Category Archives: Theatre

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’

Posted on May 13, 2005 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Take a clever little film with a universal story, add melodies by a master tunesmith and then find the most brilliant boys and girls who can sing and dance up a storm and you have … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Billy Elliot: The Musical', Elton John, George Maguire, Ian MacNeil, James Lomas, Lee Hall, Liam Mower, Peter Darling, Stephen Daldry, Working Tirle | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2’

Posted on May 5, 2005 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Nicholas Hytner’s immaculate National Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1” is so vibrant and enthralling that it cries out to finally be made as a movie. Michael Gambon as Falstaff (above) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Henry IV Part 1', 'Henry IV Part 2', Adrian Scarborough, David Bradley, David Harewood, Matthew MacFadyen, Michael Gambon, Naomi Frederick, National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner, William Shakespeare | Comments Off

TV REVIEW: ‘Not Only But Always’

Posted on December 21, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – In a season of musical and comedy movie biographies, this look at the lives of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is by far the most disappointing. It was surely a bridge too far for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Not Only But Always', Aidan McArdle, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Rhys Ifans, Terry Johnson | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Marina Carr’s ‘By the Bog of Cats’

Posted on December 2, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Holly Hunter’s star power is one of the problems in Dominic Cooke’s staging of “By the Bog of Cats,” an intense but uneven retelling of “Medea,” but it is also its saving grace. Playwright Marina … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'By the Bog of Cats', Barbara Brennan, Brid Brennan, Denise Gough, Dominic Cooke, Gary Yershon, Gordon MacDonald, Holly Hunter, Marina Carr, Patrick Waldron, Sonia Friedman Productions, Sorcha Cusack, Trevor Cooper, Wyndham's Theatre | 1 Comment

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Grand Hotel: The Musical’

Posted on November 30, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Few places can match the buzz and excitement of a big city hotel lobby and that electric air of expectation is fully caught in the opening number of Michael Grandage’s scintillating restaging of “Grand Hotel: … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Grand Hotel', 'Grand Hotel: The Musical', Donmar Warehouse, Gary Raymond; Julian Ovenden, Luther Davis, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Grandage, Paul Hazel, Robert Wright | 1 Comment

THEATRE REVIEW: Stage version of the movie ‘Festen’

Posted on November 2, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Thomas Vinterberg’s “Festen,” a deeply affecting 1998 Danish film about the birthday party from hell, has been adapted into an emotionally shattering play in the hands of London’s Almeida Theatre Company. Dramatized by David Eldridge … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Festen', Almeida Theatre, Bill Kenwright, David Eldridge, Ian MacNeil, Jane Asher, Luke Malby, Lyric Theatre, Rory Kinnear, Rufus Norris, Stephen Moore, Thomas Vinterberg | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Sam Shepard’s ‘Buried Child’

Posted on October 26, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – A sheet of rain fades to the coyote howl of a guitar and in a rundown farmhouse an old man on a couch coughs, reaches for his whiskey and resumes a shouted conversation with his … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Buried Child', Brendan Coyle, Elizabeth Franz, Lauren Ambrose, M.Emmet Walsh, Matthew Warchus, Rob Howell, Sam Shepard, Sam Troughton, Sean Murray | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: John Barry and Don Black’s ‘Brighton Rock’

Posted on October 6, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Composer John Barry and lyricist Don Black have laboured long and hard to make a musical out of Graham Greene’s 1938 crime novel “Brighton Rock,” but the challenge has turned out to be beyond them. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Brighton Rock', Almeida Theatre, Don Black, Giles Havergal, Graham Greene, John Barry, Lez Brotherson, Michael Attenborough, Michael Jobson, Sophie Ragavelas | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Maria Goos’ ‘Cloaca’

Posted on October 5, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – The first play that Kevin Spacey has chosen to direct in his first season as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre Company is curiously flat and uninvolving. Dutch playwright Maria Goos’ story of four … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Cloaca', Adrian Lukis, Hugh Bonneville, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Kevin Spacey, Maria Goos, Neil Pearson, Stephen Tompkinson, The Old Vic | Comments Off

THEATRE REVIEW: Steve Black’s ‘Missing Marilyn’

Posted on September 22, 2004 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – One night in 1955, a handsome stranger in a tuxedo delivers a bottle of champagne on ice to a beautiful woman alone in a seedy motel room. It’s obvious who she is, all blonde hair, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged 'Missing Marilyn', Andrew Crabb, Jonathan Hyde, King's Head Theatre, Marilyn Monroe, Sally Day, Steve Black | Comments Off