Review – Jesus Christ Superstar, London Palladium, 9th July 2026

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Jesus Christ Superstar at the PalladiumIt’s always a joy to visit the London Palladium with its lush, plush auditorium, so it’s quite a shock when you arrive for Jesus Christ Superstar to see the stage bedecked in scaffolding, curling around the side and obscuring the boxes. It looks for all the world like they haven’t quite finished fixing the set. But theatre is all about being unsettled, right? Especially when you’re going to see a show that – if you’re like me and grew up with it as a teenager – you know backwards. The original rock opera (don’t give me any of that Tommy nonsense) still electrifies (musically at least) from the first few guitar chords played by the band to its final bars. This Palladium production – lifted from its successful Regent’s Park run from a few years ago – always ensures that the music is centre stage; exactly where it should be.

Advance sales for this show have been described as unprecedented for a Palladium summer run; so much so that a transfer to Drury Lane and a subsequent UK tour were announced long before its first preview. The reason for this is simple; the inspired casting of national treasure in the making, Sam Ryder. Everyone loves Sam. In fact, it’s the law that you can’t not love Sam; he resurrected (carefully chosen word) the UK’s Eurovision reputation and his personal positivity guides everything he does, something badly needed in these bitter days of hatred and feuds. More on Sam’s performance later.

However, despite the title and the star billing, this is, has, and always will be The Judas Show. Judas gets all the opportunities to take control of proceedings, has the widest range of emotions, and constantly drives the narrative. This is deftly conveyed in the first few moments of the show, when a crowd gathers around Jesus, waiting for his words, but before he can speak, Judas whips the mic stand away from him and launches straight into the arresting and exciting Heaven on their Minds, setting out his critical standpoint and distancing himself from the other apostles and the following mob. Even though we know the story inside out, it’s riveting from the start.

Tim Sheader’s production has chosen to offer some plucky theatregoers the chance to get really close to the action by having them standing onstage, separated from the cast only by some confining scaffolding. At £25 per person, it looks like an amazing opportunity to see the show from a different perspective. For the rest of us, they suggest the constant crowds that follow Jesus everywhere; and they do create a very atmospheric tableau when silhouetted against stark lighting effects. It’s a clever idea, and on the whole it works.

Perhaps the most outstanding contribution to the show is Drew McOnie’s choreography. Intense, exhilarating, conveying joy and excitement, the ensemble throw themselves into it all, telling their own individual stories as part of their movement. It’s stunningly effective within the confines of the relatively small performance space that Tom Scutt’s creative but inhibiting set design has created. The Palladium stage is enormous, but it’s a constant surprise how much of the action is required to take place in much smaller pockets of space. No wonder there has to be some creative use of the aisles as well as the stage.

When it comes to the performances, there’s no questioning the commitment and hard work that everyone puts in to make the show a success. Billy Nevers seizes control of the wonderful Simon Zealotes’ song, giving a dynamic, powerful and genuinely joyous performance that is a highlight of the first Act. David Thaxton’s Pilate blows you away, from his quietly disturbed rendition of Pilate’s Dream, through to his ridiculing of Christ before he sends him to Herod, and his masterful performance of the trial scene and the 39 lashes. The staging of the lashes is perhaps the most effective but also least brutal representation of that very difficult scene that I’ve ever watched.

Matty J and Bob Harms create a terrific double act as Annas and Caiaphas, with Mr J’s deceptively sweet vocals scarcely hiding the cruel punch of his words, and Mr Harms’ extraordinary bass tones enunciating Caiaphas’ deadly message. And Tyrone Huntley’s Judas is extraordinary in every department: always powerful vocally, even when he delivers his tenderest and most delicate moments, and with an amazing stage presence. Mr Huntley’s ability to combine musicality with humour was brilliant in the Palladium’s Hello Dolly two years ago, but I had no idea he had this level of performance in his repertoire. However, I was really surprised how the portrayal of Judas’ death came across as such a damp squib, unless there was some kind of technical problem of which I wasn’t aware; he just walks off.

The role of Herod in this production is shared between five high-profile and much-loved performers; for our performance, and until July 11th, he was played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. If you don’t know the show, and there’s always at least one person at every performance who doesn’t know what to expect, the unexpected portrayal of Herod as a sexually ambivalent hedonist, as camp as the traditional row of tents, singing a jaunty showbizzy song that sticks two fingers up to the accepted view of Herod as a gloomy and intimidating old tyrant, really ought to take your breath away. However, for me, Mr Ferguson presented Herod in a strangely non-flamboyant fashion, allowing his glamorous costume and intricate make-up to do the work instead. The lyrics say he is “overjoyed to meet you face to face”, but this Herod isn’t remotely overjoyed, rather annoyed that his daily routine has been disturbed. Sorry, but this didn’t work for me.

