Tag: review

Entertainment

REVIEW: Rock of Ages @ The Opera House, Manchester

I don’t really know where to start with this review of hit musical Rock of Ages which returns to Manchester this week, taking us back to an era of big hair, dodgy taste and even dodgier social attitudes.

Do I start with the the impressive performances by a strong cast that belted out a host of classic rock numbers, or the the laughs from a string of jokes varying in quality, or the shudderingly cringeworthy inappropriate references which probably should have remained in the eighties.

I’ll start with the performances. There is no doubting this production brings together an array of talent to deliver those Whitesnake, Journey and Foreigner songs in a story – such as it is – of a small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew drawn together at the Bourbon music club on LA’s Sunset Strip.

If it’s original and incisive story-telling you’re after, you’ll be disappointed. The story, involving a love triangle between Sherrie, Drew and debauched rock star Stacee Jaxx; and a wicked property developer threatening future of the Bourbon Club, is a vehicle for the rock songs in this juke box musical.

But it has to be said, no-one can fault the musical talent on show. Danielle Hope’s Sherrie is excellent and Luke Walsh as Drew certainly shows he can hold a note and rock with the best of them. Lucas Rush delivers his role well as the narrator, holding everything together.

The show cleverly sends itself up, referring disparagingly to the film the show is based on, and this goes some way to papering over some of the dodgy aspects of the script.

But there are a number of moments where I genuinely cringed and thought “did I just hear that?” There were the over-sexualised dance numbers and lines and scenes which in the light of #metoo should have been revamped for a new era.

They could be forgiven had it been satirical or cleverer, but unfortunately this show has none of that, and on the day when Bill Cosby was sentenced for his exploits as a sexual predator, making jokes about a rock star paedophile on the run and hiding out in South America is probably not the best idea.

Entertainment

Review: Kindertransport @ The Opera House, Manchester

kinderThe return of Diane Samuel’s Kindertransport to the stage 25 year years after it was first penned could not be more more relevant today.

It is a story of family relationships and secrets set against a backdrop of themes which explore the treatment of refugees, nationalism, anti-semitism and cultural identity.

The story is centered around the true events of the Kindertransport rescue of Jewish children fleeing Nazi Germany and its occupied territories before the outbreak of the Second World War.

There is a challenging uneasiness about this play in which the seemingly humane policy of providing safety for the children is set against their parents’ requirement to have work to go to to qualify for refuge. The policy split many families, leaving the parents to face their fate in the brutal Nazi regime.

Samuels also requires the audience to question the long-term consequences of conflict and its impact on the lives of subsequent generations.

There are two inextricably linked parallel stories  in the play – that of progress of young Eva (Leila Schaus) leaving her mother to escape Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain in 1938, and that of her older self Evelyn (Suzan Sylvester) with a daughter of her own in 1980s Manchester.

The stories interchange as Evelyn’s daughter, Faith (Hannah Bristow), preparing to leave home, discovers a box of papers from her mother’s past resurrecting the ghosts of a past her mother would rather was left alone.

There are some fine performances which delve into the intense relationships between mother and daughter and the themes of clinging on to roots and heritage. Hannah Bristow is particularly good as the modern daughter displaying her insecurities and selfish arrogance of youth.

 

The play is a stark reminder of one of world’s darkest periods but there are lines which are remarkably prescient, particularly as Evelyn refers to keeping her immigration papers suggesting they would be needed in case anyone wanted to send her back.

It is not always an easy play to watch and there are no tidy endings and resolutions but it certainly worth the journey.

Runs till May 5

Entertainment

REVIEW: The Sound of Music @ The Palace, Manchester

39634_fullThe Sound of Music is at the Palace Theatre this week and is sure to have fans of the timeless musical singing along to those classic tunes.

This tale of love blossoming between novice nun Maria and the frosty Captain von Trapp when she arrives as governess to his children has been a regular festive favourite in Christmas TV schedules and is now beautifully brought to the stage with impressive and lavish sets and high production values.

