All stories by Friends on BroadwayStars

Sunday, October 20, 2019

AN INSPECTOR CALLS Touring by Libby Purves and Friends

INSPECTOR GOOLE,  BACK  BACK ON THE ROAD    Below,  edited, is my original London review of this remarkable production.  This new tour deserves to be marked, though:   r…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:46AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 18, 2019

[BLANK] Donmar, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

A COOL EYE ON SHATTERED LIVES          Of all the well known flaws of our criminal justice system,  one of the most glaring is how badly it fits women " though they  are…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:44AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 10, 2019

ASSASSINS           Watermill, Bagnor Newbury by Libby Purves and Friends

THE DARK AND THE CRAZY       This is  " for us anyway " the first  production in the Trump era of this savage musical:  a revue reimagining of all the attempts, successful …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:03AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 2, 2019

THE NIGHT WATCH New Wolsey, Ipswich & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

PEOPLE OF THE BLITZ    Sarah Waters' best novel, evoking lives during and after the London Blitz,  was told backward in time.  It is much the same way, indeed, as we meet real…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:41PM[SHARE]

FOR SERVICES RENDERED              Jermyn St Theatre WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

THE LOW DISHONEST DECADE…   It's always intimate, the Jermyn,.  We're in an autumn garden, apples on the ground and fading roses on the wall;  birdsong,  and a tea table set…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:55AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 1, 2019

MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A COLLIDING WORLD       Couldn't miss this: for two years as a teenager (Dad in the Jo'burg Embassy)   I lived alongside the frightened, arrogant paranoia of  white South A…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:18PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 30, 2019

THE WATSONS. Menier SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

15 CHARACTERS OBJECTING TO  AN AUTHOR..   The Jane Austen industry never flags, in tribute or in parody.  You can barely throw a bonnet without hitting an  Austentatious improv,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:45PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 27, 2019

KING JOHN Swan, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

KING JOHN WAS NOT A GOOD MAN…     Maybe we should stick to AA Milne's version?  "King John was not a good man He had his little ways   And sometimes no one spoke to him For day…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:18AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 25, 2019

TWO LADIES Bridge, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GLOBAL AND GENDER POLITICS IN  PERFECT MINIATURE      A glass conference-centre in the host nation France;  a visiting US President avid for airstrikes after a terrorist outra…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:34PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 18, 2019

BIG THE MUSICAL           Dominion,  W1        by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER BEN DOWELL SAYS HANKS FOR THE MEMORY , AND BRAVELY FACES THE WEIRDNESS   This is a lavish revival of the 1996 musical version of the 1988 Tom Hanks fantasy comedy, complete…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 10, 2019

HEDDA TESMAN Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

THIRTY YEARS LATER AND STILL FURIOUS: HEDDA'S BACK        Last night, while Parliament spiralled into disorderly, resentful confusion and Mr Bercow dramatically put an end to him…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:41PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 3, 2019

HANSARD Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

OLD TIMES,  OLD  SORROWS: BEFORE THE RAINBOW   With Parliament in uproar upriver ,  the NT hit a luckily apt moment to stage Simon Woods' first play and promote it as a  "w…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:32PM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 31, 2019

CABILDO Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI SWOONS OVER SWASHBUCKLING  AT GRIMEBORN Director Emma Jude Harris "couldn't believe her luck" when she discovered Cabildo, the only opera by pioneering com…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:10AM[SHARE]
Friday, August 30, 2019

THE ENTERTAINER             Curve, Leicester & touring  by Libby Purves and Friends

BITTERLY BRITISH      It was  a good mix of ages in the Curve audience,  so perhaps a  public service to remind the rising generation, awash in Brexindignation,  that Ut…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:05PM[SHARE]

TREEMONISHA Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS JOPLIN TROUBLINGLY FUN Scott Joplin was rightly proud of Treemonisha, an opera for which he wrote both libretto and score; it was never fully staged in …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:14AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 29, 2019

HOTSPUR /PIERROT LUNAIRE Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI MARVELS AT THE OPERATIC POTENTIAL OF SIGNDANCE The double bill of Gillian Whitehead's Hotspur with Schoenberg's great Modernist Pierrot Lunaire is the first o…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:23PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 27, 2019