Desmonda Cathabel plays Mary, and with her fantastic voice she completely gets the characterisation for Everything’s Alright and Could We Start Again Please, but her I Don’t Know How to Love Him, potentially the most recognised song of the entire show, doesn’t really hit the mark. Rather like Man of La Mancha’s The Impossible Dream, a dream that by its very description tells you it is impossible to achieve, but which X-Factor style wannabes sing as if it was A Very Big Ask but I’m going to nail it 110%, I Don’t Know How to Love Him conveys Mary’s anguished inability to get her head around what she feels for Jesus. It should only be when she finally sings I love him so at the end of the song that she has completed her journey of understanding. But I fear Ms Cathabel’s Mary delivers it as a simple love song. She knows very well how to love him; she’s known it from the start. It’s a performance that somehow doesn’t connect with the audience.

Which brings us to the object of her love, Sam Ryder’s Jesus. If ever there was a visual embodiment of how we think of Christ, Mr Ryder is it. Known for his ability to perform striking vocal ornaments he is an extraordinary force to be reckoned with. His first few words (Why should you want to know…) in response to the incessant pestering of What’s the buzz? ring out clear as a bell, mellifluous, meaningful and beautiful. However, when it comes to the softer, lower register moments, the power deserts him, and his delivery appears tentative and uncertain. In fact, at times one wonders whether he’s demanding too much of his voice. His performance highlight is Gethsemane, which triggers a standing ovation during the show, and it’s a five-minute showcase for his skills but, in our performance, I felt he toned down the embellishments, which no doubt helps preserve his voice but also makes the piece much more understandable – so that worked well for me.

There has been much difference of opinion as to how well Sam Ryder acts the part as well as singing it, but, overall, I was impressed with his ability to convey emotion, frequently through a silent stare or an unexpectedly delivered turn of phrase. And his stage presence is immense; it is, indeed, dream casting. He’s a star without question; I just hope that his voice can stay the course. So, whilst there are a few ways in which this production disappoints a little, despite those elements I truly loved it. Jesus Christ Superstar runs at the Palladium until 5th September, then resumes its run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in October.

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Something Rotten! Opera House, Manchester, 2nd July 2026

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Something Rotten!Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell’s Something Rotten! has taken eleven years from opening on Broadway to receiving its UK premiere. In that time, it’s enjoyed a two-year US tour, and had productions in Sweden, Austria, South Korea, Canada, and the Czech Republic. Why has it taken so long to hit Britain? Could it be because it is, in fact, a bit rotten?

No! Not a bit of it. Something Rotten! is one of the funniest, freshest, catchiest, most uplifting new musicals I’ve seen in ages. For a brand new show (new to the UK anyway) it feels surprisingly traditional – but for all the best reasons. Instantly captivating, it reminded me whilst watching the opening sequence of so many of those memorable, ambitious musicals of the 60s and 70s; big set, big cast, big band and big on entertainment. For the first time in years, I left the theatre after seeing a new musical with the songs still in my head – that’s such a rarity nowadays.

It’s 1595 and Shakespeare is ruling London’s theatrical roost. Meanwhile brothers and wannabe playwrights Nick and Nigel Bottom are down on their uppers, disappointing their patron, Lady Croydon, and coming up with ideas that Shakespeare always seems to have got to first. Using what little household savings he and his wife Bea have amassed, Nick employs the services of a soothsayer, Nostradamus – not the Nostradamus, but his nephew Thomas – who looks into the future and predicts that the theatre of tomorrow will be… musicals. Trouble is, no one has heard of them yet, so Nick has a job ahead of him convincing his players and Lady Croydon of this bizarre mix of plot and song. Nostradamus also predicts what will be Shakespeare’s biggest success, so that Nick can nick it first; and he’s so close to getting the title right – but not quite.

On one level, Something Rotten! tells this merry tale of the Bottoms and their struggle to out-Shakespeare Shakespeare. On another, it’s quite the most inventive love letter to theatre in general, and musicals in particular. It makes you wonder who the first person was to think of trying out this new stage format – and to admire and thank them for their innovation. There is a song in the show simply called A Musical, which doffs its cap to so many well-known musical shows, with dozens of hilarious references that make a musical theatre fan guffaw with pleasure.

But Something Rotten! is no mere parody. Nearly all the songs are individual works of genius that either move the story on or enhance our understanding of the characters, and there isn’t a wasted moment in the entire two and a half hours. This is a show that’s determined to give its audience a good time, and it delivers it in spades. The characterisations are hilarious, from the theatre fan Shylock to the secretly theatrical puritan Brother Jeremiah. from the over-the-top Nostradamus to the nauseatingly vain Shakespeare, there’s so much on stage that keeps you laughing and engaged all the way through.

