Theatre and Musicals

Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision

10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 22–Sat 26 Apr The Eurovision Song Contest has always been a beast of wild contradictions. The annual competition is regular derided for its middle-of-the-road compositions, political voting and the never-ending…

Mamma Mia!

10 Apr 2008

MUSICAL SECC, Glasgow, until Sat 27 Apr Truly global phenomena are becoming something of a cliché: there’s a McDonald’s on every street corner, a Nestlé product in every home, and a production of Mamma Mia! running in every country in the world…

Mamma Mia!

27 Mar 2008

MUSICAL SECC, Glasgow, Tue 1–Sat 27 Apr Last time I saw Mamma Mia! I was sitting directly behind Fish out of Marillion. I mention this not to name drop. If I was that shallow, I’d point out that Bridget McConnell, Glasgow’s culture supremo, and her…

Zorro: The Musical

27 Mar 2008

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Tue 25–Sat 29 Mar The renewed interest in superheroes that has taken place in recent years might owe something to the uncertain world we currently inhabit, but the enduring figure of the masked superhero owes a debt to…

Disney's High School Musical

28 Feb 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Mar If the cast-iron chastity, remarkable level of racial harmony and general abstemiousness of the teenagers represented in this stage version of the hit Disney Channel film don’t seem to ring true of the…

Blonde Bombshells of 1943

31 Jan 2008

REVIVAL Because it’s based on recreated and imagined history, the peculiar emotion of nostalgia is something anyone, even people who weren’t there, can indulge in. Alan Plater’s World War Two-set Blonde Bombshells of 1943, originally devised by…

Clarinda

31 Jan 2008

MUSICAL If all the plays about Robert Burns produced over the last two decades were laid end to end, they’d surely build a bridge to Belgium, yet there’s still an appetite for such pieces at this time of year. And why not - there’s no shortage of…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

17 Jan 2008

MUSICAL Playhouse, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Jan Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s enduring piece of theatrical bubblegum may have started life as a modest school production, but the atmosphere in the packed Playhouse auditorium is as feverish as a…

White Christmas

15 Nov 2007

MUSICAL Edinburgh Playhouse, Mon 19 Nov–Sat 8 Dec For 13 years he was JR’s arch enemy, but these days Ken Kercheval is more likely to have a song, rather than hate, in his heart. As Scotch-drinking oilman Cliff Barnes in Dallas, Kercheval became a…

The Producers

15 Nov 2007

MUSICAL King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 17 November It’s a rule of thumb that celebrities cast in touring musicals to pull in floating punters will require some degree of propping up by the singing/dancing pros in the company. Certainly…

Miss Bollywood

15 Nov 2007

MUSICAL Let’s be honest, the prognosis isn’t good. But we at The List never pre-judge a show before its arrival. All the same, Shilpa Shetty’s musical star vehicle, intended, no doubt, to cash in on the storm of publicity that exploded around her…

Blood Brothers

18 Oct 2007

MUSICAL Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 27 Oct There’s no flying car, singing animals or pyrotechnics, yet Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, which explores class, poverty and unemployment, remains one of our longest running musicals. Just…

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

23 Aug 2007

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Take That

9 Aug 2007

Faced with the prospect of Never Forget, ‘a new musical based on the songs of Take That’, you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘Mamma Mia, here we go again...’

The Proclaimers

The Sunshine Boys

9 Apr 2007

After 20 years in the entertainment business, The Proclaimers, otherwise known as Craig and Charlie Reid, have a special place in the Scottish psyche. Their songs, from the joyous exuberance of ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)’, to the celebratory yet quietly…