Category Archives: Theatre

Notebook

Posted on February 25, 2018 by

The panicky listlessness that attends theatrical failure is an atmosphere that everyone within the walls of the theatre has no choice but to breathe, and worst affected, because most responsible was Ken Tynan… On my way to the theatre on … Continue reading →

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A different world

Posted on September 9, 2016 by

No disrespect to the drama critics, but when I saw some of the reviews for “Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour” at the National, my first thought was, “Can it really be that good?” Well, it turned out to be even better. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Theatre | Tagged ,

Fiction into fact

Posted on July 22, 2016 by

A couple of decades ago, I interviewed the critic John Lahr ahead of his not very successful stage adaptation of “The Manchurian Candidate”. (It was a bit of a mess, to be honest, and only served to remind you how … Continue reading →

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Bootmaker’s blues

Posted on June 22, 2016 by

You can’t help wondering what they made of it in Atlantic City in 1915. Until I read the programme note for the revival of “Hobson’s Choice” at The Vaudeville, I had no idea that Harold Brighouse’s vintage play originally had … Continue reading →

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Les Blancs – too black & white

Posted on April 14, 2016 by

I don’t mind admitting that, until Lorraine Hansberry’s play “Les Blancs” opened at the National this month, I’d never even heard of it. After sitting through Yaël Farber’s production last night, I don’t feel quite so guilty. The London critics greeted this … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Race, Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , ,

Nina Conti’s voices

Posted on March 3, 2016 by

Ventriloquism ain’t dead yet. My review [£] of a magical, hilarious night: Conti’s latest offering is devastatingly witty and full of daringly unscripted flights of fancy. She giggles endlessly and occasionally flirts with disaster as she summons members of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Comedy, Theatre | Tagged ,

Bit player

Posted on February 15, 2016 by

Via John Podhoretz in The Weekly Standard. With apologies to my thespian friends: There’s a great joke about acting. One actor says to another actor, “Hey, I just got cast in Hamlet.” The other actor says, “I know this is … Continue reading →

Posted in Comedy, Film, Theatre, Uncategorized | Tagged ,

Ma Rainey’s blues

Posted on February 4, 2016 by

I hate to say it, but one of my biggest disappointments of the last couple of years was the revival of August Wilson’s “Fences”, a Pulitzer-winning play which seemed to win wall-to-wall raves on this side of the Atlantic. Not … Continue reading →

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The Scottsboro Boys revisited

Posted on September 22, 2014 by

My Sunday Times feature [£] on how  the Kander & Ebb musical draws on the tortured history of minstrelsy: As a young man, Kander had directed blackface shows at a summer camp in Wisconsin. The whole point of using minstrelsy to … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Race, Theatre | Tagged , , , , ,

On walking out

Posted on May 12, 2014 by

Tim Parks has a bad night at the theatre: The play was advertised as Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. A friend had encouraged me to go and it was years since I had seen the piece. Only … Continue reading →

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