Entertainment
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Towards Zero: Review
Disclaimer: I haven’t watched all three episodes of the BBC adaptation of Towards Zero yet. I’m being old school and watching each episode a week at a time rather than binge watching it. But, if I’m being honest, I haven’t really had any inclination to binge this series, it’s all been a bit slow and, for such a brilliant, twisty novel, just a bit boring. Agatha Christie didn’t write boring books. There are a few poor ones, but even those often had a flash of humour, or a good character, at least something to recommend. Towards Zero is one of my very favourite stand alone stories, it is full of…
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Blood Brothers at the Wolverhampton Grand
I can finally write my review of Blood Brothers after stemming the tears that fell and fell at the heartbreaking finale. Willy Russell’s musical story of the tragic Johnstone Twins arrived in Wolverhampton at the Grand Theatre last night, and managed to near impossible feat of wringing both tears of laughter and sadness from the sell out audience. Blood Brothers is a musical that we know ends in tragedy, we see this in the opening scene, but how we get to the tragic final scene and the song ‘Tell me it’s not true’ is one of the greatest stories in modern theatre, and one which still resonates, shocks and devastates…
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ABBA Voyage – What A Show!
This year was one of those when I had a special birthday. You know, one of those milestone birthdays that I personally would rather not acknowledge, but hey oh! One of my presents (from the hubby) was tickets to see the extraordinary ABBA live show, ABBA Voyage, and this Sunday was, finally, the big night. I was not disappointed. The show is incredible, a real treat, for ABBA fans, and for those who are frankly, not so keen (aka the hubby). The show is a virtual concert residency , due to stay in the East End until at least May 2025. The concert features digital avatars and use vocals re-recorded…
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Blood Brothers at the Wolverhampton Grand
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La Fille Mal Gardee at the Birmingham Hippodrome
La Fille Mal Gardee by the Birmingham Royal Ballet started a four night run at the Birmingham Hippodrome last night, and delighted and charmed audiences with it’s story of true love almost thwarted by the power of money. The ballet was created by Frederick Ashton in 1960 and is the simple story of the beautiful Lise, in this instance played by the enchanting Beatrice Parma, who is deeply in love with a poor farm lad called Colas(Enrique Bejarano Vidal – just perfect). They are perfectly matched but Lise’s mother, the widow Simone wants a better (read richer) match for her beloved daughter. She finds this in the umbrella obsessed Alain,…
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Wolves Lit Festival: Fred Karno: The Legend Behind the Laughter
Earlier this month the Wolverhampton Literary Festival took place, and I attended one of the talks that weekend. This was ‘Fred Karno: The Legend Behind the Laughter‘* by author David Crump, who has written the definitive book on Karno which has the same title. The talk, which was one of the free events at the festival, was a fascinating look at one of the most celebrated characters of late 19th and early 20th century entertainment, a pioneer who discovered some of the key names in early cinema, and yet faced hardship at the end of his life. Fred Karno was an impresario, a figure not unlike an Andrew Lloyd Webber…
