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The greatest show and other bromances: Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball and Boe @sohotheatre

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Alfie Boe and Michael Ball seem to be a bit of a joke act anyway. Their endless interpretations of popular songs (also known as covers) and their double-act bromance make them quintessential crossover artists where popular music meets opera and Broadway. And a perilous choice for the discerning listener. It’s not that they aren’t talented musicians and performers in their own right. Still, their musical choices are always safe, predictable and less than their potential. But every country deserves to have a pair of self-described national treasures that can tour the local arenas and give people a good time for the bargain price of £175 a seat.  And so the concept of Adam Riches and John Kearns - two world-famous from the Edinburgh Fringe comedians taking on this bromance seems like a curious choice for a Christmas musical fare. One can only hope that over the fourteen nights, it is playing at the Soho Theatre that the show evolves into something more substantial than a series of po...
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Just wait 'till you see the missus: Jekyll & Hyde at Southwark Playhouse

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It is an evening of moody atmosphere and gender reversal in Jonathan Holloway's Jekyll & Hyde , which has been re-imagined in this production currently playing at Southwark Playhouse . The director, Jessica Edwards, notes in the programme that Jekyll & Hyde is a story that is so well known and mis-remembered, it gives the team a great deal of licence to unpick its ideas and mess around with it. They have indeed and it works quite well using a range of theatrical tricks, music and some good old fashioned shocks.
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Stuff happens: Love n Stuff

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A marriage and a lifetime of memories are the backdrop to a sweet, funny and often surprising comedy that is now playing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East . What is astonishing about this fast paced show is that even with over twenty characters are played by two people - Tony Jayawardena and Rina Fatania (pictured right) - you walk away from the show feeling as if you understand them all and want to see them again. Bindi and Mansoor are a popular couple on their street in Stratford. But after 45 years of marriage Mansoor has decided to swap Stratford for Delhi, shocking his wife and their friends. While he is waiting for his flight to Delhi at Heathrow Airport, Bindi conspires with their friends to make him stay. It helps that the flight has been delayed for many hours and this is the setup for the piece.
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Legal horse play: Same Deep Water As Me

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Nick Payne's latest play at the Donmar , Same Deep Water As Me looks at the world of personal injury lawyers and the people who make false claims for accidents. It seems to be an attempt at farce but mostly comes off as a muddled soap opera that alternatively tries to be funny and make some serious points about sacrifices in the modern economy. None of it really works even though the cast are excellent and try their hardest to make sense of the material. In the first half we are introduced to Andrew (Daniel Mays) and Barry (Nigel Lindsay). They are two struggling 'no win no fee' lawyers in Luton and business is a bit slow. Then Kevin (Marc Wooton), who is an old school friend of Andrew's, appears with a story about a crash with a Tesco delivery van. I could explain more but the problem with this piece is that by the time the set up is made the audience know what is going to happen. The comedy is mostly derived from attempts to make jokes from class differences and c...
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Slappers and braggers: Fleabag at Soho Theatre

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one woman show Fleabag is an entertaining smutty, funny and bittersweet tale. In Mydidae she was naked but here her character's soul is laid bare, as "Fleabag", a woman obsessed with sex. Everything leads to sex from a dripping stuffed crust pizza to a chance encounter with an ugly man on the tube. But amongst all the wild crazy hedonism emerges a real vulnerable person who is coming to the end of period of her life, even if she does not know it yet. Sitting on a stool under a spotlight the piece opens with Fleabag taking an interview for an office job. It soon goes horribly wrong which then leads to her confessional-like monologue on her life. It is a life is full of asides about her ex-boyfriend, her family, casual sex and her friend, with who she ran a hamster-themed coffee shop with until her death.
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Interstellar smut: Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens

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Leaving the theatre singing to oneself, "glitter shoes, saved my life," I was struck how rare it is to see a new show and keep the music and lyrics in your head. But with Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens downstairs in the bowels Lounge of the Leicester Square Theatre , the song and line is repeated so often it was bound to become an ear worm. It was also plastered on the merchandising strategically placed near the exit. From what I could understand of the plot it revolves around a sleazy cabaret club called Saucy Jacks on the notorious planet Frottage 3, where the performers become victims of a serial killer, who kills using a red slingback. With all this murder going on the club is visited by the Space Vixens who are like an interstellar Charlie's Angels who fight crime with the power of disco...
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Last chance legends: A Chorus Line

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Prior to it completing its run next weekend I finally caught A Chorus Line at the Palladium. It's a simple and slick fly on the wall show about dancers wondering if this is their last shot on stage as they progress from auditions to the opening night. It is hard not to like a show with such heart and thrilling performances. The cast are pretty good and the production is rarely dull, with its classic Broadway songs and classic theatrical set pieces. It is hard not to like Scarlett Strallen (one of the omnipresent Strallens and pictured opposite) dance and high kick her way through the Music and The Mirror as she desperately wants a job. Or see Olivier award-winning Leigh Zimmerman as Sheila, the very late twenty-something dancer who is wondering how long her run will last... At times it is exhausting to watch the cast as they are on stage for nearly two hours (without an interval). And if it looks like hard work, that is probably because it is .
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Wishful thinking: The Last Ever Musical

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Most new musicals these days are just a string of old songs cobbled together to make a not very good show. They are probably best enjoyed if you don't understand English too well so the flimsy plots and melodramas can be mistaken for something more profound. But of course nowadays most of the time the fun is really in going out to the theatre and having a night out rather than watching whats on stage... On the fringe scene, musicals are usually an opportunity to see a work that isn't going to get a commercial run, or something cheap to mount - like Jason Robert Brown's Last Five Years or I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change - and more fun to be in than watch... With this in mind it was intriguing to go and see the new piece, The Last Ever Musical at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington. It is a new piece by Simon James Collier and music by Richard Bates. It attempts to be a musical that's a tad offensive and vulgar and send up some of the London fringe theatre...
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Pride revisited: The Pride at Trafalgar Studios

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The Pride is a thought provoking and somewhat topical piece of theatre and serves as a reminder of how rights and freedoms now taken for granted in Britain were non-existent a little over half a century ago. The past and present co-exist to tell a story about love and boundaries. The play evolves around a complex love triangle and alternate universes between 1958 and 2013 involving the characters of Philip, Oliver and Sylvia. In 1958 Philip and Sylvia are in a loveless marriage and Oliver is Sylvia's boss. Through chance encounters and secret meetings Philip and Oliver start a relationship against a backdrop of fear and shame. In 2013 and Philip and Oliver are struggling in a gay relationship and it is Sylvia that plays a role in putting the two together.
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