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David Porter » Entries tagged with "musicals"

Grease

Grease Lowestoft Players at the  Bethel Theatre Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 14 September 2015 and The Lowestoft Journal, 18 September 2015 There’s something about Grease that makes it so popular, so feel-good, so ‘Summer Nights’, with its string of what have become classic pop songs like Grease is the Word, Greased Lightnin’, Hopelessly Devoted to You, Sandy and You’re the One That I Want. Lowestoft Players bring their high energy, enthusiastic and professional team approach to the American High School, teenage rom-com in all its colourful, musical and fun-filled entertainment. The ‘will they/wont they’ couple Danny (Tom Guttridge) and Sandy (Isabelle Anderson) are well-matched and The Pink Ladies (Claire Doughty, Lorna Tucker, Angie Smith and Emily Simpson) are perfect foils to the T-Birds (Lawrie Groom, Ricky Reeve, Daniel Hughes and Simon Warren). The … Read entire article »

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Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys at the Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 9 July 2015 It takes a special show to stand out from the crowd of contemporary musicals about great music and musicians of the 1960s and 70s. Well, multi-award winning Jersey Boys stands out big-time! Blessed with unique harmonies and the unforgettable lead falsetto vocals of Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons were big hit makers, popular both sides of the Atlantic. Their sound was the backdrop to many teenagers’ lives. From the streets of New Jersey these boys rose to the dizzy heights of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. This opens the can of worms that was their less harmonious offstage and behind the scenes lives; this show has real grit. As often in showbiz, fame comes at high cost … Read entire article »

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Barnum

Barnum at the Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 6 March 2015 Circus overflows with razzmatazz and spectacle. Musical theatre entertains, delights and stirs us through dance, drama, music and lavish laughter. If we add outstanding singing, quality choreography, production by showbiz maestro Cameron Mackintosh and starring roles from multitalented Brian Conley and Linzi Hateley, then we have a sure-fire smash hit, available until 14th March. Based on the life of irrepressible showman PT Barnum in the mid 1880s as he explored his dreams of mass entertainment, this traditional love musical combines jugglers, trapeze artists and clowns together with real personalities General Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind. The song catalogue includes gems like There Is a Sucker Born Ev’ry Minute; Thank God I’m Old, One Brick at a Time, Love Makes … Read entire article »

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Hairspray

Threshold Theatre Company, at Norwich Playhouse Review of Hairspray published in Eastern Daily Press, 18 December 2014 Hairspray is a musical that doesn’t take itself over seriously while dealing with serious topics and offering ‘serious fun’ way that leaves your feet tapping for ages. Based on the 1988 film, it harnesses the power and swing of early 1960s downtown rhythm and blues and youth culture to showcase a plump teenager (the incredible Charley Smith) becoming an overnight celebrity when winning a place on a local TV dance show. Martin Rodwell plays her ample-bossomed mother, avoiding pantomime dame and hitting the perfect comic note. Numbers are performed faultlessly including Good Morning Baltimore, Velma’s Revenge, You’re Timeless to Me and the show-stopper I Know Where I’ve Been, sung by the magnificent Tranetta Jones. The show deals with race … Read entire article »

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The Addams Family

The Addams Family Norfolk Youth Music Theatre, Maddermarket, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 November 2014 You don’t have to remember the TV or film series about the ‘creepy and kooky’ family from the dark side created by cartoonist Charles Addams about his nearest and dearest to enjoy this comical musical, a fun journey into the macabre. Daughter Wednesday (Megan Artherton) falls in love with ‘normal’ Lucas (Felix Revel) who  arrives with his respectable parents (Tom Coath and Nicola Myers) at Addams’ bizarre mansion. Father Gomez (Aidan Parsons) and his wife Morticia (the outstanding Molly Cutter) fall out over it. Delightfully created family members appear with madnesses and neuroses – Uncle Fester (Archie Brown) is in love with the moon; crazy Grandma (Lauren Bryant) wheels a drug trolley like a demented nurse. Austin … Read entire article »

