Tezza's Theatre Place

Blueberry Toast prod images. Adrianna Bertola and Matt Barkley. Credit Helen Maybanks & Soho Theatre. Back in the day, many toys were operated by a clockwork mechanism, You would wind the key, feeling the spring inside tighten up until it would go no more, then push a button, the spring was released and the toy would charge off doing whatever it was supposed to do. I mention this because the idea of winding a mechanism until it goes off is at the heart of Mary Laws’ play Blueberry Toast which is receiving its European premiere at the Soho Theatre. On a normal Sunday morning, poetry teacher Walt (Gareth David-Lloyd) is marking texts in the kitchen of his lovely suburban home. His doting wife Barb (Gala Gordon) has asked him what he would like for breakfast and, having got his order, has started to make him blueberry toast. Whilst breakfast is beig prepared, the couple’s children, the whimsically named Jack (Matt Barkley) and Jill (Adrianna Bertola), are working on a four-act pl...

You Can’t Take It With You – Photo Credit Sedos Photos As Harper Lee stated “ You can choose your friends but you sho’ can’t choose your family ” I bet every one of us has thought/said that at some time in our lives. Your family always knows the best way to embarrass you – especially at the wrong time, and can always be relied on to do something when least expected that will remain seared into your friends’ brains forever. The bad news is that this is no new thing as a trip to the Bridewell Theatre to see George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s  You Can’t Take It With You  will prove. Alice Sycamore (Izzi Richardson) is nervous. She has met and fallen in love with Tony Kirby (Graeme Langford) a wonderful man at her office – well he is the son of the president of the company, Anthony W. Kirby (Craig Karpel) – and has decided that it’s time he met her family. For most people, this would be trauma enough but for Alice, it’s even worse as her family is, to put it mildly, a little e...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/168901/lmtos-honeymoon-in-vegas-the-musical-in-concert-review/ Honeymoon In Vegas – Credit Nick Rutter It’s not often that a musical theatre buff gets to see a show where the writer of the music and lyrics conducts not only a world class thirty piece orchestra but an internationally famous cast as well. However, it does happen and last night I was privileged to visit the  London Palladium  to see the London Musical Theatre Orchestra perform  Honeymoon in Vegas  under the baton of lyricist/composer Jason Robert Brown. Jack Singer (Arthur Darvill) has a problem. He wants to get married to his long-time girlfriend Betsy (Samantha Barks). Normally, this would not be an issue. A visit to the jewellers, then down on one knee and ring slipped on the finger – sorted. Unfortunately for Jack, he is hampered by his mother, Bea (Rosemary Ashe). On her deathbed, she made her son promise to never get married and every time he gets close t...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/168738/uk-premiere-southern-baptist-sissies-del-shores-review/ Southern Baptist Sissies Above the Stag is a theatre that specialises in putting on LGBT+ shows. I’ve been there a couple of times previously and seen some very well produced and very funny plays about gay life. So, I was really looking forward to another visit last night to see their latest show, the European premiere of  Southern Baptist Sissies  by Del Shores. This is the story of four people emerging from childhood and becoming adults. These boys are all from the great state of Texas – the ‘buckle’ in the bible belt – and all are regular attendees at their small town Baptist church presided over by a real old fashioned ‘wrath of God’ style preacher (Stephen Parker). The four boys are all really good friends who each bring something different to the group. So, there is preacher’s son Mark (Jason Kirk) the thinker, TJ (Daniel Klemens) the brawn, Andrew (Hugh O’Donnell) ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/167236/the-wild-party-the-other-palace-review/ Ever thrown or been to a party where things have got a little out of hand? Yep, me too. In fact, there was a certain party where……. Well, I can’t say any more because my mother sometimes reads these reviews. However, no matter what has happened at your party, it pales into insignificance compared to the shenanigans at Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s The Wild Party which has re-launched The Other Palace (formerly the St James Theatre) in Victoria. 1920s New York and Vaudeville performer Queenie (Frances Ruffelle) is getting bored with her relationship with fellow performer Burrs (John Owen-Jones). In an effort to calm her after one particularly nasty fight threatens to get out of hand, Burrs suggests they throw a party and invite all their old friends. This is destined to be some party and Queenie is planning to really enjoy herself and...

http://www.carnstheatrepassion.com/review-thats-jewish-entertainment/ Did you know, in the early 1940’s all the major movie studios – bar one – had one thing in common, any idea what that was? They were all headed up by a Jewish man. Now you may wonder how this came about. If you do, then get yourself along to Upstairs at the Gatehouse where Aria Entertainments are staging That’s Jewish Entertainment. This lovely revue show takes its audience on a journey spanning over a hundred years. From the mass migration of Jews in the 19th Century, from the shtetl or Eastern Europe. Onto a new dawn in the United States of America. As they travelled, the jews took their culture with them. That culture has always been steeped in music and drama. For many of the dispossessed jews arriving in the USA, entertainment became more than just a cultural thing – It became a career. From the stages of Vaudeville they exported their skill in entertainment. Fully embracing the commercial side of show busi...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/164967/review-death-takes-a-holiday-charing-cross-theatre/ According to Earthwatch website ecologogy.com, 151,600 people die each day. Now, that’s quite a statistic and only goes to emphasise the fact that on the day you are born you start to die. Okay, not the most cheery way to start a review but just imagine if it was your job to go and collect more than 151,000 people every day and take them to the next stage, whatever that may be. Now, it’s 1922 and you have collected all those that died during The Great War and the Spanish flu epidemic that followed. Wouldn’t you be wanting a bit of downtime at some point? To see how that turns out, you need to pop along to the Charing Cross Theatre where they are presenting the European premiere of  Death Takes a Holiday  (Thom Southerland directs, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan). Duke Vittorio Lamberti (Mark Inscoe) and his family are driving home to t...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/164377/out-there-on-fried-meat-ridge-rd-at-the-white-bear-theatre/ On Fried Meat Ridge Road  (incidentally, a real road in West Virginia) is a run down sort of motel owned by a grizzled old-timer called Flip (Michael Wade) who is happy to call a spade a spade and for whom political correctness is something that happened to other people. Still, he runs a pretty tight motel, especially with the help of hillbilly handyman J.D. (Keith Stevenson). J.D. is a friendly soul and has recently advertised for a roommate to join him and partake of his speciality food, tuna sandwiches and a Lee Marvin (vodka and Mountain Dew). The timing is perfect for down at luck Mitch (Robert Moloney) who had not had a good time recently and is looking for somewhere to live that will widen his social circle. Whether he really wants to widen that circle to include trailer trash couple Tommy (Dan Hilderbrand) and Marlene (Melanie Gray) who don’t exactly discuss their pers...