Colin Richmond’s set gives an authentic sense of rickety old London and Rebecca Brower’s costumes are perfectly in keeping with the Elizabeth age, both the rich dandies and the poor downtrodden. Danny Belton’s eight-piece band produce a full, rich, showbizzy accompaniment to the witty songs, and the cast are uniformly excellent, with a hard-working and super-talented troupe and ensemble giving tremendous support throughout.

Gareth Davies gives a surprisingly upbeat portrayal of Shylock, who hopes he might play the happy good-natured Jew in Bottom’s next play. Elliotte Williams-N’Dure plays the delightfully larger-than-life Lady Croydon, hard to please but besotted, like everyone, with Bottom’s big rival. Cory English gives a fantastically energetic and madcap portrayal of Nostradamus, prancing athletically around the stage in the big musical numbers. Cassius Hackforth makes a wonderful contrast with the other characters with his thoughtful characterisation of Nigel, uncertain of his own skills, and hardly daring to fall in love with the excellent Portia, played by Carla Dixon-Hernandez, the poetry-mad daughter of Paul Ryan’s hypocrite Brother Jeremiah, portentously warning against the pleasures of the flesh whilst making endless Freudian slips revealing his true nature.

Curtain CallMarisha Wallace continues to knock every role she takes out of the park, with her lively, endearing and spirited performance as Bea, Nick’s long-suffering but immensely practical and forgiving wife. Her rendition of Right Hand Man is one of the true highlights of the first Act, and she lights up the stage whenever she is on. Equally powerful and impressive is a tour de force by Richard Fleeshman as the big-headed Shakespeare, portraying him as a celebrity superstar, tossing out bon-mots for all his devoted fans to gobble up. Imagine Blackadder’s Lord Flashheart as the bard and you’re part-way there. And of course, one of Manchester’s favourite sons, Jason Manford, appears as Nick Bottom, anchoring the show in his inimitable style, delivering the comedy and music with sure-footed aplomb.

It isn’t a show that makes any serious points about the human condition, but it does celebrate everything that makes us happy. And in these difficult days that’s definitely something worth making a song and dance about. Something Rotten! continues at the Manchester Opera House until 19th July – but surely it must have a life hereafter.

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – Alfie Moore, Acopalypse Now, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 28th June 2026

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Within the first few minutes of his show, Alfie Moore asked the audience how many of them listen to his Radio 4 show. Judging from the response, I’d guess it was about 95%. He certainly knows his audience! This left Mrs Chrisparkle and me feeling like a pair of frauds as we’ve never heard his radio show, we only know him from live performance. You don’t need to know his radio output though, although it might put you at a slight advantage at odd moments if you do!

He cuts quite an ungainly appearance on stage, a slightly wobbly gait and adopting some odd angles, as though he’s just disembarked ship and hasn’t yet found his land legs. But that all goes to make his stage persona, that of an experienced police officer looking after the good folk of Scunthorpe for decades, more believable. And whilst most of his material comes from police experience, he’s not above throwing in a few Dad Jokes on the way, and to be honest those create some of his biggest laughs.

The title, Acopalypse Now, is not a typo, despite what his poster printers may have thought; it’s his policing slant on what’s going to cause the end of the world. What a jolly subject for a comedy show! But it works, as it enables Alfie to go through a number of scenarios, bringing out a fair amount of gallows humour en route. What’s it to be? Pandemic? War? Climate change? The Domination of AI? The way things are going at the moment it’s a lottery between all of them.

There are number of running themes throughout his two-hour show, including his acquiring a bike to cycle to work as part of a police drive towards saving the planet, and his dealings with a young Just Stop Oil protestor; and they become the source of many an entertaining callback. He discusses the art of the erudite heckle; and invites the audience to act as police officers for the night, choosing which course of action out of several we would opt for if it was down to us. That proved to me what a woeful police officer I would be.

His style is neither laid back nor frenetic, but somewhere between the two; and his pace is normally set to quite gradual (sometimes perhaps a little too gradual) although he can sometimes accelerate to bullet-point rapid. Basically, he talks like a police officer, which I guess is what we all paid for. As you would expect he’s confident with addressing audience members individually, asking them questions to justify their decisions or identify their attitudes – at times I wondered if we should all have been given a caution at the start so that this information could be used in evidence. One particular strength of his storytelling technique is his ability to weave facts and true stories or cases into his material, which makes everything he says totally believable. He describes events clearly so that you can completely envisage them in your mind’s eye, which really brings his material to life; a gift that not every comedian has.

