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Bourne again nutcracker
NUTCRACKER!
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
The critics back in 1892 disapproved of Tchaikovsky wasting his talent on such trivia; but The Nutcracker has long been a Christmas favourite and this Christmas there are four productions in London alone. Matthew Bourne, famous for his all-maleSwan Lake, is not a great choreographer but he is a great showman and his striking and original version is fit to rank with the best family musicals.
Don't miss the funniest play on London stage
NOISES OFF
Old Vic
There are four farces on in London at the moment: The Comedy of Errors at the National, The Ladykillers at the Gielgud, One Man, Two Guvnors at the Adelphi, and funniest of them all, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off at the Old Vic, the best backstage farce I have ever seen. I haven’t laughed so much in years – well, not since I last saw Noises Off.
No joy in this carol
DUBLIN CAROL
Trafalgar Studios
As we all know Christmas is not the best of times for the lonely. Conor McPherson, who wrote The Weir, a series of masterly ghost stories, sets his 70-minute play in a funeral parlour on Christmas Eve.
McPherson has been quoted as saying that death is the only thing worth writing about.
There's plenty of fun to share with in this Company
COMPANY
CRUCIBLE, SHEFFIELD
Sheffield's Crucible is celebrating its 40th birthday in style with a grand revival of the multi-award-winning musical, Company, the music and lyrics written forty years ago by the great Stephen Sondheim.
Michael Grandage takes his leave
RICHARD II
Donmar Theatre
Eddie Redmayne was so good at the Donmar in John Logan’s Red in which he played the painter Mark Rothko’s assistant. You may have seen him more recently as the young man in the film, My Week with Marilyn.
King Richard (who came to the throne when he was 10 and showed great courage during the Peasants Revolt) believes that he is king by Divine Right and loves all the ritual of royalty.
Famous Ealing Comedy on stage
THE LADYKILLERS
Gielgud theatre
The Ealing Comedies of the 1950’s, which included Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Ladykillers, have always been much loved.
Joe Penhall's new play
HAUNTED CHILD
Royal Court
Haunted Child is something of a disappointment for those of us who have enjoyed Joe Penhall’s excellent Blue/Orange.
A husband (Ben Daniels) walks out on his wife (Sophie Okonedo) and his ten-year-old son (Jack Boulter) without saying anything. When he returns unannounced after a long absence he tells her he has joined a cult and that he is on a spiritual journey which goes further than Buddhism.
Naïve Fable is No Pippin
PIPPIN
Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre
Pippin, the idealistic son of Charlemagne, goes in search of the meaning of life and, hopes to find fulfillment. He tries a number of things: War, Sex, Revolution, Murder, Humanity, God, Love, and Marriage. None of them satisfies him.
Pippin did well in New York in 1972. It did badly when it came to London the following year. Its American success was due to Bob Fosse’s brilliant production and choreography, not Stephen Schwartz’s music and lyrics and certainly not Roger O Hirson’s book.
No pushover
THE ROUND-HEELED WOMAN
Aldwych Theatre
A round-heeled woman (according to Webster’s New World Dictionary) is slang for a woman who yields readily to sexual intercourse. Jane Juska, a lonely retired high school English teacher in America, feeling her life lacked drama (she had just celebrated 30 years of celibacy) placed an advertisement in The New York Review of Books in 1999 which said: “Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.”
No Great Shakes
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
National Theatre/Olivier
Shakespeare’s farce is often revived, but I have yet to see a totally successful production. The situation is good. There are two sets of twins – two identical masters called Antipholus and two identical servants called Dromio. One set lives in Syracuse. The other set lives in Ephesus. The confusion arises when the Syracusians come to Ephesus and nobody can tell the quartet apart. It should work.
Absolutely Hell
ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD
Young Vic
In Jacques Offenbach’s 1858 operetta Eurydice is delighted to die and never see boring Orpheus again. As for Orpheus, he loathes her so much that he can’t wait to turn round so that she stays in hell for ever.
I had enjoyed Rory Bremner’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding at the Young Vic very much. It was one of the funniest comedies and deserved a much-longer shelf life.
Stand-up Comedy for Grown-Ups
STEWART LEE – CARPET REMNANT WORLD
Leicester Square Theatre
There is something instantly likeable about a comedian, who can read out his bad reviews and publish them on his website, and especially when the reviews are really nasty.
I first saw Stewart Lee in a small fringe theatre when he told the story of Jesus’ betrayal from Judas’s point of view. Audiences who had seen or knew about his Jerry Springer: The Opera naturally expected him to be blasphemous and vulgar. But he was nothing of the sort. He was funny and theologically interesting. He had done his research.
What can God do against the stupidity of men?
JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK
National Theatre/Lyttelton
The action of Sean O’Casey 1926 masterpiece is set at the end of the Civil War in Ireland when the Diehards (hard-line Republicans) refused to accept the 1922 treaty and turned on their ex-comrades whom they believed had betrayed them.
That sinking feeling
KITCHEN SINK
Bush Theatre
Kitchen Sink – the phrase conjures up the 1950’s and the Royal Court and all the angry young men and Stratford East and Joan Littlewood and her slice-of-life dramas.
