JACK AND THE BEANSTALK - THEATRE REVIEW

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK AT THE BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME

Theatre Run: Friday 19 December 2014 - Sunday 1 February 2015
Performance Reviewed: Monday 22 December (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Matt Slack teaches us midway through Jack and the Beanstalk, tongue firmly in-cheek, that the counterpart to ‘Deja Vu’ is ‘Vuja De’, aka ‘I’ve never been here before’. It’s sold as funny, but in many ways it’s a coupling sentiment that encapsulates the entire panto ethos - plenty of the familiar, lashings of tropes, essentials and audience-favourites, all thrown into a suitably barmy melting pot with the new - new faces, and incremental new approaches to the same old handful of fairytale yarns. For some, the balance is not so even, leaning on the pulling power of star wattage, the genuine fondness of the public for panto itself, or a slew of tried-and-true set pieces and old reliables in the gag department. 

JERSEY BOYS - THEATRE REVIEW

JERSEY BOYS AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Tuesday 9 December 2014 - Sunday 4 January 2015
Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 10 December 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

There’s something regrettably formulaic and inevitable about most biographical actor-musician pieces of theatre of late. It’s a format that often leans far too heavily on familiarity with its soundtrack and the spectacle of a Bolan or Lennon being re-imagined and strutting around on stage, and the notable casualty comes in the form of any compelling narrative shape or use of theatre as an artistic medium in it’s own right. Truth may indeed be stranger than fiction, but when so many of these shows race through the ‘true story’ with haphazard abandon, presenting more a career ‘greatest hits live’ than a focused piece of theatrical storytelling, it isn’t hard to end up feeling your evening would have achieved the same effect in the hands of Youtube or Google. The customary ‘talented boy does good, hits the heights of fame, leads to personal/family/suffering wife problems’ second Act trope being rolled out ad infinite usually only underlines how de rigeuer and stale it has all become.

THE BIG REUNION BOY BAND TOUR 2014 - UK TOUR REVIEW

THE BIG REUNION BOY BAND TOUR 2014 AT THE LG ARENA, BIRMINGHAM

Tour Dates: Until Monday 27 October 2014
Performance Reviewed: Tuesday 21 October

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

“Do you all remember ‘Smash Hits’?”

“…How about CD:UK? Top of the Pops?”

If my inner teenage self hadn’t already erupted to the fore at this early stage of The Big Reunion Boyband Tour, these pitch-perfect 90’s callbacks certainly did the trick.

Catapulting off of the surprise success of the ITV2 show of the same name, this years incarnation is a decidedly testosterone-driven event, eschewing the likes of Eternal and Girl Thing (Google the latter) whom were part of the 2014 TV line up in order to focus on what the vast majority of the baying audience were seemingly there to see anyway; the boy bands. And, be it cynical cash grab or audience savvy, some of last years groups, notably so-recently-disbanded-it-couldn’t-really-be-called-a-reunion mega band Blue, have been invited along for the ride once more.

JANE MCDONALD - THEATRE INTERVIEW

PANTOMIME INTERVIEWS 2014:
Jane McDonald - Jack and the Beanstalk (Birmingham Hippodrome)

Last week, we brought you a review of Loose Woman, Singer-Songwriter and all-round National Treasure Jane McDonald's latest UK Tour, Singer of Your Song, citing it as 'classy', 'tour-de-force' and 'supremely impressive'. This week, in the second part of our Jane triple-dip, Kyle caught up with her at the Birmingham Hippodrome to discuss her upcoming panto debut in Jack and the Beanstalk, the inspiration behind her first album in six years, and how it feels to be in greater demand than ever 16 years after first rising to success.

By Kyle Pedley.

Interview conducted Friday 12 September 2014.

Jane as she will appear as 'The Enchantress'
in Jack and the Beanstalk

Jane, thank you so much for your time...

My Pleasure!

Now, you seem to be busier than ever at the moment, between your new album, touring with sold out live shows, and now the Panto. How are you finding it all?

Well to be quite honest I’m a bit shocked I’m that busy, because I’ve been doing this for quite some time now and I keep thinking it’s going to slow down, and every time I come out of something, I think ‘Right, I can put my feet up a little bit more now’, but actually the time just gets filled with something else. 