There are plenty of laughs, and a lot of moments of understanding and agreement; but perhaps also the occasional longueur where you want him to get on with it a bit more! But if you like his radio show then I’m sure his stage show will feel like a natural extension. The Acopalypse Now tour continues into November, and he will be gracing the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

Review – The Comedy Crate and Northampton Comedy Festival present Felicity Ward and Lindsey Santoro, Work in Progress, V&B Wine Bar, Northampton, 25th June 2026

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Comedy Crate - Lindsey Santoro and Felicity WardContinuing that endless quest for pre-Edinburgh perfection, those nice people at the Comedy Crate treated us to two more work in progress shows on probably the hottest night of the year, so the comedy stars had to be good to keep our attention. Fortunately, they were!

First up was Felicity Ward, who is brushing up her material for her Edinburgh show, I Wish I Could Come Out of My Shell, on at the Cabaret Voltaire from 17th to 30th August. It’s a lovely ironic title as there are few people who have abandoned their shell more than Felicity. A recent ADHD diagnosis (no, really?!) after becoming newly divorced, and, after a year or so of quietly coming to terms with it all, she’s now hit the dating apps, thereby discovering all sorts of new things about herself. She has some great material about bi-dating and the different vibes you get from different apps; she also reflects on her favourite TV show, Alone, gives all the inside information on her appearances in Australia’s Dancing with the Stars, and a no-holds-barred sequence of needing to do a poo when her son also needed one – let’s just say necessity was the mother of invention. A fast and exhilarating delivery of well-structured and very funny material, there’s very little further tweaking needed before she hits Edinburgh – this will be a comedy highlight of the Fringe I’m sure.

Comedy CrateAfter the interval we welcomed Lindsey Santoro, an effervescent presence of uninhibited comic ideas, who hits the ground running with frenetic attack, a wonderfully confiding nature, and some bold material that takes us where angels fear to tread. She’s preparing for her Edinburgh show, It Was Like That When I Got Here, also at the Cabaret Voltaire, from 19th to 30th August. Much of her material is based on surviving married life as wife and mother; and she includes a hilarious sequence of going to a Haven Holidays Caravan Site, the unusual selfies she was advised to take when pregnant, and the secret pleasures of women in the jacuzzi. There’s some refinement needed to make all the material dovetail and choose exactly the right words at times, but that’s just what a Work in Progress show is all about; and Ms Santoro has the benefit of being a naturally outrageously funny person who holds the audience in the palm of her hand from start to finish.

A terrific blend of comedy and aircon! There are yet more Edinburgh Previews coming in the weeks ahead.

Review – 45 Years, Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 17th June 2026

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We can’t change what happened in our previous relationships, before we met our current partners, can we? Provided we’re honest about them? That’s one of the questions that is touched on, although not fully explored, in Hannah Patterson’s adaptation of Andrew Haigh’s film 45 Years, presently at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester.

Before Geoff met and married Kate, he was holidaying in Switzerland with his previous girlfriend, Katja, who came to an untimely death by falling into a glacier. Her body was never found or recovered – until, in a bolt from the blue 45 years later, Geoff receives a letter from the Swiss authorities informing him that her body has been found, still trapped in the ice. Obviously, this would be upsetting news to anyone, bringing back those awful days at the time of her death. But what now? Should he do anything about it? Travel to Switzerland to view the body? After all, he’s no spring chicken. And why did the authorities contact him, 45 years later, at an address that they wouldn’t have known about – unless he’d been keeping them updated?

Perhaps the ultimate question is, can Geoff and Kate’s solid, if unexciting, marriage withstand going over old emotions and allegiances without breaking, glacier-like, under the pressure? The play attempts to analyse the family unit without ever making anything too obvious, or overstated. Obsessions are suggested and secrets are suspected without being fully exposed. As Geoff tries to balance his feelings today with 45 years ago, Kate makes tiny discoveries which suggest that Geoff and Katja were perhaps more established as a couple than she realised. When Kate asks Geoff if, had she not died, would he and Katja have married, and he concludes that they would have done, you can feel the knife silently piercing her heart. Of course, that was before they had met, and all’s fair in love and war. But how come he had never told her before? How come she had never asked?

