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End of the Rainbow – Judy’s swansong at the Wolverhampton Grand
If ‘Over the Rainbow’ was Judy Garland’s signiture tune, then ‘End of the Rainbow’ is definitely her swansong. The play, that started a three night run at the Wolverhampton Grand last night, is the story of the screen legend in the months before she died, during a 6 week run at London’s ‘Talk of the Town’. This is Judy destroyed by the alcohol, the pills, the late nights, bad men and heartache, with no will to go on with the show anymore. Set in London in the early months of 1969, the play is a three hander concerning Judy, her fiance Mickey Deans and her erstwhile piano player Anthony Chapman.…
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Elizabeth Taylor Fashion moments.
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The Chuckle Brothers are panto gold at Wolverhampton Grand
Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and the gang flew into Wolverhampton tonight for the launch of panto season. Yes the shouts of ‘he’s behind you’ ,’oh no it isn’t’ and the new addition ‘to me, to you’ were once again reverberating around the beautiful Grand Theatre as the anarchic nuttiness of The Chuckle Brothers and the cartoon ham villainy of John Altman( aka Nasty Nick Cotton) made Peter Pan another panto smash hit. For good family fun and entertainment this is hard to beat, and this is mainly due to panto gold Paul and Barry Chuckle. As is so often the case in panto land, the lead characters are not the stars,…
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White Christmas sprinkles Christmas Magic
A little bit like the advent calender’s that popped up everywhere yesterday, the 1st of December also saw the Wolverhampton Grand theatre opening the doors to the latest seasonal classic, the musical stage version of ‘White Christmas’ . The frothy, sparking musical, based upon the classic Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye Paramount Pictures film, was staged with style and panache by the South Staffs Musical Theatre Company. It was an utterly charming, crowd pleasing piece that left the audience leaving the theatre with a warm glow truly believing Christmas had arrived. We start in 1944, where Privates Bob Wallace and Phil Davis are entertaining the troops on Christmas Eve. Flash forward 10…
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12 Angry Men – Tense, Taut and Utterly Brilliant
It seems an open and shut case. A young black boy, just 16, kills his abusive father after one too many beatings. A strong witness is positive he heard the boy say he was going to kill just before the father was fatally stabbed. Another witness saw the stabbing and then saw the boy flee. An open and shut case. So why does Juror 8 insist that the boy could be not guilty and refuse to give a verdict that would send the defendent to the electric chair? This is the premise of 12 Angry Men, a classic Henry Fonda film turned into a magnificent piece of claustrophobic, thought provoking…
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Blood Brothers at the Wolverhampton Grand
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The Curious Incident of the dog – Just awe-inspiring.
Every so often (if I am are truly lucky) I get to experience a piece of theatre that leaves me totally awestruck. Last night, at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, was just one of the those nights. The National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a play by Simon Stephens, based on the novel by Mark Haddon, is one of the most astounding pieces of theatre I have ever watched. With a star-making central performance by Joshua Jenkins, and an ensemble cast that would be hard to beat, I left the theatre both laughing and crying about what I had watched. The play is centred…
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Blood Brothers at the Wolverhampton Grand