CATS - THEATRE REVIEW

CATS AT THE BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME

Theatre Run: Tuesday 09 - Saturday 27 September 2014

Performance Reviewed: Wednesday 10 September (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

'Memory' seems to be a very potent ingredient in the tastes and penchants of current theatre-going audiences. As noted in my review of London's highly successful and celebrated Miss Saigon revival last month, there is clearly a demand and yearning for the familiar both in the West End and beyond, as nostalgia and the proven seem to be edging out the original and unknown. By no means is this particularly unusual or new, we live in a creative climate where the industries' Olivier awards have an entire category dedicated to revivals in recognition of their number and popularity, but it does seem to have hit something of a boiling point in recent years. Fortunately, for all of the pedestrian, perfunctory cash-cow productions being rolled out to ride this particular wave of demand, it also is the perfect environment to witness the return of some true musical greats, amongst which Andrew Lloyd-Webber's cherished and prolific Cats undoubtedly deserves to be classed.

THEATRE INTERVIEW - Liam Doyle (Wicked)

WICKED INTERVIEWS:
Part Two - Liam Doyle (Fiyero)

Wicked flies in to the Birmingham Hippodrome this week as part of it's first ever UK and Ireland tour, and as part of our WICKED WEEK celebrations, we've brought you interviews with two of the show's leads.

Last week, Kyle chatted with leading lady Nikki-Davis Jones, who plays Elphaba on the tour, and this week we conclude our interviews by chatting to Midlands native Liam Doyle, who plays Fiyero in the show. We discuss his unusual path into performing professionally, returning to the Midlands with Wicked, and landing his dream role...

By Kyle Pedley.
Interview Conducted Thursday 24th April 2014.

Liam Doyle as Fiyero in Wicked

“I’m worried that I’m 23 and doing the part that I always wanted to do... it’s just downhill from here!”

Actor Liam Doyle is humbly, and jokily, assessing exactly what it means to him to have bagged his self-confessed dream role at such a relatively young age. The Coventry-born performer is of course speaking of Fiyero, the dashing, debonair leading man of musical colossus Wicked, which continues it’s first ever UK tour this week as it opens for a summer tenure at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

“It’s amazing. It is the part that I always wanted to play, it’s a part that I always kind of identified with.”

DOLLY PARTON: BLUE SMOKE WORLD TOUR - REVIEW

DOLLY PARTON: BLUE SMOKE WORLD TOUR AT THE LG ARENA, BIRMINGHAM

Tour Dates: Until Wednesday 2 July 2014 (UK dates), 14 July 2014 (International)
Performance Reviewed: Sunday 22 June 2014

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

As the undisputed Queen of Country drew a crisp, powerhouse a capella rendition of ‘Little Sparrow’ to a close at Birmingham’s LG arena this evening in the second act of her Blue Smoke World Tour, it was difficult to fathom what superlatives could be reached for to do this veritable legend of the music industry, and entertainment industry as a whole, justice suffice. The enamored audience had already been treated to an impressively diverse catalogue of hits old and new (including highlights from the titular new album), and many of her prolific, signature numbers were still to come, but it was surely with the reflective, almost mournful ‘Little Sparrow’, it’s stripped back, minimalist staging and Parton’s faultless vocal that the irrepressible charm, charisma and undeniable genius of Miss Parton was at it’s most raw and irrefutable.

MILONGA - THEATRE REVIEW

MILONGA AT THE BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME (International Dance Festival Birmingham)

Theatre Run: Friday 23 - Saturday 24 May 2014
Performance Reviewed: Friday 23 May 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014 draws it’s main stage performances to a close this year with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Milonga, a suitably showy finale that crackles with the fire, complexity and frisson of Argentine Tango and dance. It leans not on narrative  but rather it’s extraordinarily diverse and inquisitive choreographer’s penchant for really exploring and re-imagining different forms of dance, here creating a real tapestry and canvas of tango that is many things at once, but all beautifully choreographed and masterfully performed.

