The Wizard of Oz *** TNT

TV talent show winner Danielle Hope gives a likeably confident performance as the runaway Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s reworking of the famous film, whilst Edward Duly-Baker makes a laconic Tin Man in search of a heart.

But it’s the tallest and smallest cast members who steal the acting honours in a visually spectacular musical with lavish sets and whirling projections which whisk Dorothy off to an emerald Oz.

As her would-be nemesis, Hannah Waddingham’s green faced, hooked nose Wicked Witch of the West swoops from the ceiling to deliver the most powerful new song of the evening. And, at ground level, a little West Highland White terrier proves an irresistible Toto - even though he’s decidedly reluctant to follow the revolving Yellow Brick Road in this critic-proof crowd-pleaser.

London Palladium, Argyll Street, W1A 3AB (0844 412 2957) Tube: Oxford Circus wizardofozthemusical.com Currently booking till 17 September (£25 - £62.50)

Mogadishu **** TNT

The state of inner city schools may be driving teachers and parents to distraction, but it’s providing fertile ground for dramatists and thought-provoking entertainment for theatregoers who are no doubt extremely grateful that they don’t have to face a classroom of disruptive adolescents on a daily basis.

Following hot on the heels of the “Schools Season” at the Bush, Vivienne Franzmann’s accomplished, hard-hitting new play (her first) looks at the politics of the playground - and of the headmaster’s study - when known troublemaker Jason, already facing permanent exclusion, falsely accuses popular white teacher Amanda (Julia Ford) not only of pushing him but also of racial abuse when she intervenes to break up a fight.

Sweet-talking the girls and reminding the boys of loyalty owed, disaffected Jason (a simmering, menacing Malachi Kirby) coerces his reluctant gang into corroborating his lies. He’s fully aware that his future hangs in the balance, he won’t back down and the situation escalates with devastating effects.

With twelve years’ teaching experience behind her, Franzmann (a deserving joint winner of the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition) knows what she’s talking about and, apart from a couple of instances which don’t completely ring true, convincingly captures both the dilemma faced by Ian Bartholomew’s weak head (caught up in the bureaucracy of Child Protection legislation) and the consequences of the allegations on Amanda and her family.

The teenagers’ banter is constantly on the verge of erupting into something more threatening and Matthew Dunster’s sharp, well-acted production appropriately encircles the pupils in wire fencing, their schoolyard a mini urban warzone where the toughest survive and bullying – not exam results - rules.

Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL (0871 221 1726) lyric.co.uk Tube: Hammersmith Until April 2 (£10 - £25)

The Red Shoes **** TNT

As her adaptation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg opens in the West End, here’s a final chance to catch a revival of the play which first brought Emma Rice and her quirky Cornwall-based Kneehigh company to national notice over a decade ago.

As a touring company, Kneehigh are used to creating maximum effect with minimal props – so even before the show begins four hollow-eyed men and one woman (dressed only in grubby vests and underpants, their hair cropped close) are to be found wandering with blank expressions round the wonderful space of this Grade II listed building (formerly the local town hall but now home to Battersea Arts Centre) where this show first found a temporary London base.

Seated on benches (cushions are provided), we watch as they scrub their feet and don various costumes to enact the story of the orphan who, by pretending they’re a sober black, tricks the blind woman who raises her into buying her the pair of bright red shoes (heavy clogs in this instance) which prove to be her downfall.

Based primarily on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, but fleshed out with vaudevillian bits of business, it’s an unnervingly tragic tale, dripping with blood and executed with Kneehigh’s distinctive physicality and low-tech inventiveness. A shabby brown suitcase becomes a coffin, a headstone, part of a car. The red shoes fly tauntingly overhead on a fishing rod and, instead of curtains, we get scruffy wooden doors and a raised set (flanked by a pair of musicians who, between them play far more instruments than I could keep track of).

Giles King’s Lady Lydia in drag comperes the proceedings, whilst Patrycja Kujawska brings a desperate intensity to the part of the Girl who can’t stop dancing and Mike Shepherd relishes his role as the Butcher. The piece is, slightly, showing its age, but it still makes for engrossing theatre and (speaking as someone who, apart from forays to the South Bank, rarely makes it South of the river) well worth the short overground journey by train.

Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, Battersea, SW11 5TN Rail: Clapham Junction (020 7223 2223) bac.org.uk Until 9th April (£22.50 - £25)

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee This is London

This is the sort of musical comedy which is likely to amuse or irritate depending on your taste. Designer Christopher Oram has decked out the auditorium like a school gym for this lighthearted look at the American phenomenon of the Spelling Bee competition in which serious young kids devour the dictionary and pit their lexical skills against equally determined enthusiasts.
The earnest youngsters are permitted to ask for a definition and for an illustrative sentence, and with each round the words become progressively more difficult and obscure. To liven things up, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin have written in parts for the audience – a quartet of gently coerced volunteers take part each night.

Much to the feigned annoyance of the cast, the members of the public get off pretty lightly until the minimal plot demands their elimination, whereupon they are escorted off by Ako Mitchell's Mitch, who's doing his community service dressed as a striped bumble bee. They're probably safer in his hands, though, than in those of Steve Pemberton's rather creepy Vice Principal, who co-hosts the event with Katherine Kingsley's chirpy former winner Rona.

Each kid is something of a misfit with an individual method of getting it right. David Fynn's plump, pompous William traces the words with his ‘magic foot’ and, much to his surprise, discovers a soulmate in Hayley Gallivan's lonely Olive, whose mother is far away in an ashram. Only a fluke got Leaf through to the finals, Chip becomes a victim of a futile attempt to control an embarrassing display of raging teenage hormones, overachieving polymath Marcy learns the liberation of lightening up, and Logainne (with a lisp and two gay dads) gamely spells ‘cystitis’.

You're unlikely to remember a single tune and it's all rather brash, but Fin provides some clever rhymes and director Jamie Lloyd maintains an energetically bouncy 95 minute departure from the serious fare usually seen at this address.

Donmar Theatre

Frankenstein **** TNT

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle returns to the theatre to galvanise 
Frankenstein’s monster into shuddering life.

In a flare of blazing bulbs, this naked creation of sutured-together body parts forces his way through a pulsing amniotic sac to emerge, ugly but innocent, unable to walk, talk and with neither name nor memory, to learn the ways of man.


Nick Dear’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel is disappointingly colourless, but is swept triumphantly along by Boyle’s thrilling visual flair, Underworld’s atmospheric music and intense performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller (alternating the roles of obsessive scientist and his handiwork) as the latter comes to realise that only the blind old man who teaches him Milton and Plutarch can “see” the tragically unfulfilled potential of this newborn being.

Olivier at the National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk
In rep until May 2 (£12 - £45)

Losing It *** TNT

If, as she frequently states, it’s unfortunately true that a whopping one in four people will suffer from some sort of mental illness during their lifetime, then comedienne Ruby Wax has got a huge readymade audience out there for her latest confessional show.

Despite her outgoing personality, the exuberant Wax knows more than she’d like to about depression – she’s suffered from this debilitating disease for years.

And she’s keen to stress that although there are no broken bones on display, the damage done by problems of the mind is every bit as real as that wrought by ailments with a more physical manifestation and should be treated with the same degree of understanding and sympathy.

Being Wax, of course, she can’t resist sliding off into comic riffs (some funnier than others) about her own experiences (some not really relevant) but there’s no doubting her underlying sincerity.

Her showy presence is counterbalanced by the presence of singer-songwriter Judith Owen whose husky voice and low key piano playing counterbalance her co-performer’s excesses. Like Wax, she too has a troubled history – her mother committed suicide and she herself is no stranger to the Priory.

After the interval, there’s a question and answer session – a chance (on the afternoon I went) for fans to praise Ruby for her past performances, and for others to probe a little deeper into what makes her tick and how she dealt with the trajectory from fame to bedbound breakdown.

