Review of Woman in Black play

A very special friend took me to Windsor Royal Theatre (a beautiful old theatre frequented by Her Maj), to see Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel, The Woman in Black.

I have heard several descriptions of this as terrifying, spine chilling and incredibly scary ghost story. Well, I didn’t think so. The screaming teenage girls in the rows in front would disagree. It is however very riveting and full of suspense and a great story with a clever twist at the end.

Expectation created through some brilliant acting was the main part of the fear factor for me. The two actors Andrew Jarvis and Timothy Watson were excellent. Andrew Jarvis was incredibly versatile playing so many different parts.

A definite must.

Review of Evita the musical

I have just been to see Evita at the Wycombe Swan.

I love the music as well as the film with Madonna and Antonio Banderas. Banderas gave a very powerful performance as Che. Madonna was excellent too, even demonstrated some threads of good acting!


So back to the musical Evita... Rachael Wooding as Evita was superb. The transformation as a silly young girl, to ambitious actress, to powerful and charismatic leader was beautifully portrayed in her body language and voice. However, the show was stolen by Carly Bawden, playing Peron's jilted mistress singing "Another Suitcase". She received the loudest applause of the evening.


I also love these lyrics from the song:


Time and time again I've said that I don't care
That I'm immune to gloom, that I'm hard through and through...
...Call in three months time and I'll be fine, I know
Well maybe not that fine, but I'll survive anyhow


My only - minor - criticism was Seamus Cullen as the narrator, Che. He did create a rapport with the audience and has an impressive voice, but he just came across as an actor in a khaki costume! I could see him as a good Joseph but he just didn't have that kind of charisma required for this role. I imagined being the Director and yelling "butch it up, you are a revered and reviled revolutionary leader". Also, I was looking forward to seeing how the tango between Che and Evita would be done, as in the film it was charged with the steaming sexuality of Madonna and Banderas. The actual "waltz" in this musical was about four pathetic steps and as sexy as two virginal teenagers being forced to dance at a wedding infront of their parents.


Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.