All stories by Libby Purves on BroadwayStars

Thursday, June 5, 2014

THE CONFESSIONS OF GORDON BROWN " Ambassadors, WC2 by Libby Purves

GORDON CONTRA MUNDUM…A BLEAK IMAGINING   The focus groups, mourns this briefest of Prime Ministers, always come up with the same words about him. "Strong" and "Solid" are fine. "S…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:11AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 4, 2014

CLARENCE DARROW " Old Vic SE1 by Libby Purves

ONE GREAT PERFORMER'S TRIBUTE TO ANOTHER The main causes of crime, said the famous American defence lawyer Darrow, are "Poverty, ignorance, hard luck and, generally, youth". A century later,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:14PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 3, 2014

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY " Menier, SE1 by Libby Purves

A WICKED WIT, WITH HEART ON SLEEVE : LIPPA TAKES LONDON   Here is Summer Strallen as Cinderella, ripping off her rags and scorning the ballgown for a dominatrix PVC corset and whip. Her…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:52PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 2, 2014

A HUMAN BEING DIED THAT NIGHT " Hampstead, NW3 by Libby Purves

DEATH , TRUTH,  TORMENT : THE REBIRTH OF A NATION   "What" asks the calm academic , "should our attitude be to people who have committed atrocities?". From Belfast to the Balkans, Sy…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:45PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 30, 2014

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Shakespeare's Globe, SE1 by Libby Purves

FRESHER THAN EVER,  AN ANCIENT LOVE UNDER THE SKY Eve Best is an irresistible Cleopatra for today: no slinky seductive exoticism but a fresh, joyful, larky sensuality as well-expressed in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:27AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 28, 2014

BAKERSFIELD MIST Duchess, WC2 by Libby Purves

KATHLEEN TURNER BLOWS INTO TOWN, AN AUTHENTIC HURRICANE   Under a tangle of brushwood and a ratty telegraph pole, Maude's trailer-park home is full of junk from dumpsters and charity sh…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:04PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 27, 2014

A BUNCH OF AMATEURS " Watermill, Nr Newbury by Libby Purves

REDEMPTION OF A HOLLYWOOD HUNK… The tiny am-dram theatre is threatened with redevelopment: only celebrity casting can save it. Jefferson Steel – fading star of Ultimate Finality …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:01AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 22, 2014

MISS SAIGON " Prince Edward Theatre, W1 : and a guest reviewer by Libby Purves

POWERFUL, EMOTIONAL, CHALLENGING -  GUEST REVIEWER    JOHN PETER  WRITES:  Do you remember Vietnam?   How, in the sixties and seventies, we wondered whether the communis…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 20, 2014

FINGS AIN'T WOT THEY USED T'BE " Theatre Royal Stratford East E15 by Libby Purves

WELL, SWIPE ME DOWN THE OLD KENT ROAD, ME OLD CHINA… Would you Adam and Eve it: the Joan Littlewood centenary restores to her sacred stage not only Oh What A Lovely War but this celebr…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:53PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 19, 2014

ALICE " V & A, Bury & Touring by Libby Purves

AN EXTRAORDINARY ALICE IN THE DARK HEART OF WAR   In a cellar, sheltering from bombs in 1915, a wispily grey, middle-aged Alice Liddell roams through an Edwardian clutter of old chests,…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:01AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 15, 2014

AN AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY LARK " Playhouse, Oxford, & TOURING by Libby Purves

INTIMATE, HUMBLE: THE BEST COMMEMORATION   The title comes from Philip Larkin's poem MCMXIV, evoking the rural England of 1914 as young men queued, as if at a football match, to enlist.…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:45PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 14, 2014

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING " Mercury, Colchester by Libby Purves

POSTWAR, COLD-WAR,  ANGRY AND RESTLESS   Ever since our manufacturing and metal-bashing trades eroded, we have seen a sentimentality about old industrial Britain: the glory days when…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:58AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 13, 2014

THE PAJAMA GAME " Shaftesbury theatre WC1 by Libby Purves

SEW, STRUT, SWIRL AND SHAKE IT ! When this production ran at Chichester, I found myself forced to invent new words to describe Stephen Mear's marvellously varied choreography as the SleepTit…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:04PM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 11, 2014

THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE " Arts, Cambridge now TOURING by Libby Purves

IMBRUGLIA IN A FINE IMBROGLIO When two old schoolfriends meet after eleven years, naturally they sing the old school song. "Girls of St Gert's! Pure in your body, healthy in mind.." When two…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:30PM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 10, 2014

FLEABAG Soho Theatre W1 by Libby Purves

AN HOUR OF SHOCKING BRILLIANCE AND ARTISAN OBSCENITY   Phoebe Waller-Bridge's extraordinary self-written monologue performance won awards in Edinburgh, the Offies, The Stage and the Cri…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 09:34AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 8, 2014

