will not have been preceded by Michael Ball! Michael D. Xavier delivered a thrilling Sunset Boulevard as from the same show, Caroline O’Connor briefly took the roof off the Garrick with her sensational snatch of As If We Never Said Goodbye.

Throughout Nick Winston's stylishly visualised production the music was elegantly and flawlessly played by Joseph Curch on keyboards and Oliver Copeland on bass. Don Black himself came on stage to take a bow before the curtain came down - and the plan is for him to repeat this during the run. 

From The Heart is an evening of glorious cabaret that celebrates the musical love of one of our finest lyricists!

Runs until 18th October

Photo credit: Eamonn B Shanahan

RENT - Review

The Tom Stoppard Theatre, London

****

Music, lyrics & book by Jonathan Larson

Directed by Luke Sheppard

Gaten Matarazzo

Marking 30 years since both the show’s opening in New York and, shortly before that premiere night the untimely death of its writer Jonathan Larson, RENT returns to the West End.

Centered around a group of impoverished NYC bohemians and their struggles with a rapacious landlord, Larson’s show tracks the devastation wreaked by AIDS as it was to scythe through so many young lives. Luke Sheppard has assembled a talented company to deliver a musical that is largely sung through. The evening’s energy is relentless - and in a show that lasts nigh on three hours, sometimes too relentless - with credit to Katy Richardson’s six-piece band for delivering an immaculate take on Larson’s score that itself reflects a multitude of musical styles and themes.

Young people coming to terms with their mortality – the show’s recurrent theme is famously “No day but today” – determines that the show’s arc is destined to be painfully poignant and it is a credit to Sheppard, himself no stranger to cityscape musicals having previously helmed In The Heights (that plays out in a New York barrio) and Paddington The Musical (London), that he can telescope the story’s massive human dimension into the tight confines of a derelict Manhattan loft.

While the heavily advertised Gaten Matarazzo is the lead character Mark, this show’s honours demand to be shared between the entire ensemble. The evening’s songs and multi-part harmonies are challenging, with the talent on stage representing musical theatre at its finest. Amidst the moments of bittersweet humour and devastation there is standout work from West End debutante Alexa Lopez as Mimi and Travis Ross as Roger. Jeevan Braich electrifies as the ultimately tragic Angel.

The creative power behind the show is equally impressive. David Woodhead’s designs place the action in the round, with the always brilliant Howard Hudson delivering sensational lighting plots. Tom Jackson Greaves’s choreography is tight and expressive, defining the show’s emotional passage in deeply moving dancework.

Loud and fast, there is a lot to keep up with in this classy production. Rentheads will love it!

Runs until 29th May 2027

Photo credit: Pamela Raith