EDITH IN THE BEGINNING Sutton Hoo by Libby Purves and Friends

A STRANGE RESURRECTION, BETWEEN WARS       A red sun was setting beyond the trees as we gathered around a square, isolated house in the golden-hour splendour.    Here the land…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:42AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 25, 2019

AURORA Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS DIMNESS RATHER THAN DAWN AT GRIMEBORN If Aylin Bozok is directing anything at Grimeborn, I always try to go. I've been absolutely blown away by her past…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:05AM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 24, 2019

ORIGAMI SOUNDSCAPES /THE CRANE Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS NOT MUCH UNFOLDING AT GRIMEBORN I have to admit " I'm a sucker for a bit of rarefied Japanese elegance on stage in almost any context: the very mention …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:10AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 22, 2019

THE WEATHERMAN Park Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER  BEN DOWELL SEES A GOOD SUBJECT NOT QUITE GETTING THERE…   The trafficking of human beings " 7,000 identified in the UK in 2018 " is a disgusting blight on our country…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:05PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 21, 2019

8 HOTELS Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves and Friends

A GRIPPING PIECE OF HISTORY              In 1944  the adventurous British director Peggy Webster cast the first black Othello in the USA,  where for a white woman …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:34AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 15, 2019

COUNT ORY Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GETS INTO THE BLITZ SPIRIT WITH OPERA ALEGRIA AT GRIMEBORN Rossini's Le Comte Ory is a flirtatious farce in which a naughty young Count drives everyone …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:37AM[SHARE]
Friday, August 9, 2019

GO BANG YOUR TAMBOURINE Finborough, SE10 by Libby Purves and Friends

A YOUTHFUL HALLELUJAH          ANother fascinating London premiere for Two's Company and the Finborough,  buried for nearly half a century after one brief 1970 tour .  …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:52AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 8, 2019

DIE FLEDERMAUS Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GOES BATS FOR BASELESS FABRIC'S SOCIAL MEDIA TAKE ON STRAUSS "I'm not saying I'm Batman. I'm just saying nobody has ever seen me and Batman in a room together…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:36AM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 3, 2019

DAS RHEINGOLD Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF GRIMEBORN'S GLITTERING TREASURE The Ring Cycle is opera's biggest box set: a sixteen-hour binge of dwarves, nymphs, dragons, gods, heroes …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:18PM[SHARE]

ROMEO AND JULIET           Jimmy's Farm, Wherstead Suffolk by Libby Purves and Friends

   ROCK 'N ROLL N' ROMEO        Deep under the trees, beyond Jimmy's meerkat and camel enclosures lies a 1960's beach: shelter, deckchairs and lounging teens,  Mods and …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, August 2, 2019

MISS HAVISHAM'S WEDDING NIGHT /12 POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI GOES MAD FOR AMERICAN MONODRAMA A pairing of two American music dramas promised plenty of angsty feminist fun for a Friday night at Grimeborn; and I admit, in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:39PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 1, 2019

SHACKLETON'S CARPENTER Jermyn St, SW1 by Libby Purves and Friends

HEROIC ENDURANCE            In the background a lecture in the old Home Service style, decorous and passionless,  finishes relating the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:03AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 23, 2019

OKLAHOMA                   Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

COWBOYS WITHOUT INDIANS         I suppose it's perverse to start at the end, but of all the aspects of Jeremy Sams' handsome production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein crowd-ple…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:34AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 17, 2019

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA       Noel Coward, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

FALLEN ANGELS ENDURING THE STORM         You can feel the heat in Rae Smith's design,  Mexican sun on the rock overhead, and the corrugated iron roofs of the rundown hot…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:30AM[SHARE]
Friday, July 12, 2019

   JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT                London Palladium W1 by Libby Purves and Friends

  IT'S BACK,  YOUNGER THAN EVER…     We love a starry debut, especially on opening night in a huge theatre:   a 21-year-old not yet through drama school making a stonking…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:31AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off