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

Posted on July 10, 2026 by therealchrisparkle

It’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 11^th, 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 5^th September, then resumes its run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in October.

Four They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Anything Goes, Sheffield Crucible, 3rd January 2015

Posted on January 12, 2015 by therealchrisparkle

If you’ve followed the first part of our annual post-Christmas Sheffield shindig, you’ll know that Mrs Chrisparkle and I, together with Lady Duncansby and her butler William enjoyed a riotous afternoon of panto comedy with Dick Whittington. After hotel check-in, a brief nap and woofing down a Café Rouge Salad Paysanne and Coupe Rouge, it was time to return to the Crucible to see Daniel Evans’ production of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. About ten years ago, Mrs C and I took the Dowager Mrs C to see Trevor Nunn’s version at Drury Lane. I think she quite enjoyed it – I think we both found it a trifle dull. In many respects, it’s the kind of musical I usually don’t like much – lots of set pieces, very slight story, a stop-starty structure; designed to be entertaining for its two and a half hours duration, then disappearing into the ether once it’s over – pure stage candy floss. I like my musicals to have a bit more oomph, some depth, and some tragedy mixed in with the comedy.

In a nutshell, Anything Goes is the simple tale of person a) being in love with b) but b) is engaged to c) and d) quite fancies a) too. A)’s boss e) is travelling to England on board the SS American but so are b) and c) and even though a) might well lose his job over it, he doesn’t get off the ship so that he can tell b) how much he loves her. Meanwhile f) and g) are on the run from the law and the whole lot of them end up on board ship; and 165 minutes later, they all live happily ever after. Not a lot to it really. To be fair, there is a fascinating sub-theme running through the show regarding the cult of celebrity – which is here seen as very amoral. When a) is suspected of being Snake-Eyes Johnson (Public Enemy No 1), rather than be terrified of him or want him captured and taken off the ship, the passengers all want his autograph and he gets to sit on the Captain’s Table. But when he is revealed as just simple a), he goes from hero to zero in a split-second. Apart from that, it’s a plot as slim as Mr Creosote’s wafer-thin mint.

The thing is, Cole Porter knew how to write a choon. Depending on your definitions (and taste), this show contains at least six show-stoppers, five of them before the interval, which makes for a slight sense of imbalance. I Get A Kick Out Of You was one the first Cole Porter songs I loved – and that was because of Gary Shearston’s moody 1974 pop single, remember that? It’s the first song you hear in Anything Goes and it never feels to me like a show-opener, because it’s too mid-tempo, too I’ve considered the situation and this is the position I’ve arrived at and not enough opening gambit. But it’s a terrific song. Actually, I’m not really sure if any of the songs have that much connection with their alleged role in the show, they’re much more like individual celebrations of song-and-danciness. You could pick them up and plonk them down anywhere you like and they’d still work. And that’s actually what has happened. A number of them were originally in other Porter musicals – for example, Friendship was written for DuBarry Was A Lady, and It’s De-Lovely for Red, Hot and Blue – they’re generic musical numbers that can slot in anywhere. It’s no wonder you just get that slight feeling that the actual show structure is somehow compromised.

I may be giving you the impression that I didn’t enjoy this show very much, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s an outstanding production. It all looks and sounds so ravishing that no one could be immune to its charms. The cast play their parts with such verve and gusto that you get carried along on a sea of delight that masks any weaknesses in the plot.

Richard Kent’s design is awash with primary colours and both Mrs C and I admired the very clever curve of the flooring upwards at the back of the stage to suggest the length of the ship carrying on way into the distance. Then there’s Alastair David’s choreography. Once again he has come up trumps with some incredible set pieces, just like he did with My Fair Lady and Oliver! The extended tap-dancing sequence to accompany the title song just before the interval is simply superb. It brings out the best in the ensemble boys and girls – extraordinarily good throughout the show – and it’s one of those theatrical moments that just lifts you to a new high; their energy transfers to the audience and fills you with more sweetness than any air freshener.

The whole cast are uniformly excellent. I’ve not seen Debbie Kurup before – she plays Reno Sweeney (d if you’re following the synopsis in paragraph 2), the nightclub singer who gets caught up with all sorts of shenanigans assisting her pal Billy (a) and ends up marrying posh nobility in the form of Evelyn (c). She is a fantastic entertainer. Terrific stage presence, wonderful voice, great dancer and incredibly watchable. Surely she will become a big star one day. I particularly loved her spirited rendition of Blow Gabriel Blow, another song you could more or less scoop up from any lesser show and plant as a show-stopper wherever you like. Matt Rawle plays Billy Crocker, the young Wall Street broker in love with Hope Harcourt (b) – he’s also a very talented musical performer whom we really enjoyed as Che in Evita; he glides effortlessly through this role, pattering his way expertly through You’re The Top and It’s De-Lovely.

Zoe Rainey – excellent in the Royal and Derngate’s Dancing at Lughnasa in 2013 – makes for a stylish, emotional Hope, making the best of her engagement to Evelyn and attempting to parry the ripostes of her mother Evangeline, played by Jane Wymark, on splendid form as usual. Then there are three very funny chaps: Stephen Matthews is a brilliant Evelyn – the epitome of the show’s Wodehousian origins (P. G. co-wrote the original book) – his great comic timing working wonders with the song The Gypsy in Me (which was originally sung by Hope – see how the songs just get criss-crossed or mixed and matched). Simon Rouse gives good bluster as Elisha Whitney (e – hope you’re keeping up) with some nice physical comedy when he gets his glasses nicked and holds out hope for a passionate experience with Evangeline. And Hugh Sachs gives a thoughtfully understated comic performance as Moonface Martin, Public Enemy No 13 and (f).

