Jackstage

 🌟 Demo 🌟 21 April 2023 at 8:00pm at Lincoln Arts Centre, Lincoln We invited local reviewer, Jack Davey to our very first Demo night. We're so happy the event was a success, and we look forward to many more Demo nights! I thoroughly enjoyed this Demo event, a wonderful representation of the Lincoln Arts Centre’s relaunch to celebrate a new generation of rising talent, and brand new artistic ideas. It was a pleasure to be returning once more to the LAC, so a huge thank you to the team for having me along! Firstly, what I find particularly charming about this venue is the very contemporary feel, and a clear willingness to adapt and welcome emerging artists. We were seated in Studio 2 for Demo, and I really loved the intimacy of this space, because I feel that it gave a more personal connection with the artists in the way we could interact with them, and be invited into their snippets of performance. As audience members, between these sections, we were invited to fill in feedback fo...

🌟 Bonnie & Clyde 🌟 7 April 2023 at 7:30pm at Garrick Theatre, London ★★★★★ Bonnie & Clyde really is a masterpiece and beautiful representation of what modern musicals can do. This was my second visit to the Barrow gang, following a show at the Arts Theatre in July '22. First seeing the show, I was absolutely amazed at the production, just how fearless and refined it was, paying brilliant homage to the recklessness of these small-town criminals. It would seem impossible, but returning to the Garrick, it just won't stop getting better each time, really out-doing itself with revised moments, to make the best of it's first run. I'm very lucky that I managed to get front row of the stalls for the both of these runs, which really heightens the intensity of the show in certain moments, dragged into the world of the famous outlaws.  This show was the first time I'd seen Frances Mayli McCann and Jordan Luke Gage as the titular characters, and I'd seen much prai...

🌟 Cabaret 🌟 6 April 2023 at 7:30pm at Kit Kat Club / Playhouse Theatre, London ★★★★★ Wow. Like, wow. Like, WOW. It will be near impossible to reflect the experience I had at the infamous Kit Kat Club for the Playhouse Theatre's immersive production of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret. This doesn't feel like a regular trip to the theatre, but a life experience that you can never shake off, because you aren't just a passive spectator, you are IN the Kit Kat Club, and you belong from the second you walk in. Cabaret is such a quirky and frantic musical, but this production really took it by the reigns and handled every element perfectly, without losing itself in the flashing lights and hilarity of the plot. Honestly it's difficult to know where to begin, to cover everything good about the experience would probably take me all week, so I'll just share some of the highlights.  First of all, I really want to commend the Kit Kat Club's staff throughout. The idea of a se...

🌟 A Streetcar Named Desire 🌟 5 April 2023 at 7:30pm at Phoenix Theatre, London ★★★★ ☆ A Streetcar Named Desire is such a mammoth play for Rebecca Frecknall and the creative team to take on, though it was handled with just the right amount of disturbed passion in a way that reflected Blanche's tormented reality. Set on a wooden platform, we see this small area transformed into Stella and Stanley's Elysian Fields flat, through simplistic scenic changes. But going deeper into the psychological aspects of Williams' play, the lone 'stage within a stage' creates a separated world Blanche finds herself immersed in. Having very recently studied Streetcar for university, I had a lot of expectations ahead of the show. I really like how the original stage directions and conventions of the play were shattered to create a much more flowing and representational piece, though certain elements, for me, left a little to be desire(d). It absolutely has to be commended how the team ...