Category: Theatre

The Producers

I remember seeing the great Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder combo in The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974) but I never clocked that The Producers was made into a musical in 2001.

A Night at the Opera

“The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details … a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from… Continue reading A Night at the Opera

White Eagles

Olivia Manning took inspiration from her wartime service with the British Council in Bucharest for her Balkan Trilogy. Lawrence Durrell used his time with the British Council in Belgrade to write authoritatively about Yugoslavia in White Eagles Over Serbia.

Daphne, John and Richard

Jack Thorne is an established playwright, television writer and screenwriter. He’s a name to look out for and as he’s only forty-five, something I wouldn’t have said fifty years ago; he has plenty more successes to look forward to.

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Categorised as Theatre

Old Friends

A Sondheim acolyte is as committed as the most devoted Wagnerian.

Something New

As a rule I swerve new operas and plays. They are not always bad but that’s the probability. Conversely a new ballet is worth the detour but it’s less of an investment as it’s shorter.

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Categorised as Theatre

Meet the Pallisers

I saw The Rocky Horror Show at a theatre in the King’s Road (possibly The Royal Court) in the 1970s and was taken by surprise when the audience were mostly in costume and participated in the show – I remember lots of rice being chucked in a wedding scene.