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Archaeology is not something that particularly interested me before last week, but as soon as I saw the remains of The Theatre, ie Shakespeare’s rehearsal space, I was hooked. It was genuinely fascinating to be, or not to be, (sorry) face-to-face with the very foundations of the first ever theatre in the UK, built way back in 1576 in Shoreditch of all places. In Elizabethan London, the area of Shoreditch, central London, was situated tantalisingly just outside of the City walls – a place of debauchery, scandal and entertainment, where City people went to escape the rules of the institution, much like today. I went along to the closing ceremony of the archaeological dig of The Theatre, a very exciting project in an unassuming side road off one of the busiest streets in the area. As trendy people grabbed a latte and went to work, just behind their glass-fronted offices lay the remains of the stage where William Shakespeare himself rehearsed plays he had just written. At the time The Theatre was in use, the Bard had penned The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet, amongst others. The foundations themselves were somewhat unassuming. Five centuries of building work had been excavated in an area not much bigger than the average terraced row, and to be frank it just looked like a building site. There was a nineteenth century well from the Victorian property that could have easily decimated the Elizabethan remains had it been built with a basement, a medieval cooking area and the piece de résistance, the compacted gravel of James Burbage’s theatre. Imagine the Globe, it would have been the same design. In fact, in 1598 when Burbage fell out with the landlord of the site, The Theatre structure was dismantled and carried [...]

THE Lady Boys of Bangkok return to the North East of England in spectacular style with a flamboyant extravaganza combining the glamorous showgirl appeal of Las Vegas, the wow-factor of West End musicals and the heady spice of Bangkok’s exotic nightlife. STEVE BURBRIDGE caught up with Phillip and Carol Gandey to find out more. GET your glad-rags on, meet up with your mates and prepare to party, party, party. The fabulous Lady Boys of Bangkok are back by public demand and ready to entertain you like you’ve never been entertained before. For the seventh successive year, sixteen of the world’s most beautiful show-girls – who just happen to be men – are bringing the country’s favourite cabaret show back to Newcastle. The Fantasy and Feathers production encompasses sexy space-themed numbers, sensuous Latin rhythms and pulsating pop hits from Lady Gaga to The Saturdays. The producers and performers are delighted to be returning to Tyneside, as Phillip Gandey, artistic director, explains: ‘First and foremost, we find the Geordie audiences are very outgoing and don’t just sit there waiting to be entertained. They are ready to go out, party and really enjoy themselves and they come back year on year as they know the show is different every year. ‘They also know they are guaranteed a good time and that the songs and satirical comedy will be topical and up to date.’ One aspect that always remains the same, though, is the consistently high production standards associated with the show. Audiences will be treated to the trade-mark painstakingly-applied immaculate make-up, the glittering array of more than 300 designer-inspired hand-sewn costumes and the deliciously decadent show-stopping performances and routines. ‘We try to create a night out in Bangkok,’ says Phillip. ‘With all the sights and smells of Thailand under our Sabai Pavilion it [...]

FORMER  X-Factor semi-finalist and West End leading lady Niki Evans is preparing to don the care-worn smile and cross-over pinny to play the iconic role of Mrs Johnstone in the smash-hit musical Blood Brothers on tour across the UK with various dates including Liverpool to be played by Mel C. STEVE BURBRIDGE discovers why so many successful singers and recording artists are only too willing to trade a place at the top of the charts for a life on ‘the never-never’. AT the beginning of the play, she’s the twenty-something Liverpudlian single mother ‘with seven hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due,’ but, by the final curtain, she ends up a down-trodden, distraught grandmother who is struggling to comprehend the most tragic of situations. The pivotal character of Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s musical, Blood Brothers, is anything but a glamorous part, so what is it about the role that attracts pop princesses and singing superstars by the dozen? Well, the answer is, initially it didn’t. When Willy Russell approached folk singer Barbara Dickson to play Mrs Johnstone, in 1982, she repeatedly turned him down. ‘I was so riddled with self doubt about whether I could actually do it, never having acted in my life,’ she said. ‘It worried me that I would not be up to doing it.’ After much persuasion and reassurance, she finally accepted his offer and the show opened at Liverpool Playhouse for a three month run in January 1983. It was an instant success and transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, in April of the same year, where it won an Olivier Award for Best New Musical and Barbara Dickson was named Best Actress …

We are writing this letter to express publically our disappointment and bewilderment that you have rejected The Public Reviews (www.thepublicreviews.com) as an official accredited outlet for this year’s festival. The Public Reviews was established in 2007 and in May this year we celebrated our third anniversary. The site has the sole aim to provide a unique voice in the world of reviewing, allowing normal (i.e. non-paid or “non-professional”) members of the public to become part of our dedicated and passionate reviewing team; a team that now consists of over 80 reviewers not only in the UK but also in the USA and in Australia. The growth of the website over the past 3 years is nothing short of phenomenal: in 2007 – 67 reviews, in 2008 – 88 reviews, in 2009 – 447 reviews and, so far in 2010, we have reviewed in excess of 600 productions around the world and forecast that we will have delivered in excess of 1000 theatre reviews by the end of the year. In our humble beginnings we were receiving approximately 50 website hits a month but, nevertheless, many theatres including The Chichester Festival Theatre, The English National Opera, and The West Yorkshire Playhouse believed in our product so much that they welcomed us as an accredited media outlet to review their productions. Since then we now review in excess of 90 theatres across the country, also being welcomed as press to many West End productions – a number increasing on a daily basis. We currently receive approx 50,000 unique website hits a month. If that wasn’t enough, we also are invited to interview some of the biggest names in theatre including Craig Revel Horwood, Olivier Award Winning actress Janie Dee, and National Youth Theatre Artistic Director Paul Roseby. We have gained huge support [...]

