Theatre review: Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: This review is of the final preview performance.

Whatever the clichés might say, US and UK humour do generally travel fairly well between sides of the Atlantic, although I personally find that the sillier brand of comedy can be more hit and miss in its travels. We've already had one demented New York spoof hit the right mark in London this year with Titaníque, so could a second work the same trick? Well, maybe not quite as successfully, but Gordon Greenberg (also directing) and Steve Rosen's camp take on Bram Stoker definitely has its moments. Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors takes the basic elements of the classic vampire story, changes them and swaps a couple of characters' names around for no discernible reason, and after a shaky start has a lot of fun to offer. Charlie Stemp plays a particularly timid and gormless Jonathan Harker, the English estate agent on a journey to sell London property to a Transylvanian noble.

Theatre review: Berlusconi

When I sent my list of upcoming theatre trips to the friends who usually accompany me, Phill said he didn't even need to look past the title of Berlusconi, the musical, to say yes. Ian and Jim both said they also wouldn't have needed to read the blurb to make a decision, but... for a different reason. Yes, this is one of those shows that really could have gone one of two ways, and Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan's musical about the disgraced former Prime Minister of Italy grabs every opportunity to choose the wrong one. Silvio Berlusconi (Sebastien Torkia) was a cruise-ship singer turned building magnate, turned media mogul, turned politician. The latter seems to have largely been an attempt to get political immunity from prosecution from innumerable cases of financial crime and corruption in his companies, but still resulted in three non-consecutive terms as PM.

Theatre review: The Stripper

Theatrical memes seem to take turns - the spoon-playing looks to have pretty much passed the baton to the elaborate coup de théâtre meme now - so it's an unexpected and unwelcome return for one from the first few months of 2016, as the St James Theatre sticks strictly to the 8pm start time for shows in its basement Studio, despite the fact that The Stripper has a two-and-a-half hour running time. Pulp novelist Carter Brown adapted one of his own stories for the book of this 1982 musical with music by Richard Hartley and lyrics by Richard O'Brien - and there are moments when The Rocky Horror Show does indeed come to mind in the songs, even though the overall style has quite a different feel, going for a jazzy influence that reflects the seedy 1960s LA club where much of the action takes place.