Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Handbagged’, which is at The New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 28th September. Why settle for one Margaret Thatcher when you can have two? There are two Maggies, two Her Majesties (and four handbags) stalking the stage at the New Vic this month – in the revival of Moira Buffini’s wicked …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Cabaret’, which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 7th September and Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn from October 22nd to 26th. I have never seen a production of ‘Cabaret’ quite like this before. Rufus Norris’s reworking of the much-loved musical is astoundingly good. His inventive enhancement goes more deeply and darkly into …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Hair’, which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 27th July Settling into my seat the other night to hear the opening number of the current revival of the 60s hippy musical ‘Hair’ set me wondering if we are still living in ‘The Age of Aquarius’? And if so, what …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart”, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle Under Lyme until Saturday 13th July According to folk law, the Devil has all the best tunes. And in David Greig’s play he gets all the best lines too. ‘Strange’ is the apposite word in the …
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Chris Eldon Lee reviews Shropshire Drama Company’s production of ‘Flare Path, which is at Theatre Severn until Saturday June 29th. This an absolutely superb play; a devastatingly good drawing room drama, authentically written, in very special circumstances … in the midst of hostilities. Terrance Rattigan was himself an RAF Coastal Command tail gunner and no …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Henry V’ which is at Ludlow Castle until Friday June 28th. Henry the Fifth is never going to be a complete comedy, but Here to There Productions have exhumed a fair bit of humour from the old text. I don’t recall ever having giggled so much at Shakespeare’s most patriotic play. …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 18th May. The trouble with this new stage adaptation of “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is that it’s not as compelling as the stage adaptation of its predecessor, “The Kite Runner”. I’m in no position to compare Khaled Hosseini’s two …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Martha, Josie and The Chinese Elvis, which is at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under Lyme until Saturday 18th May. A stupendous standing ovation at a preview performance is not the most common experience in theatre … and I suspect most of last night’s generous applause was directed towards one actor …
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Chris Eldon Lee reviews Club Tropicana, which is at Wolverhampton Grand until Saturday 4th of May. I’m not sure if ‘Club Tropicana’ is best described as frothy nonsense, or nonsensical froth. Probably a bit of both. But, actually, it is musically wonderful and disgracefully funny. Last night’s audience was clapping along within five seconds of …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Jacqueline Wilson’s “Wave me Goodbye”, which is at Theatr Clywd until Saturday May 4th My mother was a ‘vaccy’… evacuated from central Manchester to charming Cheshire in 1939 to avoid any pre-emptory bombing by the Germans. The theme of evacuees is a popular one in children’s literature – City kids bunged …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Rotterdam’, which is at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 27th April and Theatr Clwyd in June. “Dear Mum and Dad. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’m … a Lebanon”. It’s an e-mail Alice doesn’t send, but it doesn’t half set the tone for an exceptional play, which …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Orpheus Descending’, which is at Theatr Clwyd until Saturday 27th April, before transferring to the Menier Chocolate Factory in London from May 9th to July 6th. This is a classic production of as classic Tennessee Williams play. All his dramatic trademarks are there. The unreliable narrator who puts proceedings into a …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘John Peel’s Shed’ and ‘Circled in The Radio Times’, which he saw on tour at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn. John Osborne has a cosily laconic approach to the microphone … shy and diffident … precise and pronounced. He also has the wonderful knack of constructing a riveting evening out of very little …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews Shropshire Youth Theatre’s production of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which is at Theatre Severn until April 11th I can’t remember having had so much fun at a Youth Theatre production. From the moment Elliot Auxant, as Mr Bennett, nails his first, page-one laugh, the comedy flows in all directions like runny honey. …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Intemperance’, which is at the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday 20th April I always feel a play without hope cannot be complete. There is something missing from the playwright’s palette. Lizzie Nunnery infuses her first ever play (originally produced in 2007) with plenty of hopes and dreams – but …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Edmond de Bergerac”, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 30th March. “Cyrano de Bergerac” is simply the most romantic play ever written”. So spoke the American actor Charles Lanyer, shortly after he appeared in it. In the UK, Edmond Rostand’s French classic has been regularly in repertoire for 100 …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘ART’, which is at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 23rd March When is a work of art like a tin opener? Answer; when it opens a can of worms. Serge is a comfortably-off dermatologist whose best friends for the past 25 years have been the aeronautical engineer Marc and the rather …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews “Drip, Drip, Drip” which he saw on tour at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn. This is a much more exciting and imaginative piece of theatre that is substantially more entertaining than the under-selling publicity suggests. True, they trot out many of the familiar ills bedevilling modern society in general and the NHS in …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The 39 Steps’, which is at The New Vic in Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday 30th March. Once he’d got over the shock – I expect even the dour John Buchan would be rolling in the isles at Patrick Barlow’s 21st century adaptation of his famous story ‘The 39 Steps’. Or possibly writing …
Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, which is a at the New Vic in Newcastle-Under-Lyme until Saturday March 2nd and then touring. Director Conrad Nelson has set his Northern Broadsides swan song in 1945. The Battle for Europe has ceased … but the Battle of the Sexes is about to begin. And …