Packed with fun, spectacle and great songs, many of which we all know and love, Disney's stage adaptation of their animated big screen mega-hit is a joy.
Street kid Aladdin and his love interest Princess Jasmine have the perfectly toned physiques of porn stars and only face a few minor hiccups as they head towards their inevitable matrimonial happy ending. They're helped on their journey by a magic carpet, Aladdin's three bros, and especially by a show stealing genie, released from a magic lamp; all this despite the efforts of a villainous vizier and his pint sized and hyper sidekick.
Blending the dance style of flamenco with the beautiful sounds of Sufi music, ZIK’R is a reworking of a piece that has had a previous life at many venues across the UK.
Harold Brighouse's vintage comedy, HOBSON’S CHOICE, is what is known as a “crowd pleaser”. A big, warm, family comedy set in picturesque Edwardian Lancashire and featuring vivid characters that mostly turn out to have hearts of gold.
I was in New York recently and decided to check out the smash hit musical Hamilton to see what all the fuss is about. No chance, I pulled every favour I could but no one could get me a ticket, the production is booked up solidly for at least the next year. But they do a daily on-line lottery. You have to register by a certain time and at 4pm you get an email letting you know if you've been successful or not. I imagined if I tried that every day for a week the odds were I'd win a ticket, I mean, how many other people would apply that much determination? Wrong again. 4pm brought disappointment every day.
Arguably one of the most important pieces of music of the nineteenth century (harmony was never the same again), Wagner’s Tristan And Isolde makes demands on all involved in it, including the audience. There is hardly any physical action on stage, making it a director’s nightmare, the singers are required to have massive vocal and dynamic range as well as the stamina of a long distance runner and the orchestral forces required are huge. And it’s over five hours long. Oh, and Wagner demanded that an entirely new instrument be invented for its performance – a wooden trumpet (ENO has managed to lay its hands on one for this production, and it’s a surprisingly effective thing).