All stories by Friends on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

I'M NOT RUNNING Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A DOSE HARD TO SWALLOW   David Hare has chronicled Labour politics – and the state of the nation  -for nearly half a century,  brilliantly catching  truths and tensions. …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:01PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 5, 2018

PEARLS FROM THE GRIT                     Bethel, Lowestoft, tour by Libby Purves and Friends

THE EXTINCTION OF ENGLAND'S EASTERNMOST VILLAGE               There is no Grit fishing-village now on the Lowestoft shore,  but in 1900 there were homes, shops,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:01AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 4, 2018

SIX Arts Theatre WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DIVORCED BEHEADED DIED – REVIVED!     Took me a shameful while to catch up on this clever little riot of a feminist musical, down from an Edinburgh triumph and packing the Ar…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:54PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 3, 2018

SKETCHING Wilton's Music Hall E1 by Libby Purves and Friends

TALES OF A CITY        "I see a beautiful city" says a spotlit actor, and the rest take it up in styles from Radio 4 to rap,  then group and regroup, changing with the shrug o…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:48AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 2, 2018

PACK OF LIES Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

WARM HEARTS,    COLD WAR    After the Salisbury-Novichok affair there is a sour laugh when Stewart, the MI5 official, reassures the nervous Jackson family that the coming arres…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:22AM[SHARE]
Friday, September 28, 2018

PINTER AT THE PINTER: TWO Harold Pinter Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST CRITIC BEN BLACKMORE MUSES ON CHEESE-KNIVES AND TELETUBBY HOUSES   PINTER 2 announces itself in bold, Sex And The City-type projections, in the Sex And The City font as though it …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:58PM[SHARE]

PINTER AT THE PINTER "    ONE Harold Pinter Theatre, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

STEEL CELLS AND SADISM        Settling in, you'd think you were at the Cenotaph or the Tattoo.   A military soundtrack booms out Imperial Echoes and Jupiter (I Vow To Thee M…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:56AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 26, 2018

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A GLORIOUS SERPENT OF OLD NILE      This can be a beast of a play:  epic, three and a half hours,  scenes spread across the Mediterranean from Rome to Cairo by land and sea.…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:12PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 25, 2018

TARTUFFE                 Swan, Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

MOLIERE IN THE MODERN MIDLANDS           It says something good about our arts establishment  that this sharp caper comes from the Royal Shakespeare Company, not some …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 22, 2018

HOLY SH!T Kiln, NW4 by Libby Purves and Friends

PARENTHOOD, PRAYER , PROSECCO   The renamed Tricycle (no, I am not taking sides)   Is open:  its leader Indhu Rubasingham launches her sprauncy new theatre with Alexis Zegerman's …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:29AM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 20, 2018

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION                   County Hall SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DOING JUSTICE TO AGATHA   (She'd have loved it!)            The courtroom is the marbled council chamber of the old County Hall:the story by Agatha Christie even hoarier…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:55AM[SHARE]
Monday, September 17, 2018

SONGLINES Hightide Festival, now Walthamstow by Libby Purves and Friends

LOOKING OUT TO SEA,  AT PAST AND FUTURE       With the feral teenage violence of HEATHERS (scroll to it below)  all snarling and murdering in the West End, and the manic cheer…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:45PM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 15, 2018

FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS Chichester Festival Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

OUT OF AUSTERITY, A DREAM OF BEAUTY              A gulf yawns between this musical's two halves:  a gulf of wealth,  sophistication, hope and colour.   Ida Harr…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:23PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 13, 2018

HEATHERS Theatre Royal, Haymarket by Libby Purves and Friends

DARK LARKS AND HIGH SCHOOL HOMICIDE   You thought there were enough school-themed musicals?  What with  Bring it On,  School of Rock and our own dear cross-dressing Jamie…?Â…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:56PM[SHARE]

ONCE New Wolsey, Ipswich by Libby Purves and Friends

A RARE OLD TIME IN DUBLIN , IN IPSWICH     The miniature of Libby Watson's gorgeous Dublin pub set in the foyer raises your spirits straight away.  Sometimes only an Irish pub w…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:52AM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 9, 2018

THE LOVELY BONES Royal, Northampton by Libby Purves and Friends

HUMANITY RISING FROM HORROR        It is one of the oldest notions in the world: the unquiet grave.   From Sophocles to modern campaigns we are haunted by the idea that the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 03:35AM[SHARE]
Friday, September 7, 2018

