The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

4 stars ****

The ‘Spelling Bee’ is a very American peculiarity and writing a musical around it is even more peculiar but it works so well.

We meet a group of stereotypical nerdy young people, verging on cartoon caricatures, who … Read More

The Happy Prince

2 stars **

Well, he didn’t look very happy but Tom Dawkins as the prince stood out (in a good way)  in what is otherwise a strangely bemusing production.

Good points – the music is really lovely and generally well … Read More

Glasvegas – The Original 1977 Musical

5 stars *****

I went in with a splitting headache and came out with a huge cheesy grin on my face, thankful I’d picked this show to round off my day.

This is a hugely enjoyable show (and the venue … Read More

Street Cries

4 stars ****

If you know the gist of ‘Under Milk Wood’ you will get the premise of this hour of musical cabaret, although having just come out of ‘Spelling Bee’ it took a while to readjust my brainspace and … Read More

Molly Wobbly’s Tit Factory – Lyric Belfast

5 Stars

*****

Although this was were I started in reviewing, Musical Theatre is a genre I don’t often cover these days but such was the buzz I decided to return to my roots and check it out for myself.

… Read More

Scene of the Titans

2 stars

**

If it wasn’t actually based on a true story, you could easily think the plot of this show was completely improbable and verging on farcical. However given that the premise is true, this could have been a … Read More

11

4 Stars ****

11 is a new musical composed by Ian Hammond Brown with book by Suzanne Lofthus and is presented by Cutting Edge Theatre.

From World War one to our present day the scenes paint a picture of stories … Read More

A Man’s a Man

Unrated.

I really don’t think it’s fair to actually review this show. While all credit goes to people trying to perform a show in a language foreign to them, this is amongst one of the worst shows I have ever … Read More

Toulouse-Lautrec: The Musical

2 stars

**

This was less musical theatre and more a musical story. I saw the Japanese version and despite the highly energetic performance by Jun Sawaki, you spend most of the time reading the English translations and waiting for … Read More

Spring Awakening (EUSOG)

4 stars

****

This was a very competent production of a sadly cut-down version of Spring. As it’s written, there is just enough character development to hold the various threads together and unfortunately when you cut important bits of the … Read More