Let’s look at the facts: Geoff’s first girlfriend was Katja; she died in mysterious circumstances. He then married Kate. If she discovers that Katja’s death was anything other than a tragic accident, will he bump her off before he next marries, say, Katarina? As Johnny Nash once said, there are more questions than answers. The problem with 45 Years is that it offers us an immensely intriguing set-up but deprives us of any real resolutions. Maybe Geoff and Kate survived 45 years by simply not talking to each other. Prasanna Puwanarajah’s direction certainly suggests they live as separately as possible even when in the same room – there’s no sofa here in James Cotterill’s anodyne set, their separate chairs are always placed at a distance from each other. 45 Years is a delicate, repressed little play, more of an intellectual challenge than an emotional one. Any passion is firmly controlled – voices are rarely raised and tempers are rarely frayed. It’s all very artfully done but it doesn’t feel like real life.

Whilst the cream carpeted set reflects absolutely the blandness of Geoff and Kate’s marriage, Guy Hoare’s lighting design nicely accentuates critical plot development moments (such as they are). The device of having occasional dripping water from the ceiling could be construed as suggesting potential cracks in their relationship; or, as Mrs Chrisparkle more cynically suggested, it merely indicated that their roof was leaking.

Certainly, the powerhouse pairing of Gabriel Byrne and Geraldine James as Geoff and Kate provides the impetus that the play needs to see it through its full 80 minutes. Ms James is especially watchable, conveying Kate’s thought processes with tremendous clarity, including those moments when she decides she doesn’t want to think anymore. After all, she’s discovering that, just maybe, she has played second fiddle in Geoff’s affections for all these years. Gabriel Byrne’s Geoff is more eloquent in the things he doesn’t say, or perhaps those things he’s forced to say but he’d sooner keep hidden. Between them they do their best to bring to life the text’s intricate cross-shading of various hues of grey, frustrating an audience desperate for answers, but being true to the characters. Gillian Bevan plays their friend Lena, primarily there to add a little variety to the grey, but in every practical sense creating even more vacuum between Geoff and Kate.

This is a Marmite production. I came out of it a little frustrated by the storyline but very impressed with the acting and the fascinating premise. My three theatre companions all sported various levels of unimpressed, including the always damning that’s 80 minutes of my life I’m never getting back. The truth, as ever, is probably somewhere between the two. However, there are elements to the play that stretch the imagination thinner than the surface of a glacier. If that slide projector’s been up in the attic for 45 years, Kate is immensely incurious!

3-starsThree-sy Does it!

Review – Atonement, Chichester Festival Theatre, 17th June 2026

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Upfront confession: Mrs Chrisparkle and I were unfamiliar with both the novel and film of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, but our theatre companions, Professor and Mrs Plum, are both avid fans of the book and assured us that the play is very faithful to the original. Christopher Hampton has adapted the book for the stage; he had also authored the 2007 screen adaptation, so I guess he didn’t have more than a few tweaks to create the finished article. I jest of course.

In case, like us, you don’t know; set in 1935, 13-years-old Briony Tallis who lives at the big family mansion has fallen head over heels in love with Robbie who works as a gardener there. Robbie, however, is smitten with Briony’s adult sister Cecilia, and Briony is jealous of their relationship. At a family gathering, Briony’s cousin Lola is raped but does not see the face of her attacker, so cannot identify him for certain. Briony tells the police that she saw that it was Robbie. Robbie protests his innocence; but whom do the police believe? In the second Act, the story continues into World War Two with Cecilia and Briony now both nurses. Briony has concluded that she was wrong to declare Robbie was Lola’s attacker – but what can she do to atone?

This production is most definitely a game of two halves. Act One comes across as fragmented and uneven, a scattergun of scenes that appear to go nowhere, backed up by an ingenious but messy two-level staging that relies heavily on projections. Half an hour in and I was completely clueless as to what the play was all about; a cross between Upstairs Downstairs and The Go-Between that pussyfooted around without ever making a point. Act Two is the production’s saving grace, acquiring a fluidity and much better storytelling finesse. The twist at the end (IYKYK) doesn’t have the emotional punch that it does, I understand, in the book; but, nevertheless, comes across as a creative intellectual puzzle that no one would ever guess. And I’m certainly not going to give the game away.

I can see why it’s obviously a very successful book; one of those rare works that not only tells its own tale but at the same time analyses its own creation, like The French Lieutenant’s Woman, or Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, or indeed Spandau Ballet’s True. Such works have a strange superpower which demands that you sit up and pay attention. I wonder, however, if the first Act would be more convincing if it didn’t align so closely with the book; the story doesn’t unfold as organically as it should.

