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‘The Father and the Assassin’ Review: A Star-Making Performance in a Dynamic Play About the Murder of Gandhi - variety.com
variety.com
24.05.2022

‘The Father and the Assassin’ Review: A Star-Making Performance in a Dynamic Play About the Murder of Gandhi

David Benedict “What are you staring at? Have you never seen a murderer up close before?” Ever since her startlingly assured 2007 debut “Free Outgoing,” shrewd playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar has calmly been breaking rules to winning dramatic effect. Making her outstanding National Theatre debut with “The Father and the Assassin,” a play about the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, she continues that process by wrong-footing the audience with that opening line.

‘Just for One Day — The Live Aid Musical’ Review: Musical Performances Make Up for an Earnest Retelling of the Famous 1980s Charity Event - variety.com - Britain - London - Ethiopia
variety.com
14.02.2024

‘Just for One Day — The Live Aid Musical’ Review: Musical Performances Make Up for an Earnest Retelling of the Famous 1980s Charity Event

David Benedict Enraged by the British government charging the standard 15% sales tax on tickets for Live Aid, Bob Geldof (Craige Els) bullies his way into a meeting with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (sparky Julie Atherton). Ever intransigent, she responds with dialogue lifted from Bernie Taupin and Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” before they argue with each other unexpectedly as a rap.

‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Review: West End Play Brings Netflix Series Thrillingly to Life - variety.com - Indiana - county Hawkins
variety.com
15.12.2023

‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Review: West End Play Brings Netflix Series Thrillingly to Life

David Benedict “We need something a little theatrical.” Boy, does excited Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley) get his wish. He’s trying to solve a staging problem in “The Dark of the Moon,” the school play he and the other kids are secretly putting on in Hawkins, Ind., in 1959. But audiences watching “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” will likely greet the line with a wry smile because immense, intense theatricality is there for all to see.

‘Rebecca’ Review: Musical’s English-Language Debut Is a Remarkable Debacle - variety.com - Britain - Germany
variety.com
19.09.2023

‘Rebecca’ Review: Musical’s English-Language Debut Is a Remarkable Debacle

David Benedict “What a terrible tragedy.” Indeed. That’s the lyric cried out as, in theory, the famously magnificent Cornish home at the heart of the story burns to the ground at the climax of the musical of “Rebecca.” Or, rather, when smoke is pumped into the auditorium, the frontcloth glows red and cast members race around to startlingly little dramatic effect.

‘The Third Man’ Review: Theatrical Hitmakers Can’t Make This Misbegotten Thriller Sing - variety.com - city Vienna
variety.com
20.06.2023

‘The Third Man’ Review: Theatrical Hitmakers Can’t Make This Misbegotten Thriller Sing

David Benedict “What was I thinking when I made this deal?” So sings Holly Martins (Sam Underwood) towards the end of the new musical adaptation of “The Third Man.” Indeed. As it turns out, the mystery at the heart of the show is not the expected “Whatever happened to Harry Lime?” – the man of the title – but what possessed a creative team as distinguished as director Trevor Nunn and bookwriter Christopher Hampton to imagine that what Carol Reed’s still-astonishing classic film needed was to be taken offscreen and planted onstage with added songs. The dismaying production provides no answer. The opening is ominous in completely the wrong way. Yes, we’re still in Vienna in 1947 but it feels like a failure to resort to a voice-over to explain necessary information about how, in the wake of the war, the city has been divided up into sectors under the control of warring nations. The storytelling, it’s clear, is going to be bald.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Review: ‘Ted Lasso’ Star Toheeb Jimoh Is the Expressive Heart of Rebecca Frecknall’s Passionate Production - variety.com
variety.com
16.06.2023

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Review: ‘Ted Lasso’ Star Toheeb Jimoh Is the Expressive Heart of Rebecca Frecknall’s Passionate Production

David Benedict Having the audacity to harness stabs and slashes of Prokofiev’s celebrated ballet score for “Romeo and Juliet” for a production of Shakespeare’s play suggests remarkable confidence on the part of white-hot director Rebecca Frecknall. It’s not misplaced. Her startlingly visceral production, with a cast led by Toheeb Jimoh of “Ted Lasso,” is not only lit up by the power of bodies leaping in space and dramatically alert even when in repose; it’s also alive to the detailed drama of Shakespeare’s language. The intensity she engenders in her actors is sometimes ramped-up too highly and everything boils over, but at its finest, the fiercely articulate passion is electrifying. The fact that the rulebook is being rewritten is made plain from the get-go. The famous opening address about “two houses alike in dignity” is not spoken: The text is lit up on the wall covering the entire front of the stage. Beneath Gareth Fry’s low growl of a soundscape, the company gathers one by one to claw against it before sending it crashing to the ground. But this is not just a shock tactic. Frecknall is illuminating the line about “taking the wall of any man” and using physical energy to punch into a vigorously staged fight between the warring Montagues and Capulets.

