THEATRE TRADGE

Comedy and classical music blend together for a sublimely silly time ----- Fresh off of fringe season, with engagements at both Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe this year, violinist Tasmin Sarkany's solo show, (during which she goes by the gloriously exaggerated alter ego Amelia Crotchet) entitled "Now, That's What I Call Bach", has made it up to the north of England to regale Mancunian audiences with the same brand of bizarre, fairly niche humour that blends two art forms which

Threlfall excels but direction flounders in first Shakespeare production of Cartmell era ----- It is a testament to Shakespeare’s inclusivity and forward thinking that he consistently wrote lead and supporting characters across all ages and experiences, from the bloom of youth we associate with the title characters in “Romeo & Juliet”, to the formidable elder stateswoman Queen Margaret from two of his more popular histories. This notion is best expressed through one of his mo

New all-male production is overflowing with wit and whimsy ----- The Royal Shakespeare Company have been going from strength to strength of late, and this latest exponent of the Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey era is no exception, featuring a fresh reimagining one of the bard's more popular comedies, and harkening back to the days of the bard himself, they have brought in an all-male cast led by Tony Award winning actor Jonathan Groff, in his debut at the RSC. When one thinks

In spite of some terrific music, Sting's maritime musical ends up treading water ----- When most of us think of the North East, two main points of interest are likely to spring to mind: football and the sea, though not usually in the same breath. It is in the latter camp where we find ourselves with this nautical tale, penned by Wallsend native Sting (Gordon Sumner), who has taken inspiration from his own childhood experiences, and adapted a musical from his solo album "The S

First non-replica production retains heart, but falls short creatively ----- When it was first published back in 2003, Mark Haddon’s novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” was seen as a boundary pushing, stigma shedding work that brought neurodivergent people into the mainstream by not only having a neurodivergent person as the primary protagonist, but telling the story through their own first person perspective, making us feel like we are fully able to exp

Candlelit production makes for perfectly eerie atmosphere in this intimate new staging ----- In a time when directors of Shakespeare's work are becoming more and more inventive, coming up with bold, often bizarre new ways in which to tell these centuries old tales, it is rather a breath of fresh air to come across a company who have done away with all the histrionics, completely stripped back the creative elements, and in many ways taken the bard's work back to its technologi

Long-awaited UK debut finds perfect balance between emotional and narrative clarity ----- There are long waits, and then there is John Caird and Paul Gordon's musical adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's seminal work "Jane Eyre", which finally made its London premiere a neat 30 years after it first performed to audiences in Toronto. And whilst early stagings have been huge, sprawling, big budget productions, this new iteration, co-directed by Caird and broadway actor turned direc

Hilarious homage to spy thrillers is one of Mischief's finest works yet ----- The year is 1961, the setting: London at the height of the cold war, and there is soon to be a major package handover happening between a British turncoat and the Russian KGB in a four star hotel in the city...the thing is, as often tends to be the case with any media relating to secret agents and spies, not everything is as it seems on the surface, the various layers of which are to reveal themselv

Immersion and nostalgia are strong with this new major anniversary staging ----- Two decades on from this Disney Channel original movie hitting our screens, and almost as long since it was last seen in the theatre, school is officially back in session as "High School Musical" returns to the stage, and it's bigger and better than it's ever been. This new staging by Hope Mill Theatre, in association with Chris Harper Productions, has well and truly ripped up the rulebook with h

Actor-muso trio reexamine Lizzie Borden case with terrific U.S. folk swagger ----- Did she really do it? Is she innocent? Who did commit these unspeakable acts if not? These are all prevalent questions that, even almost a century and a half later, still surround the infamous cold case that is the 1892 Lizzie Borden trial as, although she was found not guilty on all charges due to a lack of evidence, the conversation still continues long after her acquittal, and even today the

Westeros has arrived on stage, and it's just as epic as ever ----- It's now been 3 decades since the very first novel from George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice & Fire" series of novels, entitled "A Game of Thrones", was released, and with the immeasurable success of its TV adaptation, plus two spin-off series that followed, the franchise has since become nothing short of a global cultural phenomenon; all of this considered, some guise of stage show based on these works feels

Biggest (loudest) new musical of the fringe is anything but blissful ----- Every year at the Edinburgh Fringe there is the flagship new production, that one show that has everyone talking, whether that be why it landed so well, or what future it may have beyond the festival; however in the instance of new Emma Lively and Tyler Beattie musical "Bliss", the questions on our minds, or at least in the case of this critic anyway, were "when will it stop?", and "where is the exit?"

Improv musical group remain as fresh and full of crackpot jollity as ever ----- One of the longest standing, and certainly one of the most consistently entertaining shows in the history of the Edinburgh Fringe is back for their 18th consecutive stint at the world's largest performing arts festival, after making their debut all the way back in 2008. Since then, they have won an Olivier Award, been afforded its own BBC Radio 4 series, and performed all over the world including

Profound, brutal, and hauntingly relevant, this new play is a must-see TW: Content relating to mental health, depression and suicide (*see below for support) ----- What goes through the mind of someone who is so stuck, so trapped in life, that they see no other way out than it end it all? Often this most uncomfortable, difficult of conversation topics, as awful as it may feel to address, can end up being the one that can have the biggest impact on our lives, and it's this not

Musical parody of 90s lifeguard culture is brilliantly bonkers ----- Let me take you back 30 years, to a time when coastal California lifeguards were sexy, clad all in red, and could run comedically slowly for the purposes of budget-friendly filler. Yes, brand new theatre company Low Fat Productions have taken the 1990s cultural phenomenon "Baywatch", added original music, and set the action in an indeterminate English seaside town, building sets out of deck chairs and towels

New staging by Bare Productions hits every emotion head on ----- After taking over a decade and a half to finally make it to UK shores, with enormously critically acclaimed runs at Donmar Warehouse and subsequently in the west end, the show's second British production, and its Scottish premiere no less, certainly wasted no time in reaching the stage. This Olivier nominated, Tony & Pulitzer winning musical is perhaps one of the most vivid, unfiltered deep dives into mental hea

Phenomenal new musical shines fresh spotlight on often forgotten Odyssey figure ----- It's fair to say that Greek mythology is very much in season, with the recent release of both "The Odyssey" and the professionally filmed performance of "Hadestown" in cinemas, as well as the latter still performing well in London and New York, so the timing of this new musical about Odysseus' long suffering wife Penelope, written by broadway star Grace McLean, could not be more apt. The sho

Classical cello and clowning proves a compelling combination ----- A dichotomy of comedy and classicism kicks off this year's fringe adventure, as we delve into cellist Karen Hall's world, where she takes clowning, solo cello playing, and smashes them together in a genre-defying new work that is bound to have you talking. This new work takes a deep dive into the life, hardships, mental strain and crippling self-doubt that often comes with the territory of being a professional

Modern adaptation of Greek tragedy is close to perfection... ----- If we're being honest, I feel like most of us would see a runtime of over three and a half hours, and immediately feel exhausted just at the prospect of embarking on such an epic odyssey of theatre. Fast forward 215 positively thrilling minutes, and the majority would instead have to hold up their hands and admit to being enormously energised by this quite astonishing adaptation of Aeschylus' millennia old sto

Abundance of dark humour in this wickedly funny first world war comedy ----- You would be hard pressed to find anyone who wasn't familiar with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that triggered the start of world war one, but the events leading up to it may require a little extra reading, which is where new dark comedy "Archduke" comes in. It of the group of three poor, highly unwell young Serbian men, led by Gavrilo Princip, and how they became embroiled in the inf