Arts PREVIEW: Top Hat in Eastbourne Top Hat is this summer’s must see musical at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. With music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and based on the RKO motion picture, West End hit Top Hat, winner of three Olivier Awards, for Best New Musical, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design and winner of the Evening St By Besi • 2 min read
Arts REVIEW: Dome: Being Both As one of the great vocal artists of her generation, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is renowned for her Handelian repertory and the portrayal of roles originally written for castrati. With lots of indication of depth and analysis about this most curious habit of mixing up of gender roles bringing insight By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: The Pirates of Penzance: ENO This highly anticipated swashbuckling farce with its new staging is directed by Mike (I’ll never direct an opera) Leigh, who made his operatic debut this evening. I liked his version, all geometric sets and ultra-simplistic colours from Alison Chitty, they worked well, softly gliding and sliding int By Eric Page • 4 min read
Sheila McWattie Arts The Sheila McWattie Women’s Performance Stage – call for performers at Brighton Pride Singer songwriter Nicky Mitchell, performance poet, stand up and MC Annabel Pribelszki and the Charity Cabaret team will be hosting the Sheila McWattie Women’s Performance Stage at this year’s Brighton Pride Festival in Preston Park. The Sheila McWattie Women’s Performance Stage will showcase the br By Besi • 2 min read
Arts Irish rock band supports equal marriage in Ireland Alternative rock band HAWK have released a new track, Glass, inspired by the upcoming Marriage Equality Referendum, taking place in Ireland on May 22. The track has an ethereal quality that’s further intensified by drums and a stripped back guitar sound lending weight to the haunting vocals, while t By Besi • 1 min read
Arts PREVIEW: ‘Out of the Woods’ with Resound Male Voices Resound Male Voices, a Brighton & Hove based male singing group, will be performing with the Rebelles at Out of the Woods: Music at Midsummer, a magical evening of vocal music loosely set in a Scandinavian midsummer forest on June 20. The choirs, both led by opera singer and vocal coach, Stefan Holm By Besi • 2 min read
Arts PREVIEW: Brit Floyd – Space & Time World Tour Brit Floyd – The World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show, returns to Europe in 2015 to present its Space & Time World Tour, its most ambitious show to date; with a spectacular new light show, and an even bigger stage production. Celebrating five decades of Pink Floyd; from their creation in 1965 right thro By Contributor • 2 min read
Atomic Kitten Community News Atomic Kitten to perform at Manchester Pride ‘Big Weekend’ Girl Power returns to the Manchester Pride this August, as Atomic Kitten, attitude-packed vocal trio, Stooshe and Lucy Spraggan are added to the Big Weekend festival line-up which will take place from Friday August 28 to Monday, August 31. Manchester DJ legend, Graeme Park, is also set to join Texas By Besi • 3 min read
Arts Resound Male Voices to sing at Charity Gala ‘Resound Male Voices’ will be performing at a Charity Gala for The Martlet’s Hospice in Hove, on Saturday, May 16 at The Windmill Theatre in Blatchington Mill School. The evening will be presented by the Rotary Club of Brighton and Hove and include performances by ‘Resound Male Voices’, ‘Rebelles’, By Besi • 1 min read
Arts REVIEW: Fringe: The Trousered Traviata In a flapping noisy tent with the wind picking up outside we sat down to watch Verdi’s tragic opera Traviata, but with a female cast. Having an all female cast changed the whole tone of the opera; remarkably so, with a mean mother and female lovers changing the texture of this misogynist opera and t By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts REVIEW: Fringe: carMen Set in the gay community of liberal 1920s Spain. José, the central character in this all-male reworking of Bizet’s tragic opera, is sexually confused and dominated by a strictly religious upbringing. His infatuation with handsome Carmen leads to inner turmoil and tragedy – a journey which reflects t By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Camille O’Sullivan: Spiegeltent Some folk write their own reviews, some folk are lucky to get one, some folk impress, Ms O’Sullivan deserves more than a good review, she deserves a love letter from us humble critics. By Eric Page • 3 min read
