Disney fans will be delighted. The latest in the company's series of animated films to be translated to the stage is now in London. And, everything they want and expect to see is here. There are some extraordinary special effects, a plethora of silly gags and a simplistic plot in which, unsurprisingly, good triumphs over evil. Plus, our hero learns some life lessons. Every box in the money-making formula is neatly ticked and all the usual suspects are present! In this story the feisty female character, a relatively new addition to the recipe, makes her requisite appearance as Meg played by Mae Ann Jorolan. She is joined by Trevor Dion Nicholas who acts as the silly sidekick, Phil, mentor to young Hercules (Luke Brady).The over-the top villain, outrageously overplayed by Stephen Carlile, is Hades, and in his nefarious scheming, he is abetted by his two comic henchmen, Bob and Charles (Craig Gallivan and Lee Zarrett). In addition to this set of the standard personae, we also have a ...

Based on the true story of Raoul Moat who in 2010 killed one person and maimed his girlfriend and a police officer, this powerful recreation of the incidents and the ensuing manhunt focuses on the forces that made Moat into the raging inferno that he was. Abandoned by his father and abused by his mentally ill mother, he was then raised in care, and from his perspective, was abused by all the bureaucratic entities that intervened in his life: the social care system, the police and various legal proceedings. Moat saw himself as a victim, and although Robert Icke's play is largely presented from Moat's point of view, the author strives to balance this and to avoid any appearance of justifying Moat's behaviour as he uncovers its sources. Indeed, a long period in which the audience is in darkness, probably to replicate the blinding of one of Moat's victims, plus the detailed recounting of that victim's story are no doubt intended to serve this purpose. However, despite s...

If you can imagine a musical in which Oliver Twist was castrated as a child, you'll have the gist of Stiletto . Set in 18th Century Venice with a bisexual castrato, Marco, as the main character, this new musical with its Dickensian plot and quirky characters unfortunately founders. The story opens when the protagonist is accosted by the best dressed beggar we have ever seen. (And indeed, the costumes of Anna Kelsey are quite wonderful.) Marco, who is ambitious to become an opera star, is then fortunate enough to catch the eye of a potential patron, Azurra D'Orozco. He later goes on to be seduced by Azurra, as he abandons his male lover and teacher, Faustino, and falls in love with a poor, black female singer, Gioia, for whom he is prepared to sacrifice his operatic ambitions. Meanwhile, Azurra's husband, whose accountant is his male lover, is involved in a fraudulent scheme to build a hospital and he fears that Gioia has overheard his plotting and will expose him. Add to th...

A ten year-old son who is in trouble at school; a husband who is away, working day and night on a mysterious project; a baby who cries constantly while an upstairs neighbour plays his music too loudly; plus, on top of all this, a rude and threatening stranger on public transport and an exhibitionist in the park: Mia has lots of reasons to feel both victimised and stressed out. When she meets her son's new teacher, however, she may finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. The mysterious and quirky Ana radiates a sense of empowerment and confidence that is both bewildering and beguiling. John Donnelly has written a neat little thriller that grips the audience from its opening scene. It is ominous and delightfully spooky, while touching on a number of issues that could have been more fully developed. Although the notion of climate change and species extinction is referenced in the title and elsewhere, it could have been clarified and expanded to provide a more interesting themati...

This revival of The Importance of Being Oscar is a tribute not only to Oscar Wilde, but also to Micheál Mac Liammóir who first performed the show in 1960. Just as Wilde's persona, literary output and personal life challenged his society, Mac Liammóir's reincarnation of the great writer and his recounting of Wilde's trial 30 years before same sex relations were decriminalised in Ireland was almost as revolutionary. The times have changed, however, and the shock value in both performances is gone, while the reality of Wilde's genius and the injustice of his treatment still resonate. However, this pastiche of Wilde's words and skimming of his biography by Alastair Whatley seems a little flat. The familiar lines are still amusing, and the scene from The Importance of Being Earnest when Lady Bracknell quizzes the hapless Jack Worthing still draws chuckles, but the recounting of the life seems lacking. While we can't expect the detail of Richard Ellmann's extrao...

