Daily Express :: Stage Feed

Opera Review: Cosi Fan Tutte, Royal Opera House

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TALES involving infidelity and spouse-swapping scarcely raise an eyebrow these days, but for most of the 19th century, Mozart's comic opera on that theme was considered too risqué for the moral climate of the time and Cosi Fan Tutte was rarely performed.

Opera review: Der Rosenkavalier, English National Opera

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THERE is a scene towards the end of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in which three female voices are joined in a trio which starts with each expressing different reasons for the anguish that besets them, and ends with them all reconciling their problems.

Review: Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, Royal Opera

The National conquers

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

Review: Midnight Tango

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

ELEGANCE, passion and the thrilling rush of the love of dance; never has the old adage describing the Argentinian tango, a vertical expression of a horizontal desire, been more vividly realised.

Review: Umoja, Peacock Theatre

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There is time and there is Africa time. This is a show that runs on Africa time. Unabashed it starts 15 minutes late and with encores and extra sequences overruns by an hour but nobody seems to care

Review: She Stoops To Conquer, National Theatre

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

OLIVER Goldsmith's 18th-century comedy of manners proved a rumbustious triumph in the playwright's own lifetime and has pretty much been performed ever since.

Umoja

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There is time and there is Africa time. This is a show that runs on Africa time. Unabashed it starts 15 minutes late and with encores and extra sequences overruns by an hour but nobody seems to care

She Stoops To Conquer

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

OLIVER Goldsmith's 18th-century comedy of manners proved a rumbustious triumph in the playwright's own lifetime and has pretty much been performed ever since.

First Night Review: Midnight Tango with Flavia and Vincent

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FOR all its limitations, tango remains as popular as ever among the British public. It is not hard to see why, especially when danced with the spectacular histrionics of Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, the Latin American dance specialists of TV's Strictly Come Dancing.

First Night Review: Henry V & The Winter's Tale, Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TRUST the text. Sir Peter Hall's son, Edward, has evidently inherited his dad's mantra for performing Shakespeare. And his all-male company is the perfect vehicle for his ambitions.

Review- Henry V & The Winter's Tale, Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TRUST the text. Sir Peter Hall's son, Edward, has evidently inherited his dad's mantra for performing Shakespeare. And his all-male company is the perfect vehicle for his ambitions.

Keep kingly David Haig in mind

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III 4/5 Apollo Theatre, London W1 (Tickets: 0844 412 4658, £20-£49.50, premium £65) THE TRIAL OF UBU Hampstead Theatre, London NW3 (Tickets: 020 7722 9301, £22-£29) BIG SOCIETY City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds (Tickets: 0113 243 0808, £10-£17) GUYS AND DOLLS Upstairs at the Gatehouse, London N6 (Tickets: 020 8340 3488, £12-£16) CONSTELLATIONS Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London SW1 (Tickets: 020 7565 5000, £10-£20)

This Shrew's subtleties get lost in the shouting

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

WHAT is it about RSC actors and their private parts? For some time now they seem to find it necessary to fiddle and rummage around in their breeches for cheap laughs. And here we are again, with Nick Holder's obese Christopher Sly ferreting around in his underwear and displaying his substantial bottom. I understand the occasional need to keep the groundlings amused but enough is enough.

A new king reigns supreme

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FOR many, Alan Bennett's historical play will forever be associated with Sir Nigel Hawthorne, who played the ailing monarch in the original 1991 production and went on to immortalize it in film. David Haig though has now stepped up to the plate and while the actor is best known for his comic roles he proceeds to deliver an astonishingly powerful, performance which keeps you in thrall over two and a half hours and may well even banish memories of Hawthorne.

Opera Review: Don Giovanni, Royal Opera House

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

PONDERINGhow to celebrate the year of the London Olympics, the Royal Opera House found inspiration in the Olympic rings.

Dance review: Swan Lake, Richmond Theatre

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FOUR STARS for likeability, desire to please and the dancer's infectious love of what they do for a living.

Giselle

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

AS Russian ballet companies go the State Ballet of Siberia can't match the heavyweight status of the Bolshoi or Mariinsky.

Travelling Light- All too cute and comfort

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

EVERYTHING seems to be about pre-talkie cinema at the moment. On the big screen the silent film the Artist is the darling of the awards ceremonies and now Nicholas Wright's new play at the Lyttelton theatre deals with the birth of moving pictures.

Love Never Dies review: Sydney shows love is eternal

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

ANDREW Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera marked its 25th anniversary with a spectacular staging at the Royal Albert Hall last October but it was an anniversary that Love Never Dies, its inevitable sequel, never lived to see in the west End, for it died after only 16 months.

Theatre: Sydney shows love is eternal

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Is comedy cruelty a laughing matter?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE PURPOSE of comedy, said 17th-century playwright Moliere, "is to correct the vices of men" and no one, he insisted, should be exempt.

First Night Review: Longsong, Lyric Hammersmith

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I AM a sucker for a tearjerker. I will happily weep at everything from Hamlet to The Snowman. The cheapest manipulation of my emotions will have me snuffling into my hanky.

Stage review - James Corden is the West End's guvnor

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

LAST weekend we looked forward to what is opening this year in the West End and beyond.

Stage review - Strictly Gershwin, English National Ballet, London Coliseum

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

WHAT can you do with yourself on a wet, blustery January evening, broke, depressed and full of Christmas leftovers?