Sitting In The Cheap Seats

It’s the hottest day on record, the south coast swelters as we all look for a way to cool off… and on stage at Chichester Festival Theatre it is hotter still as their big summer musical is launched. So as I write this I’m thankful for two things – the air-conditioning that was added in Chichester’s 2014 relaunch and the sheer joy of Gershwin’s timeless tunes!

Oleanna is a small play with a big reputation. Running at a little under 90 minutes it nonetheless carries a lot of weight. It’s been called “a me too play before me too even existed”, which isn’t far from the mark, so it speaks to current audiences and, from the snatches of conversation I overheard leaving the Mast Mayflower Studios it’s a piece that provokes a lot of thoughts.

Who doesn’t want to be in the room where it happens? Anyone who has seen Hamilton, whether onstage or via the recording of the Broadway production on Disney Plus, can’t fail to have wondered what it was like to be part of a show that is as much a movement as a mere musical. A production promoting conversation about race, about immigration and about one’s place in the wider world. Heady subjects given the political turmoil of recent years!

To be back in a theatre, for the first time this year, is a wonderful feeling. To be visiting a space you haven’t before is even better and to see an excellent cast perform an acclaimed play (that you are seeing for the first time) makes for a pretty much perfect Monday!

We live in difficult times, cut off from friends and family. It often seems nearly impossible to comprehend returning to what we once thought normal. As such Chichester Festival Theatre ’s decision to salvage Crave – a bleak, difficult, dark piece by Sarah Kane – from their summer season and put it on in the main house, where normally it would jar becomes an apt and fitting choice. Kane was a bright light of the British theatre scene, threatening to burn it down and party in the ashes through her searingly difficult, resolutely honest plays before she took her own life. Amongst her small and often difficult works Crave stands out as an anomaly. Four disparate voices struggling for belonging, understanding… for love. There’s no subtext to ground them, no setting or character arc, the characters don’t even have names, just letters and genders. As such it’s been a widely interpreted piece, often with an array of added bells and whistles that add nothing. Here director Tinuke Craig ...

It’s amazing how a show as ubiquitous as Les Miserables can at once be utterly recognisable and thoroughly fresh. This tour, currentlyspending some time in Southampton at the Mayflower Theatre feels morealive than any of the half a dozen or more previous visits I’ve made to revolutionaryFrance. Laurence Connor and James Powell ‘s (relatively) new production may not have the cosy familiarity of the original Trevor Nunn (I still miss the revolve) but it makes up for that with a relentless energy. No production holds together without strong central castingthough and most especially the twin pillars of Valjean and Javert who hold somuch of the plot together. Killian Donnelly unsurprisingly sings Valjean’spart beautifully but he also brings a tenderness underpinned by steely resolveto the role. Opposite him Nic Greenshields is a formidable officer ofthe law, but he too shows the characters humanity, particularly in a lovelymoment when he searches the barricades for the body of Valj...

Macbeth has ever been one of Shakespeare’s plays to split opinion. The fact it has a great plot and some juicy monologues leads some to love it, while others will point out that the central character is disjointed and, for a relatively simple plot, there seem to be a lot of filler scenes.

The Mill At Sonning has been on my radar for a long time, a fascinating sounding venue that I just never got around to visiting… until now! Frankly I feel like an idiot for waiting so long, in addition to being a charming little theatre, the Mill is in a stunning location, just a stone’s throw from Reading but quiet and remote.

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow… The sun was shining on Chichester yesterday for press night as we arrived for the Festival Theatre’s summer musical, always a highlight of the theatrical calendar as they revisit a classic and more often than not find something fresh and new in it. This year they’re taking on Oklahoma! with their usual mix of respect for the piece and urge to find a new viewpoint on it.

There is little in life that is quite as entertaining as utter chaos. When everything seems to happen completely at random and nothing ever stays still you just can’t stop watching. It’s why people still tune into clip shows on TV or binge bizarre Youtube videos… It’s also the spirit that Rock of Ages so perfectly captures. At any moment it feels like anarchy could break out, yet this cast know exactly what they’re doing!

David Hare’s Plenty caused quite the stir when it was first staged in the late 70s. The story of a woman who found herself in war and then lost that sense of self in the return to normality seemed to strike a nerve and now, as we remember one of the greatest pushes of the second World War, seems a sensible time to return to the play.

Shadowlands , the William Nicholson play that charts the story of C.S. Lewis’ correspondence-turned-relationship with the American poet Joy Gresham, is such a perfect fit for the Chichester audience it’s almost a surprise it isn’t a regular feature here. “jack” Lewis’ evolution from Oxford don debating theology to heartbroken widower is a wonderful through line on which to hang a play.

Clare Burt, Sheila Hancock and Kirsty MacLaren. Credit: Johan Persson/ When I arrived at Chichester Festival Theatre last night to see the first production of this year’s season I was uncharacteristically unprepared. I’m normally that person who meticulously researches every little detail of a show before seeing it but like the changing of a season or the realisation you’re no longer as fit (or young) as you used to be the date rather crept up on me.

Swan Lake is probably the first thing that will come to mind when you mention ballet to most people… rows of perfectly synchronised corps de ballet dancing to instantly recognisable Tchaikovsky orchestrations in graceful harmony. Anyone who has ever been face to face with an angry swan will recognise that they’re actually powerful, aggressive beasts and Matthew Bourne ’s reimagining captures that perfectly.

When, way back in 2004, Green Day released American Idiot it was a clarion call forthe disaffected youth of the US. It leapt up the charts on a wave of criticalacclaim and commercial success and was much beloved of a certain callow youngmusic blogger in provincial Portsmouth. Fast forward 15 years and I don’tperhaps listen to the album very often now but it still holds significance asit’s first theatrical incarnation was one of the first theatre pieces Ireviewed and quite probably the point that convinced me to start this site.Now, a good few years later here I am again in Southampton for the launch of anew national tour.

In a wonderful case of life imitating art I have now, at the third time of trying, finally made it along to see The Play That Goes Wrong , a show that has done its best to elude me both in the West End and around the UK despite my best efforts to catch it. Now I’ve made it to the cosy Theatre Royal Brighton let’s find out if the show lives up to expectations!

I’d not been to the Theatre Royal Brighton for a show before, but as I arrived I already knew this would be a whole new experience. A quick drink in the Colonnade Bar while I surveyed the scenes and got chatting with a group of people at the next table proudly wearing VIP lanyards and fresh from a meet and greet led me to believe a great night was in store, certainly the grins of my new friends suggested they were excited for the evening ahead!

Chichester Festival Theatre ’s summer musical is always hotly anticipated and this year is no different. Me and My Girl , set to star Matt Lucas as barrow boy turned peer Bill Snibson. Sadly, as we’re informed just before the start of the show Lucas has been ordered by a throat specialist to rest and with a few hours’ notice his understudy is set to take the stage!

It’s a happy 2 nd birthday to Mischief Theatre ’s The Comedy About A Bank Robbery , the laugh-a-minute farce has just announced an extension that will see it into its third year entertaining crowds in Piccadilly Circus.

It’s the simplest of structures for a play. A small group of people take turns telling each other stories. Nothing ground-breaking in the premise. Add a setting – a village pub in rural Ireland, a cast of 5, four local men and a woman new to the locale and give the stories a whiff of the supernatural – a hint of possibilities that could all have a logical explanation but nonetheless make the hairs stand up on your neck. Mix it all together and you have a truly excellent play on your hands.