All stories by Libby Purves on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

A TALE OF TWO CITIES Royal & Derngate, Northampton by Libby Purves

TWO CITIES,  FIVE STARS, ONE THRILLING EVENING With an elegance which bodes well for James Dacre's captaincy of  this lovely theatre,  its filmhouse programmed  The Invisible Wom…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:55PM[SHARE]
Monday, March 3, 2014

NEVER TRY THIS AT HOME Birmingham Rep & touring by Libby Purves

PIES, PRATFALLS AND POLE-DANCING:  SATURDAYS AND THE SEVENTIES (NOT A CHILDREN’S SHOW…BEWARE..)   Oh, the wicked 1970's!    Sexist, racist, rapist:  gropey DJs …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:34PM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 2, 2014

BRASSED OFF Theatre Royal, York " now touring by Libby Purves

LET THE BAND PLAY ON Billy Elliott, The Full Monty, now Brassed Off -   thirty years on from the loss of pits and steelworks,  we seem to need a national rite of mourning and expiat…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:23AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 27, 2014

VERSAILLES Donmar WC2 by Libby Purves

1919: A GENERATION CAST ADRIFT BY WAR After the Armistice, in spring 1919 the Treaty of Versailles drew lines on the map and enforced reparations.  Its decisions cast long shadows even to…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:33PM[SHARE]

THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE Wanamaker, SE1 by Libby Purves

FIGHTS, FLIGHTS, PANTALOONS AND PRENTICES:  BUT THE GROCER’S WIFE IS THE STAR. Imagine three hours on a bench watching a cross between Spamalot and The Real Inspector Hound,  per…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:21AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 25, 2014

THE FULL MONTY Noel Coward Theatre, WC2 by Libby Purves

MORE THAN A MOVIE:  SOMETHING SPECIAL FROM SHEFFIELD The opening is dramatic: a  small gap in the rusty corrugated curtain reveals showers of sparks, a glimpse of steelworks magnificen…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:25PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 24, 2014

THE A to Z of Mrs P Southwark Playhouse, SE1 by Libby Purves

WALKING THE STREETS, A FAR FROM LOST SOUL Phyllis Pearsall became one of London's great urban legends, through her own barnstorming memories and a fictionalized biography.  A young wife, …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:11PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 22, 2014

JANE EYRE " in two parts " Bristol Old Vic by Libby Purves

PASSIONATE,  INTENSE AND WILD:  JANE EYRE REBORN   “I am no bird, and no net ensnares me!”.    As if in answer to Jane's cry of defiance Sally Cookson’s …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:56PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 20, 2014

TRANSLATIONS Crucible, Sheffield by Libby Purves

OLD IRELAND: PLAYFUL, POWERFUL, INTENSE AND TRAGIC A hot summer at harvest's end,  1836.  Outside a stone barn in County Donegal   old Jimmy-Jack is chortling naughtily over the …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:30AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 19, 2014

AFTERPLAY " Crucible, Sheffield by Libby Purves

SONYA AND ANDREY:  A BRIEF ENCOUNTER BY FRIEL Two lonely middle-aged people meet in a cheap Moscow café in 1920:  she frowning over accounts and mortgages,  he in frayed evening cl…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:51PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A TASTE OF HONEY Lyttelton, SE1 by Libby Purves

A BLAST OF FRESH AIR FROM THE FIFTIES  "Cinema is as bad as the theatre these days"  says  Jo's mother Helen disdainfully. "All mauling and muttering".   Written in 1958 by th…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:47PM[SHARE]

ARTHUR SMITH SINGS LEONARD COHEN vol 2 Soho Theatre, W1 by Libby Purves

SINGING ALL THE WAY DOWNHILL "Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey and I ache in the places where I used to play.." Ah, Leonard Cohen! Nothing like it when you need it.   Which…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:37AM[SHARE]
Monday, February 17, 2014

NOT A PLAY BUT AN ARTWORK… by Libby Purves

Quite a few people have asked about the theatre cat logo for theatrecat.  Even more are curious about the mice. They are all created by Roger Hardy.  Who is really a painter and creato…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:49AM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 15, 2014

HMS PINAFORE " Hackney Empire & touring by Libby Purves

O  RAPTURE UNFORESEEN.   A G & S REFUSENIK RECANTS Right.  Shoot your cuffs, hammer that piano,  rum-ti-tum and off we go: When I was young I must confess I'd run a mile f…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 04:48PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 14, 2014

RED VELVET: REPRISE Tricycle Theatre NW6 by Libby Purves

IN WHICH A GOOD PLAY MOVES TOWARDS SOMETHING GREATER Sometimes, memories need to be revisited.   It was in autumn 2012 that I reviewed Lolita Chakrabarti's play starring her husband Ad…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:40PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 13, 2014

