Dorothy Johnstone
The Music Man
★★★★☆ Massive
Huge production numbers and constant energy dominate Southern Light’s The Music Man at the Festival Theatre. Undeniably frothy and not a little silly, it has a scale and magnetism that draw the audience in.
The Lady Vanishes
★★★☆☆ Magnificent hokum
The Lady Vanishes provides for an entertaining evening up at the Church Hill Theatre, where the Threepenny Theatricals draw on 1930s English sensibilities for this train-set period thriller.
Calendar Girls
★★★★☆ Bittersweet
Blackout Productions’ Calendar Girls, at the Church Hill Theatre to Saturday, combines affable comic familiarity with enough grit and sadness to convince.
The Herd
★★★☆☆ Ruminating
There is plenty to chew over in Threepenny Theatricals studied production of The Herd, by Rory Kinnear, at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday.
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Threepenny Theatricals return with The Herd
Amateur company Threepenny Theatricals return to the Church Hill Theatre this week with four performances of actor Rory Kinnear’s first play, The Herd, from Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 September 2022.
Enchanted April
★★★★☆ Accomplished
There is a wistful nostalgia almost built in to Threepenny Theatricals’ Enchanted April, which is at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday.
The Hollow
★★★☆☆ Stately:
Huge care and attention has gone into the staging of Threepenny Theatricals’ version of Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. That care, however, does mean that there is a definite absence of energy in a production that never outstays its welcome but frequently threatens to.
My Fair Lady
★★★★☆ Loverly:
Southern Light Opera’s My Fair Lady at the King’s is a sumptuously staged production. It also boasts a truly outstanding central performance; if the rest is a little overshadowed as a result, it is nevertheless highly impressive.
Dear Brutus
★★★★☆ Old world charm:
Threepenny Theatricals’ Dear Brutus at the Church Hill is a resolutely odd piece, hugely uneven in tone, but discharged with such grace and skill that is compulsively watchable.
The Drowsy Chaperone
★★★★☆ Sheer enjoyment:
Considerable musicality, high production values and dollops of good fun make the Twilighters’ production of The Drowsy Chaperone at the Church Hill a real treat.
