Reviews

Tim Rice’s wry, contemporary lyrics take Joseph out of the dry verses of Genesis into a hip Canaan and rock’n’roll Egypt, where the biblical story of brotherly envy and Freudian-style dream analysis is a lot more ‘boppy’.

Co-directors by John Hanna and Katie Griffiths have taken the ‘bop’ to heart with a brisk, bright production that concentrates on the singing and dancing and accentuates the humour.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore was first performed in 1878. It was the fourth collaboration between W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan and their most successful prior to their international mega-hit, The Pirates of Penzance in 1879. Subsequently, however, H.M.S Pinafore has remained as one of the most popular of the ‘G & S’ operettas.

A married war correspondent and a talented young writer meet, scandalously fall in love, and escape to the Greek island of Hydra, where they rule over the growing Bohemian community of expats. They both want to write – and only write – but the reality of requiring an income drags them in different directions.

Based on the true story of George Johnston and Charmian Clift, writer Sue Smith has crafted the tumultuous tragedy from the perspective of their eldest son, Martin and realised it in a one-act play on a wonderfully stark set.

Based on the popular eccentric characters created by cartoonist Charles Addams as well as the internationally successful TV show, The Addams Family – A New Musical was first produced on Broadway in 2010. Whilst it was only modestly successful, nonetheless, this musical has proven to be extremely popular with audiences throughout the world and is seemingly in constant production. This is quite understandable for numerous reasons, but primarily because at its heart it is about ‘family love’.