Theatre review: Thérèse Raquin

For the second time this year the Finborough Theatre premieres a new musical, and once again it's one taking on an unlikely dark subject: Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin is adapted for the stage with music by Craig Adams, and book and lyrics by Nona Shepphard (also directing,) and the big draw for me is that Julie Atherton plays the title character. Orphaned at a young age, Thérèse is adopted by her aunt Madame Raquin (Tara Hugo,) and when she grows up is persuaded to marry her sickly cousin Camille (Jeremy Legat.) What her aunt intends as a kindness, enfolding Thérèse into her family, actually ends up stifling her, and this only gets worse when they move to Paris, and a flat above a back alley shop. When Camille's childhood friend Laurent (Ben Lewis) turns up and is also embraced into the family, Thérèse sees an alternative.

Theatre review: LIFT

Craig Adams & Ian Watson's new musical LIFT assembles a pretty great cast to tell what isn't quite a story, but a series of scenes and songs that include a lot of good moments. A Busker (George Maguire) is at Covent Garden tube station, reading the letter his ex-girlfriend dumped him with and wondering if he should talk to the girl he sees on the same carriage every morning. The lift takes 54 seconds to get to the surface, and as he travels the Busker imagines the lives of the other people in there with him, and the various ways in which they might interact. A lesbian French Teacher (Julie Atherton) has been bought a lap dance as an ill-judged gift, and ends up treating the Lap Dancer (Cynthia Erivo) more like a counselor. The Lap Dancer herself is at ballet school by day, where she has a complicated relationship with her gay best friend, the Ballet Dancer (Jonny Fines.)