Sinatra The Musical - Review

Aldwych Theatre, London

****

Written by Joe Di Pietro

Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall

Joel Harper-Jackson

The song, dance and music in Sinatra The Musical is world-class entertainment. A ‘juke-box’ show that threads together most of Ol’ Blue Eyes’s most recognisable numbers, for those who love Sinatra’s style, flair and voice, the evening is one of sublime talent.

Joe DiPietro’s book charts Sinatra’s life from around the 1940s over a handful of decades, peppering the timeline with hit after hit, each loosely woven into the narrative.

What makes this show soar however is not so much DiPietro’s book, as the legacy of Sinatra’s work, breathed into life at the Aldwych by Joel Harper-Jackson in the title role. Harper-Jackson is sensational in both tone and presence, and if you’re lucky enough to catch a split-second glimpse of his profile from the side, the resemblance to Sinatra is uncanny. The show’s creatives have played a smart move (for the most part) in how the songs are deployed through the evening. Opening with All Of Me (that proves to be a mini-motif of the evening), a novel twist sees Come Fly With Me used as the musical backdrop to Sinatra bedding his way through Lana Turner (Becky Anderson), Judy Garland (Jenna Innes) and Marlene Dietrich (Allana Taylor).

These women were of course bit-parts in Sinatra’s life, with the most influential females turning out to be his mother Dolly (Jenna Russell), first wife Nancy (Phoebe Panaretos) and his subsequent wife Ava Gardner (Ana Villafane). This talented trifecta are handed juicy solos across the show, with Villafane shining in Nice And Easy Does It, Panateros making heartbreaking work of In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, while Russell along with Marty Aguire as her hubby Marty, sparkles in You Make Me Feel So Young. On the night of this review Sylvie Regan was Little Nancy, who sang with an enchantingly commanding presence.

If there is a criticism of the show it is Joe DiPietro’s wafer-thin book, the years playing out with a bland predictability. Aside from Russell’s fiercely matriarchal mamma, there is barely any humour at all, the mark of the perfect juke-box musical being that it can carry one’s interest in between the songs. There are moments during the dialogue when the evening drags. We already know that Sinatra was a serial womaniser with links to the Mob – Di Pietro sheds little new light on the singer’s journey. And deciding that Sinatra should sing The Way You Look Tonight to Little Nancy as she prepares to accompany him to the Academy Awards is the absolute depth of sugary, cutesy, kitsch albeit beautifully sung.

Those looking for Sinatra's classics will not be disappointed. That's Life and My Way bookend the interval, while New York, New York is gifted to the audience as a singalong number during the finale.

Kathleen Marshall directs and choreographs with flair, while Dave Rose’s 17-piece band are sensational (and don’t forget to stay for the exit music when each band member riffs a stunning solo!)

Lavish production values and oh, those magical songs!

Booking unti 10th April 2027

Photo credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenberg

Barnum - Review

RichmondTheatre, London

***

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Michael Stewart

Book by Mark Bramble

Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle

The cast of Barnum

After a spectacular run at Newbury’s Watermill two years ago, while this innovative actor-muso take on Coleman and Stewart’s classic musical still showcases fabulous talent, the show has lost some of its Big Top magic on the road.

Lee Mead is P.T.Barnum and to be fair, much like Matt Rawle before him, he’s a convincing king of flim-flam. Mead sings wonderfully and leads his show with an authentic enthusiasm. Not just vocally, Mead’s takes on There Is A Sucker Born Ev’ry Minute and The Colours Of My Life are magnificent, but his acting too is a blast with a stunning tight-rope act to close the first half.

Supporting Mead are original cast members including Monique Young as Charity, Barnum’s wife and Penny Ashmore as Swedish Nightingale (and Barnum’s mistress) Jenny Lind. Both remain exquisite, Young still breaking our hearts with her take on The Colours Of My Life.

But while the circus skills are breathtaking throughout and the actor-muso take on the score, delightful, the demands on one’s imagination that made General Tom Thumb and Jumbo the Elephant seem so glorious at Newbury, seem little more than bona-fide baloney when squeezed into the cramped confines of Richmond’s proscenium arch. 

If you want to see Barnum because you love the songs, then you won’t be disappointed.

Runs until 27th June, then on tour

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England - Review

Garrick Theatre, London

***

Written by Alex Hill

Directed by Sean Turner

Alex Hill

The real-life lunacy of one England fan in 2021, who did indeed insert a lighted flare between his buttocks, was the inspiration for Alex Hill's fictional drama. In this one-hander, Hill plays Billy, a young man used by Hill so the production notes advise, to explore toxic masculinity.

