Hairspray - The Broadway Musical 

Milton Keynes Theatre 4th April - 9th April 2016

The story finds a plus-size, beehived white girl, Tracy Turnblad, played by Freya Sutton, leading a local black civil resistance campaign.

This show lumps together all differences – race, sexuality and size.  A straight laced TV producer Velma von Tussle (Claire Sweeney) won't let Tracy dance on the Corney Collins Show. The producer von Tussle is determinedly respectable, her hair neatly curled in an oh so perfect way, as is her squeaky clean daughter Amber.

On the flip side, Tracy's mum, Edna, who has been played by the likes of John Travolta and Michael Ball, is such a panto dame! Matt Rixon as Edna has a voice is like a foghorn and looks like Fred Flintstone in a frock! Rixon was hilarious, as was her loving husband Wilbur (Blue Peter's Peter Duncan) The two of them on stage singing "You're Timeless to Me" was truly fantastic and received rapturous applause.

A mention has to go to Brenda Edwards (X Factor contestant 2005) as Motormouth Maybelle, Edwards was simply superb, to quote a fellow member of the audience "Wow...Wow...Wow!!"

The live band on stage were fantastic in their own right, musical director Liam Dunachie lead the way!

If you’re not on your feet and dancing at the end of this feel good musical, then I suggest you check your pulse!  It's infectious, just watching the audience around me enjoying the show made me smile!

The Milton Keynes Theatre audience needed little encouragement to be on their feet and clapping along to "Can’t Stop the Beat" and after that, a standing ovation for a brilliant show and a very talented cast.

Brighten up your day with a theatre visit to catch this brilliant show!

Enjoy!

Lily B x

To book tickets go to  www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre (fees apply)

WNO The Barber of Seville - Milton Keynes Theatre 

Rossini's score for The Barber of Seville fizzes with life and wit and with the extra material to generate more laughs, it just makes this production more of a triumph!

The Welsh National Opera's new production by director Sam Brown's with Kelley Rouke's English translation of Sterbini's original 1816 libretto is an updated, no holes barred translation that ensures that this production of The Barber of Seville is nothing short of brilliant.

Featuring Ralph Koltai's striking sets, this staging shows no shortage of colour - the traditional barber pole strips echoed within the costumes.

The opening is a visual feast - the well known overture is accompanied by a balletic display of giant scissors snipping away in perfect unison with the chorus all clad in black.



This version of The Barber of Seville combines both warmth and wit.  A memorable moment is the slow motion brawl, with the chorus arriving on stage in drag brandishing rolling pins and saucepans - in a very Monty Python esque way.  It had the desired effect on the audience, with instantaneous laughter igniting around the auditorium.

The pace is fast and never lets up from the start.  Everyone is carried along by a whirlwind of crazy disguises, twists and turns and very unlikely interventions.

The Barber opens with one of the best loved of all overtures, with Figaro (Nicholas Lester) letting us the audience know he is societies problem solver. The lovely Rosina (Claire Booth) does well, however her lower range didn't project at all, which was a shame.

The sophistication of the singing was superb throughout although I felt that the translation to English meant that some of the arias were "lost in translation".

With James Southall conducting, the pace of the music never falters, keeping up well with the mayhem on stage.

At times it seemed more of a musical than opera, however, the production was very much appreciated by the audience.

Bravo WNO!

Lily B x

Chicago - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre
14th - 19th March 2016

This has to be my favourite musical...What a buzz to see it again! I love this show and have seen it many times in London and here in Milton Keynes.  

This award winning musical is totally unique, the whole show is full on - everyone is on stage, not many costume changes with very little set and props. The cast is sat in the wings in full view of the audience and the superb jazz band staggered in tiers centre stage, all of which adds to this productions uniqueness.

This production is slick, sassy and so good...from the brilliant musicians to the very last member of the cast - the vocals are spot on, the dance routines nailed to perfection and the energy....it's totally electric.

Don't expect the film version - this is very different. However, the story is true to the film - bad girls Velma Kelly (Sophie Carmen-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Hayley Tamaddon) meet in prison awaiting the outcome of their murder cases.  Both in competition for the "stardom" that comes with being a client of top attorney Billy Flynn (Eastenders star John Partridge) It's fast moving and the scenes roll sleekly into each other.

