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...

Matt Cardle as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican Theatre.   Back in 1970, two young men released a rock opera concept album about a historical figure using a story freely adapted from the Bible. Little did they know that in the next 49 years, their album would have taken the world by storm, spawning award-winning Broadway and West End shows and a couple of movies. The young men were Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice, and the album was, of course,  Jesus Christ Superstar  which, following an amazing run at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre, has just opened for a strictly limited run at the Barbican. In ancient Israel, Jesus (Robert Tripolino) has caused quite a stir as he travels the country. To some, such as Simon Zealotes (Tim Newman), Jesus is going to be the catalyst that makes the nation rise up and overthrow their hated Roman oppressors, led by the Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate (Matt Cardle). To the priests, Caiaphas (Gavin Cornwall) and Anna...

Michael Ball Photography BrinkhoffMögenburg It’s always nice when two of your favourite things come together – for example, musical theatre and ABBA. So when I was asked if I wanted to go and see the new version of Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice’s musical  Chess  at the Coliseum. I leapt at the chance. Set during the height of the cold war,  Chess  is the story of two Chess Grandmasters – Frederick Trumper (Tim Howar) from the USA and Russian Anatoly Sergievsky (Michael Ball) – battling it out to be world champions under the watchful eye of The Arbiter (Cedric Neal). Both men are totally different. Trumper is loud, brash, arrogant and often ends up arguing with his ‘second’ Florence (Cassidy Janson). On the other hand, Anatoly is a family man, married to Svetlana (Alexandra Burke) and, by all appearances, a dedicated ambassador of the Soviet Union, particularly under the watchful eye of his state-appointed ‘second’ Ivan Molokov (Philip Browne). As t...