Reviews

Producer Mike Todd’s famous quip after Oklahoma!’s New Haven tryout in March 1943, “No gags, no gals, no chance,” proved to be spectacularly wrong when the show went on to win rave reviews, a Pulitzer Prize and a run of 2,212 performances on Broadway. Not only did it change the face of musical theatre, Oklahoma! became musical theatre’s DNA.

Turning Dylan Thomas's radio play into a visually satisfying drama is a stiff challenge, all the greater in retaining the poetic narration as the action and dialogue unfold; it would be understandable if a director determined the narration and the dialogue to be mutually exclusive. But Duncan Ley's translation of the work to the stage brings it to dramatic life.

One at a time it’s revealed that there’s no electricity, the phones, intercom and lifts are out, the internet is down, there’s no network on the mobiles, no radio or TV, and the batteries in the flashlight are dead.

Not good when you live in a 47th floor apartment and don’t even remember what stairs are!

Is it just a massive catastrophic blackout, showing just how reliant we’ve become on technology, or is this, literally, the end of the world?

This truly enjoyable sendup of the Eurovision Song Contest and of several famous European entries into it had the audience engaged and laughing throughout.  Although by and large the competition's performances (of which there are a great variety) were sung (and danced!) more than competently, the real entertainment in them lay in their comedic moves and lyric suggestiveness.  Jordan Kelly's tight, sometimes very subtle, choreography added a rare kind of comedy to the entire satire, and the contest