Author: Alastair Milburn

‘KILLER’ performance as Heathers the Musical hits town. I’LL leave the cliches for the headline writers and head straight to the superlatives. Wow! Incredible!  Magical!  Joyous! Emotional… If you can get to the Wales Millennium Centre this week to see ‘Heathers the Musical’ then do. This is theatre on Red Bull, which is pretty apt considering some of the characters get their wings. Heathers is based on the cult 1980s hit which threw two-fingers at the typical coming-of-age John Hughes films of the era. This is a coming of an age musical with a difference…several of the characters don’t get…

If you like to travel and you love adventures, Jules Vernes ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ is probably as far as you can escape without actually travelling! It is 150 years since the English publication of Jules’ novel, and the world feels a much smaller place to all those decades ago. Where once far flung countries could only be seen in most people’s imagination, they are now more accessible. Fast forward a century and a half, there is much irony in the origins of the latest production of ‘Around the World’. It re-emerged in 2021 when foreign travel could…

IN their eponymous musical, ‘The Commitments’ are proclaimed as the ‘hardest working band in the world’. Based on the breathless performance at the Wales Millennium Centre this week, ‘The Commitments’ cast can lay claim to be the hardest working in theatreland! This was a spell-binding, foot-tapping – no, make that foot-stomping – two hours of absolute ‘soul’ pleasure with sound, energy, and joy bundled into every second. From the moment the curtain went up and the ensemble burst into Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary” you know you are in for a real treat. And two hours later, when the departing audience…

The New Theatre’s strong 2023 programme continues this week with the outstanding ‘Wish You Were Dead’ by leading crime writer Peter James. It is fast-paced, dark, thrilling, but also funny, and has several jump-out-of-your-seat moments. And you will give this play a knowing-nod when you pour over the internet to research your next holiday. Without giving too much away, Brighton detective Roy Grace and his pathologist wife Cleo are taking their first family holiday together with new-born son Noah. They are joined by their American friend Kaitlynn Carter, while her partner Jack, also a detective, who is meant to arrive ahead of…

It’s hard to believe it has been more than seven years since the legendary David Bowie left us. In that horrible year of 2016 we lost so many of our iconic heroes. But his music more than lives on in the electric, spectacular ‘Bowie Experience’ which came to town (minus the Goon Squad) at the New Theatre, Cardiff, on Friday. The full-house was taken through the constantly-changing career of Bowie, with a pulsating two and a half hour set of all of his greatest hits. It was a case of ‘they haven’t sung that one’ and sure enough, it was…

The Lavender Hill Mob has made its way to the stage of the New Theatre, Cardiff and is a golden triumph. The Ealing Comedy classic has been adored by millions for generations since its cinematic release in 1951. So it is a brave person indeed who adapts T.E.B. Clarke’s masterpiece for the stage, as Phil Porter did just last year. But all that glitters is gold in this delightful, funny and clever production directed by Jeremy Sams, and starring Miles Jupp as the non-entity-turned criminal mastermind Henry ‘Dutch’ Holland. There is seemingly no need for a spoiler alert if the New Theatre audience is anything to go…

The ‘Bat Out of Hell – The Musical’ tour has revved and roared into Cardiff this week, and it is a Dead Ringer for an absolute classic. The ‘Sold Out’ signs are over the doors at the New Theatre Cardiff for most of the week and it is no surprise for a show which is touring the UK before returning to the West End next year. This is a show with energy and pace, with a number of the most iconic rock ‘n’ roll songs of the 20th Century weaving their way through the storyline. Alas Jim Steinman & Meat…