Dance review: Quadrophenia

It's not often I go to see a purely dance-based show - very much not my area of expertise but sometimes a welcome change. There's always been some unusual inspirations for ballet but it seems like there's more than ever at the moment, and while I'm sure Peaky Blinders and Black Sabbath will be... experiences, I'm glad I went for Quadrophenia, based on The Who's album and the subsequent film. Pete Townshend's wife Rachel Fuller is a classical musician, and it's hers and Martin Batchelar's orchestral adaptation of Townshend's songs that provides the musical backdrop to the 1960s Brighton-set story of Jimmy (Paris Fitzpatrick,) a factory worker who finds release from the drudgery in girls, drugs and violence as part of a group of local mods.

Theatre review: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Lucy:
- Runs off with a suspicious stranger who offers her cake.
- Takes her siblings to Narnia in the full knowledge it'll put them and Mr Tumnus in danger.
- Is a PreCIOUs pRiNCEss.
Edmund:
- Runs off with a suspicious stranger who offers him Turkish Delight.
- Betrays his siblings only because he's enslaved by magic.
- Is a nasty little traitor who's probably going straight to Hell LOL.
Yes, it's one of the most famous stories of Christians living in the closet, C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe getting a new staging as the Bridge Theatre imports Sally Cookson's Leeds Playhouse production. And no, I'm not sure why I booked again to see a story I mainly grumble a lot about, except I probably quite like grumbling about it.

Theatre review: 42nd Street

The pull-quote on the poster promises one of the most famous openings in musical theatre - no, not Elaine Paige's vagina, but the seemingly infinite rows of tap-dancing chorus girls and boys who fill the stage as the curtain goes up on 42nd Street. Harry Warren (music,) Al Dubin (lyrics,) Michael Stewart & Mark Bramble's (book - Bramble also directs) musical is based on a novel, presumably a pretty short one as this classic story of overnight stardom is the Broadway success fantasy at its simplest. Peggy (Clare Halse) is fresh off the bus in New York when she flukes her way into the chorus of a new Broadway show. During the out-of-town tryouts though, leading lady Dorothy (Sheena Easton) breaks her leg, and the only wait, Sheena Easton? I haven't heard that name in decades. OK, fair enough, Sheena Easton it is. The only way for the show to go on is to cancel all the previews, bring the Broadway opening forward, rehearse Peggy in the lead in 36 hours straight and open to the critics immediately.