Category: Theatre reviews
Review – The Railway Children at Waterloo Station Theatre
Waterloo Station Theatre’s adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s book The Railway Children has been an immediate success, reviving the disused Eurostar terminal at Waterloo. Rebecca McWattie reviews. Nesbit’s book follows Bobby, Phyllis and Peter, three middle-class Edwardian children caught between childhood and the harsh realities of the adult world. One night, their father, who works for [...]
Theatre review: Backbeat
Backbeat – the adaptation of the 1994 film by Iain Softley on the birth of The Beatles – is now showing at the Duke of York Theatre for its West End premiere. Lena Weber reviews. I’ve been a massive Beatles fan since randomly watching A Hard Day’s Night aged 14. Today, having read copious of [...]
Theatre review: Cool Hand Luke
Sixties film Cold Hand Luke has now been brought to stage. Can Marc Warren live up to Paul Newman’s legendary performance? Rebecca McWattie reviews. I was as intrigued as anyone to see the world premiere of the stage version of Cool Hand Luke. Any production was always going to have a tough time living up [...]
Theatre review: Arthur Miller’s Thirties drama Broken Glass
Arthur Miller’s Olivier award winning play Broken Glass is a thought provoking drama set in Brooklyn during 1938. The deeply psychological tale of guilt, loss and genocide is now showing in a production in London. Rebecca McWattie reviews. Sir Anthony Sher is magnificent as Phillip Gellburg, a Jewish business man seeking the help of Dr [...]
Review: Classic opera The Elixir of Love had a Fifties make-over
Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed 2010 production of The Elixir of Love returns to the Coliseum for a limited season. Donizetti’s classic opera has been rejuvenated with an extraordinary Fifties diner style set designed by renowned Isabella Bywater, with an imaginative interpretation and translation of the original libretto by Kelley Rourke. Rebecca McWattie reviews. The action of [...]
Musical review: Betty Blue Eyes
‘Betty Blue Eyes’ is a brand new comedy musical by Cameron Mackintosh based on the Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray story and film A Private Function set in the Forties. Rebecca McWattie reviews. Set in a rural village in 1947 the community is anticipating the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. The [...]