Hill's writing is vivid and his performance throughout the 75 minute one-act piece sensational. His energy - and ability to adlib where necessary - are hallmarks of a production that has been honed in the harsh intimacy of the Edinburgh Fringe. Hill plays Billy, a Wimbledon fan, who we follow through his drug and alcohol-fuelled football fanaticism and hooligan violence, through his relationship with a girl that we know is doomed to failure from the outset and ultimately to the incident with the flare.

Notwithstanding Hill's terrific acting, his characterisation is far too stereotyped. Billy is portrayed as an uneducated white working class male, with Hill inviting us to laugh (sneer?) at the young man's lack of sophistication.

Of course we do not know the real journey that 2021's idiot to perform such a dangerous act, with Hill's writing being disappointingly cliched in its narrative. Fo an audience member with little or no knowledge of football, seeing this play is only likely to deepen pre-existing prejudices about the beautiful game.

After three successful years at the Edinburgh Fringe and a brief UK tour, Alex Hill's play made a one-night appearance at London's Garrick Theatre before crossing the Atlantic next month for a 10-night run in New York.

A cliched script, albeit stunningly performed.

Performing at Soho Playhouse, New York from 8th - 18th July

Photo credit: Rah Petherbridge

Beshert - Review

*****

Written by Gary Enkin

Directed by Lewis Rose

2025 - 19 minutes

Anton Lesser and Kit Rakusen

Winner of the 2025 Pears Short Film Fund award, Beshert is a perfectly crafted 20-minute drama. Set in Leeds, Oliver Simon is approaching his barmitzvah while having been set a Care In The Community assignment from his school to visit an elderly resident in a local care home. On stumbling into the curmudgeonly Mr Pinsky the most charming and touching friendship evolves between (the unbeknownst to Oliver, dying) Pinsky and the convincingly awkward adolescent.

To say much more about the plot would spoil things and it’s only a short movie anyway, but what shines out from Beshert is its beautifully worded script from 70 year old newcomer(!) Gary Enkin that touches on moments of powerfully poignant tenderness while completely swerving sugary cliché. The relationships are played out with authenticity – with Pinksy’s final scene offering the most exquisitely understated depiction of hope emerging from devastating sadness. 

Of course it is not just the script. The young Kit Rakusen is Oliver while the venerable and accomplished Anton Lesser plays Pinsky, the spark between the pair proving electrifying. As Pinsky coaxes Oliver into embracing rather than resenting his barmitzvah, so too does the young boy re-ignite a spark of warmth and compassion in the old man. 

Lewis Rose directs with perfectly pitched nuance, and the whole affair is graced by a score from the always talented Erran Baron Cohen.

This movie is not just beshert, it’s beautiful.

Photo credit: Joanne Davidson

Desperate Scousewives - Review

Theatre Royal, St Helens

****

Written and directed by Lynne Fitzgerald

The cast of Depserate Scousewives

Desperate Scousewives is a warm, gritty and filthy comedy that is proudly Liverpudlian. Written and directed by Lynne Fitzgerald (who also performs as one of its cast of four) it is set around the streets of Liverpool, mainly situated on the street where the characters' four terraced houses nestle side by side. 

Vanessa (played by Samantha Alton) is getting married the next day. Her fiancé is currently banged up in Walton Prison and we learn that Vanessa in fact has never met her intended – rather he has proposed to her based upon the topless photos that she had posted to her Only Fans account. Fitzgerald’s writing proudly embraces the familiar scouse stereotypes of being thieving, workshy benefit scroungers. Indeed, were the play to have been written from outside the city it would have been damned for being bigoted. But her humour is wickedly sharp too. When one of her characters refers to being “on the Jumanji – it’s knock-off Mounjaro”, the moment is comedy gold. 

Lynne Francis is Tricia, the outsider – who initially earns the contempt of the other three due to being ginger, from Manchester and most shamefully of all, working for her living in gainful employment rather than living off DWP handouts. 

Completing the quartet is the star-billed Crissy Rock who plays Lily. Bringing some scouse gravitas and wisdom, Lily is the foursome’s matriarch – but she also sits at the play’s darkest core. We learn that both Tricia and Lily have been the victims of domestic abuse, with Fitzgerald choosing to end the first act with a harrowing monologue from Lily detailing the violence suffered at the hands of her misogynist partner.

Act two descends into classic farce, much of which involves the well-tested gag of a corpse being moved from location to location. It all becomes extremely far-fetched, however Fitzgerald never lets the energy levels flag. 

The Theatre Royal St Helens was packed, with Desperate Scousewives being received with massive applause, gasps of pain at the tough moments and roars of laughter as every gag landed perfectly. It is rare that a play can blend eye-wateringly funny smut, with a message about domestic abuse that is truly painful to listen to. That Fitzgerald accomplishes this says much for her skill as a writer.

