The company of A Pissedmas Carol |
Tuesday 20 December 2022
A Pissedmas Carol - Review
Wednesday 14 December 2022
Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol - Review
Parton’s show acknowledges the Smoky Mountains’ history of the poverty of depressed 1930s America and also captures the snowy harshness of the Appalachian winters. But Tennessee was segregated until 1954 and looking at this show and its casting, this appears to be a troubling aspect of the state’s history that the producers have conveniently overlooked.
Robert Bathurst is convincingly curmudgeonly as Ebenezer Scrooge with Sarah O’Connor putting in a sweetly sung take on Three Candles. If only the song’s lyrics were as classy as her rendition. The best song of the night that closes Act One and is later reprised to see the audience off into the night is I’m Dreaming Of A Smoky Mountain Christmas, capturing Parton’s country genius at its finest. And credit too to Andrew Hilton’s six-piece band who are on fine form throughout.
Dolly may have whimsically hitched her wagon to a classic of the Christmas canon, but this show is just a little snowbound.
Runs until 8th January 2023
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
Monday 12 December 2022
Mother Goose - Review
Ponder a while and reflect on the image above. It is a picture of Sir Ian McKellen, one of this country’s finest actors and in this photograph by Manuel Harlan is captured the humour, genius and lifetime of experience that defines him. Now read on…
Sunday 11 December 2022
Ennio Morricone The Official Concert Celebration - Recensione
Andrea Morricone |
Nanni Civitenga |
Vittoriana De Amicis |
Leandro Piccioni e Hauser |
Rocco Zifarelli |
Friday 9 December 2022
Newsies - Review
Tuesday 6 December 2022
Handel's Messiah The Live Experience - Review
Saturday 3 December 2022
Ennio Morricone - The Official Concert Celebration - Review
Nanni Civitenga |
12:37 - Review
Finborough Theatre, London
***
The cast of 12:37 |
Friday 2 December 2022
Mother Goose - Review
Set in Hackneywood, a parody on Tinseltown, the storyline is a simple fable of love and humanity being worth more than fame and money, with an appropriately 21st century morality pitch that shows up the shallow selfie-seeking values of the mobile phone age. There’s goodies and baddies, slapstick, perfectly pitched comedy and a slickly choreographed company, all contributing to an evening of glorious entertainment.
Kat B (another Hackney regular) is great in the comedy role of Mother Goose’s son Billy, Tony Marshall is fun as a hapless landlord (the chocolate bar routine between those two is one of the night’s comic highlights), while Rebecca Parker as the Demon Queen is as evil a villain as you could hope to boo at.
In this special 120th year there’s also a fine tribute to the history of the Frank Matcham venue, with a 5-minute whirl in the second act that pays a nod to some of the greats who’ve graced that stage - from Marie Lloyd and Harry Houdini through to Morecambe and Wise and Louis Armstrong.
But the evening of course belongs to Rowe, whose years of panto experience allow him to direct the show brilliantly. His stand-up and put-down work is perfectly timed, a hallmark of his consummate professionalism. Rowe’s costumes are gorgeous (credit to Cleo Pettitt) and as for his voice, when Clive Rowe gets his chops around Ain’t No Stopping Us Now and later on, What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, one is reminded quite what a star of musical theatre he is.
The sets by Imagine Theatre are colourful and lavish the five piece band under Renell Shaw are equally wonderful. Steeped in and proud of its local community, Hackney Empire’s family pantomime does not get better than this!
Runs until 31st December
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan