Franco Milazzo - Page 9

Franco Milazzo

The Daily Beast were kind enough to call me "a man with an encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s underground culture" and I have been editing/reviewing stage productions since 2010 for some of London's biggest websites covering theatre, opera, dance, cabaret, immersive and everything in between.






Review: DON GIOVANNI, Royal Opera House
Review: DON GIOVANNI, Royal Opera House
September 14, 2022

With the opening night delayed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II and coming at a period of national mourning, this latest revival of Kasper Holten’s take on Don Giovanni is as cathartic an experience as it gets.

Review: SALOME, Royal Opera House
Review: SALOME, Royal Opera House
September 12, 2022

If you thought horror as a genre wasn’t something opera dabbled in, think again. The fourth outing for David McVicar’s 2008 production of Richard Strauss’ is as bloody and gruesome as it gets in Covent Garden.

Review: THE TIGER LILLIES: THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND, Wilton's Music Hall
Review: THE TIGER LILLIES: THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND, Wilton's Music Hall
September 11, 2022

The Last Days Of Mankind is undeniably one of the strangest plays few people have heard of. Written by Karl Kraus during and about the First World War, this docudrama which ends in a Martian invasion is rich pickings for the dark cabaret trio. @wiltonmusichall @thetigerlillies

Review: THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, BWV998, Sadler's Wells
Review: THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, BWV998, Sadler's Wells
September 7, 2022

Complex chords are paired with seminal choreography in The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 from choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

Review: NOT F**KIN' SORRY, Soho Theatre
Review: NOT F**KIN' SORRY, Soho Theatre
September 6, 2022

As the title suggests, the crip-cabaret crew Not Your Circus Dog collective are definitely, truly and utterly not f**king sorry. Anyone leaving this show not even slighty more aroused, enlightened or happier than when they arrived should be checked for signs of life.

Review: REUBEN KAYE: THE BUTCH IS BACK, Soho Theatre
Review: REUBEN KAYE: THE BUTCH IS BACK, Soho Theatre
September 6, 2022

Those new to Reuben Kaye should be warned that there are few holy cows that he is unwilling to turn into beefburgers. Sexuality, gender, race, politics, economics and religion are all grist to his mill. Imagine if legendary comedians Bill Hicks and George Carlin had a bastard child in the shape of a glitterbomb and you'll have some idea of what to expect.

Review: VENUS, CUPID, FOLLY, & TIME: 30 YEARS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY, The Barbican Centre
Review: VENUS, CUPID, FOLLY, & TIME: 30 YEARS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY, The Barbican Centre
September 2, 2022

Celebrating thirty years of cerebral pop, The Divine Comedy return to the Barbican to pick up where they left off in 2020.

Interview: Laura Corcoran talks about WONDERVILLE: 'It's only just getting started'
Interview: Laura Corcoran talks about WONDERVILLE: 'It's only just getting started'
August 16, 2022

With a new venue and a new emphasis, variety show Wonderville has returned to London this month following on from its debut season last year at the Palace Theatre.

Review: THE BLACK CAT CABARET PRESENTS HALCYON NIGHTS, Crazy Coqs
Review: THE BLACK CAT CABARET PRESENTS HALCYON NIGHTS, Crazy Coqs
August 12, 2022

Few people looking back at this season of scorching heatwaves, political upheaval and financial crisis would label it “halcyon” but, in a small room under Piccadilly Circus, an idyll of music and cabaret can be found thanks to this welcome slice of old school Hollywood pizzazz.

Review: PHANTOM PEAK, London
Review: PHANTOM PEAK, London
August 4, 2022

Phantom Peak, a Wild West-themed town with robots and no shortage of mysteries, may sound a tad like Westworld – but that’s where the comparison ends.

Review: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, Gillian Lynne Theatre
Review: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, Gillian Lynne Theatre
July 29, 2022

Amid a summer season positively snowed under with escapist fare, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe fits right in. Admittedly, dipping into the wintery landscape of Narnia just after a British heatwave is a bit of an ask for the imagination but, if any production could do it, this is it.

Review: L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, Arcola Theatre
Review: L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, Arcola Theatre
July 27, 2022

Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, revived here by Ensemble OrQuesta as part of the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn season, is a highly controversial and disputed work of baroque opera which flips the script on contemporary morality.

Review: BRIEFS: BITE CLUB, Southbank Centre
Review: BRIEFS: BITE CLUB, Southbank Centre
July 25, 2022

It’s taken three years but the Briefs cabaret crew have finally returned from Down Under with not just a new show but, with Sahara Beck and her band, a new direction too.

Review: CLOSER, Lyric Hammersmith
Review: CLOSER, Lyric Hammersmith
July 21, 2022

It has been a quarter-century since Patrick Marber's Closer debuted, but this play, in which everyone screws everyone in every sense of the word, has lost absolutely none of its epic brutality.

Review: SH!T-FACED SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, Leicester Square Theatre
Review: SH!T-FACED SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET, Leicester Square Theatre
July 18, 2022

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare doesn’t take itself too seriously and puts bawdy entertainment at the top of the agenda; whether Shakespeare himself would give the thumbs up (or perhaps some other finger) is a question for another day.

Review: PEAKY BLINDERS: THE RISE, Camden Garrison
Review: PEAKY BLINDERS: THE RISE, Camden Garrison
July 15, 2022

Get your flat-cap ready and brush up your Brummie accent: the immersive Peaky Blinders: The Rise has arrived in London.

Review: ANYTHING GOES, The Barbican
Review: ANYTHING GOES, The Barbican
July 14, 2022

No, no, it isn’t déjà vu: Anything Goes really is back at the Barbican less than a year after it last opened there.

Review: YUMMY: ICONIC, Underbelly Festival
Review: YUMMY: ICONIC, Underbelly Festival
July 13, 2022

Australian drag variety show Yummy: Iconic features of quintet of performers dishing out an upbeat blend of dance, circus, burlesque and as much as lipsyncing as they can cram in. Will this tasty mix of talents leave you satiated or craving something more substantial?

Review: A-TYPICAL RAINBOW, Turbine Theatre
Review: A-TYPICAL RAINBOW, Turbine Theatre
July 11, 2022

Starring and written by JJ Green, A-Typical Rainbow has a particular mission: to give the audience a mind’s eye view of what it was like for him to be an autistic child and young man. For better and for worse, it very much succeeds in its mission.

Review: REDEMPTION, The Big House
Review: REDEMPTION, The Big House
July 6, 2022

A gut-punching slab of immersive theatre that takes no prisoners may be just what the doctor ordered in these interesting times. The Big House’s Redemption doesn’t have the most enticing of titles but this layered drama takes place in a unique environment and punches well above its weight.



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