Enchanted by Curve’s architecture after a visit to the city last year left West-End star Janie Dee on a mission to perform at the Leicester theatre. Last week, the Public Reviews Contributor, Jemma Crowston, met Dee in the foyer at Curve to talk about her upcoming lead-role in the Christmas special, The King and I. Windsor-born Dee is a singer, dancer and actress and is most famous for her role in theatre productions such as Comic Potential and Carousel as well as TV shows such as Midsummer Murders. Her dazzling stage prowess has been seen all over the world but not one to be content with the norm, Dee set-out to become one of the many stars to grace the UK’s most newest contemporary theatre – Curve. “I came up last year to see Light in the Piazza because I’d already seen some of the work by Paul Kerryson. And well, as soon as I saw the theatre I said I must work here and I must work with Paul,” said Dee. She added, “I’ve always dreamt of playing Anna in The King and I and you just know Paul will do something different with the show to make the audience wow.” The Oliver Award-winner was bursting with passion about her role in the play. She said, “It’s very exciting to think that in the story a woman goes to a different country alone and she’s so strong and the magic between her and the king is like no other.” The King and I is endearing story of the British governess (Anna – Janie Dee) brought to the court of Siam to tutor the King’s many children. This musical classic will include some of the hit tunes led by Musical Director, Julian Kelly, The March of the Siamese Children, Shall [...]

Over the past few years, something’s gradually crept up on me, in my dual roles as audience member and weary sometime critic. It’s not the incessant shuffling of seemingly incontinent people needing to empty their bladder right in the middle of the first act, apparently unaware of the quiet chorus of tutting going on around them. Nor is it the astronomical ‘add-ons’ to the simple task of booking tickets. Nope, it’s the massive contrast in the standards of production of various touring musicals. Let’s start with the current touring incarnation of Hairspray (happily selling out at the Opera House until 31st July). This is a triumph in every single way. Of course, it has an awful lot going for it, before it’s even lifted that spangly curtain. It’s a superb piece of theatre; as light as a feather, genuinely infectious, and full of uncountable moments of uplifting joy. In my book – well, in my blog, at any rate – it’s as good a piece of musical theatre as has ever been written. Any show that can craftily sneak in gospel walloper I Know Where I’ve Been in the second act is a classy dame indeed. It also, in Manchester at least, has Michael Ball reprising his Olivier award winning role as Edna Turnblad – and what a treat it is, too. More importantly, though, charging a fairly high ticket price, this show feels like you get more than your money’s worth. Crucially, in no way does it feel in any way inferior/slimmed down/snipped, in comparison to its West End incarnation. A huge cast, large band, and full-scale set really do justice to this terrific show. The proof of this? I have never seen an audience respond at the …

In stark contrast to her iconic role as the domineering Private Helga Geerhart in ’Allo, ’Allo, Kim Hartman is currently starring as Hyacinth Bucket’s nervy next-door-neighbour, Elizabeth Warden, in the stage version of Keeping Up Appearances. Ahead of her stop-off at Darlington, she took time out to chat to Steve Burbridge Famed for plaits piled high upon her head, bright red lipstick, a penchant for saucy lingerie and her unrequited passion for Herr Flick, the formidable Private Helga Geerhart was one of the most popular characters in the much-loved sit-com, ’Allo, ’Allo. Such was the success of the series that it notched up an incredible 96 episodes over the period of a decade, polling at number 13 in a survey of Britain’s 100 Best Sit-coms. ‘To play such a funny and iconic character as Helga was just the best,’ says Kim. ‘I could hardly have had a better part than that.’ She remembers her time in the show with the greatest affection. ‘It was just the best job ever’, recalls Kim. ‘When we started, we had no idea that we would end up working together for ten years. Originally, we hoped we’d get one or two series’ out of it, but it just ran and ran.’ The cast, which included Gordan Kaye, Vicki Michelle, Sue Hodge, Richard Gibson and the late Carmen Silvera, formed close friendships over the years, too. ‘We all got on so well and became such good friends that it really was a delight to go to work each day. From that point of view, being involved in something for such a long time was a big treat,’ says Kim. Now, though, Kim is having a wonderful time starring in the stage production of another smash-hit sit-com, Keeping Up Appearances. ‘It’s absolutely hysterically funny,’ she reveals. ‘We’ve [...]

DURING her time as co-host of The Generation Game, Isla St Clair was Queen of the Conveyor Belt alongside camp comedian Larry Grayson. Then, for almost a quarter of a century, she disappeared from our television screens. Now she is back and touring theatres around the country with Eyes Front!, a production that looks at the effects of music in wartime. She tells STEVE BURBRIDGE about what she did in the intervening years. ISLA St Clair is one of those people you can’t help but warm to. The gentle lilt of her Scottish accent radiates a warmth and reassurance that is almost hypnotic, whilst her natural openness sets you immediately at ease. Small wonder, then, that she was chosen to take care of nervous contestants on the BBC’s hit game-show, The Generation Game. It was a role she performed between 1978 and 1982, and one that she reflects on with great fondness.‘I thoroughly enjoyed it,’ she recalls. ‘We had so much fun, Larry and I. He was an awfully nice guy who got on really well with the public, as was perfectly evident.’ Indeed, during the pair’s four year tenure, the show regularly attracted audience figures of eighteen million viewers every Saturday evening, something that today’s programme-makers would give their right arm for. Typically modest, Isla is reluctant to take credit for the success of the show. ‘When I did it there were only three channels to choose from, so it was very much a captive audience, really. People also had the nice habit of staying in, as a family, and watching television programmes together.’ That feeling of Saturday evening in front of the telly being a family event is something that Isla laments. ‘Now there is so much choice and people have so many more possibilities – not only [...]