It’s certainly not your standard theatrical fare, but the show has already been scheduled to return in a couple of months – an indication not only of the popularity Wax still enjoys, but also the accuracy of that sad, worrying statistic.

Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, SE1 1RU (020 7907 7060) Tube: London Bridge menierchocolatefactory.com

Moment **** TNT

It only takes a moment to snuff out a life, but the after effects can last a very long time indeed.

In Deirdre Kinahan’s sharply funny but sensitive drama (a bit like a Greek tragedy with a contemporary comic edge) pill-popping, forgetful Teresa is expecting a rare visit from her son Nial and his pretty English girlfriend who are passing through Dublin en route to his art exhibition in Spain.

Her married younger daughter Ciara is popping round, too, but no one has told Niamh.

Over the course of twenty four hours, the root of the cause of Niamh’s deep-seated antagonism towards her now successful brother - buried in silence for fourteen years, but far from forgotten - is dug up and turned over in an increasingly uncomfortable family gathering over tea and quiche.

There’s fine acting all round in David Horan’s well-judged production and, as Maeve Fitzgerald’s hostile Niamh forces her sibling to relive a past he wants to put firmly behind him, the uncomfortable feeling remains that, despite the attentive affection of new boyfriend Fin, the healing process is far from finished.

Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush Green W12 8QD Tube: Shepherds Bush (020 8743 5050) bushtheatre.co.uk Until March 26 £15-£20

Million Dollar Quartet *** TNT

The dream quartet of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee 
Lewis met up for the jamming session to end all jamming sessions one Memphis 
night in December 1956, brought together at Sun Records by Sam Phillips, the 
man who discovered them.

Unknown to him, departures are imminent - and 
that’s about it as far as plot goes in this lively jukebox compilation of 
over 20 songs which went rocketing up the charts over 50 years ago.


The rock’n’roll staples easily stand the test of time, but it’s Ben
 Goddard’s cocky Jerry Lee (Phillips’ latest signing) who completely steals 
the show. A restless ball of energy, he hits the keys with dazzling panache,
only staying still long enough to savour a sultry rendition of Fever
 courtesy of Elvis’s latest squeeze.


Noel Coward Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4AU (0844 482 5141) Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross milliondollarquartet.co.uk Until October 1 £15-£60




The Sapphires *** TNT

Despite likeable performances and the larger than life presence of Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan, this show from Belvoir and Black Swan State Theatre company really is something of a wasted opportunity.

The programme notes reveal that writer Tony Briggs’ Yorta Yorta mother Laurel and a couple of her cousins really did move from the country to Melbourne where they performed their close harmonies at the Tiki Village nightclub and – and here’s the potentially interesting bit – she and her sister subsequently spent three months touring Vietnam as the Sapphires in the late 60’s.

Briggs throws in a few politically pointed comments - both about the status of Aboriginal women in their native land and the plight of the Vietnamese in their own war-torn country - and some tart repartee.

But much of the writing is lazy, and, though differentiated, the four who make up this feisty, fictionalised Sapphire quartet are pretty one-dimensional - they sing and they have various degrees of man trouble.

Ultimately, then, this is mainly an excuse to belt out some of the era’s irresistible Motown hits (and a scattering of traditional songs, too) and on this level Neil Armfield’s production with its five-strong on-stage band is a definite success – earning a standing ovation from a satisfied crowd at a Sunday matinee.

Barbican, Silk Street ,EC2Y 8DS (020 7638 8891) Tube: Barbican barbican.org.uk Until March 12 (£16 - £28)

Drowning On Dry Land *** TNT

For over 35 years the ultra prolific Alan Ayckbourn ran the Stephen Joseph 
Theatre in Scarborough where nearly all of his 70+ plays were first put on.
 Well over half came to London, but 2011 is seeing revivals of a handful of
 his lesser known works which never made it this far south.
 The newly established Print Room has just extended its run of his Snake in
the Grass, and Haunting Julia opens at the Riverside in May.