SKITTERBANG ISLAND " Little Angel, N1 by Libby Purves

SKITTERBANG ISLAND Little Angel, N1   Is three-to-five years old too young for opera? Not really. Small children sing their world all the time, chant their feelings freely. As for puppe…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:17AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 6, 2014

ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM " Swan, Stratford by Libby Purves

MINXY MURDEROUSNESS AMID THE WAVING CATS..   Polly Findlay, who gave us the National Theatre's tough Antigone and Derren Brown's Svengali, has great fun with RSC directorial debut: heav…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:30PM[SHARE]

WATER BABIES " Curve, Leicester by Libby Purves

IT’S TRUE! A FISH DOES NEED A BICYCLE! We're in a cavernous Victorian swimming-pool, a dreamworld where the waterfall is made of bath-plug chains. Then we're in a sea-green underwater …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:18PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 2, 2014

STEVIE " Minerva, Chichester by Libby Purves

HOW SWEET THE BIRDS OF AVONDALE…   The room where the poet Stevie Smith lived for over half a century lies before us: chintz, potted geranium, sherry-decanter and stained-glass do…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:41PM[SHARE]

TITUS ANDRONICUS " Shakespeare's Globe SE1 by Libby Purves

OUR FIRST GUEST REVIEWER!   GALLANT  LUKE JONES  BRAVES THE BLOOD, SPIT AND RAIN.   Oh how it poured. With the large strips of black, makeshift roofing not covering but neat…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 11:15AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 1, 2014

SUNNY AFTERNOON " Hampstead NW3 by Libby Purves

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE? OH, THEY'RE BACK..   It is not every week the Hampstead audience gets to leap up and down with 1966 World Cup confetti in its hair, chanting "L-L-L L…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:52PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 29, 2014

GROUNDED " Gate, W11 by Libby Purves

A MOTHER  AND A MODERN MILE-HIGH NIGHTMARE   Crop-haired, upright, an Aryan Alpha-female, she stands proud in flying-suit and straps. She's a USAF fighter pilot, in love with her F16…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:16PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 25, 2014

THE BELIEVERS " Tricycle, NW6 by Libby Purves

A FABULOUS LITTLE FRIGHTENER… What's going on? you quaver, as four characters move and weave at impossible angles around a bare scaffolding of wall and door shapes. Are they gripped by…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:10PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 24, 2014

AN INTERVENTION " Watford Palace Theatre by Libby Purves

MIKE BARTLETT’S OTHER NEW PLAY…   It's played by a man – John Hollingworth – and a woman, Rachael Stirling. But it is not a love story, not that kind of love any…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 02:09PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

THE SILVER TASSIE " Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves

WORLD WAR I:  THE PITY, THE POETRY   A tin whistle, a distant seagull, a ship hooting beyond grimy tenement windows. Indoors Sylvester and Simon bicker and cringe as a tight-lipped v…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:59PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

PRIVACY " Donmar, WC2 by Libby Purves

IT KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE.  IT TELLS A LOT OF PEOPLE.   An artful cloud of insecurity surrounds James Graham's new, mainly verbatim, play about the reckless modern surrender of privacy…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:28PM[SHARE]

EVERY LAST TRICK " Royal, Northampton by Libby Purves

TOP QUALITY NONSENSE Light as a feather, puffy and sweet as a puffed meringue, this is where complete nonsense meets consummate skill. Not surprising: it is an adaptation of an 1892 Feydeau …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:12PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 21, 2014

RELATIVE VALUES " Harold Pinter Theatre SW1 by Libby Purves

THE BUTLER, THE FETE, AND THE HOLLYWOOD HORROR I saw this Coward revival last summer in Bath (Times review, £, http://tinyurl.com/qyxqbw2 ) with its gorgeous Palladian country-house drawi…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:16AM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 20, 2014

NINE DAIES WONDER Snape, now touring by Libby Purves

DANCING UP A STORM ON THE OLD NORWICH ROAD In a brief opening, Shakespeare quarrels with his favourite clown Will Kemp: creator of Faltaff, Feste and the rest. He resents the ad-libbing. "Le…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 12:52PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 17, 2014

HANDBAGGED " Vaudeville, WC2 by Libby Purves

WHO NEEDS JURASSIC PARK? RE-LIVE THE 80s WHEN THATCHER ROAMED THE EARTH She's back, the Iron Lady, with a war-cry of "No!" and a warmly patronizing memory of "The men!…I can pin them w…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:32PM[SHARE]

HENRY IV part 2 " Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford by Libby Purves

AND SO IT GOES ON… (review of part I just below)         Such is the traditional, ungimmicky nature of Greg Doran's productions that it is quite a shock when "Rumour", …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:18AM[SHARE]

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