Judi Herman

August 23, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Elephant Steps ★★★

Judi Herman

August 23, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Jewish American avant garde theatre pioneers Stanley Silverman and Richard Foreman’s ‘occult opera upon perception’ first played with audiences 50 years ago, so this European premiere is an anniversary production too. Elephant Steps first ran just a year…

Judi Herman

August 15, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Little Shop of Horrors ★★★★

Judi Herman

August 15, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Writing team Howard Ashman (book and lyrics) and Alan Menken (music) are responsible for a string of award-winning movie music megahits. Most notably Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, but before they went all Disney…

Judi Herman

August 13, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Greek ★★★★

Judi Herman

August 13, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

It’s been 30 years since the premiere of this gripping, foul-mouthed opera, its libretto by Steven Berkoff based on his powerful, scurrilous take on the Oedipus myth itself first performed in 1980. Director Jonathan Moore and composer Mark-Anthony Turnage collaborated…

Judi Herman

August 6, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Love Chapter Two ★★★★

Judi Herman

August 6, 2018

Reviews, Theatre

Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal is justly renowned for her spare, precise choreography, as well as the dedication she inspires in the young dancers with whom she works. Here she collaborates again with fellow Israeli Gai Behar under the name L-E-V (Hebrew for heart)…

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…