Meanwhile his 
prescient 2004 satire on the cult of celebrity is given a competent revival 
by Guy Retallack with a space-defying design by Georgia Lowe which manages
 to incorporate a folly tower (which, symbolically, brings you back to
 exactly where you started if you try to climb to the top) in Linzi and
 Charlie Conrad’s garden.


Discontented Linzi used to be a TV presenter but gave it up to raise the
 kids when Charlie went mega. He’s gained a legion of fans for, quite simply,
 not being able to do anything right. The more he messed up – as an athlete, 
on quiz shows, even opening a supermarket - the more famous he’s become.

Now 
he’s about to face tough interviewer Gale with her reputation for dishing 
the dirt, and (although he says he’s got nothing to hide) his manager (Les 
Dennis) is there to protect him.


As is often the case with this playwright, there’s a deep sadness beneath
 the comedy and although the characters are exaggerated, there’s always that 
uncomfortable element of truth which makes his plays so effective.


Mark Farrelly’s pompous, pin-striped lawyer uses every trick in the book to 
humiliate and discredit the woman who accuses Charlie of sexual assault 
before jumping back into his helicopter, Helen Mortimer sports a curly blue
 wig and clown outfit as his self-styled number one fan hired by Linzi to 
entertain a cohort of kids at their son’s birthday party, and slightly
 bewildered chap-next-door ordinariness emanates from Christopher Coghill’s 
talentless Charlie in this enjoyable, though not vintage, Ayckbourn.

Jermyn Street Theatre, Jermyn St, SW1Y 6ST (020 7287 2875) Tube: Piccadilly Circus jermynstreettheatre.co.uk Till March 19 £20.00


Fatherland *** TNT

There’s tension in the air right from the start of Australian playwright Tom
 Holloway’s short two-hander in which a teenage daughter is visiting her 
father in his partially decorated home.
 Both their body posture and language suggests that there’s more at stake 
here than just a casual access visit.

Despite the initial teasing exchanges,
 he’s on edge, his nervousness barely kept in check. She’s anxious, sullen 
and progressively unable to conceal the conflict of emotions.
 There’s obviously an unspoken history between them which threatens to 
resurface at any moment, though they both know it shouldn’t. Neither dares 
to answer the phone when it rings, repeatedly, a startling intrusion from
 the world outside.


Caroline Steinbeis’s confident production doesn’t stint on visual surprises 
(a pizza delivery crashes through the rear wall) and the performances 
(Jonathan McGuinness tightly coiled and controlling in a doomed attempt to 
establish a less intense relationship, Angela Terence troubled and wary)
 maintain the enigmatic nature of the writing.


But Holloway takes things both too far and not far enough. So whilst the 
final images seem clumsily gratuitous, without help from the programme it 
would be virtually impossible to figure out that the structuring of the 
preceding (admittedly atmospherically charged) scenes follows the five 
stages of the grieving process.


Gate Theatre, Pembridge Road, W11 3HQ (020 7229 0706) Tube: Notting Hill Gate gatetheatre.co.uk Until March 12 £20 



Greenland TNT

With its barely integrated strands, this multi-authored climate change concoction has the hallmark of too many cooks (four playwrights and a dramaturg) and never really grips.

It’s moderately interesting some of the time, but it’s so bitty and lacking in dramatic depth that Lisa’s decision - as she floats overhead in a shopping trolley - to become an activist rather than a teacher, a pair of rowing lesbians with different viewpoints, plus a flirtation between an Ed Miliband aide and a climate modelling scientist en route to the Copenhagen summit, are all almost instantly forgettable.

The highlight of Bijan Sheibani’s production is a fantastic life-size polar bear which lumbers up to a guillemot-studying Arctic ornithologist, sniffs his boots, decides he’s not worth the effort, and ambles off again. Wise bear.

Lyttelton at the National, South Bank, SE1 9PX (020 7452 3000) Tube: Waterloo nationaltheatre.org.uk Until 2nd April (£12 - £30)

Our Private Life **** TNT

This delightfully written parable from Colombian Pedro Miguel Rozo is packed with decidedly unpleasant topics – cancer, mental illness and, primarily, child abuse – but it’s so slickly executed that it isn’t till the still simplicity of the final scene that one stops to take stock of the black comedy that has gone before.

