Why is it a rarity to see real female relationships being depicted on stage? Clean Slate proves that it can be done and it is a very welcome breath of fresh air.
This play, translated from the original French-Canadian production 'Table Rase', tells the story of six school friends who are on a weekend away in a cabin by the lake. It seems to be a bog standard 'girlie weekend' filled with booze and banter but, as the evening unfolds, it dawns on the audience that there is far more to this particular night.
Here’s some advanced news of how you can enjoy a little vintage Las Vegas this Christmas.
The Wind in the Willows is given the big musical treatment by the team behind the re-working of Mary Poppins and most recently Half A Sixpence - lyricist Anthony Drewe, composer George Stiles and book writer Julian Fellowes. Going right back to their early days with Just So, through the Olivier-winning Honk! and last year’s Three Little Pigs, there’s something about anthropomorphic animal stories that get Stiles & Drewe’s creative juices flowing and in particular give Anthony Drewe’s rhyming muscles a work out. Full of terrific, freshly-minted lyrics that are a joy to hear (and that can’t always be said for every ear-splitting West End show) we get “foxes” rhymed with “equinoxes”, “prickles” and “vehicles” (as a family of hedgehogs nervously wait to cross a busy road) and more rhymes for Toad then have probably ever been counted.
The modest Charing Cross Theatre, situated underneath the arches of the railway station which gives the venue it’s name, is fast establishing itself as a home for innovative and quality musical theatre.
Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel The Kite Runner has proved one of the runaway hit books of the 21st century, and has since featured everywhere from Hollywood films to exam syllabuses. This simple, at times limited production originated in Nottingham Playhouse, before transferring to the West End’s Playhouse Theatre in June.