The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
Vintage Sondheim
'Witty and highly entertaining without being didactic,' writes JAN WOOLF
(L to R) Oliver Sidney, Madeleine Morgan, Folarin Akinmade, Katherine Strohmaier, Robert Finlayson, Rhys Lambert, Emily Friberg
[Simon Jackson] 
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience
Road Show
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
ANOTHER immaculate musical drama Upstairs at the Gatehouse for the annual holiday musical. Road Show, completed in 2008 is a collaboration of Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics and John Weidman’s book.
A cast of eight hoof, sing and act through this tale of “anyone can get rich’’ America, if you just have the balls, if you sell, and lie and cheat. It’s called creative ambition, not filthy lucre or profiteering.
Reece Richardson and Oliver Sidney play the Wisner brothers, Wilson and Addison respectively with terrific style. Spurred on by their dying father (Robert Finlayson) telling them to get rich – show ambition, take to The Road.
Similar stories
JAN WOOLF doubts that soft-core musical is the best way to transmit an important story of heroism and resistance
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
MARY CONWAY is gripped by a hilarious and erudite new play that dramatises the making of the alliance that defeated fascism
Lego synaesthesia, a tender portrait of poverty, bear-faced capers and premature Santa: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Piece By Piece, Bird, Paddington in Peru and Red One