ORDINARY DAYS (Theatre Café/Pickle Stage Productions)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/shop/ordinary-days

Available until: April 6^th. You must watch the complete show within 24 hours.

Ordinary Days is about four young people. Jason is about to move in with his girlfriend Claire as he thinks this will help them to get closer, but Claire finds the idea difficult. Warren and Debs (she was Deb in the original musical, but this production calls her Debs) don’t know each other. He is a struggling artist working as a cat-sitter. She is a student writing a thesis. But maybe they have more in common than they think.

LEAVE A LIGHT ON CONCERTS (Lambert Jackson Productions/Stream Theatre/Theatre Café)*****

By Aashiq 

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/geners/59/12

Available until: Concerts available most days over six weeks at 5pm, 8pm or both. Only available to watch ‘live’ (though not really live as they’re pre-recorded).

Early in our very first lockdown, which feels like absolute centuries ago, one of the first organisations to start producing work online was Lambert Jackson Productions. They joined up with the West End’s celebrated Theatre Café, who agreed to host Lambert Jackson’s concerts. Lambert Jackson got probably nearly 100 West End stars together (they must have been too shy to ask me) and they each performed a concert in their own home. The concerts were somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour and each performer did up to ten songs, chatting to their fans in between songs, talking about their songs, their lives in lockdown and their careers.

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.

CINDERELLA: A SOCIALLY DISTANCED BALL (Turbine Theatre/Theatre Café)****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/shop/cinderella-a-socially-distanced-ball-online £12.50

Available until: 1^st January 2021

Age guidance: 18+ Language, content which could offend or disgust.

I’m quite offended I was asked to review this. I mean, how do they know I’m not under eighteen? I have a fake ID and everything. My fake ID actually says I’m twenty, but nobody’s ever asked to see it. Which is just rude. I do get asked my age sometimes by charity workers who are only allowed to sign up under-25s, but everyone knows they’re just after my money.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: A SPOTLIGHT ON CHRISTMAS (Theatre Café/Apollo Theatre)****

By Megan

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/out-of-the-spotlight-into-the-darkness-episode-3

Available until:

This is the last concert in the Out of the Darkness Into the Spotlight series but it was a really lovely and happy concert to end on. Hiba Elchikhe and Sejal Keshwala have organised a really brilliant and interesting series of concerts with so many singers I was really excited to watch.

Lots of musical theatre stars joined together to sing Christmas songs and there were even some Christmas poems! I feel even more excited about Christmas too even though I still feel a little bit sad because not everyone can enjoy Christmas in the way they want to. I am very lucky in lots of ways but my cousin is nearly seven months old and I haven’t met her yet. But that’s something I can look forward to in 2021.

THE THEATRE CHANNEL EPISODE 3 (Theatre Café)****

 

By Imogen

Link: The Theatre Channel Episode 3 - The Theatre Cafe

Available until: 27^th November 2021

The Theatre Channel Episode 3 focuses on musicals which are or have at least been described as rock musicals. There is a wide range of different songs which are sung by stars of musical theatre. The biggest star is John Owen-Jones but there are some young cute men in it too.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: A SPOTLIGHT ON MUSICAL THEATRE (Apollo Theatre/Theatre Café)****

By Louise

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/out-of-the-spotlight-into-the-darkness-episode-2/

Available until: It says N/A

The second episode in this really enjoyable series features fourteen singers. They each sing a solo song and two of them sing a duet together as well. They sing songs from fifteen different musicals, ranging from Guys and Dolls which was first produced in 1950, to A Star is Born, a film musical which was released in 2018. Every decade apart from the 1980s is represented but I think the music from the 1980s often isn’t appreciated nowadays.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT: A SPOTLIGHT ON ‘JAMIE’ (Apollo Theatre/Theatre Café)****

 

By Imogen

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/out-of-the-spotlight-into-the-darkness-episode-1 £9 for single episode or £25 for the complete 3 episode series

Available until: The Theatre Café website says N/A.

The Theatre Café have been one of the most active venues through this annoying lockdown business. They started off by streaming concerts from performers’ homes and more recently they’ve actually been letting the performers into the café. The Apollo Theatre is one of the theatres that have really tried to get up and running again. The Government messed all that up but even though the Apollo can’t let audiences in they can’t stop the performers. Some of this show is filmed at the Apollo and some is at the Theatre Café.

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU (Theatre Cafe)****

 

By Emma

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/i-put-a-spell-on-you £10

Available until: 7^th November 2020

The Theatre Café are really spoiling us! Not only do we get a Halloween-themed episode of The Theatre Channel, we get another concert! This is different as it’s more like a concert with individual performances rather than staged scenes but it’s a really enjoyable concert. There are so many different ways of enjoying musical theatre performers and I think it’s important that the online world offers us as many different ways as possible. It helps us to miss it less and the more concerts there are, the more work there is for performers.

THE THEATRE CHANNEL EPISODE 2 (Theatre Café)*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/episodes/the-theatre-channel-episode-2/

Available until: April 2021

The Theatre Café Channel is a great idea and it’s so much fun. There’s one every month and it’s lots of big West End stars singing really good musical theatre songs. There are a few I hadn’t heard before but I’d definitely like to hear them again.

A NIGHT CAP WITH... AIMIE ATKINSON (Theatre Café)*****

 

By Aashiq

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/livestreams/paul-taylor-mills-presents-night-cap-with-aimie-atkinson-at-the-theatre-cafe/ £8

Available until: 29^th October. Whenever you buy it you’ll have access until the 29^th

I adore Aimie Atkinson. If I was straight… but then I’m not. But I do love her so here’s a review for Queen Aimie of Six, or the Pretty Woman of the Piccadilly as she now is (or will be when we all finally get back from this annoying little hiatus). Here’s a five star review from one queen to another.

THE THEATRE CHANNEL EPISODE 1 (Theatre Café)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/episodes/theatre-channel-episode-1/ £12

Available until: 9^th October 2020

The Theatre Café have made such a big contributions to lockdown performances. They organised over seventy Leave a Light On concerts, each featuring a West End musical theatre star. After that came another series of concerts and workshops called The Interval Act, and they’ve recently started a new series called A Nightcap with… which is a combination of a concert and an interview. There have also been Zoom quizzes, which always sold out.