Charmingly and movingly told, Paul Gallico’s popular story is turned into musical theatre — with a lot of doors. As well as Jenna Russell’s touching performance and amazing voice for Mrs Harris, there is a whole host of Dior dresses and a moving sub-plot romance about ‘letting go’. Mrs Harris…

A mission I choose to accept….a review of the Mission Impossible (Tom Cruise) era franchise. (Excluding Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1 as I have written about this in a previous post — https://medium.com/@susan-bystryenglish/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-1-4af9aae0ae0e) Mission: Impossible Loved the grittiness of M:I (1) — and how out of his depth Ethan Hunt…

Ghosts. Greed. Puppets. Snow! Bonnets! A perfect small ensemble cast perform all the parts of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as envisaged by Patrick Barlow. …

Ridley Scott and David Scarpa’s epic ‘historical’ movie dives full-throttle into the life of Emperor Bonaparte, with superb battle scenes, the destruction of part of the British navy (complete with turning one into a fire ship!) astonishing calvary charges, and extremely angry ministers/deputies being shut and corralled into buildings. It’s…

An epic two-hour edit of King Lear — go… The staging is amazing. We’re in a Henge and there is a circle sky. Look closely before the show starts and stars shoot across the sky occasionally. This will later tilt dramatically to form the storm when King Lear does his…

Back in the day I had the privilege of seeing Snarky Puppy Live at Love Supreme before they went interstellar. Having seen Bill Laurance solo, what a treat to see both Bill Laurance and Michael League — on stage, together! …

Part science fiction saga, part sweary Star Wars, be prepared to experience major sensory overload. It is a visual feast and also deeply disorientating. Noticeably there is no exposition — the story is told through flashbacks, memories and from the protagonist Joshua’s (John David Washington) viewpoint. In watching it I…

First times for everything — and Prince Charles Cinema Leicester Square provides glorious and reasonably priced opportunities. Such opportunities have included watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner: The Final Cut for the first time. So what were they like? 2001: A Space Odyssey My main reference for 2001: A Space Odyssey is…

What a privilege to hear Mandy Patinkin sing and perform in person. For this was more than a concert, there was chat too — and jokes! I knew he was great, but didn’t know why — having heard him on stage — now I know why! With just a chair…