In fact, the storytelling – at least in the first Act – takes a back seat. I overheard a couple during the interval where a man couldn’t work out what had just happened and needed his wife to clarify that Lola had been raped. I think if that vital fact isn’t made clear, then somehow the direction is going AWOL. There were a few directorial choices in the first Act that made me bridle; is it necessary, for example, when Cecilia jumps into the water to retrieve the missing parts of the jug, for her to be wearing such a see-through top? And indeed, Robbie giving us a flash of his bare bum in the bath added absolutely nothing to the story and just made me feel like the actors were being somehow manipulated. The breaking of the Meissen vase was, by the way, one of the least convincing stage effects I’ve ever seen – a proper shocker given the resources that Chichester can access. Additionally, it’s a shame that uneven LED panels creating the big screen effect at the back of the stage mean that projections of written words, or translations from French, both of which are important for plot development, look wonky at times. It’s not a huge problem overall, but it does give you the impression that the production was done on the cheap.

There are, fortunately, some first-rate performances to take our minds off some of the more ham-fisted elements of the production. Debra Gillett livens up every scene with her entertaining portrayals of the snooty Aunt Emily Tallis and the authoritarian Sister Drummond. Jonathan Oliver gives a nicely judged portrayal of the police inspector and the adult Pierrot Quincey, James Backway is delightfully obnoxious as Paul Marshall but a convincingly supportive corporal Tommy Nettle, and Isabella Dempster excellent as the privileged and pompous young Briony. At our performance, the young brothers Jackson and Pierrot were played by Jacob Isaacs and Felix Kennedy who gave very believable, assured performances.

The final scene, set in 1999, is dominated by the elderly Briony, now a successful author, played with calm conviction by Jessica Turner. In the lead roles, Jasper Talbot is excellent as Robbie, particularly in his wartime and post-war scenes, suffering both physical and mental battle scars; and Miriam Petche is also very strong as Cecilia, a determined, forthright and unforgiving character, forced to confront injustice in a manner for which she was not educated.

The second Act is engrossing, revealing, and satisfying; it’s a shame that the first Act is such a slow and unengaging introduction to the meat of the story. Nevertheless, there’s much to enjoy and admire, and there’s no underestimating the brilliance of McEwan’s plot construction. Atonement continues at the Festival Theatre until Saturday 20th June.

3-starsThree-sy Does It!

Review – The Comedy Crate and the Northampton Comedy Festival present Nathan Caton and Hasan Al-Habib, Work in Progress, The Lab, Northampton, 15th June 2026

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Nathan Caton and Hasan Al-HabibThe Northampton Comedy Festival continues courtesy of those nice people at the Comedy Crate with another Work in Progress show, featuring Nathan Caton and Hasan Al-Habib in the cosy and intimate setting of The Lab. The venue only seats 35, so it’s a comfortable way of getting a really good comedy vibe without massive queues for the bar or loos at the interval. Win win.

Our first hour was spent in the company of Hasan Al-Habib, who’s preparing his Edinburgh show Stuck in the Middle (East) with You, on at the Pleasance Courtyard from 5 to 30 August. It’s a very funny title, and Hasan is a very funny man; warm, engaging and setting up an instant rapport with the crowd. Sporting an Iraq football World Cup t-shirt, his material for his new show has a surprisingly dark side, as it centres on his own domestic situation – in his words, family trauma.

After his parents’ divorce, Hasan’s homelife was dominated by his mother and his overbearing (also vicious) aunt. This is the story of how a cruel, uncontrollable influence in the household can be injurious to your health – both mental and physical. Sounds gloomy, doesn’t it? It isn’t, as Hasan has loads of comic observations en route, from his French-Iranian girlfriend to oncology, enhanced by his great gift for character voices which bring all his stories to life. He needs to polish up the funny side for the darker second part of his show, and give it a stronger conclusion, but I’m sure it’ll be in tip-top condition come August. That is, after all, the point of a work in progress show!

He’s also part of a second Edinburgh show, together with Aisha Amanduri, called 2 Muslim 2 Furious 3: Sharia? I Hardly Know Her! on daily between 6th and 30th August at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, which I’m sure will also be worth checking out.

Comedy CrateAfter the interval we welcomed Nathan Caton, someone we’ve seen many times before, who doesn’t have an Edinburgh show in the offing but is working up some material to take on tour next year. It’s been an astonishing thirteen years since we first saw a young Nathan at a Screaming Blue Murder where he was a breath of fresh air whom we could have watched all night. Now in his forties, he already beginning to feel old (I can tell him, there’s a long way to go yet!) Thus, a lot of his new material is based on feeling old and out of touch, including how on earth did he ever go to nightclubs, and what’s all this pronoun nonsense about? Talking of age, he has some gruellingly funny reminiscences of appearing on P&O ships, has a great solution to the problem of children using social media, and has a novel idea for appearing on Don’t Tell the Bride. He admitted there was no link between any of his ideas, he just wanted to find out what was funny and what wasn’t – but Mr C has such a deft delivery that everything comes across as funny!

