The Frogs. Review by Barbara Lewis. The time is now. The place is ancient Greece. So begins this extremely freely adapted version of Aristophanes’ “The Frogs”.
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Peter Grimes. Review by Barbara Lewis. In difficult times, it would seem, people crave total escapism – or deep catharsis from confronting our own failure as humans and society.
Cry-Baby, The Musical. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Cry-Baby” may be set in 1950s Baltimore, but lyrics that at once celebrate and satirise the democratic checks and balances of the “nifty country” that is the United States of America make it tailor-made as a tonic for our times.
THE MOON LOOKS ON THEM ALL: Angela Topping browses a collection of essays by John Lucas on the subject of friends and friendship
The Marriage of Figaro. Review by Julia Pascal. In The Marriage of Figaro, director Joe Hill-Gibbins sets the comic opera in a contemporary décor which pulls the 18th century critique of misogyny into our own time.
THE GOBLIN BAND: Jenny Vuglar reviews a performance at Cecil Sharp House on 4 December 2024
Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival. Review by Graham Buchan. Wagner divides opinion. Even amongst opera lovers there are those who cannot abide his works, whilst others elevate him to almost God-like status.
Rigoletto. Review by Julia Pascal. Concept is all. And director Jonathan Miller’s decision to set Verdi’s disturbing melodrama in 1950s New York Little Italy is genius.
Poetry review – THE POINT OF THE STICK: Thomas Ovans enjoys Neil Fulwood’s poetic sketches of famous conductors
Jazz Conversations. Review by Barbara Lewis. Choreographer Dollie Henry and jazz composer Paul Jenkins have for more than a quarter of a century led the Body of People Jazz Theatre Company (aka BOP) on the basis jazz is a life-affirming, always-contemporary, ever-adapting, all-inclusive, forgiving form.
Plantation A. Review by Barbara Lewis. In 1957 Alain Robbe-Grillet reinvented the novel with an almost abstract, almost plot-less narrative and a central character named only as A… Now composer Edward Jessen has reinvented opera with “an experimental sonic theatre work” and a lone soprano (A…) singing words whose meaning we can only guess at.
Fiddler on the Roof. Review by Julia Pascal. In Fiddler on the Roof, inspired by Sholem Aleichem’s 1894 Yiddish short story, and now a celebrated revival from the 1960s, we have to explore what this means today.
By Julia Pascal • added recently on London Grip, music, musicals, theatre • Tags: Julia Pascal, music, musicals, theatre