Articles by Francesca Street

The Woman in White

A single flickering lantern situated centre stage is an appropriately Gothic opening to the first London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White. This romantic, horror-tinged musical is based on the 1859 novel by master of mystery Wilkie Collins...

Promises, Promises

Review
★★★
London Fringe
Southwark Playhouse
19th Jan, 2017

New York City, 1960. Promises, Promises opens with a bright overture that instantly transports us back to a Manhattan on the brink of the swinging ‘60s. The stage – all sharp geometric angles and flashing bright lights – is flooded with primary colours, mini-dress clad women and suited-and-booted men...

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery

Halfway through The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, I am laughing so much I have to take a moment to recompose. Act I has built to a searing, chaotic comedy crescendo as hapless bank robber Mitch (Henry Shields) attempts to seduce his wily girlfriend Candice (Charlie Russell) whilst likeable conman Sam (Dave Hearn) tries in vain to escape the bedroom…

Annie

A childhood spent watching Fred and Ginger twirl Cheek to Cheek and Bing Crosby dream about a White Christmas gave me a lifelong appreciation for musical theatre. My childhood favourite was Annie, the Broadway mega-hit based on the Depression-era comic story...

Nederland Dans Theater 2

Diverse, curious and striking, Nederlands Dans Theater 2’s 2016 Dance Consortium Tour showcases the company’s acclaimed contemporary dance repertoire. Stopping off in Edinburgh en route to Sadler’s Wells, NTD2, the junior division of the Nederlands Dans Theater, performs six pieces from its catalogue...

1984

Northern Ballet’s 1984 begins with a literary act of rebellion: Tobias Batley’s Winston enters an antique store and buys a blank diary. During this dreamlike opening scene, Chris Davey’s lighting shines a spotlight on the solitary protagonist...

Jersey Boys

It’s a Wednesday night in March and the UK tour of Jersey Boys has reached its final destination: the Edinburgh Playhouse. As the audience spills out onto the street, a young man starts to serenade his girlfriend with his own rendition of the musical’s showstopper Can’t Take My Eyes Off You...

Carmen

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh
Assembly Roxy
25th Feb, 2016

Bizet’s iconic opera Carmen is a dynamic, temperamental piece of theatre, with condemned, complicated characters singing a rousing score against the sizzling backdrop of Spain’s sun-drenched streets...

Footloose

Youth-orientated and iconic, warm-hearted and rebellious, Dean Pitchford’s Footloose remains one of the most beloved of ‘80s’ teen films. No mean feat when it stands alongside such contesters as The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing and Pretty in Pink...

Guys & Dolls

Review
★★★
Edinburgh
Church Hill Theatre
12th Feb, 2016

Guys & Dolls is a renowned theatrical oxymoron, depicting the menacing underworld of gambling gangsters via the melodic and cheerful medium of golden-age musical theatre. Unlike previous shows put on by the Edinburgh University Footlights (such as last year’s dynamic and unforgettable Rent or 2014’s vibrant Scottish premier of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights), Guys & Dolls’s relative lack of plot and character means any successful production must deliver spectacle and charm by the bucketload...

Scottish Ballet: Cinderella

In the opening sequence of the Scottish Ballet’s Cinderella, a young girl plants a single pink rose at her mother’s graveside. As the young girl blossoms and grows, so does the flower, becoming a recurring motif in this enchanting, gorgeous production...

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh
The Lyceum
7th Dec, 2015

Enthused with enchantment and wonder, Theresa Heskins’ adaptation of C S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe lovingly translates the classic book from page to stage. Original music, earnest performances and stunning sets bring the snowy land of Narnia to life, a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas, think of that!”The level of creativity and care behind this production is evident in the gorgeous programmes...

Rebecca

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” So begins Daphne Du Maurier’s best-selling 1938 gothic romance Rebecca, famed for its heightened atmosphere of foreboding and the omnipresent, never-seen spectre of the eponymous Rebecca, who oversees the proceedings from beyond the grave...

Stomp

Famed for its stunning drumming and percussion, Luke Cresswall and Steve McNicholas’ Stomp – which first premiered on the 1991 Edinburgh Festival Fringe – combines remarkable dance and movement with plenty of humour, fun and universal appeal...

Rossetti's Women

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Spotlites
27th Aug, 2015

His name might feature prominently in the title, but prolific Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti takes a back seat in this new production written by award-winning playwright Joan Greening (author of ITV’s Cabbage Patch and Trouble and Strife)...

All's Well That Ends Well

A sweet, beguiling Shakespearean romance is skilfully reimagined against the backdrop of the Second World War in Youth Action Theatre (YAT)’s appealing production of All’s Well That Ends Well...

The Pilgrim's Progress

Review
★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Elim
25th Aug, 2015

John Bunyan’s 1678 text The Pilgrim’s Progress is regarded as one of the most significant works of literature in the English Language. This allegorical text has never been out of print and has been translated into more than 200 languages...

Of Mice and Men

Review
★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Gilded Balloon
23rd Aug, 2015

John Steinbeck’s classic novella Of Mice and Men chronicles the unlikely and touching friendship between two ranch workers in pursuit of the American Dream during the Great Depression...

Dorian Gray

Review
★★★★
Edinburgh Fringe
Pleasance Dome
23rd Aug, 2015

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is a tale ingrained in our cultural consciousness. It is 125 years since Wilde’s decadent satire was first published. In that time the story has been adapted into films, television dramas, plays, operas and musicals...

Down & Out in Paris and London

Strikingly staged, deftly acted and simultaneously hard-hitting and bitingly funny. PIT/New Diorama Theatre’s new production Down & Out in Paris in London is a theatrical tour-de-force...

Cluedo Inc.

Cluedo Inc is an upbeat, farcical musical inspired by everyone’s favourite murder-mystery board game, Cluedo. All the stalwarts of iconic game appear here, from the potential murder weapons to the potential scenes of the crime...

After We Danced

After We Danced depicts a love affair between two people, cut short before unexpectedly rekindling sixty years later, Love in the Time of Cholera-style. Fringe-goers who have read the tagline (‘true love lasts forever’) will be unsurprised to learn this production is an unashamedly romantic tale...

Promise and Promiscuity: A New Musical by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton

One woman, one show, one hour ten minutes and the entire works of Jane Austen to affectionately satirise: New Zealand comedian Penny Ashton’s Promise and Promiscuity is no mean feat...

Madama Butterfly

In Madama Butterfly, Compagnie Nathalie Cornille Danse reimagines Puccini’s tragic 1904 opera as a short solo dance piece designed for children. In the production, company founder, choreographer and dancer Nathalie Cornille transforms key excerpts from Puccini’s striking libretto into a child’s first introduction to opera and contemporary dance...

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