Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Cilla The Musical @Mayflower Theatre Southampton It is always tricky when you choose to present the life of a showbiz legend in the format of a musical, but on many levels Bill Kenwright gets it spot on with his new production Cilla the Musical. By Besi • 2 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Dreamboats And Petticoats @Theatre Royal Inspired by a multi-million-selling series of albums, Dreamboats And Petticoats breezed into Brighton on a wet Monday evening but managed to send the audience away from The Theatre Royal very content and humming numbers from the golden age of rock and roll, 1956-62. By Besi • 2 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Sunday Night @Theatre Royal There was a time when a benefit show for any charity would guarantee a full house at a theatre and bring communities together in support of a good cause. That is no longer the case with the traditional charity show format becoming much more difficult to pull off and theatres even more difficult to f By Besi • 3 min read
Arts OPERA REVIEW: Aida @ENO Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones gave us a real heroic Radamès, full and resounding and committed to the very end, he was wonderful although trapped behind his Gilbert and Sullivan epaulettes and wooed Latonia Moore’s Aida in the most convincing way, Morre was excellent, pure, fine and focused her humi By Eric Page • 5 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: The Best Man @Theatre Royal After making its UK premier at Theatre Royal Windsor earlier this month, Gore Vidal’s 1960 political satire, The Best Man, has landed at Brighton’s Theatre Royal on the second leg of its UK tour. The plot revolves around the characters and ambitions of two very different fictional politicians vying By Paul Gustafson • 2 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: He’s Always Been My Son by Janna Barkin He’s Always Been My Son A Mother’s Story about Raising Her Transgender Son Janna Barkin This inspiring and moving story, told with great passion and gentle humour gives us the inside story of an extraordinary family. Barkin’s engaging and entertaining prose allows us to gather first-hand experience, By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Driving Miss Daisy @Theatre Royal This is a perfectly balanced cast, Sian Phillips as Miss Daisy captures the fierce but fragile nature of this woman whose humble beginnings and comfortable retirement dictate her relationship with the outside world. Derek Griffiths as her driver Hoke Colburn who ages and changes along with her is t By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon This book follows Leander, Queer, druggie, manipulator, friend, lover, fighter, liar. Gifted with synaesthesia; a condition where the senses confuse and enhance information and also in constant chronic pain he seeks to rent himself out to literally feel something different, or does he? We jump ri By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts THEATRE REVIEW: Flights of Fancy by Veronica Thompson ‘Flights of Fancy’ is utter celebration of the possibility of being truly, wonderfully yourself, where and whoever you happen to be, it’s a reverie rooted in reality. By Eric Page • 4 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: We’re queer and we should be here by Darryl Telles. We’re queer and we should be here By Darryl Telles. Darryl Telles’s lifelong passion for his beloved Tottenham Hotspur is a real passion, yet like other gay football supporters, he has had to endure decades of abuse and threats from homophobic fellow fans in a sport where discussing being gay or tal By Eric Page • 3 min read
Arts REVIEW: Deathtrap by Ira Levin @Theatre Royal Broadway playwright Sidney Bruhl has had 11 years and 4 flops in a row and is getting desperate for another hit. So he thinks his dreams have come to true when aspiring first-time writer Clifford Anderson sends him what Sidney considers a sure-fire Broadway smash of a play called Deathtrap. By Brian Butler • 2 min read
Arts BOOK REVIEW: Manhood: The Bare Reality by Laura Dodsworth WARNING: This review does contain pictures of penises. It may not be work safe. Be warned. There are no knob puns though. These days we are all less bound by gender and traditional roles, but is there more discussion about what being a man means. From veteran to vicar, from porn addict to prostate By Eric Page • 2 min read
