Acclaimed West End actor and singer JOHN BARR (Les Misérables, Evita, Aspects of Love) is currently playing iconic British songwriter Lionel Bart in It’s A Fine Life at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch (29 April to 4 May 2024 and touring until 20 September). John made his West End debut at the age of 12 in Bart’s Oliver! at the Albery Theatre. Since then, he has enjoyed a four-decade-long varied career in theatre, TV, radio, film, cabaret, concerts, workshops, pantomimes and recordings – including original cast albums and five albums. John also teaches and directs [see biog below]. He recentl ..read more

.Niki Colwell Evans in Blood Brothers at Curve Leicester and Touring. Picture: Jack Merriman Blood Brothers was reviewed at Leicester Curve. The tour continues until 7 December 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Enduring classic Blood Brothers turned 40 last year, although it started life as a play for schools before developing into something far richer and more powerful. Written by Willy Russell, the classic “nature versus nurture” debate is explored in an emotive and heartbreaking story of the separation of fraternal twins, alongside class divide and depression. Told with a delicate b ..read more

Picture: Kate Scott What (is) a Woman continues at the Arcola Theatre, London until 4 May 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Andrée Bernard’s script for her solo play What (is) a Woman feels autobiographical, or else it’s the conviction with which this actress sets out her tale. Interspersed with erotic monologues that invoke that of Molly Bloom in the closing of Joyce’s Ulysses, her encounters with the ‘American’ who comes to dominate her life at the expense of the other men with whom she forms dalliances form the sexual thrust of the piece. Amidst the first frantic coupling, she ..read more

Disney’s Aladdin was reviewed at Milton Keynes Theatre where it runs until 19 May 2024. The tour continues until 5 January 2025. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★  Colour, energy and magic burst onto the stage at Milton Keynes Theatre for the next three weeks. The stage production of Disney’s Aladdin is an unforgettable experience for all the family, with high-octane performances, bejewelled costumes and a breathtaking set. Including all the much-loved classics from the film adaptation, this show has everything and more that you would expect from Disney. The ..read more

Picture: Manuel Harlan Moby Dick continues at Wilton’s Music Hall, London until 11 May 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ As a novel, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is timelessly brilliant, but notoriously bonkers and difficult to adapt. It ricochets between action, heart, humour, poetry, micro-plays and lengthy essays on the history of the whaling industry. A recent US musical adaptation by Dave Malloy looked promising, featuring themed food and audience members press-ganged into onstage whaling action, but it did receive criticism for its near-four hour runtime. So, what can Sebastian Ar ..read more

Danielle Jam and Murray Fraser in Sunset Song at Dundee Rep and Touring Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic Sunset Song was reviewed at Dundee Repertory Theatre where it runs until 4 May 2024. The tour continues to Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh until 8 June 2024. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Coming into the theatre, there is a scent of peat in the air – almost acrid – then the vision of the earth floor, creating the performance area, surrounded by an array of musical instruments on either side, before a stylised painted backdrop of crops growing at ‘eye level’ from floor to ceiling. The ..read more

Sam Tutty and Dujonna Gift in Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) at the Criterion Theatre, London. Picture: Tristram Kenton Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) continues at the Criterion Theatre, London until 14 July 2024. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Following an initial run at the Kiln Theatre, it’s a joy to see yet another new British musical making its mark in the West End. Jim Barne and Kit Buchan’s Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), now situated at the Criterion, stars popular performers Dujonna Gift (Hamilton) and Sam Tutty (Dear Evan Hansen). In thi ..read more

Picture: Roy Tan Hit new British musical Cable Street will march back to London’s Southwark Playhouse this autumn with 42 performances at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. Inspired by the story of a multi-cultural community which came together to oppose Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists as they attempted to march through London’s East End in October 1936, the musical’s latest run (from 6 September to 10 October) will include a performance on 4 October coinciding with the anniversary of The Battle of Cable Street. Announcing the return of the musical which debuted in front of sold-out hou ..read more

Picture: Pamela Raith Photography  The world premiere production of The Little Big Things, the acclaimed new British musical based on Henry Fraser’s Sunday Times bestselling memoir, will be available to stream on National Theatre At Home from 9 May 2024. Filmed during the show’s debut run at @sohoplace theatre, the Michael Harrison production is directed by Luke Sheppard (an Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee for & Juliet). Inspired by the inspirational true story of Henry Fraser, an avid sportsman whose life changed forever when a diving accident at the age of 17 left him ..read more

Alisa Davidson will take on the title role in the English language premiere of a new musical inspired by the life of Marie Curie. Veronica Sawyer in the Heathers the Musical film on Amazon Prime, Davidson (Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning, National Theatre of Scotland, Grease, UK tour) will play the Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist alongside Chrissie Bhima (The Witches, National Theatre, Whistle Down the Wind, Watermill Theatre) as Anne Kowalska, Thomas Josling (Scandaltown, Lyric Hammersmith, Habeas Corpus, Menier Chocolate Factory) as Pierre Curie and Richard Meek (The Rocky Horror Show 50 ..read more