A very enjoyable night of WIPs! And there’s plenty more of these to choose from on The Comedy Crate website.

Review – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 14th June 2026

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There are few more civilised ways of spending a Sunday afternoon than in the company of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with another of their matinee concerts. A pretty full Derngate auditorium welcomed first Erik Chapman, one of the First Violins, who introduced the afternoon’s concert to us, including the fact that the RPO has now been going for 80 years, and that they have been performing in Northampton for the last 24 of them – and long may it continue.

Our conductor for the afternoon was Ben Glassberg, winner of the 55th Besançon Young Conductors Competition in 2017 at the impressively young age of 23. Traditional in style but with a youthful touch (black t-shirt beneath his dinner jacket), he gets quite animated on the podium, but never outrageously so; just enough to coax the best out of the orchestra. And the orchestra was indeed on scintillating form!

The strings take control of the first piece, Joe Hisaishi’s Encounter for String Orchestra. He is the RPO’s current composer-in-association, and this remarkable six-minute work grabs your attention from the start and never lets up. Hisaishi orchestrates the piece so that the focus moves around different sections of the orchestra, one at a time, enhancing an old-fashioned stereo effect such as you might get in your car speakers, or on a 1970s stereogram! Stringed instruments play nineteen to the dozen,  left and right across the stage providing a constant audio thrill. One of the most exciting pieces I’ve heard from a living composer – I definitely now need to discover more of his work.

Still concentrating on the strings but offering a very different vibe, our next piece was Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op.47. Our soloist was the remarkable Clara-Jumi Kang, whose “Thunis” Stradivarius from 1702 produces a very distinctive, gritty sound that really gets under the skin of the notes on the stave and creates a powerful, vibrant experience. It’s a very complex piece and Ms Kang attacked those cadenzas like a demon, blistering her way through the movements to jaw-dropping effect, with incredible support from the orchestra. Slightly infra dig I know, but the audience couldn’t resist bursting into sustained applause at the end of the opening Allegro moderato movement because it was simply so exciting. A remarkable performance of a challenging piece.

After the interval, we returned for one of classical music’s big people pleasers – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In his opening introduction, Erik Chapman had asked us all to listen to it as if we were hearing it for the first time. There’s so much more to the piece than that iconic opening four-note statement, although that does indeed dominate the first movement. But the rest of the symphony is full of glorious tunes and inspiring sequences that sweep you away with the excitement of it all. The orchestra were, as always, superb, and it was a fantastic way to round off a terrific afternoon of classical music.

The new Royal Philharmonic season at the Royal and Derngate goes on sale on 19th June, give yourselves a treat and check it out!

Review – Comedy Underground, Royal and Derngate Northampton, 11th June 2026

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A slightly different format for a comedy mixed bill at the Royal and Derngate; originally to be held in the Royal Theatre with the catchy title Avalon Mixed Bill Comedy Night, it moved to the more suitable Underground venue, and retained the traditional structure of one host, two intervals and three acts. Why change a winning formula?

A change of billing may have necessitated a change of MC, because our host for the evening was the incredible Chloe Petts, and she’s just as assured an MC as she is a headliner, taking charge of proceedings with boundless energy, and striking up a terrific rapport with the crowd. The start of the World Cup gave her the opportunity to talk about her favourite subject (not Donald Trump, although…?) and she also got to know all about front row Adrian (fibre optics, Warhammer), the two sets of jolly neighbours from Cogenhoe, and guessed accurately that another set of four friends were into Amdram. One of our favourite comedians, she was on tip top form and it was a delight to have her in charge.

Our first act, and new to us, was Jonny Pelham; his mild-mannered stage persona only goes to emphasise how daring and boundary-pushing some of his material can be. Among his subjects were the pros and cons of being rich and stupid, the concept of the chicken nonce, and the benefits of being on one of the NHS’ most dubious waiting lists. Entertainingly self-deprecating, he’s certainly one of those comedians who rummage around where angels fear to tread, but he does it with a nicely understated aplomb. He’s also very funny, which is the main thing!

Next up, also new to us and in a change to the advertised line-up, was Tom Lawrinson, whose stage persona is hard to pin down – he’s like a slippery slice of mercury, flowing uncontrollably, flashy on the outside and with a lethal edge. He reminded me slightly of an early incarnation of Russell Brand, back when he was funny and not a menace; intriguing and just a little sinister. He also has some pretty daring material, oriented in family but with a surreal twist, such as how he still has a bedroom at the family home full of his stuff that he certainly doesn’t want around him now, but woe betide you if you tamper with it. He has some extremely funny material about buying sex toys at Big Tesco. A bold choice for Northampton; he might be more at home somewhere trendier and more Bohemian!