It is based on the true story of the von Trapp family singers who fled Nazi-occupied Austria as political refugees.

After a slightly underwhelming start to the show when it would have been nice to have seen a little more personality from the nuns ruminating about how to solve a problem like Maria, the production picks up with some delightful performances by the children.

Lucy O’Byrne does well as Maria, delivering those familiar tunes with aplomb. Neil McDermott seemed to struggle as the Captain in the first half of the show with some of his singing being drowned by the music, but his performance grew on me and he did much better after the interval.

The interval came following a truly show-stopping performance of Climb Every Mountain, by Megan Llewellyn in the role of Mother Abbess. It was magnificent.

Acclaim should also go to Kara Lane and Howard Samuels who excelled in the roles of the Captain’s prospective wife Elsa and impressario Max Detweiler. Neither would be out of place in Hollywood roles.

Overall, a charming production which is well worth a visit.

Runs till Saturday March 17

Entertainment

REVIEW: Hamlet @ Bolton Octagon
Hamlet Production PhotosPhoto Credit : The Other Richard
David Ricardo-Pearce as Hamlet                                   Pic: Richard Davenport

If you are new to Shakespeare, trying to take in his longest and most quoted work could understandably be considered to be thrown in at the deep end.

But there can be no better introduction to the bard than this stunning production at the Bolton Octagon which presents an accessible and absorbing drama,  as gripping as McMafia or Collateral, without compromising on the themes Shakespeare sought to explore more than 400 years ago.

Hamlet is the classic revenge tragedy – the story of a young prince attempting to avenge the death of his father at the hands of his uncle who has usurped the throne and the dead king’s widow. Hamlet’s obsession is at the core of this drama and David Ricardo-Pearce portrayal is excellent.

The universal and timeless themes are brilliantly explored with Denmark transformed into a more contemporary militaristic  regime where the soldiers carry AK47s and the leaders are dictators akin to Stalin or Putin.

There are two halves of 75 minutes, punctuated by a 20 minute interval, and action flies by – such is the quality of the production.

And it is no one-man show. Brian Prothero is superb as the usurper, Claudio with Eric Potts delivering a suitably tragi-comic portrayal of the bumbling  civil servant Polonius, recast as a priest for this production. Also worth a mention is Margot Leicester whose portrayal Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude – now married to her former brother-in-law, the new King – is sensational.

The Octagon’s former artistic director, David Thacker, who was  invited back to direct this production, can  be proud of what has been achieved. The theatre’s 50th anniversary season goes from strength to strength.

Runs till March 10.

Dave Toomer

 

Entertainment

REVIEW: Strangers on a Train @ The Opera House, Manchester

strangers-on-a-train-theatre-royal-glasgow-1It was always going to be a big ask to bring Patricia Highsmith’s tense psychological thriller to the stage and this production doesn’t quite pull it off in the way that Alfred Hitchcock famously did on the silver screen.

There is much of merit in the show, with some effective mood lighting and innovative use of sets, but the pace and direction lets it down and it is certainly a play of two halves.

The story is based around the consequences of a chance meeting on a train between  Guy Haines, an ambitious architect and alcoholic wreck, Charles Bruno. In a drink-fuelled stupour, Bruno comes up with  a hypothetical plan, where he would to murder the wife Haines is about to divorce in exchange for Haines killing Bruno’s father.  When Bruno unexpectedly keeps to his side of the bargain, pressure is applied for Haines to deliver, thus providing the main premise for the drama.

But prior to the interval, the dramatic action is laboured, slow and frankly quite boring.  When you don’t care that much about the fate of the characters, you know something is wrong. However, maybe some-one had a work in the break, because the pace picked up in the second half culminating in the dramatic conclusion at the end.

Chris Harper as Bruno and Jack Ashton as Haines deliver reasonable performances although there are one or two instances of the audience perhaps laughing when they shouldn’t as Bruno becomes increasingly psychotic.

Overall, not a terrible night at the theatre, but one that is distinctly underwhelming.

Runs till February 10