Chris Eldon Lee reviews Brad Fits one woman show which returns to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn immediately after Christmas No single man has ever endeared himself to Shrewsbury like Brad Fit. Ten years ago, he took the town’s flagging pantomime and turned into the Rolls Royce of entertainment; directing the show himself and playing the Dame …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Glee Club’, which is Theatre Clwyd until Saturday 14th of March. The tour includes Malvern in April. Where there’s muck … there’s talent. Richard Cameron isn’t the first writer to mine that particular seam, in search of a cracking story. The idea that men who grafted all day long in …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Vamos Theatre’s ‘Dead Good’ which he saw at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn. The tour includes Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre on March 5th and 6th. This is the big one! I have watched Vamos Theatre company with increasing admiration over the past 15 years. They entered my heart in my local village hall with …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel’ which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 29th February … and touring. As every famous fact about Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel has been recorded, catalogued and already turned into film or theatre, it seems quite reasonable to now start making …
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Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Bang Bang”, which is at Theatr Clwyd in Mold until Saturday 22nd February and Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in May. The spirit of John Cleese seeps from every scene of his new play. He’s not actually in it. The producers say, “He wanted to be”, but they “wouldn’t let him”. But he’s …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The History Boys’, which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 22nd February. You could certainly spot the teachers in the audience at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre last night. They were the ones who were laughing the loudest. And who can blame them? For my money, this is Alan Bennett’s funniest play, …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Two’, which is at The New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 22nd of February. I’ve been in quite a few imaginary public houses in my time. But the pub (in the round) currently on stage at the New Vic Theatre (in the round) is by far the most appealing. Why, they …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Asking For It”, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 15th February ‘Asking For It’ has now arrived in the UK, direct from Ireland, where the story – in print and on stage – has been showered with praise and awards. And now I know why. If you like your …
Chris Eldon Lee review ‘A Christmas Carol’, which is at Theatr Clwyd in Mold until Saturday January 5th. Ask any reviewer which show he or she has seen most frequently in their life and the answer will inevitably be ‘A Christmas Carol’. I must have seen dozens; ranging from the one-man version presented by Dickens’ …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Dick Whittington’, which is at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre until Sunday 12th of January. The Wolverhampton Grand pantomime this year is so eclectic, it’s impossible to pin it down. Panto has to be all things to all people, of course, to keep everyone happy – and last night’s full house was utterly …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Aladdin, which is Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 10th of January. Shrewsbury’s Pantomime Dame is in need of sturdy bloomers this Christmas. The innovation for this year’s panto is a heavily engineered overhead gantry, high in the auditorium ceiling, which allows Evolution Pantomimes to transport characters on a flying carpet from …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Peter Pan’, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 19 January. The word ‘reimagining’ can strike terror into any reviewer’s fairy heart. Oh No! Someone is taking an age-old favourite tale and messing about with it until it is barely recognisable. So, you can imagine how delighted I am to …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’, which is at Theatr Clwyd in Mold until Saturday 18th of January 2020 It’s not every day you are sitting in the stalls only to be bounced on the bonce by an explosive six-foot sausage. The sausage in question is destined for the belly of the Giant …
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Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Prince and The Pauper’, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday 25th January. I hereby excuse you from thinking you are seeing double at the New Vic this Christmas. No, you’ve not been at the Port … the actors playing the Prince and the Pauper are …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Hotbuckle Theatre’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ which he saw at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn as part of their national tour. They’ve jolly well gone and done it, yet again! This season the highly successful and perfectly proven Hotbuckle formula has been applied to Thomas Hardy’s remorseful story – and it fits like …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘A Taste of Honey’, which is at Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday 9th November. ‘A Taste of Honey’ was drafted in two quick weeks on a borrowed typewriter by a young woman who had only been to the theatre once in her life and thought she could do better than Terrance Rattigan. …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Pride and Prejudice (sort of)’, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 2nd November as part of a nation-wide tour. If Star Trek’s Doctor McCoy were watching this, he might be wont to say, “It’s Austen, Jim, but not as we know it”. Indeed, setting ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in outer …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present’ and ‘Season’s Greetings’ which are at the New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 26th October. Alan Ayckbourn’s theatre company has travelled down from Scarborough to Stoke with not one, but two comedies about disastrous family celebrations. This season’s new play, ‘Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present’ is pretty much …
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Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Pavilion’, which runs at Theatre Clywd in Mold until Saturday 12th October This is a most exciting stage debut by writer Emily White; blessed with an uber-full-on, loud and proud, epic-proportions treatment by Clywd’s artistic director Tamara Harvey. The teenagers beside me were ecstatic about it. And so they should be, …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Entertainer’ which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 12th October, and then Coventry, Brighton, Manchester, Bromley, Cheltenham, Shrewsbury and Richmond. I’ve been performing now, one way or another, for over 40 years and I’m just beginning to consider my exit strategy. Already I can hear the Fat Lady warming …