THE HUMANS Hampstead Theatre by Libby Purves and Friends

 GUEST CRITIC MICHAEL ADAIR IS TRANSPORTED TO NEW YORK, AND FAMILY TRUTH     The joy of a play like The Humans is that it can take a subject that feels as if it might have been …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:05PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 6, 2018

THE HABIT OF ART Theatre Royal, York & touring by Libby Purves and Friends

ONE OF BENNETT'S FINEST , ON THE ROAD AGAIN       Onstage is a shabby rehearsal room,  an Oxford study scruffily indicated with doorframes and signs; at the side a litter of c…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:21AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 5, 2018

DANCE NATION Almeida, N1 by Libby Purves and Friends

GRAND PLIE, FIRST POSITION,  TURN…TWERK…        My friend and comrade-in-the stalls Mr Letts of the Mail has suggested ( by means of Twitter ,review on Friday, alway…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:23PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 3, 2018

LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE AGAIN…touring by Libby Purves and Friends

RAN IN MAIL (STAND-IN TEMPORARY CRITIC COULDN’T RESIST THIS.. SO HERE FOR THEATRECATTERS WHO MIGHT MISS IT..   THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN LIVE             SEC Glasg…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:08PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 27, 2018

COPENHAGEN, SWEET CHARITY, LITTLE VOICE by Libby Purves and Friends

WAS STANDING IN AS DAILY MAIL CRITIC FOR A WEEK, SO DID NOT DO THESE ON THEATRECAT. HERE THEY ARE FOR T/CAT FOLLOWERS  THOUGH, SLIGHTLY EXPANDED. COPENHAGEN      Minerva, Chiches…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:05AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 16, 2018

EMILIA Shakespeare's Globe, SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DARK LADY DEMANDING LIMELIGHT        The Globe has had some tremendous new-writing about history, for which it is nicely suited.  Remember Howard Brenton's Anne Boleyn andÂ…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:47AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 14, 2018

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford upon Avon by Libby Purves and Friends

WHAT LARKS…     There is a swimming-pool ladder, a rubber-ring shaped like a swan, a robotic golf cart, some decorative flamingos (one used as a weapon) , and a statue of Queen E…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:16PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 10, 2018

GREEK Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI MARVELS AT GREEK PERFECTION AT GRIMEBORN Like the roar of an older, bolder London, Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK bounces snarling onto the Grimeborn stage, cel…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:42PM[SHARE]

HYMN TO LOVE Jermyn St Theatre WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

LA PETITE PIAF, REVENANTE..     I grew up with Piaf, a temporary French schoolchild in 1960, skated around the patinoire with my friends snarling along with the endless plays of  "J…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:42AM[SHARE]

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS THE BOYS GET ALL THE DRAMA AT GRIMEBORN Lucia di Lammermoor is an opera of shocking brutality, with savage emotional aggression rivalling physical viole…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:21AM[SHARE]

ARISTOCRATS Donmar, WC2 by Libby Purves and Friends

DREAMS AND LEGENDS OF DECAY   Brian Friel's gift is humane ambiguity, refusing to allow  tidy judgements on his characters .  Or even – though his theme is Ireland's history…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:03AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 8, 2018

BRING IT ON Southwark Playhouse SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

HIP HOP HURRAH ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS   Here's a hot one, in every sense.  Clapped till my hands stuck together at this youthful, truthful, touching and funny tale of acroba…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:31AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 7, 2018

THE PROMETHEUS REVOLUTION Arcola, E8 by Libby Purves and Friends

GUEST REVIEWER CHARLOTTE VALORI FINDS REVOLUTION NOT GOING FAR IN A WORLD PREMIERE AT GRIMEBORN Prometheus stole fire from the gods in order to ensure human progress, and met with a grisly e…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:34PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 3, 2018

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Vaudeville, WC1 by Libby Purves and Friends

A HANDBAG?     You're not often given a  surprise by Lane the butler in in his short appearance,  as he delivers those immortally celebrated cucumber sandwiches to the piano-st…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:19AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 2, 2018

LITTLE MERMAID. Underbelly Festival, S Bank SE1 by Libby Purves and Friends

DANCE AND DEFIANCE BELOW THE WAVES          Metta theatre's hit JUNGLE BOOK was fashionably hip-hop before Hamilton hit  (and was certainly the only time I ever heard gri…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:15PM[SHARE]

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