Tezza's Theatre Place

Alexandra Doar (The Narrator) and Mark McMullan (Joseph) – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Photo Credit Pamela Raith. Back in the mists of time – well 1968 – before  Evita  and before  Jesus Christ Superstar , a young and ambitious pair of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote and presented a little musical show. Since then, the show has become a firm favourite, with audiences world-wide and especially with Schools and amateur groups with over 20,000 of them staging productions. The show is, of course  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , and I caught the latest touring production during its visit to the New Wimbledon Theatre. Now, according to the narrator (Alexandra Doar), way, way back many centuries ago, not long after the bible began, and old man by the name of Jacob (Henry Metcalfe) had a large family of wives and sons. In fact, he had 12 sons – Reuben (Paul Brangan), Simeon (Robert Bardsley), Levi (Tom Bainbridge), Naphtali (Ale...

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...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153579/swan-lakeloch-na-heala-by-michael-keegan-dolan/ Swan Lake by Michael Keegan-Dolan. Photo by Colm Hogan Sometimes a review is the easiest thing in the world to write. Everything works with a show and the words flow so fast I can’t type them fast enough. At other times, it is the opposite. For whatever reason, or reasons, the words don’t run smoothly. Michael Keegan-Dolan’s  Swan Lake/Loch  na  hEala  at Sadler’s Wells is an example of the latter type. Loosely based on the traditional tale, this version has been transferred to contemporary times and moved to a small town in Ireland. Loosely based on the traditional tale, this version has been transferred to contemporary times and moved to a small town in Ireland. The princess is a thirty-six-year-old man (Alexander Leonhartsberger), with mental illness, living with his mother (Elizabeth Cameron Dalman) in a run-down house in rural Ireland. Unusually for what...