The Whitehall Theatre around the corner from 10 Downing Street has always been a bit of a white elephant since the 1960s when the farces for which it was once famous went out of fashion. Then about ten years ago it was converted into two theatres, The Trafalgar Studios, one which seats around 300 and a tiny little basement studio that seats fifty. Last week I had the chance to see shows in both spaces.
Upstairs, director Jamie Lloyd is in his second year of artistic directing great productions of interesting plays usually with a star in the cast. Martin Freeman had just finished a run there in Richard III and for the first time a guest director, the rather brilliant Sam Yates, had taken the reins and revived a hit comedy from 1997, East is East by Ayub Khan-Din.
Evita, the musical about Eva Peron and her rise to Argentine political marvel has been around the world several times since it’s premiere back in 1978. The show has made its creators, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, firm leaders in the cutthroat world of musical theatre and made them a small fortune in the process. 
Despite knowing more songs than I thought of the Kinks’ extensive back catalogue, this musical didn’t “really get me going” and was definitely not a “sunny afternoon.” This particular songwriter should stick to doing that – writing a musical storyline was not his forte.
The Olivier award-winning stage version of E. Nesbit’s 1906 classic book The Railway Children will return to London this winter after wowing audiences at Waterloo station back in 2011.
Whilst parts of this show draw you in to a world of pure imagination, other parts leave you with that sickly sweet feeling as if you’ve eaten too much chocolate. Bring the performers up to the level of the production design.