Review: THE GOOD LIFE at Bath and Cheltenham
★★★☆☆ It’s a pleasant enough step back in time some fifty years – with a nice twist lacking from the TV series – and yet better succeeds in pointing the way for a more radical reboot.
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Review: BEGINNING at Bath Theatre Royal
★★★★★ Boy meets girl, and seduction is the plan, but here the protagonists are around 40, and it is the woman who is the would-be seducer. The scene is the aftermath of a house-warming party in Laura’s flat, with cans, bottles and half-finished food scattered everywhere. All the guests have gone, except for Danny, who seems undecided about whether or not to stay.
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Review: GREASE – THE MUSICAL at Bristol Hippodrome
★★★★☆ This vibrant, fast-paced version is not quite as glossily sanitised as the 1978 movie, but it is family friendly, the emphasis being on song and dance, rather than on social realism. Yes, the greasers strut their stuff in their leather jackets, but though they are in a gang, they are a long way from being gangsters.
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Review: THE DRESSER on tour
★★★★☆ Fine performances throughout and in particular the selfless and perceptive contributions of the two main characters make this a worthy reason to don your mask and get back into the theatre.
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Review: Matthew Bourne’s THE MIDNIGHT BELL at Cheltenham Everyman
★★★★★ The range and skill of the dancing is, as one might expect, phenomenal. The key to its success in a performance with such a strong narrative bent is that the choreography is always so on point for the tone and content for the micro-plots.
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Review: ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR at Bath Theatre Royal
★★★★☆ The doyen of domestic detail was bankable and apparently bullet proof. The never-ending swirl of class generated eddies in the social fabric were, and are, the subject of his and our constant fascination, not to say irritation.
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