If you haven't seen a cabaret/circus/burlesque show lately, this is the one to sign on for. And if you've never seen a cabaret/circus/burlesque show, then you definitely need to see this one! Sabrage is some of the wildest fun in London. The show sparkles just like the champagne that inspires it. Bubbly, rather naughty and just when you think it can't get much zanier, there is an act that is bound to astonish, shock or titillate. In fact, the art of burlesque which seemed to have become outmoded in this age of explicit erotica actually makes a delightful comeback in Sabrage 's sexy, silly version. Add to this, a sultry chanteuse, an awe inspiring foot juggler (Emma Phillips), some fancy roller skating plus two terrific aerialists (Flynn Miller and Kimberley Bargenquast), and you have a quite unforgettable experience. The show is hosted by two completely goofy emcees (Remi Martin and Spencer Novich) whose corny routines and predictable patter, nicely balance the product...

Wilko Johnson was the lead guitarist for the 1970s rock band, Dr. Feelgood. Playwright Jonathan Maitland starts his portrait of the musician when he is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. The story then goes back to Johnson's youth when we see him trapped between a brutal father and an upwardly-mobile mother. It is a dichotomy that informs the guitarist's life. He constantly wavers between his persona as the outsider from Essex and the university-educated quoter of Wordsworth who loves astronomy. Maitland's subtitle for his piece "Love and Death and Rock 'n' Roll" also suggests this contradiction, being a variation on the title of the Ian Dury song "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll." And indeed, the latter describes Johnson's life as accurately as the former. Unfortunately, like its protagonist, Wilko often seems uneasily caught between two stools. It skims over the biography, almost minimising the break-up of the band and the re...

Taking their name from the short story collection by James Joyce, The Dubliners were an Irish folk band which first came together in 1962 under the name The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group. They then went on to gain worldwide popularity, becoming legends in their home country and beloved everywhere. With various personnel changes, the band went on for an astonishing fifty years, giving its final concerts in 2012. This tribute show is a celebration of the band which became an Irish institution, and it is a rousing evening of nostalgia led by Ged Graham and featuring his grandson, Adam Evans. For the uninitiated, Graham walks the audience through the story of The Dubliners and also delivers some lovely musical moments. In contrast to some of his fellow performers, his enunciation is always clear and his voice has a trained quality. However, to be completely fair, it must be said that this isn't really an evening that is intended to display impeccable vocal skills, although some fine musicia...

If previously you've only thought of Victor Hugo as a writer, this exhibition demonstrates that there is a great deal more to the celebrated creator of Les Misérables . As well as being a highly successful author, and a politician of deep conviction, Hugo was also a talented and intriguing artist, and this opportunity to see some forty of his almost two thousand drawings is a not-to-be-missed occasion. Divided into four sections (Writing & Drawing, Observation & Imagination, Fantasy & Reality, Ocean) the exhibition shows that Hugo's originality and dramatic sense were not confined to his novels and poetry. With its cunning perspective and tantalising implications, a work such as The Town of Vianden Seen Through a Spider's Web (1871) recalls a tale by Edgar Allan Poe, while The Shade of the Manchineel Tree (Notes from a Trip to the Pyrenees and Spain) (1856) with its eerie skull, has an equally wonderful Gothic feel. The enigmatic Mushroom (1850) which almost ...

The philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, once said that without government, life would be “nasty, brutish, and short.” The same might be said of this play, and the way the lives of its characters are presented. Charlie is a butcher who has "an affair" with Victor, a steel worker. Their abusive, sadomasochistic carry-on is no doubt symbolic (probably of the human condition) but in the end, it just becomes tedious. Neither of the characters develop, and their mean-spirited and violent interchanges are numbingly repetitive. Endless abuse and relentless couplings doesn't make for very interesting theatre, and this pair become almost cruel parodies of working class people. In fact, there is a point where one has the uncomfortable feeling that the playwrights are actually being quite condescending to these two pathetic individuals and their pathology, while the audience is being invited to become uncomfortable voyeurs at a very sad display of human dysfunction. Although a lot of time is...

