Much Ado About Nothing – Watermill review

Review of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at the Watermill Theatre.(Follow link) This one takes place on a 1940s Hollywood film set. The music is great- all of the cast also play instruments. This is a very entertaining and funny version in a beautiful location. Running to 18 May.

The Other Boleyn Girl – review

Review of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL at Chichester Festival Theatre (follow link). Mike Poulton (who adapted Wolf Hall for the stage) has switched to Philippa Gregory’s tale of Mary Boleyn … though really of Mary, Anne and George Boleyn. Costume drama doesn’t get better than this … lighting, set, costume, music all enhance the five star acting performances.

The House Party – review

Review added of THE HOUSE PARTY by Laura Lomas, (CLICK ON LINK TO SEE THE REVIEW) at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre. A great cast, well-established director, yet the production is overwhelmed by extraneous additions. It’s an update on August Strindberg’s ‘Miss Julie’.

A Chorus of Disapproval – review

Review of A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL by Alan Ayckbourn at Salisbury Playhouse has been added. Follow the link. It’s an unusual Ayckbourn play. An amateur light-operatic company are working on a production of A Beggar’s Opera. The cast and characters reflect on the original play’s cast of highwaymen, thieves, pimps and prostitutes with the modern day amateur operatic cast of lawyers, property developers, wife swappers and frustrated housewives. It’s an exuberant production, running at Salisbury until the 18th May. Support producing theatres! Go and see it.

Love’s Labour’s Lost – RSC 2024 review

Link to my review of LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, currently at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is directed by Emily Burns and has Luke Thompson as Berowne. It’s the first RSC production under the new artistic directors, Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey and it’s a formidable start. The play is set in a Pacific island resort, with the four men as tech billionaires rather than ‘lords of Navarre’. It all works. It’s a long and highly illustrated review. Here is the Princess of France and her attendants.

The Buddha of Suburbia – review

Follow the link to the review of THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA currently at the Royal Shakespeare Company. This is Emma Rice’s adaptation of Hanif Kureishi’s coming-of-age novel. It is fast paced, has a superb cast, is very funny and exudes the exuberance and stagecraft we associate with Emma Rice. It bodes well for the new regime at the RSC. Read the review.

California Connections – review

CALIFORNIA CONNECTIONS (see link to review) is a York Dance Project production, highlighting the work of three women pioneers: Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Bela Lewitzky. Add a closing piece from the choreographer / producer Yolanda Yorke-Edgell. It was a privilege to see this work at Winchester Theatre Royal, though this is HIGHLY subsidized dance theatre. See the review.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream- Everyman 2024, review

Review of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, the 2024 touring production by Everyman Theatre of Cheltenham (FOLLOW LINK TO REVIEW). We saw it at Southampton MAST. It has vigour, originality and a genuine clown in Tweedy. There are also my thoughts on why Southampton has problems attracting a theatre audience. In this case a 7 p.m. start doesn’t help.

Fontana

Latest addition at Around and Around is the Fontana record label (LINKED). Philips twin label, a hipper twin too. Do read the first section where I compare Fontana images on EPs to a 1960s or 1970s school assembly! Mr Brubeck is headmaster, Dave Dee is the PE teacher etc. Fontana was strong on 60s British beat – Manfred Mann, Spencer Davis Group, Merseybeats, Kiki Dee. Then it had important jazz releases, and was a premier folk label (Joan Baez, Martin Carthy, Julie Felix). Add very rare and expensive discs from the pre-Who High Numbers, Bluesology (Elton John), Jimi Page solo. This is a long one and as usual heavy on visuals.

The Lover / The Collection – review

Review of the two early 60s Harold Pinter one-act plays The Lover and The Collection at Bath’s tiny Ustinov Studio (linked here). As ever, the Ustinov attracts a stellar cast … David Morrissey, Matthew Horne, Claudia Blakley, Elliot Barnes-Worrell. If you can get tickets, go for it, though we could only see two empty seats (fortunately right next to us). I’m fairly sure it will migrate to London. It’s directed by Lindsay Posner, and that’s what normally happens.