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Aspects of Love

Aspects of Love The Lowestoft Players at the Bethel   Review published in Eastern Daily Press 6 September 2014 and Lowestoft Journal 12 September 2014 Always pushing boundaries, the Lowestoft Players have excelled themselves with this Andrew Lloyd Webber gem. They are staging the Suffolk premiere at their own Bethel theatre, harnessing some of the finest talent in the region. Stephen Wilson and Louise Clarke direct masterfully. Far from a classic love story, it’s a triangle of relationships which expand to include others in a tale very much of the late 1980s, yet timeless in its treatment of the hopes, yearnings and uncertainties of love. Love Changes Everything is the show-stopper and the motif that underpins the score. Matthew Hardy does a tremendous job on piano and the music is seamless. Craig Loxton as the romantic soldier, … Read entire article »

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Annie

Lowestoft Players Marina Theatre Review published in Lowestoft Journal, 23 May 2014 Multi-award winning Lowestoft Players have revisited an old musical favourite for their latest production, complete with orphans, US President Roosevelt and a dog. 11-year old livewire Annie (Kitty Taylor and Jessica Tovell) is taken from an orphanage to spend Christmas with a billionaire. It’s her opportunity to find her long-lost parents. For him she is the key to a reconnection with humanity. Things don’t turn out as she’d dreamed but it’s still a heartwarming ending when the baddies are caught. The song ‘Tomorrow’ is the best known. The whole show is slick with professional quality commitment from everyone – on stage, orchestra, back stage and front of house. They make the audience feel free to just sit back and enjoy. The company are a good … Read entire article »

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Miracle on 34th Street

Marina Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 6 December 2013 As an appetiser for the Christmas and pantomime season and an example of how almost anything can be turned into a musical, Franklin Productions brought a staged version of the 1947 movie to Lowestoft before visiting Norwich next week. It’s a simple, heart-warming tale. An old gentleman working in Macy’s famous toy store claims to be the real Santa Claus. He is put in an insane asylum and a lawyer takes up his case in court to prove he is the real deal. Sitting alongside The Snowman and It’s a Wonderful Life the film has become a perennial family favourite, originally entitled The Big Heart in Britain. The show could follow. With singing, dancing, some jokes, fast-moving scenery changes and lashings of … Read entire article »

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Redemption: The Greatest Story Ever Told Again and Again

One work of redemptive literature, ‘A Christmas Carol’, has inspired more interpretations and reinventions than almost any other in the English language. In Christian belief, people can be saved by Christ the Redeemer. This concept of being saved, given freedom from something that binds, has inspired more literature and film than almost any other theme. Redemption means, variously, freeing from bondage, atonement, reclamation, reparation, restitution, propitiation and salvation. It implies a freedom from some restriction; although physical, financial, mental and personality limitations are natural in life. From the ancient world, a redeemer paid a price or ransom for somebody. That in Christianity is the redeeming work of God through Jesus Christ, to pay the blood price/atone for man’s sin and set him free from its bonds. This new situation was a restoration of … Read entire article »

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There’s No Success Like Failure in Musical Theatre

Musicals can flop with critics, but hit at box offices, or vice versa. Happy is the show that appeals to both. Yet neither guarantees longevity in showbiz. In Love Minus Zero/No Limit (1965), Bob Dylan sang: ‘She knows there’s no success like failure/And that failure’s no success at all’. But in the mixed-up world of musical theatre, failure can mean success; success can be fleeting. A critical panning often makes audiences flood in, to disagree. The musical The Producers (2001) from a 1968 film, featured two producers who deliberately sold shares in a Broadway flop, but it became a hit. That’s the musical world, often topsy-turvy. No Success Formula Musical theatre is an art form integrating dance, drama, song and music to tell a story. Lighter tales or heavier sagas, they can be comic … Read entire article »

Filed under: Articles at Suite 101