Reviews

‘Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd’ – so starts Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical thriller. The tale of the famous Fleet Street barber dates back to 1846, when he appeared as the fictitious villain in the Victorian penny dreadful, ‘The String of Pearls’. As a composer, Sondheim has written some fairly complex musicals, and any amateur company choosing to take on Sweeney Todd needs to rise to the challenge or risk making a complete hash of it. Thankfully, Winchester Musical and Opera Society do rise to the challenge admirably. David Tatnall’s direction sees the audience submerged into a vaudeville experience, bringing

A well-constructed farce is a sure-fire winner, and that is what Broadstone Players have on their hands – or should that be Hans? – with this production. You don’t expect to be intellectually challenged by a farce; all you ask for is a convoluted plot, some good jokes and a cast who can put enough pace on the vehicle to keep it rolling merrily along. And at Broadstone War Memorial Hall this week, those wishes are granted. In fact, the plot is so convoluted that a brief summary is all but impossible; suffice to say that the central character, Peter,

Creative theatre is often found in the most unlikely of places, but you often don’t have to travel very far to find it. The Annex Theatre is the home of Theatre Group – the University of Southampton Students’ Union’s theatre society. This intimate venue is definitely basic in terms of facilities and technical advances, but it provides a blank canvas which creativity can certainly enhance. In a fast-moving kaleidoscope, Love and Information by Caryl Churchill  features more than 20 characters who try to make sense of what they know. Originally opening at the Royal Court Theatre in September 2012, the play

At first glance I thought this was going to be a concert production revolving around some rock ’n’ roll songs, but I hadn’t done my homework: I didn’t know that this is an established ‘jukebox musical’, with a book by Joe DiPietro, dating from 2004. There are better-known jukebox musicals using the songs of ABBA, Buddy Holly, Queen etc, but this one is based on the music of Elvis Presley, who died 40 years ago this year. Although he (Elvis) wrote little of it himself, All Shook Up features well-known Elvis hits such as ‘Love me tender’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, ‘Hound dog’,

Start with a dog-collar, add a dash of drama and ensure there are plenty of fun and frolics – these are the requirements for Don’t Get Your Vicars in a Twist by Lesley Bown & Anne Gawthorp. Desperate to find the funds to pay for his daughter’s wedding, churchwarden George decides to rent out the vicarage to a touring theatre company, who are to stage a Murder Mystery weekend. However, events take a turn for the worse when Bishop Herbert rings the vicarage to announce that he is to visit to meet his new vicar…. Once again, RAODS present a

This year marks the 170th anniversary of the first publication of Charlotte Bronte’s novel so it seems an appropriate time for this National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic collaboration to tour prior to a London season – although the production actually began its life at Bristol Old Vic back in 2014 before transferring to the National the following year. Most of us, I’m sure, read the book as children; I personally have very distinct memories of being frightened by the fire at Thornfield Hall that had been started by the mad woman in the attic, but the entire story of the young