Aliya Al-Hassan - Page 83

High Society has a chequered past as a stage show; even Richard Eyre failed at adapting Cole Porter's 1956 film. However, the last outing in 2015 at The Old Vic sparkled under Maria Friedman's direction and now the amateur theatre company BROS takes on the challenge at Richmond theatre.

Dealing With Clair was first staged thirty years ago at the Orange Tree Theatre. It now returns in a disturbingly well observed revival, still striking a very darkly comic and contemporary story that explores greed, morality and unsettling behaviour in the world of house buying.

The Habit of Art is a wonderfully funny and deeply moving revival of Alan Bennett's fantastic 2009 follow up to The History Boys. The play focuses on a fictional meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten in 1972, when Britten seeks out his old friend to combat his loneliness and ask advice about his new composition of Death in Venice. This meeting is framed as a play within a play where rehearsals are taking place; aged thesps Fitz and Henry play Auden and Britten respectively, musing on life, ageing, sex and art.

After a disappointing start to the new season with the bizarre Salome, the ENO fights back with a towering production of the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess. After nearly 80 years since its premiere, the folk opera receives its first staging by the ENO as a co-production with the Dutch National Opera and New York's Metropolitan Opera. And boy does it deliver!

In opera, there is often nothing more dangerous than female sexuality. Salome is a story where a woman's love becomes dangerous obsession, leading to bloodshed and necrophilia. From a feminist perspective, the story is challenging to say the least, but as Richard Strauss' opera, the result should be both brutal and beautiful. In this new production from the ENO, Australian Director Adena Jacobs makes her UK debut with a supposedly feminist perspective of the story that at times entertains, but more often baffles.

Immersive dining theatre seems to be in the in-thing in the capital at the moment. The result can be painful performances with even worse food, but happily Journey To The Underworld is an fun evening that combines a playful, if simplistic story, with excellent fodder.

Dementia is a difficult topic to tackle on stage, mainly due to the intensely internal struggle that the disease inflicts. Florian Zeller handled it beautifully in The Father and now Lisa Genova's novel Still Alice has been adapted into a sensitive yet hard-hitting play that confronts the brutal and seismic effects of the disease on a talented and relatively young woman and her family.

The English countryside in crisis, a couple grieving the death of their son and the fox as the deadly enemy of man. First seen to critical acclaim in 2011 at the Finborough Theatre, Dawn King's darkly compelling, dystopian play Foxhunter comes to the West End in a rather disappointing revival, lacking in sufficient tension or drama.

In choosing Jo Clifford's comic satire Losing Venice, Artistic Director Paul Miller has served up another unique offering at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre. Delightfully bonkers, idiosyncratic and totally eccentric; it is an entertaining, if not slightly confusing evening.

Take a feuding mother and daughter, a rebellious teenager granddaughter and throw in an outspoken lesbian feminist and you have the recipe for an unexpected treat at the Southwark Playhouse. Unexpected Joy is a new musical, written by Janet Hood and  Bill Russell, making its UK debut and follows a turbulent week in the life of one family. Hippy baby-boomer Joy is planning a memorial concert for her late singing and life partner Jump, who she never married. After inviting daughter Rachel and granddaughter Tamara, Joy must pluck up the courage to tell them that she is finally getting married the day after the concert. To a woman.

It's now three years since Kinky Boots strutted its way into the West End. Based on a true story, the show follows Charlie Price who turns his father's failing shoe factory into a success by making outrageous thigh-high boots, after a chance meeting with drag queen Lola. From Mid September, a new production heads off on tour around the country and 12 January 2019 will see the final West End Show.

As part of their 5th anniversary, the London Cabaret Club presents their new show Queen of Roses as a celebration of the reigns of Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II. Originally a pop club at the Arts Club in London, they now have a permanent home within the beautiful Bloomsbury Ballroom. It is a pity the quality of the show does not match up to its surroundings.

It's over 35 years since Little Shop of Horrors had its off-Broadway debut, but it remains a consistent choice for revival. Now Director Maria Aberg brings a new version to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre that indicates the show will be as successful as ever. Despite the incredulous story of hapless assistant-florist Seymour's discovery of a new plant that turns out to only thrive on human flesh, along with a dubious subplot of domestic violence, the production's musical numbers such as 'Suddenly, Seymour' and 'Skid Row' remain as catchy and vibrant as ever.

It is 1626 and a young d'Artagnan heads for Paris, determined to join the King's Musketeers. After befriending legendary Musketeers Athos, Aramis and Porthos, the four friends quickly become embroiled in a plot to ruin the honour of the Queen and threaten the stability of the entire French state. Set in atmospheric St Paul's Church in Covent Garden, a swashbuckling version of Alexander Dumas' classic tale The Three Musketeers is a captivating joy to watch.

As the first play to be funded by Bitcoin, the origins of Alex Oates' play Silk Road are as intriguing as the contents. For those who are unfamiliar with the name, Silk Road was the (now defunct) eBay of the dark web, where you could order any narcotic and have it delivered directly to your own door by an unsuspecting postman. Following an appeal on the forums of the real Silk Road for contributions towards the original production, an anonymous donor donated two Bitcoin that Oates reinvested to bring this captivating play to the Edinburgh Fringe and the Vault Festival in 2014. Now playing at the Trafalgar Studios, the play is as intense and absorbing as ever.

What would you do to achieve your dream of becoming an actor? How long would you wait for the call that will change everything? What would you suffer to be able to watch and wait for the dream to begin? Sacrificeis a new play, written by Co-Director of Ardent Theatre, Andrew Muir, to explore these ideas and challenges that young actors might come across as they try and make their breakthrough into the industry.

There are live performers who bring a charisma and immediate sense of warmth and charm to the stage, along with an astounding talent. Joe Stilgoe is one such performer; sliding onto the tiny stage of Ronnie Scott's, he looked like he had lived most of his life holding court in front of an audience.

Based on the hugely popular Dreamworks animation, Madagascar The Musical brings the much-loved film to life in an energetic whirl of funky dance routines and quirky characters. After becoming disillusioned with his life in a Manhattan zoo, Marty the zebra escapes to see the outside world. Fearful for his safety, his friends Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo follow him, but are captured and sent to a Kenyan nature reserve. After the boat they are travelling on capsizes, they become stranded on strange and madcap island of Madagascar where they meet King Julien XIII and his tribe of lemurs.

Fringe festivals can be places where performances are to be endured, rather than enjoyed. Fortunately, they can also showcase absorbing and innovative work. As part of Playmill, the King's Head Theatre's exciting season of brand new work, two new productions demonstrate both great potential and thoughtful insight.

To present the world premiere of a re-discovered play written by Great War veteran and poet Robert Graves in the centenary year of the First World War is something of a coup for the tiny Finborough Theatre. But It Still Goes On is an exploration of familial and romantic  relationships played out in a society still reeling from the effects of the war. It features lust, infidelity, repressed homosexuality and mental illness.