TOM CONTI star of TWELVE ANGRY MEN
Tom Conti has been a household name since his first major television role starring in The...
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Author: Michael Hasted
RIGOLETTO by Russian State Ballet & Opera House on tour
This was a lavish, sumptuous production from a company that is by far the best at bringing imported Russian opera and ballet to British audiences . . .There is a current trend in theatre for the curtain to be up and the set to be visible to the audience as they enter, rather spoiling the surprise. The surprise and delight last night was palpable as the curtain rose to reveal one of the best sets of its type I have seen in recent times. It was real old fashioned, beautiful scenery. It was like being inside a Pollock’s toy theatre or at La Fenice in Venice.
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Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Everyman, Cheltenham
I must confess to never having seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, nor Jesus Christ Superstar, nor Hair. Never having been a hippy was maybe one reason, although I did have some trousers of many colours, if that counts. It was perhaps those three shows, more than anything, that opened the way to the new, blockbuster musicals that have dominated the West End and Broadway ever since. Without them we would have had no Evita, no Les Mis, no Miss Saigon, no Phantom of the Opera et al.
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MANALIVE at the Everyman Studio, Cheltenham
“Box Tale Soup with their signature suitcases, bits of text printed on their costumes and, of course their puppets, have a very strong identity – there is no mistaking one of the productions . . . Manalive is a great choice for a stage adaptation. G.K. Chesterton’s 1912 story explores a recognizable and oft repeated theme, that of an innocent abroad, the wise fool – a simplistic vision of society where good and innocence triumph . . . Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne, who make up Box Tale Soup, have made a fairly decent fist of it . . . ”
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AND THEN THERE WERE NONE on tour
“. . . It’s strange that we still like Agatha Christie. Compared to today’s murder mysteries and cop shows the word tame wouldn’t even start to describe her. There is virtually no action – the plays usually involve a dozen or so toffs and their servants standing around a stately home waiting to be murdered. Our tastes and expectations today are so much more sophisticated and demanding. How can an audience that is happy to sit through twelve hours of Danish or French subtitles on a Saturday night sit through this simplistic fare? . . . “
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