Reviews

Rent

This is something very special. There were times I did not believe I was watching an amateur production, such was the quality of the piece. Loosely based around the characters and plot of Puccini’s La Bohème, the show explores many adult themes as it tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in New York’s ‘s East Village. The first half explores how the characters met and who they are, the second is more a reflection of what happened next and who they become in the seasons of love that follow.
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Made in Dagenham

The rights and equality of pay for women have been very much in the national press recently, so this was a fantastic choice of musical for RMDS’s spring production. Taken from the very popular film, the Made in Dagenham musical score is a mixed bag of poignant, reflective ballads and catchier, upbeat tunes that take us right through the real-life story of the sewing machinists’ strike at the Ford factory in Dagenham, Essex. The musical focuses on the leader of the strike, Rita O’ Grady, played expertly by Jo Dey. The vulnerability of the character is played to perfection throughout,
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Laugh? I Nearly Went to Miami

The slightly oddball title reflects the efforts of Elvis tragic Tom Weals to get to Miami, where he and his fiancée, Alice Martin, are to be married during a Presley convention. Delayed by fog, they come home clutching their luggage, only to find that their bags have somehow been switched at the airport and that their luggage now contains banknotes amounting to half a million dollars. Tom’s brother, Barney, who hoped to use Tom’s flat as a love-nest while he was in Miami, grabs the main chance, but he too is thwarted, although not by the bumbling efforts of a
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Fleabag & The Nether

Arena Theatre are presenting a duo of one-act plays to celebrate their Sisters season, at the Shelley on 7 April, Bournemouth Little Theatre on 20 and 21 April, and Hanger Farm Arts Centre, Totton, on 12 May. Fleabag, in the manner of so many contemporary plays, seeks to be humorous, to shock and eventually to try and be profound, and at the same time it doesn’t seek to offer any grand solutions to the problems that it brings out into the open. Set around a single female character who is the centre of attention throughout the play, it leaves no
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1968 Connections

‘Life is a cabaret, old chum….’ This was the opening line from the Chairperson’s welcome as he introduced Waterside Musical Society’s 1968 Connections. With 50 years behind them, this concert celebrates the society’s highlights across the years as well as some interesting items from the year of 1968. There is a sense of community spirit from the moment you walk into the venue and this is such a reassurance in today’s climate. Sometimes in the amateur dramatic world there is no need for lavish sets, costume changes or even special lighting effects and last night was a good example of
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Anything Goes

Wayne Ings should be so pleased with this show: his young cast fully embrace every comedic notion, nuance and musical lilt in a buzzing score and bonkers story and script that just works  fantastically well on this stage at Eastleigh. He has clearly worked hard on all aspects of this show to bring an entertaining and new look to this classic while retaining all the elements that make it one. The band under the wonderful direction of Nigel Finch are so good that the notoriously arch Mr Porter would have found little to complain of, if anything: the sound beautifully
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