Aliya Al-Hassan - Page 75

Retirement concerns and empty-nest syndrome will be familiar issues to many and are ripe for both exploration and satire. Despite these juicy subjects, Belinda Lang’s adaptation of Gérald Sibleyras and Jean Dell’s comedy An Hour And A Half Late, has amusing moments, but fails to make a lasting impression.

But I’m A Cheerleader: The Musical has a long history; based on the 1999 cult film, the musical was first workshopped at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005, where it picked up the Audience Award for Best New Musical. London got its first glimpse in 2019 at MTFestUK in a showcase for new musicals and it has now opened in a blaze of bubblegum pink at Battersea’s Turbine Theatre.

After opening night was postponed due to Storm Eunice, the ENO's new production of Leoš Janáček's opera is a welcome slice of brightness in the current gloom. One thing we have all seen in the last few years is nature's incredible ability to renew and refresh, whatever mankind may throw her way. The ENO's first new production of The Cunning Little Vixen since 2001 serves as a reminder that life continues and nature always renews. In a good-looking production, using typical Moravian folk songs, along with an exploration of fairy tales, this quirky opera fuses both comedy and tragedy to ask what it means to be alive.

First recorded in March 2021 and broadcast on BBC Radio 4, (still available on BBC Sounds) Sian Carter’s new play Running With Lions is a raw and honest look at attitudes towards grief, faith and the stigma of mental health problems in a multi-generational British-Caribbean family.

First seen in a 20-minute version in April 2021, as part of the Orange Tree's foray into theatrical streaming Outside, Two Billion Beats is Sonali Bhattacharyya's engaging and vibrant play that explores the relationship between two South Asian teenage sisters as they confront injustice, racism and the realities of growing up.

Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers remains one of only three shows to play for over 10,000 performances in the West End, bringing audiences to their feet night after night in the days when standing ovations were not always the default. A tale more than tinged with Greek tragedy, Russell’s examination of class, opportunity and poverty is given an injection of enthusiasm and vitality by an excellent cast in this touring production.

There can be few shows that have been quite so pushed from pillar to post by Covid. The West End version of Moulin Rouge! The Musical has stuttered, started and stopped a dizzying number of times. After winning 10 Tony awards on Broadway, the long-awaited adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s extravagant 2001 film is now officially open at a red velvet-swathed Piccadilly Theatre in a blaze of sparkle and light.

The songs of Meat Loaf and J.M Barrie’s story of Peter Pan are not an immediately obvious combination, but Bat Out Of Hell attempts to fuse these elements with hints of West Side Story, Rock Of Ages and Wagner-esque unrestrained theatricality.

Last year's festive period didn’t feel like Christmas in so many ways, especially for those who return year after year to see the English National Ballet’s production of Nutcracker. The charming adventures of Clara and her beloved Nutcracker follow their journey through fantasy lands to defeat the evil Mouse King and meet the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Kingdom Of The Sweets. The show has a perennial appeal, but this year’s production appears to have lost some of its sparkle.

After being cancelled last year, the traditional musical extravaganza at the Rose Theatre is back with a bang. Typically for the festive production, Beauty And The Beast brings together professional actors along with talented performers from the Rose Youth Theatre for a magical production.

Sex, gender identity, competition and friendship are all touched upon in Ella Road’s energetic new play Fair Play. In this intense two-hander, when Ann joins Sophie’s running club, the pair strike up a friendship amid the endurance of training, despite their very different backgrounds. As Ann overtakes Sophie, issues of their bodies, identities and gender become open to public opinion. Relationships fracture, attitudes are challenged and futures are altered forever.

Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker prize-winning novel Life of Pi received rave reviews when it debuted at Sheffield’s Crucible theatre back in 2019. The pandemic delayed the West End run, but it has now finally opened at the Wyndham’s theatre and goodness, it was worth the wait!

The Drifters Girl, despite that missing apostrophe, should be a smash-hit jukebox musical. A plethora of familiar hits, a remarkably talented cast and the inspiring story of Faye Treadwell, the African-American woman who took over as the group’s manager and steered them to global success despite legal battles, sexism and racism. In reality, the brilliant cast is not enough to disguise the lack of cogent storytelling and emotional engagement.

A definite sign that London may be heading back to some sort of normality is the live return of The Old Vic’s award-winning adaptation of A Christmas Carol. After streaming a version last year, the theatre is now back to hosting one of the highlights of the festive season, complete with Victorian bell-ringing, mince pies and one of literature’s most heart-warming stories of love and redemption

There’s a huge amount going on in a short time in Colin Teevan’s The Seven Pomegranate Seeds, now showing at the Rose Theatre. Seven stories about maternal pain and loss from the women in the plays of Euripides are transported from classic mythology to modern-day scenarios. Despite this intriguing concept, the resulting production feel rushed and fails to live up to its potential.

Private Lives is often considered Noel Coward’s masterpiece: an elegantly acerbic commentary on the relationships and morality of society’s upper classes. Both scathing and witty, its warmth is cut through with an icy centre of cruelty. Nigel Havers has chosen the show as the inaugural production for his newly-founded theatre company and it now arrives in Richmond on a national tour.

After a short run as part of Jermyn Street Theatre's Footprints Festival Eoin McAndrew's inventive and intriguing play, The Girl Who Was Very Good At Lying, now arrives at Clapham's Omnibus Theatre. Catriona is a young woman, still living at home in a small town in Northern Island. She works in a local pub and life is rather dull. When an American tourist walks into the pub, Catriona is captivated and offers to show him around. Aware that her surroundings are unremarkable, she decides to embellish the truth and create a much more exciting history. The fiction starts to unravel as her stories become increasingly incredible and the situation spirals out of hand.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles, one of Sherlock Holmes’ most famous cases, is not known for its comedy. In this revival from The Original Theatre Company and Octagon Theatre Bolton, the macabre story becomes a fast-paced and humorous farce.

In the right hands, Ronald Harwood’s Olivier award-nominated tragicomedy The Dresser is poignant, hilarious and also heart-breaking. Terry Johnson’s new touring version captures the undercurrent of deep sorrow of the play in a this rather meta production about a touring theatre company.

Made famous by the 1935 film featuring the legendary Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Top Hat is a nostalgic and light-hearted piece of escapism now playing at The Mill at Sonning. The story follows Jerry Travers, a Broadway star in his prime, who travels to England and falls for the society beauty Dale Tremont. Dale is not initially taken with him, but with a little charm, Jerry gets his girl. However, it is less than plain sailing after Dale mistakes him for Jerry's own manager Horace Hardwick, who is married to her friend, and subsequent mayhem ensues.