Tag: featured
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Review: 2:22 starring Cheryl; A Ghost Story that’s, ironically, human
2:22 achieves the most impressive feat in the horror genre: a satisfying ending. As applause subsides, I ask around “Did you guess the ending?” From hushed near whispers to bursts of enthusiasm, the answer is unanimously “no.” Further impressive, audiences are still surprised in this, 2:22’s 5th West End run. (I conducted the same informal…
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Review: Orlando starring Emma Corrin; Stylish but Self-conscious
Emma Corrin is a paper doll. One costume peels off as another is pasted on. Before settling into an identity, it gives way to the next. Orlando, Corrin’s character in the eponymous play, lives a life that spans over 300 years, traverses land and sea, and fluidly navigates gender. Corrin, ever the shape-shifter, effortlessly plays…
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Review: Least Like the Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy; “Lobotomy: The Opera”!
Before the lobotomy, Rosemary Kennedy loved opera. In Irish National Opera’s Least Like the Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy, art imitates life in the deepest irony. This is an opera about Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy. It’s medical misogyny set to music. Joe and Rose Kennedy’s gloss-finished Camelot, of which JFK was their triumph, unravels to reveal…
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Review: Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty; A Fever Dream Fairytale
Matthew Bourne is a household name, even to those outside the dance community. He is often hailed as one of the UK’s most famous choreographers. And, indeed, he has had a number of key successes that have influenced the world of dance—namely a reimagining of Swan Lake as a gay romance. So what went wrong?…
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Review: Hakawatis, Women of the Arabian Nights; Intimate Storytelling in Female Gaze at Shakespeare’s Globe
“The whole play is a female orgasm,” playwright Hannah Khalil reveals in a post-show Q&A. Earlier that night, the first “line” in Khalil’s new play, “Hakawatis, Women of the Arabian Nights” is an enthusiastic moan, the beginning of an intimate night of storytelling. “This isn’t the male orgasm that goes [draws fingers up to the…
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Best of the Year: Review: My Neighbour Totoro; Some High End Puppets
The audience gasped. And then gasped again. And another gasp. As I watched Royal Shakespeare Company’s world premiere production of My Neighbour Totoro, the audience came to life around me, reacting, laughing, and smiling at this triumph on stage. How did they do it? Puppets. Music. Small details. — leaning into those little moments in…
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Review: Jack Thorne’s A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic; The Gold Standard of Scrooge
If I thought there were too many productions of The Nutcracker, where do I begin to count the number of A Christmas Carols in London? If there were as many Christmas Eve ghosts as there are productions of the Dickens classic, Ebenezer Scrooge might not have made it to Christmas dinner. So, of all the…
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Review: Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker; Practically Perfect Christmas Magic
Is there a more ubiquitous musical tradition than The Nutcracker at Christmastime? Tchaikovsky’s music twinkles alongside Christmas lights around the world. Many young dancers look forward to performing at its Christmas Party. Its musical motifs decorate adverts, movies, and social media all season. But how do you pick which Nutcracker to buy a ticket to? London…
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Review: Who’s Holiday? Miz Cracker is Crackin as Cindy Lou Who
The Grinch stole Christmas then gave it right back; Cuz that Cindy Lou Who, she looked like a snack. They flit and they flirt and they snog with such gleeThat the who’s in the audience ask “what did I see?” Cindy’s grown up, as you’ll soon find out,This clever drag parody is the perfect night…
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ENO’s It’s a Wonderful Life is Wonderful, but not Very Festive ★★★
Tonight is the UK premiere of It’s a Wonderful Life, the opera. Frank Capra’s 1946 film of the same name has the emotional drama to make a good opera, but, on stage, lacks the sparkle to make Christmas magic. Fortunately, Aletta Collins’ production creates a bright and whimsical Americana aesthetic that occasionally shines through this depressing Christmas classic.…
London Show Cap 