The Bristol Hippodrome was, and still is, one of Britain’s major provincial theatres, high on the list of Number One tour venues. When Oswald Stoll asked theatre designer par excellence Frank Matcham to build him a new theatre in the city, he wanted it to rank along his company’s flag-ship and HQ, the London Coliseum. . . .

THE HISTORY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES THEATRE, LONDON, 1771-1903  by Richard L. Lorenzen. I...

Barney Norris’s new play EVENTIDE is currently on tour. His book To Bodies Gone, The Theatre of Peter Gill is a comprehensive and enjoyable portrait of one of the great, but slightly unsung, stalwarts of recent British theatre. It should be read by anyone aspiring to be a director, playwright or anyone who is passionate about theatre and craves insight into how plays work.

Mr Sher has a very easy, familiar style which is very enjoyable to read. The book is full of good stories, one of the funniest being about donning the Falstaff fat-suit for the first time and his concern about how he would be able, if at all, to pee while wearing it.

 with a foreword by Steven Berkoff. The Opera House in Cheltenham’s Regent Street opened in...