Franco Milazzo - Page 4

Bang-bang-bang. Tap-tap-tap. Stomp-stomp-stomp. Crackity-crack-crack. Matías Jaime’s Argentinian hit Malevo sounds like the world’s loudest hailstorm while serving up a feast of blistering choreography.

Cabaret veteran Bernie Dieter returned this month to London with her latest outing Club Kabarett. The first show at Soho's newly opened Underbelly Boulevard, it showcases a brilliant cast of international performers all backed by music from Dieter and her house band. We caught up with the Australian-German host during her current run to hear all about it.

Cowbois might sound like a reboot of Sister Act but there is far more going under the satin bonnets. Gunslinger Jack Cannon (Vinnie Heaven) arrives in a small Wild West-era outpost, handsome by appearance, fearsome by reputation and with a bounty of 200 dollars on their head. The town is populated only by women and a drunken sheriff (Paul Hunter), their menfolk having been gone for over a year and presumed dead after a mine blast. 

London company Gothic Opera returns to Hoxton Hall for their fifth outing and their take on French composer Robert Planquette's Rip Van Winkle.

A new immersive production based on George Orwell’s 1984 shows why it still has such a grip on the modern psyche.

A renowned London cabaret venue re-opens with a spectacular display of hair-hanging, fire swords and pole dancing.

Much shorter than Richard Eyre’s three-hour plus version for the ROH, Peter Konwitschny’s La Traviata perhaps should be renamed La Trav or L’ Abbreviata. Its breathless sprint over 105 uninterrupted minutes takes more than it gives but there’s an admirable boldness to it all.

Few venue openings have been as much-anticipated as that of Aviva Studios. With around £100m of public funding and £35m just from the naming rights, its opening production from Factory International was announced over a year ago: Free Your Mind would be “a large-scale immersive performance based on The Matrix films” with a world-class creative team including director Danny Boyle and set designer Es Devlin.

Big Brother is watching you. And you. And you. The surveillance society as envisaged in George Orwell's seminal 1984 is brought to vivid life at Hackney Town Hall this month. We speak to co-director Jem Wall.

Created by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay, The Choir of Man emerged at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 and has gone on to become an Olivier-nominated international sensation.

If using the relaxing music of dinner party favourite Sting as the basis for a wild and inventive hip hop dance show isn’t an act of iconoclastic bravado, then what is?

If a revival is akin to colouring in someone else’s artwork, Cal McCrystal’s Iolanthe for the ENO does so with every shade under the sun.

An iconic venue and a new take on a classic story.

What JRR Tolkien would have thought of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers is anyone’s guess but one suspects that the Oxford don would rather have enjoyed the live concert treatment at the Royal Albert Hall.

If burying the lede was an Olympic sport, Eun Me-Ahn’s Dragons would be in serious medal contention.

Probably one of the finest bands most people have never heard of, quite why Bourgeois & Maurice aren't widely recognised as national treasures is something of a mystery.

Death is not the end - at least, if there is a journalist on hand to tell the world of your deeds. Michael Coveney is best known for his work as a theatre critic at the Daily Mail, Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer alongside which he wrote a series of obituaries covering many of the most famous actors of the last century.

Family-friendly shows like Kinder can serve and do deserve the widest audience and, despite its dark material, it edifies and satisfies without dumbing down or skirting the emotional impact of the situations they depict. In a fast-moving hour, it delivers a brilliant blend of clever storytelling and smart theatre which is suitable for children and essential for adults.

Over a decade has passed since Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera, was an undoubted flop during its first (and last) London run so this week’s revival in concert is a welcome retrospective. Was it a victim of its own hype or is it just a bad show?

Is there no stopping (or topping) Phantom Peak? Just one year after debuting, this epic immersive theatre launches a summer season filled with new stories and is now looking to expand into the US.