TITUS ANDRONICUS (Shake-Scene Theatre Company)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown

Content warning: This play is recommended for 16+ and contains some very sensitive content including violence, rape and murder which is done very realistically even on Zoom. If you think this play might not be for you, watch one of the others by Shake-Scene instead. You get sensitive people of all different ages and that’s totally fine. But if it is your sort of thing then watch it because it’s a good production.

Additional Warning: Maybe don’t watch this if you’re eating. Especially not if it’s pie.

JULIUS CAESAR (Royal Shakespeare Company/The Shows Must Go On)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFe9HZOhew  

Available until: 16^th April, probably 7pm

I have never seen Julius Caesar in the list of Shakespeare’s history plays but he was a real person. He was a Roman consul general and statesman who was born in 100 BC and was assassinated 55 years later. He really was married to Calpurnia (and three other women, sometimes to 2 at the same time) and she apparently really did dream he was going to die. Caesar really was assassinated by a group that was led by Brutus and Cassius on the Ides of March which is March 15^th. 

THE THEATRE CHANNEL EPISODE 4 (THEATRE CAFE)***

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/episodes/the-theatre-channel-episode-4

Available until: Unknown. It’s quite confusing.

The Theatre Channel Episode 4 dropped on Christmas Eve and the theme is Christmas.

There are a lot of Christmas concerts and they are all good but people sing the same sings.

This one doesn’t just have songs I hadn’t heard in Christmas concerts this year. It has songs I don’t know at all. I think it is good to sing people’s favourite songs but lots of people go to the theatre because they like seeing new things. I got to see some new things in this concert.

WE BEGIN AGAIN (National Theatre/Guardian)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2020/dec/17/we-begin-again-a-musical-for-2020-video

Available until: Unknown

This is a short musical written by James Graham which looks back on 2020. It is about the difficult things we have faced and the things we hope will be able to happen in 2021.

A WEST END CHRISTMAS (Make a Difference Trust/St Paul's Church****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/2

Available until: Livestreams on Friday 11^th, Saturday 12^th and Sunday 13^th December at 7.30pm and Saturday 12^th and Sunday 13^th at 2.30pm.

There are a lot of really good Christmas concerts on the internet. It is really nice that we get to see our favourite West End actors in so many concerts especially as there are a lot of events we are missing out on this year. It helps make everything feel a bit more Christmassy and when the same performers appear in different concerts they have always sung different songs so far.

This one has lots of different singers in and lots of different types of Christmas songs. There is also some dancing, Robin Windsor and Anya Garnis who used to be in Strictly dance to a version of a carol.

RED (The Shows Must Go On/Trafalgar Releasing/THIRTEEN/Michael Grandage Company/Wyndham’s Theatre)***

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsSdhhv6ldg

Available until: 7pm on Wednesday 2^nd December

I like plays about real people a lot. I also like plays about fictional people because it’s all about the playwright’s imagination but there is something special about seeing a play about a real person and then finding out about them. Often they’re not very much like the real person or you can’t be sure what if they’re like the real person or not. But it’s interesting just discovering a new person who is kind of great in some way.

Red by John Logan is about the painter Mark Rothko and his commission to do a series of paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant. I like art but I hadn’t heard of him. So I read about him and he had a really interesting life. He was Jewish and was born in what was then part of the Russian Empire and is now Latvia. He moved to America, he did very well at school but he dropped out of college and didn’t go back till they awarded him an honorary degree which I thought was funny. He was very political and an anarchist. He became interested in art when he saw other artists at work. He had a group of painter friends and a group of anarchic friends. He started writing a book which was a comparison between children’s art and the best painters’ art but he didn’t finish it.

FALLING STARS (Union Theatre/Stream Theatre)****

  

By Alan

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/shows £18

Available until: Further livestreams on Monday 23^rd-Saturday 29^th November, with 2.30pm matinees on Saturday 28^th and Sunday 29^th.

I don’t always like juke box musicals as I think they can be a bit lazy but I don’t really see this as a juke box musical. There’s no plot, it’s more the story of music from around the 1920s which was obviously 100 years ago. Peter Polycarpou does most of the presenting and the explanation of what music was being written but he is helped in this by Sally Ann Triplett who does some of the narration and sings quite a lot of the songs.

MACBETH (Chichester Festival Theatre/The Shows Must Go On)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dalKG4ZiYg

Available until: 23^rd November

Content warnings: Blood, guts, gore, violence, gunfire

Macbeth is fiction but it is based on real people. There was a Macbeth who became King of Scotland circa 1005. Unlike in the play, he was king for over 17 years. Macbeth’s grandfather was king so Macbeth was part of the Royal Family and King Duncan was his cousin- so Macbeth was technically next in line after Duncan’s sons. (The rules of succession weren’t always followed, part of the plot of King John is based on the fact John was actually 3rd in line after his deceased brother Geoffrey’s two surviving children but the previous king, his brother Richard I, wanted John to be king after him so that’s what happened. Macbeth was at least 4^th in line and probably wasn’t Duncan’s first choice but he had a lot of support from others.)

JUKE BOX 2 (Royal Opera)*****

 

 By Tommy

Link: https://stream.roh.org.uk/packages/jukebox-2/videos/jukebox-2

Available until: Sunday 29^th December 2020

Earlier in the week, the Jette Parker Young Artists (plus one former member of the Programme) performed in Juke Box 1. Each Young Artist sang the opening of three different arias or songs and audience voted on youtube and facebook for their favourite. The winning songs were all performed in full in the Jukebox 2 concert.

