Stuart King

Back in my youth, 1995 to be exact, I spent a year performing in a production of EVITA (8 shows a week, 300 performances in all). Hal Prince’s original staging, direction and choreography, resulted in a polished production with a cast crammed full of theatrical old-hands, in which I felt every inch the inexperienced newbie. Here we are, 30 years on and everyone is once again talking about Eva Perón.

Rachel Zegler (Eva Perón) & cast of Evita. Credit - Marc Brenner.

Continue reading

With such strong source material and an accomplished and technically adept cast, the temptation would have been to simply create a safe, uber-polished piece of dance theatre. Instead the creators of QUADROPHENIA have managed to skirt any potential mundanity by delivering a remarkably fresh and vibrant piece of storytelling - almost a British West Side Story (sans the schmalz). The result, offers Matthew Bourne some competition for supremacy in the genre, with many cast members having previously performed with his New Adventures company.

The cast of Quadrophenia at Sadler's Wells. Photo Johan Persson.

Continue reading