Almost single-handedly, Sidney Poitier changed the presentation of black people in film. His remarkable story is encapsulated into one afternoon by playwright Ryan Calais Cameron in what is a fascinating study of that murky place between standing with integrity and the necessity of compromise. In the 1950s, America was on a journey out of its racist past, but at the same time, it was in the throes of hysteria about the so-called threat of communism. To advance the former agenda, it seems that Poitier might have to buy into the latter, and to sacrifice both some of his principles and some of his friends. It is a moral dilemma that rings universally true, although it may not always be as starkly obvious as it is in this case. The play crackles with tension and the complexity of the ethical situation is presented in a wonderfully nuanced manner. Cameron nicely captures both the sense of time and place, while creating characters who don't fall into easy stereotypes. He also displays an...

He's back! In this comic retelling of Bram Stoker's classic, Dracula is recast as a ripped pansexual predator who is thirsty for anybody's blood. Authors, Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, have written a spoof on the much-adapted vampire tale that is unchallengingly gender-bending and gently humorous. There's nothing really transgressive here, and it is all good fun with some predictably cute anachronisms, some amusing breaking of the fourth wall and lots of mirror jokes. The cast's timing is excellent, and Greenberg's direction is adroit and perfectly paced. As Dracula, James Daly does a nice job as the suave, self-centred seducer, and although his accent comes and goes, it probably doesn't matter much. Charlie Stemp is also very funny as the timid estate agent and the fiancé of fair Lucy who is nicely played by Safeena Ladha. As the heroine's less attractive sister, Mina, and as a female Van Helsing, Sebastien Torkia camps it up delightfully. However f...

This latest American high school romcom opens with the irrepressible Cher Horowitz opining that "Everything is perfect," and while that might be an overstatement, Clueless - The Musical is certainly an excellent example of its genre. The show, which is based on a popular film, which was in turn a version of Jane Austen's Emma , is full of energy and has some very catchy songs from KT Tunstall. Emma Flynn as the obtuse, but well-meaning, Cher is a delight and Keelan McAuley as the serious-minded young altruist, Josh, displays some great vocals and considerable gymnastic ability. Both these principals manage to make their simple stock teenage characters appealing while invigorating the formulaic plot. While we have been down this path many times before, both Flynn and McAuley make the very familiarity of this journey thoroughly enjoyable. They are nicely supported in this endeavour by an enthusiastic cast who look like they are enjoying themselves and who manage to communi...

Edvard Munch is emblazoned on the public imagination for one iconic picture, but as is demonstrated in this groundbreaking exhibition, there is so much more to this complex artist. In this first major show of Munch's portraits in the UK, his artistic development is traced through a series of extraordinary portraits. The show opens with a self-representation which introduces an outwardly confident, almost defiant, young man whose eyes are the only hint of the dark and troubled spirit within. The early death of his mother, his father's morose and reclusive nature and his sister's mental illness all formed the troubled artist we are familiar with, and this exhibition hits those notes in the first room which deals with family and Munch's involvement in the bohemian life of Kristiana (Oslo) in the 1880s. Indeed, Munch's obsession with death and dying is present in his painting of his brother Andreas Munch Studying Anatomy (1886) in which the skull is not only a study ai...

It is 1942 and Jewish jeweller, Joseph Haffmann, decides that in order to avoid Nazi persecution he will hand over his business to his employee, Pierre. However, Haffmann's artisan has a problem of his own. Pierre and his wife desperately want a child, but he is infertile. Could Haffmann be the solution to his employee's problem, just as Pierre might be to his? The humorous possibilities seem obvious, but the situation is presented quite seriously. Haffmann and Pierre's wife, Isabelle, have some moral qualms about this arrangement, and Pierre's jealousy, when it shows itself, isn't really played for laughs. There is a sense that Farewell Mister Haffmann is uneasily caught between genres. This is neither a farce nor a drama, and it doesn't quite work as black comedy. Perhaps, the situation of Haffmann hiding in the cellar to save his life is just too grave. Similarly, when Pierre becomes acquainted with Otto Abetz, the German "ambassador" to occupied ...

