Category Star Rating

REVIEW: Death Note

Reading Time: 4 minutesI would be remiss to not first cast some light on the incredibly unique journey Death Note has ridden to becoming a musical. In 2003, Death Note, a Japanese manga (comic/graphic novel) series written and illustrated by Tsugumi Obata and Takeshi Obata, respectively, was first published. In 2006, the anime (animation) adaptation first aired in Japan to widespread acclaim. Its popularity was so huge that two live action Japanese films shortly followed. A musical adaptation then premiered in Tokyo in 2015, before touring Japan and opening of a South Korean production. Jumping forward to 2023 we skip over several seasons of the musical in Japan and South Korea, a Netflix live action film and a concert version opening in Russia, and we land in the present day – Death Note: The Musical In Concert opening at the London Palladium.

REVIEW: Dumbledore is So Gay

Reading Time: 2 minutesFollowing Jack, a reluctant Hufflepuff, as he navigates bullies, coming out, love and. keeping more secrets than the Chamber itself, this 75 minute play is an absolute delight. Written by Robert Holtom, and boasting the VAULT Festival Origins Award as well as an OffWestEnd.com short run commendation to its name, it doesn't disappoint.

REVIEW: The Garden of Words

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Park Theatre's latest production, The Garden of Words, is a based on Makoto Shinkai's beloved anime story and film, co-adapted for the stage by both Susan Momoko Hingley and Alexandra Rutter. An example of Anglo-Japanese theatre collaboration, cultural influences are blended together in this production, and listening to both the English and Japanese language on stage was particularly refreshing.

REVIEW: Pleading Stupidity

Reading Time: < 1 minuteInspired by an incredible true story dubbed ‘Dumb and Dumber Bandits’, this madcap caper is the perfect fringe evening. We meet Brad and Chad on their gap year when they decide to rob a bank on a whim. We then follow their journey from their escape, capture and sentencing to their release. With verbatim dialogue we also touch on the victims' experience of the process and recovery, giving the piece dramatic weight alongside the sheer stupidity.

REVIEW: Fleecehold

Reading Time: 2 minutesMichele Sheldon’s fringe production Fleecehold, as part of the Camden Fringe Festival, brings together an ensemble cast to tell of the scandal in Leasehold housing that is attaching “onerous terms” to contracts and deeds. If it sounds heavy, Sheldon’s bouncy, episodic writing, the pacey direction, and the humour and caricature that the cast bring to it transforms it into an enjoyable and enlightening evening.