1984 Almeida, N1 by Libby Purves

A TERRIFYING, TRIUMPHANT HEADLONG   TAKE ON ORWELL I think George Orwell would be sourly pleased at the way Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan of Headlong and Nottingham Playhouse  have …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:06PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 12, 2014

DONKEYS' YEARS Rose, Kingston by Libby Purves

GAUDEAMUS IGITUR!  A FAVE FRAYN FARCE RETURNS Those who love a good farce – lost trousers, sock-suspenders,  nifty door-work, ridiculous fights and punctured dignity -  someti…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:58PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 11, 2014

O WHAT A LOVELY WAR Theatre Royal Stratford East by Libby Purves

A THEATRE LEGEND RECREATED:  AND RIPE FOR RE-EVALUATION Sometime in the first hour,   while far from unhappy,  I realized that there are two things to keep in mind about Terry Jo…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:57PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 10, 2014

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Barbican, EC2 by Libby Purves

A DREAM OF PLANKS AND PUPPETS,  AND  AN UPTURNED ASS… "Gentles, perhaps you wonder at this show.  But wonder on…"  says Peter Quince, lanky and earnest in a fairisle …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:08PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 8, 2014

ETERNAL LOVE English Touring Theatre by Libby Purves

SEX,  STRIFE, AND  HOT THEOLOGY: ABELARD AND HELOISE RISE AGAIN  "Theology in Paris these days"  says tubby, jocose King Louis VI of France,  "is more interesting than wrestli…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:32PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 7, 2014

AMATEUR GIRL Nottingham Playhouse & touring by Libby Purves

PORN:   THE NASTIEST COTTAGE INDUSTRY   Julie is alone,  reminiscing with a cup of tea,  calling her cat.  She's a geriatric nursing auxiliary,  gentle and cheerful, …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 08:17AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 5, 2014

THE MISTRESS CONTRACT Royal court SW1 by Libby Purves

NEUROTIC OLD LOONS OR GENDER PIONEERS?          There's a central metaphor:  staring through the glass walls of her elegant West California apartment a woman says "It's a d…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:52PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 4, 2014

MY JUDY GARLAND LIFE Nottingham Playhouse by Libby Purves

THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO THE WISDOM OF FANDOM "Sometimes"  says the author-heroine of this extraordinary piece,   "things can be richer if they don't add up".   Take that on b…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:09PM[SHARE]
Sunday, February 2, 2014

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG " on tour by Libby Purves

MISCHIEF GOES ON THE ROAD      Sometimes it pays to be a brave gang of friends, fresh out of LAMDA,  putting on your own show rather than waiting for auditions.   Early …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:01AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 31, 2014

STROKE OF LUCK Park Theatre , N4 by Libby Purves

TIM PIGOTT-SMITH SHOWS HOW IT’S DONE Few better fates can befall a new playwright than to have Tim Pigott-Smith cast – perfectly – at the heart of your premiere.  One of…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:12PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 30, 2014

HAPPY DAYS Young Vic SE1 by Libby Purves

BURIED BUT BRILLIANT:  JULIET STEVENSON BRAVES  BECKETT "One does not appear to be asking a great deal"  says Winnie of her husband Willie, who is mostly invisible behind a rock, gr…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 05:46PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 28, 2014

WHAT THE WOMEN DID Southwark Playhouse, SE1 by Libby Purves

SMALL LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR:   FORGOTTEN VOICES HEARD AND HONOURED Get seated ten minutes early.    In Alex Marker's humbly clever set, a bricky terraced house,  the cast …

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:20PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 27, 2014

Red Velvet " a note! Tricycle, NW6 by Libby Purves

Just a note to say that I reviewed this when it first aired at the Tricycle in 2012,  and was pleased to be one of those who voted its awards at the Critics' Circle.  My review  (Ti…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 01:46PM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 25, 2014

A WORLD ELSEWHERE " Theatre 503 SW11 by Libby Purves

AN ERA RECREATED:  THE REAL 1968 IN AN UNREAL WORLD The opening,  in  a student room correct down to the battered stack of albums, took me aback.    Friends, I was there in…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 23, 2014

KING LEAR Olivier, SE1 by Libby Purves

A LEAR TO REMEMBER: SIMON RUSSELL BEALE        We are in a crumbling modern gerontocracy:  a conference chamber lined with soldiers, Lear white-bearded and gratingly imp…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 07:54PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 22, 2014

BLURRED LINES NT SHED SE1 by Libby Purves

FEMINISM?  NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE IT! Eight women,  on a great flight of pale stairs which light and flash, introduce themselves politely.  "Single Mum, White"  "Brittle First Wif…

SOURCE: theatrecat.com at 06:17PM[SHARE]

All that Chat