We should celebrate the fact that within the space of a year London has played host to stagings of not one but two Sondheim masterpieces that have all but redefined them in theatrical terms:…
I was a little late to the party in respect of Vladimir Jurowski's scintillating new recording of the original 1877 version of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake with the State Academic Symphony Orches…
Leonard Bernstein and André Previn very different animals. But their completeness as musicians, their ability to embrace and cherish music of spectacularly diverse genres, their connection …
In Joyce DiDonato's album Songplay we have the epitome of what we Brits call a 'Marmite' experience with elements to love and/or loathe whether or not you buy the concept in the first place.
New York City Center Encores " an NYC haven for neglected or forgotten shows " have now revived Brigadoon six times, a testament to its enduring appeal, and this latest manifestation with th…
I have often been asked if I listen to music differently when reviewing or not reviewing. It's an interesting question. There is, you could say, a heightened level of awareness when 'in work…
The recent revival of The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess at English National Opera and the prospect of comparing all its available recordings in BBC Radio 3's Record Review has prompted me to …
Renée Fleming's choices are shrewd and wide-ranging in her Broadway album, embracing the contemporary and the classic in pretty much equal measure whilst demonstrating that style in this re…
It's the earnestness that doesn't ring true in Simon Rattle and LSO's recording of Bernstein's Wonderful Town, the way in which that which should come naturally simply sounds overworked.
This is also a beautifully sung revival of Carousel on Broadway " and even having not seen it I can tell that these terrific artists are truly 'acting through song'.
There wasn't much that Leonard Bernstein didn't try his hand at at least once " and wanting, needing, to experience it all applied as surely to the music he wrote as to the music he conducte…
It's an amazing time for diversity of style in "musicals" on both sides of the pond. Hamilton's hip-hop, street poetry, storytelling, David Yazbek's middle-eastern infused charmer The Band's…
The sound of tapping feet invokes a whole era of classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals and when the curtain rises on this tap-infused extravaganza it pauses 18 inches or so off the stage t…
Comparing Notes brings stars of the West End and Broadway to Pizza Express Live Holborn. In a lively and informal mix of performance and conversation host Edward Seckerson will be getting up…
With such songs comes great responsibility and of the many things that makes the West End arrival of Dreamgirls such a dazzling affair we must first applaud the casting. Every soul on the Sa…
Lazarus will undoubtedly be regarded by some as pretentious on an industrial scale " and in some respects it is " but only if you have never bought in to the Bowie ethos.
You almost wonder where this show can possibly go when the opening number is so strong, so emotive, so damn heartbreaking. Cathy is "Still Hurting" from the break-up of her relationship with…
It's one of those true stories you couldn't make up: in 1920s Kentucky, Floyd Collins, visionary cave explorer, happens across the spectacular sand cave of his dreams only to become trapped …
It's one of those true stories you really couldn't make up. In 1920s Kentucky, Floyd Collins, visionary cave explorer, happens across a spectacular sand cave " the sand cave of his dreams " …
Patricia Routledge trained not only as an actress but also as a singer and had considerable experience and success in musical theatre, both in this country and in the United States of Americ…
Well over a decade ago Stephen Sondheim expressed some interest in turning the movie Groundhog Day into a musical. Presumably he, too, would have turned to the movie’s scriptwriter Dan…
Strictly speaking it should have been billed as "Ramin Karimloo and Broadgrass at the London Palladium" " then we might have anticipated the support act and late arrival of the West End and …
If anyone harboured any doubts as to how diverse the world of musical theatre can be, this past week will surely have proved an ear and eye-opener. While Richard Taylor and David Wood'…
It has taken six years - and Michael Crawford - to bring Richard Taylor and David Wood's poetic musicalisation of LP Hartley's The Go-Between to the West End stage. And before the tired old …
It has taken six years " and Michael Crawford " to bring Richard Taylor and David Wood's poetic musicalisation of L P Hartley's The Go-Between to the West End stage; and before the tired old…