These Theatre Thoughts

Date: 9th December 2023  Seat: L3 (Stalls) Tickets: Gifted Rating: 5 Stars  You can’t get much more classic than Sleeping Beauty when it comes to the annual panto, and at The Hawth in Crawley this year, it’s this story that takes centre stage – but don’t worry if you think you’ve seen it all before; there are some fantastic surprises in store, including some rather impressive prehistoric pets, fire performers, and plenty of musical theatre references throughout.  Why musical theatre? Because two of the panto’s stars are West End performers with some notable credits to their names – that’s Carrie Hope Fletcher (who plays Carrie-Bosse) from such shows as Les Miserables and Heathers , and Scott Paige (The Good Spirit Moonbeam), who’s starred in The Great British Bake Off Musical and The Addams Family . Add to that some wholesomeness from Andy Day, a CBeebies presenter every child (and parent) in the audience is sure to know, and you’ve got the ingredients for a fantastic s...

  Photo credit: Manuel Harlan Date: 5th December 2023  Seat: A6 (Circle) Tickets: Gifted Rating 5 Stars  You think you know H G Wells’ classic The Time Machine ? You might well do, actually, but the characters in Original Theatre’s side-splitting production, aptly named The Time Machine – A Comedy , might not know it quite as well, and their attempt to turn the novel into a play doesn’t exactly go according to plan. The premise of The Time Machine (this version, at least) is that Dave Wells (Dave Hearn), the great great grandson of H G Wells himself, finds a box of his famous relative’s belongings, including the original draft of The Time Machine and decides that he and his theatre company should make that their next production, abandoning (almost – it does make a rather impressive reappearance) their production of The Importance of Being Earnest in the meantime. Things do not go well. That’s partly due to Dave being unable to write a play if his life depended on it, bu...

Photo credit: Alex Brenner Date: 30th November 2023  Seat: G16 Tickets: Gifted Rating: 3 Stars  Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful character, and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a fantastic story, so combining these two things should work. And it almost does in A Sherlock Carol . But not quite well enough to be completely satisfying, and the weak points that slow everything down and get rather convoluted and confused are a shame when there’s so much promise in the idea.  That’s not to say that A Sherlock Carol , written and directed by Mark Shanahan, is a bad play – it’s absolutely not. For a couple of hours, you’ll be transported to Victorian London, and you’ll follow Sherlock around as he takes on the role of Scrooge – meeting ghosts and solving crimes, all the while slowly but surely thawing out and turning from a mean spirited, somewhat broken man into a joy-filled one who finally understands what Christmas and friendship is all about. It’s pleasant and fun in parts, but it...

  Photo credit: Alex Brenner Date: 1st December 2023  Seat: E7 Tickets: Gifted Rating: 4 Stars  I love many things about Christmas, but there’s one thing that stands out – predictability. It’s the same thing (with perhaps just a few small tweaks) every year, from the same food, the same rush (and panic) to buy gifts, the same twinkling lights, and the same old pantos with the same old stories being told.  And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  Only sometimes, it seems, it’s fun to escape that predictability and try something new, which is why, when offered the chance to see a different kind of pantomime telling a different kind of story, I decided it was time to step out of my comfort zone and give it a go. I’m so glad I did.  This different panto was Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime by Charles Court Opera and currently playing at Jermyn Street Theatre. As the name suggests, this is not your usual Peter Pan or Snow White – this is the Odyssey (ish) in...

  Photo credit: Manuel Harlan  Date: 22nd November 2023 Seat: L20 Tickets: Gifted Rating: 5 Stars  A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic isn’t just a Yuletide play, and it’s not just a new tradition (there’s been a version of the same play running at the theatre since 2017); it’s an experience. Arriving at the theatre, the front is lit up in green with ‘A Christmas Carol’ shining in red above the door in big, bright lights; it couldn’t get more festive. Except it does – get seated, and you’ll find Victorian merchants wandering around with satsumas and, joy of joys, warm mince pies, which are given away to the hungry hordes in a way that Ebeneezer Scrooge would certainly not approve of.  Then there’s the play itself. Written by Jack Thorne and directed by Matthew Warchus, this is a traditional re-telling of Dickens’ famous Christmas story with some lovely modern elements thrown in that make for perfect comic counterpoints when they appear – having the Ghost of Christmas P...

Date: 13th November 2023  Seat: R12 Tickets: Gifted Rating: 4 Stars It might be a hard-knock life for the orphans at the New York Municipal Orphanage, but it’s certainly no hardship for the audience to enjoy this magnificent version of the all-time classic, Annie .  So, what is it about this particular production of Annie that works so well? One thing is the same thing that works for every production of Annie – the score. These songs are so familiar that hearing them sung (and sung so impressively) on a stage in front of you makes you feel happy. That’s it. There’s a nostalgic edge to everything you see and hear, and whether it’s the iconic “Tomorrow”, the fantastic “Hard-Knock Life”, or perhaps Miss Hannigan’s desperate refrain (and my personal favourite), “Little Girls”, these are songs we’ve all grown up with. That’s special, and it means Annie holds a unique place in many people’s hearts.  Then there are the dance numbers. With Craig Revel-Horwood playing Miss H...

  Photo credit: Johan Persson  Date: 8th November 2023  Seat: E6 Tickets: Gifted Rating: 4 Stars Backstairs Billy , written by Marcelo dos Santos and directed by Michael Grandage, is the story of William ‘Billy’ Tallon who was the Queen Mother’s servant from the age of 15 until her death in 2002 – a span of 50 years or so. The play is set in 1979 when Billy has already been at work at Clarence House for 27 years and has just been promoted to Page of the Backstairs.  This odd couple, him from Coventry and she as the former queen consort, shouldn’t work – they shouldn’t really have anything to do with one another – and yet a loving and deep friendship was formed over the years, and Backstairs Billy would do anything to protect his beloved queen. It’s this love and the joy Billy takes in it that sells the character; he has no ulterior motives; he simply adores his Queen.  Backstairs Billy is, first and foremost a comedy, and it’s certainly amusing, with distinct e...