It's rare that I revisit a show however good it is but sometimes you've got to make an exception and I can't think of a better example: I first saw it just after it opened back in April and when the run extended after its unexpected success I booked to see London Road again just before it closes tomorrow. Lots of things get called unique but unless ( Read more... )

Remember a few years ago when a serial killer murdered five prostitutes in Ipswich? Well it's that - The Musical. No, London Road doesn't have the most obvious subject matter. Add the fact that it's written by Alecky Blythe, a verbatim playwright whose previous plays have all featured the actors wearing headphones on stage, listening to the ( Read more... )

I spent the afternoon at the (packed) Odeon Leicester Square with Evil Alex and Stephen, to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. And was it ever chaos getting in - although we were in our seats not that long after the 2:10pm programme start, for once the half an hour of ads and trailers was necessary, as it took that long for everyone ( Read more... )

So a couple of clips to take into the weekend, starting with the first "proper" single from last year's X Factor winner, Joe McElderry, who a couple of months ago became the youngest British pop star ever to come out publicly. I won't go into the rather odd phrasing he used at the time, which suggested he hadn't realised he was gay until someone ( Read more... )

Pedro Calderón de la Barca was roughly a contemporary of Shakespeare's, and in this production of Life is a Dream the Spanish playwright shows many similarities with his English counterpart (an effect helped by Helen Edmundson's blank verse translation.) Nominally set in Poland, although only about as much as Twelfth Night is set in Croatia, it's a ( Read more... )

See, the problem with two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures per week is that two weeks in the series is already a third of the way gone. But "The Mad Woman in the Attic" guest-starred KateFleetwoodWhoIWasInAPlayWithOnceInCaseIHadn'tMentionedIt so I got to lord it over dave_rc at the Coffee Posse yesterday - fame by association. ( Spoilers for 'The Mad Woman in the Attic' )

I studied Macbeth for my O'Level English and this is the fourth production of the play I've seen on stage. I went with vanessaw, who hadn't quite managed to finish reading the Charles & Mary Lamb adaptation for kids. So it's fair to say between us we can give a balanced view of the production starring Patrick Stewart and ( Read more... )