Our headliner was someone we only saw a few days ago but with (almost) totally different material – the irrepressible Glenn Moore. Seemingly effortless, although I know that an amazing amount of effort goes into creating his sets, the man is a wit machine who scarcely pauses for breath between each superbly creative idea. He’s the kind of comedian whose material is delivered so freshly and constantly topped up, that it’s impossible to recall his earlier themes because you’re already so engaged on the next one. That said, I totally guffawed at his “Voice Over Awards” sequence; and to wind up his act (and indeed the audience) he had one of the best parting lines ever, which I won’t spoil for you but still has me laughing out loud a day later. You can never go wrong with Glenn Moore; he’s one of the absolute greats.

Overall, a very enjoyable night of comedy and Avalon are welcome to bring another selection of their finest to Northampton whenever they want!

Review – Public the Musical, Curve Studio Theatre, Leicester, 10th June 2026

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We’ve all been inside a public toilet. This one’s not too bad; one of the three cubicles is out of action, there’s no soap in the dispenser, and with those stairs on entry you can take a running jump if you were hoping for disabled access. But it looks truly authentic. It even smells authentic. “Can you get piss-scented joss sticks?” queried Mrs Chrisparkle. Apparently you can.

Stroud and Notes have developed their hugely successful original 60-minute version of Public the Musical which received high acclaim at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe (including an enthusiastic five stars from me) into an extended 90-minute version without interval. The set up remains the same. Four strangers, with busy schedules and very different outlooks on life, end up locked in a public toilet with no means of escape: Andrew, an aggressive finance executive and essentially unreconstructed neanderthal where it comes to modern thinking; Zo, an activist and progressive content creator who knows how to be PC but not how to empathise; Laura, non-binary, preparing for their wedding tomorrow without enthusiasm and fearing the worst; and Finlay, desperate to keep his low-paid job, worried about his grandmother’s health and neurotic about his own.

In the original version, they knew they had to wait for an hour to be released. In the new version, they can’t alert anyone to their plight and have no idea how long they will be there – and it takes till next morning to regain their freedom. In that time, they have to get to know one another, and learn to live with each other’s opposing views, in order to survive the intervening hours. It’s a simple and brilliant concept, something everyone can imagine happening to them and wonder how they would cope.

It’s been three years in the additional development, and I can’t help but think it’s been overthought and overworked. What once was punchy and direct now feels drawn out and stuffed with padding. The extra 30 minutes hasn’t been put to use to discover more about the characters, but instead too much time is spent on largely irrelevant (albeit funny) sequences involving accidental drug taking, or a song about reading the graffiti on the walls. Indeed, by limiting the lock-in to a real time sixty minutes in the original production, it focussed in on their plight; having it open-ended almost puts off having to make decisions or alliances. The ending, when it comes, doesn’t point towards any solid conclusion to their experience; in fact, if ever a show ended with a whimper rather than a bang, it’s this.

Whilst all the characters go on a journey to an extent, it’s only Laura who undergoes true character development, understanding that their future lies not with a cheating partner but with being independent and strong. Andrew’s redemption and progression to becoming a fully paid-up member of the wokerati feels artificial and way too easy. In the shorter version of the show, his confusion over misgendering was not only genuinely funny but also bang on the nail as to why pronouns are important; here it seems to have much less significance. Zo already accepts that she has a long way to go, which is why she has weekly therapy. Finlay doesn’t seem to have a journey set up for himself, other than general survival.

Amy Jane Cook’s set is outstanding and hugely convincing. The songs are all well written and instantly entertaining if not memorable, and the performances by the four actors are all excellent. Only Ivano Turco, as Finlay, seems to have the occasional battle with the musicians to get his lyrics fully heard (something wrong with the balance there), and his character is the least well delineated. The best musical performance is by Matt Corner as Andrew, who delivers the best song of the show, Missing Pieces, with a superb combination of power and emotion. He’s also very effective at conveying Andrew’s argumentative and arrogant character. Grace Towning is very convincing as the always right (although always left) Zo, never allowing anyone to contradict her progressive assumptions; and Cole Dennis is fantastic at expressing all Laura’s self-doubt, their constant need to please, never putting themselves first until they finally see the light. It’s a very nice touch in the writing that none of the other characters even remotely guess that the wedding Laura is attending in France is theirs.

Perhaps we had too much expectation, having enjoyed the Fringe version so much, but the current incarnation of Public the Musical doesn’t really do itself justice, despite the best efforts of its engaging and talented cast. Still, there is a lot to enjoy, and with some further rewriting and pruning, it may still have a future!

3-starsThree-sy Does It!