Aliya Al-Hassan - Page 86

If you are struggling to get into the festive spirit this year, a visit to London's Old Vic theatre is highly recommended. After the roaring success of Jack Thorne's charming adaptation of Charles Dickens' yuletide classic last year, the decision to stage A Christmas Carol again is as warm and welcoming as a hug from St Nicholas himself.

The best versions of La boheme are simple enough to let the genius of Puccini's opera shine, rather than distracting the audience with quirky updates and subliminal messages. The ENO's decision to return to Jonathan Miller's luscious production for the fourth time in a decade, is a beautifully pitched celebration of beauty in penury, love and heartbreak.

As one of the most famous coming-of-age films, the story of Dirty Dancing is loved by many. The 2004 stage show now comes to the New Wimbledon Theatre in an energetic but occasionally awkward revival. 

Back in 2005, Friedrich Schiller's 18th century offering Don Carlos won rapturous reviews when it transferred to the Gieldgud from Sheffield's Crucible. Now revived by the newly formed Ara theatre company, founded by actor Tom Burke and Israeli director Gadi Roll, it comes to Kingston's Rose Theatre.

In 2010, Lisa Hammond and Rachael Spence created a show called No Idea based entirely on what the general public said they should make a piece of theatre about. The result was an uncomfortable and comic take on how often disabled people are written out of the main narrative, becoming relegated to the sidelines as the main action happens without them.

If there was ever a film to screen with a live orchestra and choir, it would be Peter Shaffer's multi-award-winning Amadeus. London's Royal Albert Hall continues its successful series of blockbusting films broadcast on an enormous high definition screen, this time accompanied by the Philharmonia Chorus and the Academy of St Martin in the Field.

High Society has a chequered past as a stage show; even Richard Eyre failed at adapting Cole Porter's 1956 film. However, the last outing in 2015 at The Old Vic sparkled under Maria Friedman's direction and now the amateur theatre company BROS takes on the challenge at Richmond theatre.

Dealing With Clair was first staged thirty years ago at the Orange Tree Theatre. It now returns in a disturbingly well observed revival, still striking a very darkly comic and contemporary story that explores greed, morality and unsettling behaviour in the world of house buying.

The Habit of Art is a wonderfully funny and deeply moving revival of Alan Bennett's fantastic 2009 follow up to The History Boys. The play focuses on a fictional meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten in 1972, when Britten seeks out his old friend to combat his loneliness and ask advice about his new composition of Death in Venice. This meeting is framed as a play within a play where rehearsals are taking place; aged thesps Fitz and Henry play Auden and Britten respectively, musing on life, ageing, sex and art.

After a disappointing start to the new season with the bizarre Salome, the ENO fights back with a towering production of the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess. After nearly 80 years since its premiere, the folk opera receives its first staging by the ENO as a co-production with the Dutch National Opera and New York's Metropolitan Opera. And boy does it deliver!

In opera, there is often nothing more dangerous than female sexuality. Salome is a story where a woman's love becomes dangerous obsession, leading to bloodshed and necrophilia. From a feminist perspective, the story is challenging to say the least, but as Richard Strauss' opera, the result should be both brutal and beautiful. In this new production from the ENO, Australian Director Adena Jacobs makes her UK debut with a supposedly feminist perspective of the story that at times entertains, but more often baffles.

Immersive dining theatre seems to be in the in-thing in the capital at the moment. The result can be painful performances with even worse food, but happily Journey To The Underworld is an fun evening that combines a playful, if simplistic story, with excellent fodder.

Dementia is a difficult topic to tackle on stage, mainly due to the intensely internal struggle that the disease inflicts. Florian Zeller handled it beautifully in The Father and now Lisa Genova's novel Still Alice has been adapted into a sensitive yet hard-hitting play that confronts the brutal and seismic effects of the disease on a talented and relatively young woman and her family.

The English countryside in crisis, a couple grieving the death of their son and the fox as the deadly enemy of man. First seen to critical acclaim in 2011 at the Finborough Theatre, Dawn King's darkly compelling, dystopian play Foxhunter comes to the West End in a rather disappointing revival, lacking in sufficient tension or drama.

In choosing Jo Clifford's comic satire Losing Venice, Artistic Director Paul Miller has served up another unique offering at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre. Delightfully bonkers, idiosyncratic and totally eccentric; it is an entertaining, if not slightly confusing evening.

Take a feuding mother and daughter, a rebellious teenager granddaughter and throw in an outspoken lesbian feminist and you have the recipe for an unexpected treat at the Southwark Playhouse. Unexpected Joy is a new musical, written by Janet Hood and  Bill Russell, making its UK debut and follows a turbulent week in the life of one family. Hippy baby-boomer Joy is planning a memorial concert for her late singing and life partner Jump, who she never married. After inviting daughter Rachel and granddaughter Tamara, Joy must pluck up the courage to tell them that she is finally getting married the day after the concert. To a woman.

It's now three years since Kinky Boots strutted its way into the West End. Based on a true story, the show follows Charlie Price who turns his father's failing shoe factory into a success by making outrageous thigh-high boots, after a chance meeting with drag queen Lola. From Mid September, a new production heads off on tour around the country and 12 January 2019 will see the final West End Show.

As part of their 5th anniversary, the London Cabaret Club presents their new show Queen of Roses as a celebration of the reigns of Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II. Originally a pop club at the Arts Club in London, they now have a permanent home within the beautiful Bloomsbury Ballroom. It is a pity the quality of the show does not match up to its surroundings.

It's over 35 years since Little Shop of Horrors had its off-Broadway debut, but it remains a consistent choice for revival. Now Director Maria Aberg brings a new version to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre that indicates the show will be as successful as ever. Despite the incredulous story of hapless assistant-florist Seymour's discovery of a new plant that turns out to only thrive on human flesh, along with a dubious subplot of domestic violence, the production's musical numbers such as 'Suddenly, Seymour' and 'Skid Row' remain as catchy and vibrant as ever.

It is 1626 and a young d'Artagnan heads for Paris, determined to join the King's Musketeers. After befriending legendary Musketeers Athos, Aramis and Porthos, the four friends quickly become embroiled in a plot to ruin the honour of the Queen and threaten the stability of the entire French state. Set in atmospheric St Paul's Church in Covent Garden, a swashbuckling version of Alexander Dumas' classic tale The Three Musketeers is a captivating joy to watch.