HAPPY DAYS: A NEW MUSICAL - THEATRE REVIEW

HAPPY DAYS: A NEW MUSICAL AT THE BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME

Theatre Run: Tuesday 22 - Saturday 26 April 2014

Performance Reviewed: Tuesday 22 April 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Happy Days is something of an oddity to review and fully digest as a brand new musical production (something which, as its marketing repeatedly assures us, it is) given that it leans so heavily on nostalgia and formula to the point that it not only feels dated but also heavily derivative. It seems an unfair critique to labour over the antiquity of a show based on a 1970’s sitcom which itself was set 20 years prior, but there is very little trace of modernity, irony or invention to practically everything Happy Days offers. This may, of course, be precisely the point, owing to the TV series' original creator Garry Marshall having penned the shows book, and there is likely a fairly broad demographic who will get a kick from such a faithfully styled recreation of the hugely popular show being brought to the stage, but for the rest of us it’s difficult to shake the feeling that his has all been done and seen before with greater fire in its belly and punch in its execution. Take Grease, Footloose and a soupcon of Hairspray, blend them together whilst simultaneously diluting their respective character and vim, and you pretty much have Happy Days - a perfectly inoffensive yet not particularly effective simulacra of the feel-good, period musicals of yesteryear.

WEST SIDE STORY - THEATRE PREVIEW

‘SOMETHING’S COMING’ AND IT’S GOING TO BE BIG AS ‘WEST SIDE STORY’ COMES TO THE MIDLANDS!

Birmingham gets ready for a Manhattan musical makeover as one of the most celebrated musicals of all time takes to the stage at the City’s New Alexandra Theatre next month.

Dates: Tuesday 01 - Saturday 19 April 2014

Preview by Kyle Pedley

Birmingham and the Midlands are in for a veritable musical theatre extravaganza next week as BB Promotion and ATG’s highly acclaimed revival tour of West Side Story takes residence at the New Alexandra Theatre for a three week run commencing Tuesday 1st April.

West Side Story changed the course of musical theatre when it opened on Broadway in 1957 and it remains one of the most successful stage shows of all time. The 1961 film adaptation went on to win a staggering 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with only 3 other films in history surpassing this. In 2012, I myself selected the film adaptation as Number 1 on my countdown of The Top 20 Movie Musicals Of All Time. 

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT - THEATRE REVIEW

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 24 February - Saturday 1 March 2014

Performance Reviewed: Monday 24 February 2014 (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Tonight’s The Night is the Rod Stewart musical. In case you didn’t catch that from the name, it’s handily emblazoned above the title itself. He’s also mentioned within the opening few minutes of the show. Frequently. He also plays an incidental off-stage role within the story of the show itself throughout. He’s also referenced in what seems like every major scene and held in what can only be described as an almost quasi-revered regard. The lead character looks, sounds and performs exactly like him, though isn’t actually him yet nonetheless becomes a burgeoning star acting uncannily like him in a world in which we are repeatedly reminded Rod does indeed exist. 

He’s just on something of a casual stolen-soul career break.

DERREN BROWN: INFAMOUS - TOUR REVIEW

DERREN BROWN: INFAMOUS AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Monday 13 - Saturday 25 May 2013

Performance Reviewed: Thursday 16 May

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

The shows of Derren Brown are oft difficult beasts to judge and review - partly because to divulge too much in the way of details and happenings would not only ruin the experience but also given the inquisitive and at times bafflingly cranial nature of the set pieces, mental gymnastics and psychology he employs any attempts to suitably explain or articulate what you can expect to see and experience would doubtless do the man, his showmanship and craft a disservice.

MIDNIGHT TANGO - THEATRE REVIEW

MIDNIGHT TANGO AT THE NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

Theatre Run: Tuesday 7 - Saturday 11 May 2013
Performance Reviewed: Tuesday 7 May (Press Night)

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Whilst it may be loathed by dance aficionados and purists (though is there anything self-proclaimed ‘purists’ don’t loathe?), there’s no denying the impact Strictly Come Dancing has had in once again returning ballroom dancing and its ilk back onto the collective consciousness. The latest ripple of this cultural proliferation comes in the form of the rather brilliant Midnight Tango, a wonderfully confident and focused piece of dance theatre which shares more in common with the likes of silent cinema of the early 20th Century than it does the conventional musicals and dramas currently doing the rounds on the boards. It’s a deliciously vivid and distinctive piece, a wonderful night’s entertainment even for those such as myself who are not ardent dance enthusiasts or viewers of the show, and a real celebration of the technique, artistry and versatility of dance as a means to tell a story, convey character and evoke mood. And, of course, the Strictly ties are more than present, headlined as it is by the ever popular Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, runner-up and winner of last years series of the show respectively, who more than demonstrate the merit behind their popularity.