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West End Theatre News and Reviews

The Barber of Seville - ENO
02 Oct
Reviews
Kit Benjamin

Review: The Barber Of Seville

The Barber of Seville - ENO The Barber Of Seville, by Rossini, is one of best known and best beloved of operas. It’s well known to the non opera-going public (because it has that famous “Figaro, Figaro!” aria in it), and is a staple of the repertoire of most major companies.

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Pure Imagination - St James Theatre
30 Sep
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: Pure Imagination at St James Theatre

Pure Imagination - St James Theatre Shows like this, which feature the back catalogue of popular song writers either within a story or, as here, in a cabaret presentation, often surprise you with quite how many of their hits you know.

I think it's fair to say that the extraordinary range of songs co-written by lyricist and composer Leslie Bricusse over a glorious 60 year career won't be familiar to you unless you were around in the 1960's and 70's when it was hard to leave the house without a Bricusse hit slapping you in the face.

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Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - ENO
30 Sep
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - ENO "Bleak" and "devastating" are two words you wouldn't expect to use describing a great evening's theatre yet the opening production of the English National Opera's (ENO) new season is all three of those things.

LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK was written by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich during the Stalin era and indeed the great dicator himself allegedly penned a front page newspaper editorial denouncing it as a decadent muddle and lamenting the lack of conventional tunes.

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The Commitments
28 Sep
Reviews
Phil Willmott

Review: THE COMMITMENTS at The Palace Theatre

The Commitments The West End is always full of shows closing, some departures are barely noticed, some deserve to close but Shaftesbury Avenue is going to be poorer when THE COMMITMENTS finishes its two year at the Palace Theatre on November 1st where it’s played more than 1,000 performances since it originally opened on October 8, 2013.

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The Girls
25 Sep
News
Phil Willmott

Is There a New Gary Barlow Musical Heading for the West End?

The Girls The lead singer of long established boy band TAKE THAT hasn’t had a lot of luck with musical theatre so far. A jukebox show which he wasn’t involved with but which featured many of his songs was a tepid affair and his score for the Broadway musical FINDING NEVERLAND didn’t find favour with the New York critics and audiences have dwindled.

This next project sounds like a sure fire winner though.

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