By Phil Willmott Thursday, February 18 2016, 15:49
MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, which is being promoted as a new British musical, has been adapted from a 2005 film of the same name which starred Judy Dench in the title role.
Mrs H was an upperclass lady who took it into her head to buy the dilapidated Windmill Theatre in London's Soho. When her hopes of a non-stop variety review failed to find an audience she hit upon the idea of parading topless show girls on her stage.
By Phil Willmott Thursday, February 18 2016, 15:06
Sometimes as a theatre critic you find yourself expressing a minority view. In such cases I think it's important to stick to your guns so although most established critics have damned HAND TO GOD as tedious and puerile, I loved it in New York and I loved it here, laughing throughout.
By Phil Willmott Thursday, February 18 2016, 14:45
The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's comic drama UNCLE VANYA is indisputably one of the greatest plays ever written and the director Robert Icke is one of the rising stars of British Theater thanks to his acclaimed productions of the Oresteia and 1984 so the combination of the two is irresistible.
I must say I was hoping he would take a more radical approach to the oft performed classic, in the event the only departures from the norm are modern dress and sparse cube of a set that revolves occasionally to give different perspectives.
By Phil Willmott Monday, February 15 2016, 14:09
There’s a lot of context you need to be aware of before you can appreciate the significance of this hour or so of drama.
Firstly you need to understand the status of the director in the history of theatre. He’s Peter Brook, working here in collaboration with Marie-Hélène Estienne, who I sat near to and whose eyes flashed angrily at anyone not sitting quietly during the performance.
By Phil Willmott Friday, February 12 2016, 13:01
I make a point of trying to see the positive in everything I review unless the piece is lazy and cynical. THE END OF LONGING is lazy, cynical and cruel. It’s a first play by Matthew Perry who starred in the world’s best loved U.S TV sit-com, FRIENDS, in the 1990s.
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