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Stage writer Katrina Gaffney finds The Last Five Years to be a five star performance. Beautiful, charming and at the same time heart-wrenching, The Last Five Years is a musical for anyone who has ever fallen in or out of love. This two-person musical is seemingly simple but requires perfect execution in order to deliver […]
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Another term begins, and this intrepid reporter is still having his Screen Editor credentials called into question, this week’s scandal being that I’ve never seen Mamma Mia! Given its alleged status as a landmark in the world of musical theatre, I had certain expectations. As my friends and I settled down with a bottle of […]
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Next week, St John the Evangelist’s Church will be moonlighting as a forest. A new musical by Peter Shepherd and Theophilus Kwek, This World Lousy is a haunting and atmospheric fairy tale about a man on the run, and the various characters he meets along the way. Mysterious, playful, and occasionally very dark, This World […]
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Third week has been insanely good for student drama, and The Prophetess feels like a combination of the week’s biggest barnstormers. Between the heightened emotion and fearful history of Titus Andronicus and the iconic music and bravura style of Singin’ in the Rain lies this production, a classy little number for the Keble O’Reilly, from […]
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There are two things that any British production of Singin’ in the Rain needs to do in order to succeed. The first is, like any production, to nail the song from which the film takes its name. The other is to not have the American accents sound completely awful. Judging by the preview, this production […]
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Having never been to the Burton Taylor before, I’ll admit to finding the intimacy of the place slightly confronting. Especially since for the opening night of Yesterday, a musical with an all-female cast (well, a cast of three) there were a fair few empty seats. As the lights dimmed, I still had high hopes though. […]
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The challenge of adapting any stage musical to film is a significant one. This is obviously true for a well-known hit such as Les Miserables¸ but even a relative rarity such as Into The Woods – a Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine creation from the 80s – comes with its own set of challenges: not least how […]
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✮✮✮✮ For me City of Angels is just what a musical should be. It has a catchy score, a fantastically talented cast and is highly entertaining. The production, now on at the Donmar Warehouse, follows two plotlines which unfold simultaneously onstage. One is about a writer, Stone, who is adapting his novel into a screenplay […]
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“It ain’t about the money. It’s equality,” says Connie, a disillusioned union representative, paving the way for equal pay for men and women from a Ford car factory in Dagenham. Based on a true story, the musical Made in Dagenham follows a group of female machinists sewing car seats for Ford in a factory in […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮✮ Playing opposite The Lion King, even at the redoubtable Kennedy Center in Washington DC, is a tough place to be – unsurprisingly, Side Show has had less publicity than the Disney number and is running in the smaller chamber. All of this is a real shame considering the brilliance of the production, which tells […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ “Something ecstatic; something dramatic; something for everyone – a comedy tonight” are the words of the opening song to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and they prove only too true. The show, put on by The Queen’s College’s Eglesfield Musical Society and directed by Lucy Wood, is a musical […]
Continue ReadingWhy should people come to see the show? What can they expect from it? People should expect a uniquely Sondheim experience: black comedy, genuine hilarity, as well as deeply moving moments. The show is all about growing up, and moving on. They can expect several show stopping solo numbers as well as a couple of […]
Continue ReadingA ship arrives from Australia, bringing a thoroughly disenchanted man to London. Equipped with shiny silver razors and assisted by one Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd sets on a murderous spree, targetting those who had wronged him. Such is the opening of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street which comes to stage at Keble O’Reilly in […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ “Errybody get up” – the innocuously phatic opening of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines might not seem the sort of line that would launch the most controversial song of the decade. It could just as easily kick off Ignition, Be Faithful; any Jäger-infused sweat-drenched R&B party jam you care to mention. Instead, it took the […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮✮ “So let me get this straight – it’s a bunch of dancing and singing felines based on poems for children.” I’ll admit it – Cats is a hard idea to sell. If you’re trying to convince a non-musical lover to come with you, or if you’re just undecided between quality Christmas TV or Jeremy […]
Continue ReadingLike so many others, I viewed Disney’s trailers for the new winter hit, Frozen, with considerable scepticism. What could the legendary company churn out for the Christmas film market, other than a festive cheese-fest? I’m unashamed to say, Frozen is undoubtedly one of Disney’s best modern creations, destroying my preconceptions within a matter of minutes, and captivating the […]
Continue Reading‘Costume designing Chicago is amazing. We have a fantastic range of different outfits to show off; from burlesque show-girls to commonplace reporters to vaudeville outfits and the murderesses’ abstract apparel. We wanted to use costume not only to inject colour onto the set, but also to reimagine the 1920s scene. The musical, crossing […]
Continue ReadingStrolling up Jowett’s Walk, bound for a preview of the upcoming Playhouse take on The Producers, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread. Previews are never the full shebang; nine times out of ten they’re poorly executed, and everything can feel a bit too rough-and-ready. And so, in discovering that the Michael […]
Continue Reading“A Theory of Justice: The Musical.” One imagines that the transcript of its conception mirrored that of a group of drunk teenagers negotiating the theft of a traffic cone: “This is going to be hilarious!” “We’re absolutely mental, aren’t we?” “I know, we are, we’re just mental.” Like much of the petty crime in Oxford, A […]
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