X Factor winner Sam Bailey and real life ex-prison warden as Matron "Mama" Morton was brassy and well cast, her vocals were top notch. Coronation Street's Hayley Tamaddon as Roxie was an absolute star, her stage presence shone through and Sophie Carmen-Jones as Velma was sexy, and played the part superbly.  The two together were dynamite!

Partridge as Billy Flynn has such big boots to fill....Marti Pellow, Jimmy Osmond to name just two have played the part - but John Partridge rose to the challenge and was superb.  Very strong vocal, handsome and charismatic, perfect for the part!

Search this production out...come to Milton Keynes to see it...it will "Razzle Dazzle" you - five stars all the way!

Enjoy!

Lily B X

Tickets are on sale now!  Book at Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office, call 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee) or visitwww.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)

Goodnight Mister Tom -  Milton Keynes Theatre

Tuesday 1st - Saturday 5th March 2016

The Olivier award-winning Chichester Festival Theatre production of Goodnight Mister Tom returns!

Now a modern classic, Michelle Magorian’s wonderfully uplifting tale is brought gloriously to life in this magical stage adaptation by David Wood.

Set during the dangerous build up to the Second World War, Goodnight Mister Tom follows young William Beech, who is evacuated to the idyllic English countryside and forges a remarkable and heart warming friendship with the elderly recluse, Tom Oakley. All is perfect until William is suddenly summoned by his mother back to London.

Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and commended for the Carnegie Medal, Goodnight Mister Tom is now a world-wide literary favourite and BAFTA award-winning TV film (starring John Thaw), and continues to inspire audiences and bring generations together.

Tickets are on sale now!  Book at Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office, call 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee) or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)

An Inspector Calls - Milton Keynes Theatre February 2016

JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry is definitely a classic.  So much so, that it's a novel that has become part of the G.C.S.E English curriculum.

Set before the First World War, this is a thrilling tale of an upper class family celebrating their successes within their warmly lit decadent capsule of privilege but once the inspector has called they are riddled with guilt and self-pity...



The Birling family home is precariously perched on stilts from which they are slowly forced to descend into the desolate wasteland beneath by the unexpected visitor.  Their house of cards is about to come crashing down around them.

A young girl had been brought to the infirmary after taking her own life by drinking disinfectant - the inspector calling to divulge reasons for each one of the Birling's having a hand in pushing this sad and desperate girl to her death...or did they?

There are good performances all round, but Hamish Riddle as Eric Birling making his theatre debut was outstanding.

There is not an interval in this play to keep the suspense and momentum going - it keeps you enthralled for the whole time.  There are many highly charged moments, however, the steely Inspector Goole brings such tension throughout.  Goole's anger building in a brilliantly controlled performance by Liam Brennan.

The Inspector picks away at each of the characters with his implacable knowledge.  Is Goole an imposter or a supernatural manifestation of a higher ethical court?

"We don't live alone...We are members of one body.  We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come, when if men will not learn that lesson, they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish."

Fantastic theatre, five stars all the way.

Lily B x

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Milton Keynes Theatre 

A beautiful, Gothic telling of Sleeping Beauty set against fantastic sets and the music of Tchaikovsky.

Like any traditional fairy tale it begins with “Once upon a time…..”

The Royal couples’ neglect of expressing their gratitude for their newly born daughter leads to events involving vampire fairies, betrayals, a virgin sacrifice, a tennis party, abduction and a palace gardener waiting around for a 100 years for his one true love.

This tale moves from late Victorian period, through Edwardian times to the present day, exceptionally cleverly done.

A fantastically glamorous set and costumes designed by the legendary Les Brotherston added to the music of Tchaikovsky, amazingly talented dancers - this was totally brilliant from start to finish.

The baby Aurora produces much laughter from the audience in the first Act  – very cleverly manipulated by blacked-out puppeteers.  Although I did find the baby a little bizarre and creepy at the end when Leo and Aurora consummate their marriage and all fly off to live "Happily Ever After..."

A travelator plays an intrinsic part giving a powerful sense of movement to the dramatic entrances and exits. 

I loved the sleepwalkers’ scene with the sleepwalkers weaving across the stage with arms outstretched then, unable to control their need for sleep, drop effortlessly to the moving floor.

The one disappointment is not to have a live orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s manipulated score.

Sleeping Beauty has all of Bourne’s trademark moves – especially in the nightclub scene.  Matthew Bourne never disappoints.

Lily B X