504 stories by "Jonathan Baz"
Rarely does a new musical emerge from a book that is as heartfelt as Fun Home's and yet fails on stage to either inspire or deliver.
The gingham tablecloths set the tone for Forever Plaid, currently downstairs at St James' Studio. Look closely and the "menu cards" are actually the evening's set list. If it wasn't for the …
It says much for London's modest but acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory that their production of The Color Purple, first staged three years ago, has been shipped back to Broadway to a rave r…
Hand to God is the cleverly written story of Jason (played by Harry Melling of Harry Potter fame) a quiet and awkward teenager, struggling to deal with his father's death six months prior.
Written before he had become one of the nation's most prolific playwrights, yet as ever focusing upon his hallmark theme of domestic dysfunctionality, How The Other Half Loves is Alan Ayckbo…
Green Day's concept punk album explored something that teenagers around the world have been doing forever - questioning societal constructs and their own purpose in life, and feeling as thou…
Tracy Letts' Bug at the Found111 space is a pressure cooker of paranoid chaos, as fascinating as it is terrifying. It draws a thin line between reality and neurosis, trapping the audience in…
As the 2016 Olivier Awards ceremony draws closer, new musical Mrs Henderson Presents is nominated in four categories. Ian Bartholomew is up for Best Actor In A Musical and I spoke with him a…
It's a neat conceit - turning a long defunct magazine brand, synonymous with the childhood of girls of the 70s into a night to remember for those very same girls, now of course women.
This week offered me a chance to re-visit Lin-Manuel Miranda's In The Heights and a first time to see it in its Kings Cross home.
Following the acclaimed success of their production last year of Sad Stories of the Death of Kings, Scena Mundi mark their own celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death wi…
An informal performance of Buddle and Connor's new song cycle Heart of Winter offered a chance to hear this new-release played live, by Corinne Priest, and to discover its collection of witt…
As the lights come up on Simon Godwin's Hamlet with Marcellus and Barnardo keeping watch on Elsinore's perimeter, there are crickets chirping. For whilst Denmark has always been fixed in a t…
Miss Atomic Bomb blasts onto the St James stage with a visually impressive bang. In a show that's a chain reaction of spectacular dance work (including some delicious tap routines), choreogr…
The Churchill's curtain rises, revealing a crashed plane in a jungle-esque setting. To a deeply reverberating score plied with ominous overtones, the stage is set for this darkest of tales.
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Ten years after it opened (and swiftly closed) in the West End, there's a fringe revival of this tuneful take on life in a women's prison. Drawn from Bad Girls, their popular TV series, Chad…
Upstairs At The Gatehouse, London****Music by Jule StyneLyrics by Don BlackBook by Jack RosenthalBook revised by David ThompsonLara Stubbs, Sue Kelvin and Robert MaskellJule Styne and Don Bl…
In a new and novel cabaret set, Colin Savage attempts to teach Michael Webborn, through quick witted comedy and song, the way to get a girl. We discover that pianist Webborn has struggled th…
Churchill Theatre, Bromley*****Written by Peter QuilterDirected by Daniel BuckroydIt's a well-known story, but a heartbreaker each time it is told. It's the one about the dark side of talent…
Churchill Theatre, Bromley****Music by Andrew Lloyd WebberLyrics by Tim RiceDirected by Bill KenwrightThe CompanyA technicolour spectacle is promised by the cast and crew of Joseph and it is…
With three Olivier Nominations just announced, Florian Zeller's modern French masterpiece The Father and its remarkable insight into the effects of Alzheimer's Disease makes a four-week retu…
Miss Julie is set on Midsummer's Eve during a party on the estate of a rich Swedish Count whose daughter is known for behaving, not only with wild abandon, but also below her status. She fin…
Once upon a time Jews wrote the shows…Now it seems they ARE the shows, with revues and plays, some good, some Bad lining up to have the "J" word in the title. The latest pot-pourri - or sh…
Scott Alan has recently brought out a Deluxe version of the album he released last autumn that featured the paired voices of Cynthia Erivo and Oliver Tompsett. Alan has worked with many of t…
Imagine a play that presents itself as a cocktail of (an extreme take on) TV's Only Fools And Horses with just a twist of Harold Pinter's menace and you start to get close to contemplating t…
