Entertainment
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Three Short Ballets from the Birmingham Royal Ballet
Last night saw the opening of the second show of the Birmingham Royal Ballet summer season for 2017. This time audiences were in for a treat, as a triple header of three short ballets charmed, thrilled, amused and shocked in equal measure. The ballets performed were Arcadia, a new ballet from BRB alumni Ruth Brill, the classic haunting Le Baiser de la Fee’ and the Gilbert and Sullivan inspired ‘Pineapple Poll’. Each ballet was wonderful in its own way – three very different ballets in very different styles. Arcadia Arcadia is the story of Pan, the god of Arcadia, and has a wonderfully earthy central performance from Brandon Lawrence. Visually…
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Coppelia – Shimmering, Sparkling and Super Fun
The Birmingham Royal Ballet summer season began in Birmingham on Tuesday evening with the opening at the Hippodrome of the ever charming Coppelia. Once again, the BRB showed why they are one of the world’s greatest ballet company’s with a production that showed that ballet can be funny as well as graceful. The story of Coppelia is one full of humour and deception, featuring the aged old love triangle between a boy,a girl and a wooden doll. Of course, the village Lothario Franz doesn’t realise that the new object of his lust, the beautiful lady who sits on the balcony of Dr Coppelius, quietly reading her book, is a wooden…
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Running Wild is simply incredible at the Wolverhampton Grand
Michael Morpurgo’s Running Wild opened at the Wolverhampton Grand last night, with a show that truly made you feel like you were in an Indonesian rain forest. Telling the story of Lily, a young girl who just happened to be having a ride on a beach elephant at the point when the Tsunami struck Indonesia on that fateful Boxing Day in 2004, Running Wild is Lily’s story of survival, her quest to try and find her mother, whilst also finding out about the destruction of the rain forest and the animals that live in it. it is a children’s story, but a more hard hitting one you would struggle to…
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The Crucible at the New Alex Theatre – Powerful and Brilliant
The 1950s were strange times in America. The Second World War was over, but a Cold War emerged, and with it an aura of paranoia and hysteria that saw the country turning on itself, trying to weed out anyone who was a Communist, and therefore, un-American. Senator Joe McCarthy started his witch-hunts, which saw innocent people jailed, destroyed, their lives ruined by (often) false accusations, with people encouraged to name names. It was against this backdrop that America’s celebrated playwright Arthur Miller wrote his masterpiece ‘The Crucible’. a savage indictment of the modern day witch hunts played out through the Salem Witch hunts of the 17th Century. Last night, the…
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Dirty Dancing At The New Alex Theatre
Top five chick flicks of all time? If you ask anyone who was a teenager in 1987 they will surely have Dirty Dancing as their number one choice. The coming of age story of Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, an idealistic young woman who finds her beliefs and hopes tested when she takes a Summer holiday at Kellermans family resort. However she also meets the enigmatic, sexy Johnny Castle when she has to cover for his pregnant dancing partner Penny. They fall in love, but Johnny is certainly from the wrong side of the tracks and is not going to be the choice of her doctor father. Dirty Dancing is one of…