ROMEO & JULIET (Shake-Scene Shakespeare)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.patreon.com/shakesceneshakespeare

Available until: Unknown

I think this is the first play Shake-Scene ever did online. They did some work with cue scripts before this but this is their first play. I can’t say it’s their first full play because they didn’t do the whole of Romeo & Juliet but they did the story from beginning to end.

JUKE BOX 1 (Royal Opera)****

 

By Tommy (and some of the younger bloggers)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04nppOsfdig

Available until: The video will be available for about a month. However, if you wish to vote, you’ll need to do that before midday on Thursday 29^th October.

The Royal Opera has had a Young Artist programme for most of the current century. A small group of talented young singers spend two years working at the Royal Opera House, singing small roles (and occasionally leading roles) and understudying others. They also have a concert at the end of each year and certainly, in the past, they have been given the opportunities to perform recitals at the opera house too.

SHOWSTOPPER! THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL** (but kind of ****)

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/showstopper-the-improvised-musical-livestream-tickets-121758513993?aff=SSwebsite

Available until: 25^th October 2020

I’m really glad I watched this because before tonight I really didn’t believe these musicals were improvised. The performers were just too good. I didn’t believe it was possible to improvise songs in any style and make up lyrics which rhymed and scanned and sing harmonies. I thought it was all a trick.

HENRY VIII (Shakespeare Happy Hours)****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNeM7RF90bk

Available until: Indefinitely

Henry VIII isn’t performed very often. A lot of big Shakespeare fans have never seen or read it and they’re surprised when they do. Henry VIII is known for having six wives but in this play he only has two wives. Katharine (of Aragon) who he is married to at the start and Anne Bullen (names in Shakespeare’s time had lots of different spellings) who he marries after he has divorced Katharine.

There are a lot of things about the play that aren’t accurate. Anne is written as a gentle, kind character. The real Anne was very well spoken but she did cause a lot of trouble by saying things she shouldn’t have said.

RICHARD II (Shakespeare Happy Hours)***

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd_qTG5eLMk

Available until: indefinitely

I don’t really enjoy Richard II as much as the other history plays. Maybe it’s because it’s not very historically accurate – the War of the Roses wasn’t really all Richard II’s fault and I’m not sure who the Queen is supposed to be. His first wife Anne died 16 years before the time when the play starts and his second ‘wife’ Isabella was eight years old. So she can’t really be either of them but there isn’t anyone else she could be. Invented characters aren’t all bad because I like Falstaff but he really added something and he might not be completely invented as he is thought to be based on several real people.

HENRY V (Shakespeare Happy Hours)***

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WF_PiT_fe8

Available until: indefinitely

Once upon a time there was a young king named Henry, the fifth in England to bear this name. At first he was reluctant to become king but having gained the throne, he wanted to be the best king he could be. He knew that he might also have some claim to the French throne and sought to find out the truth about his heritage. But France already had a king who was far from happy to hear of Henry’s aspirations …

INTERMISSIONS CONCERT 2***

 

By Alan

Link: https://page.inplayer.com/Intermissions/

Available until: 1^st September 2020

I have only reviewed Shakespeare before so I hope this is ok. I like musical theatre too.

Megan described the set up really well in her review so I won’t explain everything again, but this is a series of concerts in West End star Alice Fearn’s garden and for each show she is visited by a few West End stars who sing and have a chat to her. It’s outside so it’s not so dangerous and there is social distancing.

KING HENRY VI Parts I, II and III (Shakespeare Happy Hours)****

 

By Alan

Link to Part I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm1Dmjl0s6o

Link to Part II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6e7I5QEmfs

Link to Part III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F8GuMuKJxQ

Available until: indefinitely

Once upon a time there was a king and a queen who had a baby boy called Henry. For nine months they were happy but then Henry’s father died, leaving Henry as king. Henry’s mother Catherine was French and the English nobles did not trust her and she was not allowed to look after him. Henry had lots of help with ruling his kingdom but when he finally became king on his own when he was fifteen he did not find the duties easy. He was a quiet man and had trouble making decisions. Also a man named Richard believed should be king rather than Henry. All he could do was trust his friends to help him but what if his friends weren’t as trustworthy as he thought?

RICHARD III (Shakespeare Happy Hours)*****

 

By Alan

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHFFPTmZkP8

Available till: indefinitely

Once upon a time there was a man called Richard who really wanted to be king. Richard would do anything in order to bring him closer to the crown, whether that meant picking up wives at funerals or killing anyone who happened to be in his way. When his brother, King Edward IV, fell ill to natural causes, Richard’s dream finally seemed to be within his grasp. But it is very difficult to cause so much suffering without making enemies and Richard needs to watch out…

I really liked this performance of Richard III. Colin Hurley plays Richard as a gentle man in public and his opening speech is quite chatty. But he smiles like a politician and that puts me right off. He’s really a vicious man and some people can see it but some people can’t.

HENRY IV PARTS 1 & 2 (SHAKESPEARE HAPPY HOURS)****

 

By Alan

Link for Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_PC19kJl2Q&t=5s

Link for Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=584RluWxGts

Available until: Indefinitely

Once upon a time there was a Prince named Hal. His father was the King and as Hal was the oldest son he would become king when his father died. However Hal did not want to be king. He was far too busy drinking in taverns and playing tricks upon his friends to have any interest in ruling a whole country. King Henry IV despaired of his son and his undesirable friends but he had other matters to command his attention. His old enemy Hotspur was leading a rebellion against Henry IV so the king had to gather his Arsenal against him – and he also had to fight a battle wish himself when his health began to fail.