Judi Herman

July 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Exit the King ★★★★

Judi Herman

July 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

“Everyone is the first person ever to die,” says King Berenger’s favourite Queen, Marie. Romanian-French Absurdist playwright Ionesco wrote this unsettling, provocative drama in 1962, exercised by his fear and expectation that a debilitating liver disease would prove…

Judi Herman

July 25, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Me and My Girl ★★★★

Judi Herman

July 25, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Hugely popular Jewish funny-man Matt Lucas makes his musical theatre debut in Me and My Girl. He plays Bill Snibson, a cheerful Cockney barrow boy who discovers he’s the long-lost heir to the title of Earl of Hareford and a stately pile in Hampshire. It’s the perfect summer musical…

Judi Herman

July 23, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Barry Humphries’ Weimar Cabaret ★★★★★

Judi Herman

July 23, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

This gloriously witty, erudite tribute to the ‘degenerate’ music banned by the Nazis has graced auditoria large and small and now amply fills the Barbican’s vast space, thanks to the fabulous Aurora Orchestra, placed firmly centre-stage by Barry Humphries and director Nikki Woollaston…

Judi Herman

June 26, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Kiss Me Kate ★★★★

Judi Herman

June 26, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Kiss Me Kate is credited with reviving Cole Porter’s flagging post-war career and from Opera North’s glorious revival it’s easy to see why. Sam and Bella Spewack, the Jewish power couple behind the book, had worked with Porter before and Bella insisted Porter was invited to write…

Judi Herman

June 22, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Finishing the Picture ★★★★

Judi Herman

June 22, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Several of Miller’s plays are revealingly autobiographical and this, his last, is an intriguing part of the story. Getting its European premiere here, Finishing the Picture does indeed deal with endings, although it is set some decades before he wrote it in 2004. By the time Marilyn Monroe was…

Judi Herman

May 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Into the Woods ★★★

Judi Herman

May 31, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

I tried explaining Sondheim’s complex morality fable to my five-year-old granddaughter. “You might find it scary," I said. "It weaves together the stories of Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk with a new story about a baker and his wife. The pair long for…

Judi Herman

May 29, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Shirleymander ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 29, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Known for her wickedly accurate voicing of Edwina Currie in Spitting Image, Jessica Martin is ideal casting for another prominent Jewish Tory gal: Shirley Porter. This larger-than-life anti-heroine was leader of Westminster Council from 1983 to 1991. Martin’s Porter is vociferous…

Judi Herman

May 27, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

The Chess Player ★★★★

Judi Herman

May 27, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

A masterly staging of a gripping war game. I have to admit to not being a chess player. It’s a tribute to Richard McElvain, and of course to Stefan Zweig’s original story, that this dramatised account of how a man might survive and even triumph over extreme deprivation…

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Books & Poetry

David Herman celebrates Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Books & Poetry

Classic choice: David Herman celebrates Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. “Why are you so nasty?” Brenda asks Neil in Philip Roth’s first book, Goodbye, Columbus. Nasty? Neil was tame stuff compared to some of Roth’s later heroes and no one comes nastier than…

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Interviews, Theatre

Interview: Na’ama Zisser

Danielle Goldstein

May 25, 2018

Interviews, Theatre

Israeli composer Na’ama Zisser tells us about writing her Jewish opera Mamzer Bastard. Imagine you’re in New York in the 1970s. Jimmy Carter is either in office or about to be, bands like the Bee Gees and Elton John are vying for top spot in the charts, and one very apprehensive groom named Yoel is dreading his impending wedding…