OSCAR Hammerstein II, Jewish from his father’s side, wrote the lyrics to one of the most politically and socially telling songs of the 20th century for the musical South Pacific. You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught is often overlooked in the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon, but in 13 lines (the last two verses are omitted…
IF you buy a vintage Rolls Royce motor car in good condition, you do not immediately take it to the nearest garage and have the engine re-tuned, and completely overhaul the paintwork and interior …. perhaps even going to the extent of replacing the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy statue on the front of the bonnet!…
THE three Ghost stories that Dr Goodman, Professor of Parapsychology, uses to illustrate his lecture to the audience on the power of the paranormal have been greeted by some people as being “harrowing, 80 minutes of nightmare thrills”, and by others as being “as substantial and troubling as the fake ectoplasm manifested by a dodgy…
SOME of the most recognisable characters ever to be created on TV appeared in one of the 64 episodes (plus Christmas specials) of Only Fools and Horses. And as each new one, faithfully and accurately recreated, first appeared in this musical adaptation, they raised a cheer and a laugh. How tempting it therefore must have…
EVERY year when the pantomime season comes around, friends ask “how CAN you bear to see so many again?” and I tell them, very seriously and hoping not to sound too preachy or pompous, “Well, it is the first theatre show that most people will see, and that is the moment that they will first…
IT is more than 60 years since Robert Bolt’s play A Man For All Seasons became a hit in London, on Broadway and as a film that garnered many awards and made an international star of Paul Scofield – who also played the protagonist, Sir Thomas More, on stage. Now, in 2025, the glittering, paranoid,…
HOLOCAUST Memorial Day is on 27th January, so there could hardly be a more appropriate time to stage Diane Samuels’ powerful play Kindertransport, which opens the 2025 season at Yeovil’s Swan Theatre and runs to Saturday 25th January. This is a play which does not pull its punches. It is hard, at times feels bitter…
IN the last 50 years, more than 10,000 school playing fields, and many public recreation spaces, have been sold off for development. During the early part of that period, it was also thought that being involved in competition of any sort a was not a good thing for young people. The old saying “what goes…
THIS musical by Swedish pop composer Max Martin and friends, with book by David West Read, takes no prisoners in its spectacular production and presentation of strong feminist and non-binary sexual themes, as it turns Shakespeare’s classic romantic story of Romeo and Juliet on its head. With virtually every modern staging aide and lighting effect…
NINE years ago, when Forest Forge dropped its eagerly awaited annual Christmas tour, long-time FF member Dom Phillips determined to fill the gap and created the Bumblefly company of Travelling Players. Now the circle has been reconstituted, and the two companies, along with Mischievous Theatre, came together for a tour of A Humbug Christmas Carol, which…