These Theatre Thoughts

No matter how many times you might have seen the 1987 classic movie, it never fails to deliver. And if you want to see a show that brings that movie to life on the stage, you can – Dirty Dancing is at the Orchard Theatre in all its glory until 6th October. This production has it all. It begins with a beat of music much like a heartbeat (a ‘gu-gung’, perhaps?), and from that moment on, it just keeps ticking all the boxes. Those tunes we all know and love from the movie, the ones we can sing off by heart from beginning to end, underpin the story of Baby and Johnny, who fall in love during the summer of 1963 at Kellerman’s holiday camp. They come from completely different sides of the track, but a love of dance, and a way of teaching each other the most important lessons in life bring them together. credit: Alastair Muir There are stand-out performances throughout this show. Kira Malou plays Baby Houseman (who no one should put in a corner) with a pure innocence that combines perfectly wi...

The Addams Family – love it. Musicals – yes, yes, yes! Comedy – can never get enough. Put them all together, though? Make a musical comedy out of the creepy, kooky Addams Family? Really? Really. And it works. It works beautifully. credit: Matt Martin From the opening number – unsurprisingly, this contained the famous Addams Family theme tune – the audience were enthralled, clicking their fingers enthusiastically as the orchestra (and Thing) bounded through the music. And then it began, and we were all spellbound. The music is modern and different, dark in tone for the most part (of course – this is the Addams Family, after all), but with a bouncing lightness that sneaks its way in every now and then… it’s impressive. The fact that I’m still humming the songs today tells me that this show is a keeper. The cast were incredible. This really is an all-singing, all-dancing production, but it’s more than that. Comedy is definitely in its nature, and as black as it is, it’s still laugh out lo...

  We’re all a bit Tracy Turnblad. We can all be a bit awkward, a bit uncomfortable with ourselves… we can all be dreamers. And perhaps that’s why the musical Hairspray appeals to so many people. It could be the fantastically fun characters, of course. It might be the catchy music. It might be the message that Hairspray sends out – that everyone should just dance together, and enjoy their lives, regardless of skin colour or background or beliefs. It could be any or all of these things. Hairspray is a magical experience to watch and be involved in, and the current touring production on at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford takes the essence of that, and ensures that it is not forgotten. You will walk away humming the memorable tunes, and you’ll be itching to try out the moves as you walk away from the theatre. Our accidental heroine is a wonder to behold. Tracy Turnblad is played with gusto by Rebecca Mendoza who bops and hops around the stage with a joy that is infectious, and if you’r...

Who doesn’t love a whodunnit? There is something innately exciting about the vicarious thrill of watching a (well acted) murder take place, and then trying to piece together the clues before the actors finally let their audience in on the secret. And that’s why murder mysteries have such an enduring appeal – that’s why the ‘queen of crime’, Agatha Christie, is still so popular over 40 years after her death. A Murder Is Announced always has been one of Christie’s more popular mysteries, featuring the doughty and irrepressible Miss Marple as the amateur sleuth who knits together the various strands of the story to present a whole that (most) people won’t have been expecting. Clues are there, but they are subtle, and even when you do spot one, understanding its place in the story is another matter altogether. An Agatha Christie play is something completely different to a television programme, where clues can be inserted into specific shots, pointing the audience in the right direction...

I knew I was going to love this show from the very start. A big screen filled with the clock from the Delorean in Back To The Future, and the top line proclaimed the exact date and time that I was sitting in the theatre, waiting for the day to start. The bottom line? Well, that was our time travelling destination of course: July 06, 1985. credit: Darren Bell It was a fun, quirky way to start a fun, quirky show packed with so much nostalgia my heart fairly ached by the end of it for days past. You may have guessed, I love the 80s. There is something so magical about the clothes, the music, the movies, that I can’t help but look back on that decade with a huge and warming fondness. So for me, The Wedding Singer was already hitting all the right notes. And then the action began, and I was blown away. This is a high energy show from the start, full of songs that will have you tapping your feet to the rhythm and humming them long after the final curtain. They are familiar because we know wh...

Roald Dahl is perhaps one of the best loved children’s writers in the world. Ever. So coming up with a musical version of one of his wonderful stories must be a bit of a daunting task. How to make it silly enough? How to make it revolting enough? How to make it moral enough to satisfy parents and children alike? It’s not a job I would relish. Getting it wrong would be a disaster, a disappointment to fans across the generations. Thankfully, in Fantastic Mr Fox the musical currently playing at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford until 5 th  March, the writers have got it spot on. It’s a wild and wacky, sometimes scary, always silly telling of Dahl’s story, which stays true to the original whilst adding its own oompf and bite to proceedings. In fact, if anything, this version of Fantastic Mr Fox gives some of the more two dimensional characters from the book (Rabbit, Mole, and perhaps particularly Farmer Bean) a bit more substance. A backstory. It pushes everything along at a thrilling and ...

  photo credit Johan Persson Whether it was a set text for GCSE, a vaguely remembered classic that we read in the past, or a favourite novel that is re-read over and over again, we all know, or are at least aware, of Lord of the Flies. This production of William Golding’s terrifying tale of the decay of civilisation played out by school boys has been adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams (Class Enemy, Trial Run, Sugar and Spice), and it is not the Lord of the Flies we thought we knew. This is clearer, deeper, and much, much darker (if such a thing is possible) than ever before. There are some excellent modern twists to this story including the use of a selfie stick to get a survivor’s group photo (although sadly, the image can’t be posted to Instagram because there is no 3G on the island on which the group has crashed), and they work well, pushing the story into the 21st century, and asking questions about what is happening in the world, and could it be any worse than crash landi...