We loved Alex Young as Erma (g) – a real gutsy performance, full of fun. She really shines in this kind of role, just as she did in High Society a couple of years back. She’s obviously made for Cole Porter. And there’s another fantastic performance from Bob Harms as the Captain (we saw him in Pippin when he was understudying Matt Rawle and he was sensational) –a great song and dance man with a terrific feeling for the comedy. If you’re old enough to remember Edward Mulhare in The Ghost and Mrs Muir, I’m sure that’s the look he was trying to achieve.

Enormous fun, performed with panache and flair throughout, this is has sure-fire winner written all the way through it like a stick of rock. After it leaves Sheffield the SS American is embarking on an extensive UK tour till October 2015. For sheer enjoyment this is hard to beat – I predict a lot of happy theatregoers this year!

Review – Pippin, Menier Chocolate Factory, 22nd January 2012

Posted on January 26, 2012 by therealchrisparkle

This is the first proper London revival of the Stephen Schwartz/ Roger O. Hirson musical since Bob Fosse directed it in 1973. According to the programme notes, this production is trying to get the show recognised again as a mature, adult, dark piece, and away from its legacy of being only suitable for school productions. All I can say is, welcome back Pippin, you’ve been absent from our stage too long. This is a brilliantly inventive production and is performed by a first rate cast.

One of the strengths of the Menier is its amazing versatility as an acting space. You can set it the right way round, the wrong way round, sideways, in the middle, in traverse; it wouldn’t surprise me one day if they stage something upside down. This time they have created a walkway between the steps down from the bar to the point of entry to the auditorium, and decked it out like a rather geeky, nerdy student’s bedroom. And just on your way in there is the student himself, sitting at a TV screen, playing a computer game. It’s not over high-tech; there’s something of the 1990s Atari to it all.

And then you enter the auditorium, and the stage is alive with flashing lights and retro green cursor lines, and you realise you are in the middle of the computer game. How is this going to frame the story of Pippin, you ask yourself. Comfortably, as it happens. Pippin is the elder son of Charlemagne who rebelled against his father and was banished as a consequence. The 1973 production began with a troupe of actors, under the Leading Player, who introduces a new actor to play the part the eponymous boy prince searching for fulfilment. With cunning modernisation, the Leading Player is now in charge of a computer game, and the boy prince role is to be played by the young lad in his bedroom at home who we walked past earlier. Sometimes when a gifted director decides to update a show, it can be disappointing when the new framework only partly fits the original story. For me, this reincarnation of Pippin worked the full 100%.

The set itself is suitably creative in its own right. What appears to be grey stone, that nicely represents castle walls, is actually littered with gaps and holes so that the cast can appear and disappear with sudden ease. Lighting effects on the walls serve to enhance the scenery and give it additional depth and suggestion of different locations, and all this works really well with the computer game scenario.

Pippin himself is perfectly cast and played by Harry Hepple. As the slightly naïve prince who gets emboldened by ambition and then depressed by reality, he manages to be both prince and game player at the same time and conveys both aspects of the character convincingly. His singing is also amazing, we were both wowed by his voice.

He also really communicates the character’s wannabe heroism and decency, that becomes the inspiration for him to overthrow his father Charlemagne, a bullying emperor enthusiastically played by Ian Kelsey, who portrays him as a wide boy, lording it over his sons and wife whilst looking for a bit of slap and tickle wherever he can get it. There’s a strong emotional scene when Pippin does actually kill his father – but later he regrets it as his governing skills aren’t that great, and I loved how the death gets undone.

Fastrada, Charlemagne’s wife, is played with urban charm by Frances Ruffelle, who is also a great singer and does a wonderful blend of coquettish and coarse. You could imagine she would give as good as she gets when she’s alone with Charlemagne. She invests the role with great humour and gives a superb performance.

The role of Berthe, Pippin’s grandmother, has been shared by various actresses during the run, and the performance we saw was the last time Caroline Quentin took the role. It’s actually just one scene and one song, but she delivers it with huge panache and got a deservingly great cheer from the audience at the end of it. She’s such a spirited communicator. The song is great fun too and we all had to sing along with it, verging into pantomime. It’s time to start livin’ and time to take a little from this world we’re given. Hugely entertaining.

I was looking forward to seeing Matt Rawle in the role of the Leading Player as we saw him in Evita as Che and he was excellent. Unfortunately he must have been off sick as his role was played by his understudy, Bob Harms. What a find! Mr Harms carries off the role splendidly. He’s a great singer and dancer, and commands the stage in his role of MD. When the characters start to go off script in the second act you really feel his anger and frustration at losing control. If you saw Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, there’s definitely something of the Major-Domo character about him. We thought he was great and One To Watch.

The second half of the show is slightly imbalanced as it concentrates on the relationship between Pippin and Catherine, a partly demure but often saucy Carly Bawden, and her slightly troubled son Theo played by Stuart Neal. The domestic situation that Pippin finds hard to cope with is indeed a little one-dimensional in comparison with the over-the-top antics of Charlemagne’s court, who you rather miss. Nevertheless the songs are beautifully sung and make an ironic contrast with Pippin’s tangible descent into misery.

I won’t tell you how it ends but suffice to say, the exit from the auditorium when you’re going home is precisely the same as when you first entered but with one vital change – a fantastic attention to detail that made me laugh on the way out.

It’s all superbly performed and sung, the music sounds superb, and Chet Walker’s recreations of Bob Fosse’s choreography are magnificent – edgy as Chicago and sexier than Cabaret. Definitely one of the best productions we’ve seen at the Menier and it should surely transfer somewhere after the run ends on 25th February. Go and enjoy!