Before concentrating on The Light in the Piazza, which runs at the Royal Festival Hall (until 5 July 2019), I want to give a big shout out to the whole of London's South Bank London. Whenever I have cause to visit, which is not nearly enough, I look to have the time to take in whatever is happening here. This cultural hub across the Thames from the...

The voyage aboard barge Raymonde begins witha pick up at the Paris Gare du Nord and then a bus to Epernay writes Carolan Nathan. We are welcomed by a smiling staff and three young captains who will be taking great care of us for the next 6 days...catering to our almost every whim and fancy. Not to mention a great master chef preparing delicious cui...

Hansel and Gretel is the second English National Opera production to be locked into the Open Air's theatre season at Regent's Park. Following the acclaimed operatic production of Henry James's horror novella The Turn of the Screw in 2018, this is Engelbert Humperdinck's 19th century operatic reworking of the Grimmm Brothers' fairytale. As someone n...

The Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin is a theatre and an ensemble that stages spectacular Las Vegas style productions on a two-year cycle. Commemorating its centenary in 2019, the shows combine extravagant costumes, state-of-the-art stage settings with grand musical and dance numbers interspersed with 'heart-stopping' feats. The current production i...

9/11, two numbers that conjure huge emotional resonance. The al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of Tuesday September 11 2001 - on the World Trade Centre in New York and Pentagon in Virginia - was witnessed by many, many millions who were glued to TVs around the globe. The overwhelming, barbaric, futility of 9/11 tends to be the abiding memory for those who...

The Open Air Theatre Regents Park stages an annual season of four major productions and one of these usually arrives from 'left field'. It is a work that carries a risk of not quite resonating with the wide demographic range of regular theatregoers to the theatre. Our Town, which opens the 2019 season at the Open Air Theatre, is just such a product...