Louis Train - Page 4

'It's not always easy for foreigners to get to London,' the theatre's general administrator told me. 'They asked us a lot of questions: Who are you? What are you here for?' But, he pointed out, 'people in every country love Russian theatre.'

A bird, a bunny, and a baby; a shoemaker and a clock and a critter on a walk. Waltz of the Hommelettes is a breezy, charming distraction of a play, 50 minutes of children's illustrations brought to life through costume, props, and puppetry.

The Sun Line is currently playing at Sadler's Wells. Russian stage director and actor Viktor Ryzhakov discusses the show, as well as the universality of theatre, the relationship between art and politics, and how he's come to understand the world.

When I first saw The Sun Line, at The Meyerhold Centre, in Moscow, I was so jolted by its aggressively inventive technique that I started recommenidng it to all my friends.

In Trevor Nunn's extraordinary new production of Fiddler on the Roof, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a dimension of intimacy and immediacy recasts a familar show, dragging it, sometimes tearfully, always beautifully, closer to the audience than it has ever been.

Not many people know the name Claude-Michel Schonberg, but everybody knows his music: as the composer of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, Claude-Michel is present in everyone's playlist, in a songbook on everyone's piano, and in every karaoke lineup. Last night, he sat down with journalist Edward Seckerson to talk about his life, work, and inspiration, and the projects that didn't quite make it.

Guys and Dolls has come to the Mill at Sonning, and brought with it all the sleazy music, flashy dancing, and good, clean fun you could want in an evening.

Chris's new book, Rise Up!, looks at Broadway and American society from Angels in America to Hamilton. In an interview with fellow critic Matt Wolf, at the Bloomsbury Institute yesterday, Chris talked about what makes a show successful, how the theatre has changed in American and Britain, and what we can expect to see in the future.

Put simply, Ruby's caricaturistic portrayal of Golda Meir, the former Prime Minister of Israel, does great injustice to the source material, and blends comedy and melodrama so unevenly as almost to be making fun of Mrs Meir and the country she led through war.

Now, the London Musical Theatre Orchestra have added their own spin, mounting Girlfriends as a concert with only minimal narration, rather than a fully produced musical. It seems they've found the winning formula: LMTO's Girlfriends is musical dynamite, a burst of energy and passion and very, very good singing.

On November 11, 2018, people everywhere will commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One with events, speeches, prayers, and moments of silence. At The Progress Theatre in Reading, a special performance of Birdsong, Rachel Wagstaff's adaptation of the novel by Sebastian Faulks, is being mounted to commemorate the lives lost to the war, and to raise money for British Legion. I sat down with director Steph Dewar, who told me why Birdsong is special to her, what her cast has done to prepare, and how theatre can help keep history alive.

Troilus and Cressida begins with a thunder of drums that knocks the programme out of your hands.

There is a kind of macabre fun in Body Worlds. Some of the plastinates are posed majestically; others demonstrate the strength and dynamism of the human body. Still others seem like they're just having a lark. Walking through the dark and winding corridors of the exhibit is a bit like visiting the lab of Edgar Allan Poe.

The pupil comes prepared for her lesson: pens, notepad, ruler. The professor apologises for being late. The lesson begins. And then, the lesson really begins. In Matthew Parker's clever new production of Ionesco's play, everything is in order but nothing makes sense.

On the stage of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre, Evgeny Pisarev has built a whole world out of lush satin bed-sheets, elegant lace gowns, the flash of steel blades, and hapless declarations of romance. The world of Shakespeare in Love, which made its Russian debut this May, is decadent and fantastical; it flaps around in the mercy of whim but is anchored in place by drama.

Just So, at the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, is so bewildering and bright it's hard to write about

The Red is primordial and pretty, historical and surreal. It embraces contradictions and holds them warmly, tightly, tenderly.

At the Sobytie Theatre, you can subject yourself to a visceral, minimalistic Crime and Punishment; at the Fomenko Workshop, War and Peace: The Start of the Novel is grand, literary, and patient.

As far as passion plays go, this one may be the most entertaining; it certainly has the best music, the best dancing, and the most partial nudity (yes, really).

Evgeny Pisarev's office is eclectic but organized. Photos from past productions hang on the walls; they reflect his twenty-plus years as a fixture of Moscow's theatre scene. In 2010, when Evgeny was named artistic director of the Pushkin Drama Theatre, he became the youngest person in Moscow to hold that title. At our meeting to discuss the Russian premiere of Shakespeare in Love, he still had a youthful, mischievous glint in his eyes.