‘Aspects of Love’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Torpid, Semi-Forgotten Musical Gets an Unconvincing West End Revival - variety.com - Virginia - county Grant
variety.com
26.05.2023

‘Aspects of Love’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Torpid, Semi-Forgotten Musical Gets an Unconvincing West End Revival

David Benedict “Will someone kindly tell me what on Earth has happened?” Well, quite. That’s the that line Michael Ball’s George sings when surveying the absurdity before him, including the body of his passed-out partner Rose (Laura Pitt-Pulford) who has just been shot by his jealous nephew Alec (Jamie Bogyo). Judging by the unexpected laughter that greeted it on opening night, others are framing his question more widely while witnessing this revival — that’s not the right term — of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1989 musical “Aspects of Love.” For that scene and the whole queasy, quasi-romantic story to work, you need emotional truth. But despite the cast’s sincere efforts there is scarcely a speck of that for them to work with. In the sung-through score (no bookwriter is credited; the text is the work of lyricists Don Black and Charles Hart) they are left to sing rambling expository dialogue at one another and emote, giving audiences little to connect with. Lloyd Webber can and does lace lines from the show’s two big tunes, “Love Changes Everything” and “Seeing Is Believing,” through his score all night, but it doesn’t compensate for the lack of believable drama. And that’s before you get to the sexual politics.

Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ to Return to London’s Barbican Theatre - variety.com
variety.com
30.03.2023

Royal Shakespeare Company’s ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ to Return to London’s Barbican Theatre

Naman Ramachandran The smash hit stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s “My Neighbor Totoro” will return to London’s Barbican Theatre for a limited run this fall. The production is from executive producer Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in collaboration with Improbable and Nippon TV. The global stage premiere of Hayao Miyazaki’s celebrated 1988 animated feature film, adapted by Tom Morton-Smith (“Oppenheimer”), was announced in April 2022 and broke the Barbican’s box office record for most tickets sold in a single day. The production opened at the Barbican in October 2022 and was nominated for nine Olivier Awards, the most nominations for any production this year.

‘Guys and Dolls’ Review: An Explosively Thrilling Production of a Masterpiece in London - variety.com - London
variety.com
15.03.2023

‘Guys and Dolls’ Review: An Explosively Thrilling Production of a Masterpiece in London

David Benedict Since Nicholas Hytner, former artistic director of the National Theatre, is one of the finest, most detailed Shakespeare directors in the land, you could be forgiven for forgetting that he really knows how to put on a show — and then some. Given that his career spans everything from “One Man, Two Guvnors” to the original “Miss Saigon,” expectations in London were high that, armed with arguably the greatest musical comedy ever written, he might be onto a winner. Revise your expectations: His immersive, explosively joyous “Guys and Dolls” is a solid-gold knockout. Hytner has always been strong on physical staging. Because he started out in opera, he has always known about crowd control and can shift the emotional temperature of a scene simply by how he commands groups of people on stage. After his runaway-hit, immersive productions of “Julius Caesar” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at his own Bridge Theatre, he now takes that skill up umpteen notches moving not just the actors in “Guys and Dolls” but a third of the audience.

‘Straight Line Crazy’ Review: Ralph Fiennes Plays Robert Moses in David Hare’s Talky New Play - variety.com - London - New York - USA - Iraq
variety.com
25.03.2022

‘Straight Line Crazy’ Review: Ralph Fiennes Plays Robert Moses in David Hare’s Talky New Play

David Benedict “We’ve discussed this. We’ve discussed this many times.” That wearied line, which appears in the final scene of David Hare’s new play “Straight Line Crazy,” is spoken by Ariel Porter (Samuel Barnett), the long-suffering right-hand man to New York’s legendary urban planner Robert Moses (Ralph Fiennes).

‘Pride and Prejudice (sort of*)’ Review: A Smashingly Smart Austen Adaptation - variety.com
variety.com
04.11.2021

‘Pride and Prejudice (sort of*)’ Review: A Smashingly Smart Austen Adaptation

David Benedict “Young hearts, to yourself be true.” It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen never sang along with Candi Staton. But among the many things that the frankly sensational “Pride and Prejudice (sort of*)” proves is that she not only would have, but should have.

