London Theatre Review: Bodyguard, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice – Open Air Theatre in Regents park

This was a great way to celebrate the 200 years of Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely adore the book, its one of my favorites, and the BBC miniseries is a must in my book. So I was very exited about seeing this live. First of all the setting is spectacular. The open Theatre at Regents Park is great setting for Pride and Prejudice. The greenery and lighting is perfect for it. The performance itself was also a very good adaptation of the book, not amazing but very strong. There were some decisions in the staging, that could upset some people but I think it actually worked: Mrs. Bennet is portrayed as a really annoying character, even more over the top than in other screen adaptations. Additionally Mr. Collins is a complete caricature, way over the top, more than in other productions.  A definite wonderful summer evening plan in london!

The Bodyguard –  Adelphi theatre

I had very high expectations coming into this show. It has a fabulous movie as source material with amazing songs. It also stars Heather Headley who I loved in Lion King and Aida. It however did not meet the expectations. Don’t get me wrong its not terrible, its just Ok and I was hoping for fabulous.

The good:

• The music is still as good as it was and it is even improved. To expand the score they have tapped into the Whitney Houston repertoire, so fabulous songs like How Will I Know  and so emotional have been added, which meant I was humming along for most of it!!
• The staging is very impactful, especially the cabin in the woods which is extremely impressive
• Lloyd Owen is great as Frank Farmer, Mysteriously sexy

The Not so good:

• First big disappointment of the day, my trip in London coincided with Heather Headley not being on, her stand in was in – Gloria Onitiri. She had a super strong voice, but the acting was not as stellar.
• Only two characters actually sing – Rachel, and her sister. The sister although great, doesn’t have the strong voice to pull Whitney songs. It also looses some of the musical aspects when so few charaters actually sing.
• The pacing of the show was really slow- it lost a lot of energy in certain areas, which is strange when you have such powerful music
• The accents! they were terrible! Half of the cast did not have proper american accents, they just sounded weird, like they were trying to hard. Couldn’t we have jsut set this in London?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Apollo Theatre

An absolutely fabulous show! It is a book that you might think is not adaptable to play format, but the National Theatre adaptation is superb. The lead actor is amazing and the staging is very inventive and adaptive. I loved the chalk paintings in the floor being projected onto the stage, and thewodnerful use of cubes and light to determine new stagings. I think this is a must show to see when in London! It is a very raw, but not overdone, portrayal of what asperbergers is, and I feel all the issues are handled exceptionally well. Its hard to explain what the play is, just to say, go see it! I am not surprised that it won a record 7 Olivier Awards, including Best Play – Very much deserved.