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Phil Willmott

Phil Willmott

Gatsby - Bianco
14 Dec
News
Phil Willmott

Two Alternative London Christmas Shows

Gatsby - Bianco If big commercial shows and mainstream Christmas entertainment isn't your thing, London Theatre still has plenty of "alternative" choices. Here's two which are worth your attention.

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She Loves Me
14 Dec
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: SHE LOVES ME at the Menier Chocolate Factory

She Loves Me As I got up from my seat at the interval the word I kept hearing around me as the audience filed out to the bar was "lovely" and that one word summation is a pretty good description of the Menier Chocolate Factory's Christmas Show.

It's a revival of a 1963 Broadway musical and the story of how two shop clerks who despise each other end up writing anonymous love letters to each other when one of them replies to the other's lonely heart ad in the paper.

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Living With the Lights On
12 Dec
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: LIVING WITH THE LIGHTS ON at The Young Vic

Living With the Lights On Alone on a brightly lit stage for an hour and fifteen minutes Mark Lockyer bravely relates his real-life, horrific descent into manic depression, which resulted in the attempted incineration of an entire building of vulnerable people. It’s the stuff of nightmares, even of horror films.

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Once in a Lifetime
09 Dec
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: ONCE IN A LIFETIME at the Young Vic

Once in a Lifetime One of the greatest books about theatre and theatre people ever written is Moss Hart’s autobiography ACT ONE. In it he hilariously and vividly charts the progress of his play ONCE IN A LIFETIME from conception to Broadway hit thanks to re-writes made in collaboration with another legend of 1930s and 40s theatre George S Kaufman. It’s intoxicating and persuasive in the book but unfortunately, on stage, by modern standards it’s neither funny as a satire of Hollywood’s Golden age or emotionally engaging as the story of three friends from vaudeville theatre who try their luck in the early talking picture Industry.

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Buried Child Play
08 Dec
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: BURIED CHILD at the Trafalgar Studios

Buried Child Play The people of America's rust belt, a vast area of deprivation, formally the home of now depleted heavy industry, have been much in our minds recently. Their disillusionment with and establishment politics are seen as a major contributing factor in the election of President-elect Donald Trump.

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