‘The Shark is Broken’ Review: The ‘Jaws’ Backstory, Watered Down - variety.com
variety.com
22.10.2021

‘The Shark is Broken’ Review: The ‘Jaws’ Backstory, Watered Down

David Benedict From “42nd Street” onwards, backstage stories were once a staple in the theater, and while there was often a shark or two, they were usually only of the loan variety.

‘Cinderella’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Fairy Tale Redux Opens at Last - variety.com
variety.com
19.08.2021

‘Cinderella’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Fairy Tale Redux Opens at Last

David Benedict Where do you go after you’ve seen “Wicked”? That worldwide smash has built a vast young audience hungry for stories propelled by power ballads of female empowerment, and it’s clearly that crowd that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much-delayed new musical version of “Cinderella” is eager to please.

‘Bagdad Cafe’ Review: A London Stage Adaptation With Theatricality but No Drama - variety.com
variety.com
18.08.2021

‘Bagdad Cafe’ Review: A London Stage Adaptation With Theatricality but No Drama

David Benedict “Life is a cabaret, old chum.” Oh wait, wrong show. Or is it? Taking on Percy and Eleonore Adlon’s 1987 movie “Bagdad Cafe,” Emma Rice’s music-filled, uber-quirky production boasts everything from onstage guitar, keyboard and drums to puppets, mime, model cars, line-dancing, comedy accents, solo and ensemble numbers, a slash curtain and glitter guns.

‘Bach & Sons’ Review: Miscasting Mars Nina Raine’s Fascinating Play - variety.com
variety.com
01.07.2021

‘Bach & Sons’ Review: Miscasting Mars Nina Raine’s Fascinating Play

David Benedict “The whole point is to combine two complementary or contrasting thoughts in the same moment. Two feelings in the same moment.” Johann Sebastian Bach, the 18th century’s uncontested genius of Western music, is explaining counterpoint, the defining characteristic of his revolutionary work, to his son and pupil Carl.

‘Under Milk Wood’ Review: Michael Sheen Stars in a Tender but Fitful Reimagination of Dylan Thomas - variety.com
variety.com
24.06.2021

‘Under Milk Wood’ Review: Michael Sheen Stars in a Tender but Fitful Reimagination of Dylan Thomas

David Benedict “We are paying you to stay awake and care.” That sounds like an admonition to the audience at the National Theatre’s new production, “Under Milk Wood.” But in fact it’s sensible Susan Brown’s unnamed character’s line to a member of the junior staff of the care-home for the elderly at which she is a supervisor. He’s been asleep on the job again and she’s unhappy because it has meant poor Mr.

‘Walden’ Review: An Ambitious West End Debut That Grapples With Big Ideas - variety.com
variety.com
30.05.2021

‘Walden’ Review: An Ambitious West End Debut That Grapples With Big Ideas

David Benedict Producer Sonia Friedman returns to the post-pandemic West End not with a safe revival but with a succession of brief runs for three socially-distanced world premieres by young writers, and it is an impressive act of faith in the future. But while Friedman looks to the future of theater, young U.S.

‘The Comeback’ Review: London’s New Heartwarming Hit, Stopped in Its Tracks by Theater Closure - variety.com - Britain - county Wilson
variety.com
15.12.2020

‘The Comeback’ Review: London’s New Heartwarming Hit, Stopped in Its Tracks by Theater Closure

David Benedict A Hollywood director unexpectedly pops into an English regional theater to see a show. The actors get wind of his presence, thereby unleashing a chaotic, show-stealing performance of one-upmanship.

‘The Outside Dog’ & ‘The Hand of God’ Review: Kristin Scott Thomas Stars in Socially Distanced Staging - variety.com
variety.com
11.09.2020

‘The Outside Dog’ & ‘The Hand of God’ Review: Kristin Scott Thomas Stars in Socially Distanced Staging

David Benedict “Of course, they’ve picked this all up off the television.” Antiques-shop owner Celia (Kristin Scott Thomas) is as dismissive as she is amusingly sniffy about her customers who, versed in the lingo of Antiques Roadshow and other TV staples, affect to know the tricks of the trade.

UConn Is First Major College Football Program To Cancel 2020 Season - deadline.com - state Connecticut
deadline.com
05.08.2020

UConn Is First Major College Football Program To Cancel 2020 Season

Dade Hayes Finance EditorThe University of Connecticut (UConn) has become the first major college football program to cancel its 2020 season due to concerns about COVID-19.“After receiving guidance from state and public health officials and consulting with football student-athletes, we’ve decided that we will not compete on the gridiron this season,” UConn athletic director David Benedict said in a press release.

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