ANNIE GET YOUR GUN - THEATRE REVIEW

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Tuesday 01 - Saturday 05 July 2014
Performance Reviewed: Tuesday 01 July 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The Ambassador Theatre Group have once more dipped into the barrel of great classic musicals this year to lovingly resurrect Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, based on the original film and stage musical depicting the (fictionalised) life and times of legendary real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley. It’s from a creed and calibre of musicals that many will still herald as a ‘golden era’ of sorts, that still-adored pocket of the 1950’s and early 60‘s in particular where the likes of Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein and co were a major force in Hollywood and Broadway, and were irreversibly shaping and defining the musical genre as a whole.

THEATRE PREVIEW - ANNIE GET YOUR GUN

ANNIE’S GOT HER GUN AND IS HEADING TO BRUM!

Jason Donovan leads the cast of a major new production of Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun as it rolls into town at the Birmingham New Alexandra Theatre next month!

Dates: Tuesday 01 - Saturday 05 July 2014

Preview by Kyle Pedley

The West Midlands is readying to welcome back Aussie star of stage, screen and the pop charts, Jason Donovan, as he heads up a major new revival of the beloved, Tony Award-winning Musical Western classic, Annie Get Your Gun. He will appear alongside TV, Film and Theatre star Emma Williams, who will be playing the title role of Annie Oakley and Normal Pace as Buffalo Bill in the new production from the producers of recent revival hits South Pacific and West Side Story.

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT - Theatre Review

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL AT THE WOLVERHAMPTON GRAND THEATRE

Theatre Run: Monday 27 January - Saturday 1 February 2014

Performance Reviewed: Thursday 30 January 2014

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The Midlands sees the return of one of our top-reviewed shows of last year as the camp, colour and craziness of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert the Musical wheels into Wolverhampton this week in its fabulous, inimitable style. We awarded this same UK touring production a top five star rating when we reviewed it in Birmingham last March, and bar one or two minor set changes - characters sitting on the floor where they were once on a bed, one of the character introduction set pieces being a little more minimalised - this is still the same outrageous, hilarious and supremely entertaining feel-good spectacle as ever, and one of the most genuinely fun (and funny) musicals we’ve had the pleasure of seeing and reviewing. 

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE DESERT - THEATRE REVIEW

PRISCILLA: QUEEN OF THE THE DESERT THE MUSICAL AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 18 - Saturday 30 March 2013
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 20 March (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The jukebox musical, i.e. one where the soundtrack consists of a variety of pre-existing songs and hits as is the case with Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, can be a deceptively difficult thing to pull off well. Whilst a good lineup of known hits will help engage and familiarise an audience immediately, too often the lack of a concise and tailored original score and repertoire of songs can find shows scrambling for their own identities or, even worse, leaning on it’s catalogue of pre-existing tunes to mask a dirth of character, plot or original thinking and creativity (for a perfect example of this see the current shambles of Viva Forever! in the West End).

Fortunately, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which rolls into Birmingham this week as part of it’s UK tour, is an outrageously entertaining example of the jukebox done very, very right.  Based on the modestly successful 1994 comedy which has since gained quite the cult following (and rightly bagged an Oscar for Costume Design), this musical adaptation is a wonderfully extrovert, gloriously camp and relentlessly enjoyable celebration of disco, drag queens and unconventional daddy dilemmas.