Tag Archives: theatre review

Press Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ A spectacle that needs to be seen!

From the imagination of Neil Gaiman, best-selling author of Coraline, Good Omens and The Sandman, comes the National Theatre’s major new stage adaptation of The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself beside the pond of the old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play. He’s transported to his 12th birthday when his remarkable friend Lettie claimed it wasn’t a pond, but an ocean – a place where everything is possible… Plunged into a magical world, their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them.

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Press Review: Home, I’m Darling

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Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, things start to unravel, and being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it seems…

Directed by Tamara Harvey written by Laura Wade, the 2019 Olivier award-winning Home, I’m Darling tells the story of Judy (Jessica Ransom) and husband Johnny (Neil McDermott), who are living a 1950s fantasy life – Judy has left her job to fully embrace the role as a housewife after an upbringing with a feminist and activist mother (Diane Keen). Their love of the era is shared by friends Fran (Cassie Bradley) and Marcus (Steve Blacker-Barrowman), but for them, it is merely a hobby.

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Press Review: Death Drop: Back in The Habit

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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Unapologetically and deliciously camp with riotous laughs and razor-sharp wit!

Following three sold-out West End runs and a smash hit UK tour, Death Drop is back in an all new mystery!

The Sound of Music meets Scary Movie in this jam-packed, riotous comedy. Death Drop is the hilarious thriller which pays homage to all your favourite horror films – from IT to Scream and everything in-between.

After the glowing success of the original play (read the full review here), the team behind Death Drop return to Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre where the audience has been invited to pay a visit to the holy Convent of St. Babs…

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Press Review: The King and I at The Alexandra Theatre

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Directed by Bartlett Sher and billed as starring Helen George in the role of Anna, the critically acclaimed Lincoln Center Theatre production of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical arrived on stage at The Alexandra Theatre as part of its major 2023 UK tour. 

Set in 1860’s Bangkok, The King and I tells the story of the rather unconventional and tempestuous relationship between King Mongkut of Siam (now known as Thailand) and Anna, a strong-willed British widowed schoolteacher who is employed by the King to tutor his many children, highlighting the battle between male and female, Western ideals and Eastern traditions. The show features an instantly recognisable score with songs including Getting to Know You, Shall We Dance and Whistle a Happy Tune.

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Press Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at The Alexandra Theatre

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Based on Deborah Moggach’s novel These Foolish Things which inspired the hit 2011 movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel arrived at The Alexandra Theatre this week. 

With an all-star cast including Hayley Mills (yes, THE Hayley Mills), Paul Nicholas, Rula Lenska (I was genuinely star-struck), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel tells the story of an eclectic group of British retirees who travel to India in an attempt to embark on a new life. Their hotel, owned by the formidable Mrs Kapoor (Reka John-Cheriyan) and her son, Sonny (Nishad More) is far from the opulence that was promised, falling into an ever-increasing state of disrepair as the retirees try to adjust to the cultural differences around them. 

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Press Review: The Mirror Crack’d at The Alexandra Theatre

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It is 1960s England and a wind of change is blowing through the land. It has even reached the sleepy village of St. Mary Mead. There’s a new housing estate to make the villagers curious and fearful. And even stranger, a rich American film star has bought the Manor House.

The Mirror Crack’d is adapted from Agatha Christie’s novel Side to Side, published in the UK in 1962. It was also made into a Miss Marple movie from 1980 of the same name, with a star studded cast, including Angela Lansbury and Elizabeth Taylor.

This new stage adaptation from Rachel Wagstaff sees Susie Blake as Miss Marple (Victoria Wood’s As Seen on TV, Coronation Street, Mrs. Brown’s Boys), Sophie Ward (A Very British Scandal, Holby City, Land Girls) and Joe McFadden (Holby City, Heartbeat and Strictly Come Dancing 2017 winner) as the main characters.

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Press Review: Noughts & Crosses at The Alexandra Theatre

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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Gripping and thought-provoking

Sephy and Callum sit together on a beach. They are in love. It is forbidden. Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger…

Based on the first book in Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses series, directed by Esther Richardson and adapted by Sabrina Mahfouz, Noughts & Crosses offers a love story (very loosely based on Romeo & Juliet) set in an reimagined society. The Crosses – all people of colour – hold the power, while the Noughts – the white population – are at the mercy of the discriminatory rules and restrictions placed upon them. Sephy (Effie Ansah), a Cross, is the daughter of the Home Secretary Kamal Hadley (Chris Jack) and lives a life of privilege.  Her childhood friend Callum, a Nought, has won a place at her prestigious school for Crosses, causing a violent series of protests and backlash. Their developing romance is strictly forbidden, and both sides face huge barriers and prejudice while trying to simultaneously be together while finding their own paths. 

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Press Review: The Shawshank Redemption at The Alexandra Theatre

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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ A powerful piece of theatre

Based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption (which was also the inspiration for the smash-hit 1994 movie starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman), The Shawshank Redemption has been adapted for a theatre audience in a 2022 UK tour. 

Presented by Bill Kenwright, directed by David Esbjornson and adapted from the novella by Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Joe Absolom), who is wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover and is sent to the notorious Shawshank facility to start his double life sentence. As he deals with the harsh brutality and cruelty of prison life, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Ben Onwukwe). However, when his talents for accountancy are discovered by Warden Stammas (Mark Heenahan), he realises a desperate plan to escape is needed… 

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Press Review: The Osmonds, A New Musical at The Alexandra Theatre

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One Family. One Hundred Million Records.

Decades before the boy band explosion of the 90s was The Osmonds, a clean-cut, all American family of musicians who grew up on the television. From their star residency on The Andy Williams Show to the arrival of Donny and Marie, The Osmonds lived a remarkable life recording chart topping albums, selling out vast arena concerts and making record breaking TV shows – until one bad decision cost them everything. 

Directed and co-written by Shaun Kerrison, written by Jay Osmond, the story of The Osmonds is told through the eyes of Jay in a series of flashbacks from their beginnings as a group under the watchful eye of their military father, the success of Merrill (Ryan Anderson), Alan (Jamie Chatterton), Jay (Alex Lodge), Wayne (Danny Natrass) and Donny (Tristan Whincup) as a band, sister Marie (Georgia Lennon) and little brother Jimmy (Samuel Routley), their meteoric rise to fame and subsequent fall, and the trials and heartbreak that accompany being a member of one of the biggest musical names of all time. 

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