On tour, click here for dates

Photo credit: David Munn Photography

War Horse - Review

National Theatre, London

*****

Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo

Adapted by Nick Stafford

Directed by Tom Morris

Revival directed by Katie Henry

The cast of War Horse

London’s South Bank is seeing yet another throughbred equine revival. As Peter Shaffer's Equus plays downstream at the Menier, the National Theatre's Olivier stage welcomes the return of War Horse where it premiered some 20 years ago. Michael Morpurgo’s richly layered yarn about the cruelties of war as seen from the perspective of a Devon-born horse has proved to be one of the National’s most successful productions, having not only toured the globe, but also been translated into a Steven Spielberg movie. Seeing the play back between the Olivier's gaping jaws however is a reminder of just how stunning good storytelling can be when the core narrative is strong and the theatrecraft deployed in its telling, is world class.

War Horse is the simplest of tales. The chestnut foal Joey is trained by a young Albert in a touching relationship of love for the animal and the richness of rural English history. As Joey grows into a full size Hunter, war breaks out and Albert's beloved horse is nefariously sold to the British Army. Albert, too young to sign up, lies about his age and ships out to the French battlefields, dreaming of being reunited with Joey.  Amidst this powerful narrative we are also introduced to another Hunter, Topthorn, with Morpurgo's yarn following the horses and the horrors of war that they are (and in real life, were) forced to endure.

The story's landscape is vast (possibly, in a slightly overlong second-act, too vast dare I say it) but with an enormous company and ingenious projections, the tale is beautifully told.

However, whilst the acting throughout is top-notch, War Horse is famous for the puppetry deployed in (almost literally) bring Joey and Topthorn to life. On the night of this review the three puppeteers animating Joey were Felicity Donnelly, Matthew Lawrence and Lewis McBean, while the team responsible for Topthorn were Rianna Ash, Michael Larcombe and Rafe Young. Toby Sedgwick returns to the production as the Director of Movement and Horse Choreography, and what Sedgwick coaxes from these six talented performers almost defies belief. The visionary genius of the Handspring designed puppets, leaves one gasping at the almost effortlessly realistic portrayal of the horses that these performers create. Theatre, and movement in particular, does not get better than this!

Even more uplifting, again on the night of this review, was to see the packed audience that filled the vast auditorium include a number of school parties. In a world of addictive screen usage and stories endlessly being told via CGI and AI, for these young people to witness such flawless practical theatre and movement being delivered so simply and yet so perfectly, with no digital assistance whatsoever, only added to the evening's beauty.

Runs until 30th July 2026

Photo credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg

Allegra - Review

Richmond Theatre, London

****

Written by Peter Quilter

Directed and choregraphed by Stephen Mear

Maureen Lipman

In a play that will touch the hearts of many, Maureen Lipman plays Allegra, a woman of senior years who, through conditions that are unstated in the script but clearly recognisable, is losing her connection with the world around her. Frequently disappearing into her own private world of song, it matters not whether dementia or Alzheimer’s is her diagnosis, rather that Allegra is a woman of remarkable mental energy who is finding her world increasingly confusing.

Quilter offers three foils to Allegra’s vivacity: her brother Ronen (John Middleton), her Czech carer Anna (Elizabeth Bower), and PC Rogers (Bailey Patrick) the local cop who’s tasked with challenging Allegra over her singing that has been complained about as a public nuisance.

The strength of Quilter’s writing lies in its deliberately unsophisticated charm. The action as it plays out is simply defined, in a dialogue peppered with neatly timed gags that all land perfectly. Throw in a liberal measure of songs that stretch back over the years - and how Allegra, who may not remember that she had only seen her brother barely two hours ago, but can remember lyrics and tunes that date back decades - and one realises the perceptive depth of Peter Quilter’s script.

There are hints of Quilter’s Glorious! - about Florence Foster Jenkins - in the story, as well as a hint of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest as Allegra reluctantly subjects herself to the medication imposed upon her by the Court.

More than just the writing however, it is Lipman who takes this story of simple charm, lifting it into an evening of simply stated drama, that’s also rather wonderfully sung. In a performance of powerfully poignant presence and poise, she captures not only Allegra’s comic eccentricities but, almost heartbreakingly, her fragile vulnerabilities too.

The musical backing may be prerecorded, but Lipman’s singing, often a-capella, is thrillingly glorious, truly live, and possibly one of the finest performances to be found. That the lyrics of Take Me Out To The Ball Game are also projected on screen, encouraging an audience singalong, only adds to the evening’s magic.

Stephen Mear directs his first play (albeit one with music and some neat choreography of course) and he has helmed a hit, unlocking a beautifully nuanced story of simple humanity.

Prepare to laugh and cry - Allegra is exquisitely crafted theatre.

Runs until 13th June, then on tour before playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End

Photo credit: Marc Brenner