Stacey is in crisis! The popular weather girl who gushes about high pressure systems drinks too much and is reporting on California wildfires which have killed a family in the neighbourhood from which she is broadcasting. Stacey's mother is a drug-addicted homeless person, and Stacey, herself, is facing a promotion to a place that is even hotter than her current home in California. Added onto these issues is a one-night stand with a man whose name she can't remember and whose car she crashes when she is drink-driving. It's truly a wonder that this weather reporter can still keep pretending that everything is under control. And then at last, she can't! Brian Watkins has written a very funny and very disturbing work about a self-obsessed and self-destructive young professional which is actually a commentary on the way the human race is destroying itself and its environment. Stacey's meltdown mirrors the plight of the planet, and as Stacey, Julia McDermott puts in a po...

This one is definitely a winner! Centred around a game of Dungeons & Dragons , or D&D as it's known to serious players, Jack Bradfield has produced an innovative and original piece of writing. As in the game, the plot and characters are revealed only gradually and the audience's quest to know these people and to empathise with their various situations is only fully achieved at the end. It is a neat parallelism which Bradfield beautifully brings off by creating characters who are instantly interesting. It is an unlikely group who are ostensibly drawn together by their commitment to the role-play game. Sixteen-year-old Jess, the Dungeon Master, convincingly played by Ruby Stokes, is the central character. While she is apparently in control of the group's quest to vanquish the Nightmare King, she is actually in thrall to the trauma of her brother's death. In both the game, and in her grief, her companions are the pugnaciously woke and corporately ambitious Maryn, ...

Almost ten years in development, this is the first major exhibition outside of continental Europe to address the transformational role of Siena in the history of art. It is definitely one which anyone who cares about the development of painting should not miss. The notion of narrative, the development of character and the exploration of multi-dimensional representation in the medium all start here. The power of these works comes from the fact they were not intended as icons, but were created to bring religious concepts to life. They were designed to serve as instructional and inspirational touchstones for a largely illiterate community of faithful. In fact, many were intended for display in Siena Cathedral. Concentrating on the works of Duccio, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti and his brother Ambrogio, the exhibition also presents some of the sculpture, metalwork, tapestry and objects used in worship which formed part of their artistic environment. However, the focal point of the s...

Former Coronation Street resident, Kevin Kennedy shows us a different neighbourhood in this retrospective concert which is a guided tour down the memory lane of Punk and New Wave. For diehard fans the commentary is probably unnecessary, but for the uninitiated, it is a useful signpost to the rebellion and aspirations of a generation that came to adulthood in the mid-1970s. This is music that arose from the street and from the working class disaffection that marked Britain at this particular political period. It is raw, confrontational and full of noise and energy. Kennedy invokes the spirits of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in his nostalgic odyssey and is accompanied on that sentimental journey by a frenzied headbanger band and a terrific, adrenaline-charged group of singers and dancers. They brilliantly bring back to life the hits of the period, covering tracks from the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Blondie, The Damned, Ramones, Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Police, The Jam, Sioux...

So what do you do when you discover that your wife has been exchanging love letters with a criminal psychopath who is incarcerated in a mental institution? When Dave, the cuckolded husband in this triangle, discovers this epistolary infidelity, he decides to write to Martin, the rival for wife's affections. Thus begins a very funny and very odd relationship between the two. Madeleine Brettingham's play squeezes a lot of chuckles from this curious bonding between the suave psychopath and the wimpish husband, but the situation is one which might also make us question some of the premises of this laughter. The humour is drawn from Dave, a rather sad, desperate individual seeking love and validation, who becomes the pawn of a person who lacks both morals and empathy. While the fact that these two are presented as caricatures may make the laughter seem more acceptable, the amusement provoked by Dave's misfortune and Martin's manipulation has a somewhat uneasy underpinning. T...