Hugh Simpson
Here You Come Again
★★★☆☆ Unexpected
If you think you know what the Leeds Playhouse’s touring production of Here You Come Again will be like, think again. This is no standard jukebox musical and – while it does not all come off – it is a heartening and surprisingly emotional affair.
Life of Pi
★★★★☆ Visually spectacular
Considerable theatrical magic can be found in the touring production of Life of Pi at the Festival Theatre. If the staging sometimes overwhelms the storytelling, it is still a production of real impact.
Shirley Valentine
★★★★☆ Tour de force
Sally Reid’s performance lights up the Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production of Shirley Valentine, touring to the Lyceum for a three week summer season.
Maggie & Me
★★★☆☆ Resonant but unwieldy
The National Theatre of Scotland’s Maggie & Me, touring to the Traverse, is an odd beast indeed. It has a great deal to say about both the personal and the political, but some of it is lost in an over-ambitious, wildly inconsistent production.
Sunset Song
★★★☆☆ Well performed
Stage versions of Sunset Song seem to come around every couple of years, perhaps because no-one has managed to come up with the definitive adaptation yet. Dundee Rep’s new version (a co-production with the Lyceum) has great strengths as well as weaknesses.
An(other) Inspector Calls
★★★☆☆ Relevant
An(other) Inspector Calls from Edinburgh People’s Theatre at the Church Hill is a knowing tribute to one of the classics of 20th century drama. It does not always forge its own identity convincingly, but has much to recommend it.
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.
Blue Remembered Hills
★★★☆☆ Challenging
Leitheatre’s Blue Remembered Hills at the Church Hill is nasty and short. Which is exactly what is intended.
Macbeth (an undoing)
★★★★☆ Compelling
Zinnie Harris’s much-garlanded adaptation of Shakespeare, Macbeth (an undoing), returns to the Lyceum subtly tweaked and all the better for it.
The Gondoliers
★★★★☆ Sparkling
The Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s production of The Gondoliers has a vitality and melodicism that always catches the eye and ear.