The dysfunctional family – mother, father and sons Carlos and Sergio – is, here, a metaphor for Rozo’s country. Their village is on the way to becoming a town, a place with aspirations where harmful gossip spreads swiftly in the community.

Not surprisingly, the family prefers to hide things under the carpet and everyone is in denial – even though they (like the audience) can “hear” the others’ thoughts. Whilst respectably married Sergio is the proud manager of the eagerly awaited new shopping mall, younger brother Carlos (who’s much favoured by his father) is a gay, bipolar compulsive fantasist.

This time, though, there seems to be more than a hint of truth in his latest assertion - that his father has been messing about with the 12 year old son of a recently sacked employee (Clare Cathcart’s compensation demanding Tania). With the help of Adrian Schiller’s money-grabbing Psychiatrist (he’s got his eye on a new 4x4 - and he gets it) the family’s foundations are overturned bit by bit, and the truth finally emerges.

Lyndsey Turner’s production zaps along on Lizzie Clachan’s smoothly sliding set, and there are excellent performances from Eugene O’Hare’s defiantly macho Sergio, Ishia Bennison’s chemo surviving Mother, Anthony O’Donnell’s financially and sexually emasculated Father and, especially, Colin Morgan as snivelling, disturbed Carlos who is all too willing to believe that he, too, may have been a victim.

Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS Tube: Sloane Square (020 7565 5000) royalcourttheatre.com Until 12th March £20 (Mondays £10)

Ordinary Days *** TNT

Four young New Yorkers try to sort out their lives in composer and lyricist Adam Gwon’s insubstantial musical, originally staged at the equally intimate Finborough and various locations in the States.

Gay, slightly nerdy but kind-hearted Warren (Lee William-Davis) is going nowhere fast, spending his days cat-sitting for an established artist and scribbling words on scraps of paper he distributes round the city. Alexia Khadime’s impatient Debs, on the other hand, is desperate to get on and has left her small town life behind for the opportunities of the Big Apple, but things aren’t going according to her rather nebulous big plan. Their paths cross when he finds her lost dissertation notes, they agree to meet at the Met, and (reluctantly on her part, over-eagerly on his) they form a friendship.

Meanwhile Jason (Daniel Boys) is about to move in with girlfriend Claire who’s none too happy about clearing out sentimental items from her past in order to make way for their future.

Both can see the fault lines beginning to show in their relationship.

Unfortunately, what could have been a rather gentle exploration of the everyday quest for mutual understanding is almost ruined by heavy miking which really shouldn’t be necessary in such a tiny space, even with a live three-piece band on stage.

In contrast to the neat, understated high-rise design, the vocals (well sung though they are) seem too strident for such a private, self-indulgent and sentimental piece. The sub-Sondheim lyrics aren’t always clear and ultimately, “Ordinary Days” turns out to be a very ordinary musical.

Trafalgar Studios (2), Whitehall, SW1A 2DY Tube: Charing Cross (0844 871 7632) ambassadortickets.com/trafalgarstudios Until 5th March £25.00

The Children's Hour

*** TNT

Keira Knightley brings an intense emotional power to her portrayal of a New England teacher falsely accused by a disgruntled, malevolent pupil, Mary, of having an “unnatural” lesbian relationship with her fellow schoolmistress and closest friend Martha (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) .

Ian Rickson’s production of Lillian Hellman’s rather melodramatic 1934 play takes a while to grip as the pubescent fascinations of their teenage charges are over-heavily emphasised. And the plot isn’t wholly credible either – it doesn’t take much for Mary’s grandmother (veteran actress Ellen Burstyn) to be convinced by a brat known to be a habitual liar and a vicious bully at school.

But the waiting pays off as the repercussions of the allegations against the teachers multiply and their lives are devastated by blind, unfounded prejudice.

Comedy, Panton Street, SW1Y 4DN (0844 871 7622) Piccadilly Circus Tube www.childrenshourtheplay.com 30th April (£15 - £60)