News
June - Edinburgh Listings
Another month has flown by and we're getting ready for the Edinburgh Festival. You'll now see that we've listed all of the Edinburgh Fringe theatre productions that have been issued so far - there's just over 750 listed at the moment - and more will be added weekly as they appear.
Last year there were just under 800 productions listed of which 380 were reviewed and published in Theatre Record. We'll certainly publish as many as we can if they are reviewed. I'm about to add the Edinburgh International theatre productions too, so they will be on the website shortly. All is available to see under the 'What's On' tab.
I've seen 'Best of Enemies' from the Noel Coward theatre recently as part of the NT live sessions. What an amazing set. How do they do it? I'm looking forward to seeing Oklahoma! next with Maureen Lipman and Hugh Jackman, the 1998 revival. Looking at the reviews, it should be wonderful. I hope you get to see some great theatre if you can and we'll continue to cover all the reviews in Theatre Record. Fingers crossed for a sunny evening if you are watching an outdoor performance.
Thank you to those of you who have offered suggestions, which helps us to make Theatre Record even better. As always you can send an email to editor@theatrerecord.com
Alison Cook
Tue 02 May 2023
May news
This month at Theatre Record we will be adding the listings for the Edinburgh festivals ahead of our coverage. At the moment there are about 300 theatre productions as well as cabaret, comedy of course, and music. We'll also continue to add outdoor performance listings when we see them and I'm looking forward to seeing some local outdoor performances myself in the next month or two.
Thank you to everyone who has offered their magazines to the British Library for their collection. I'm happy to say, they've almost got a complete set of Theatre Record magazines now but are still missing issue 1 of 1985, so if anyone has a spare out there do let me know.
I really enjoyed watching WOW, perform 'Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Teen Edition' at my local theatre this month. What a lot of talent amongst these young performers and it was a pleasure as always to watch them perform. I also watched the NT live broadcast of 'Good' at my local cinema. That was also a full audience. I enjoyed them both, one perhaps considerably more than the other but terrific acting and very talented creatives throughout. You can't like them all but that's ok. I compared my thoughts with those of the reviewers in Theatre Record and I was not alone.
In the news at the time was the story about the behaviour of audience members which was on my mind as I watched both performances. I can see why some people feel their evening is spoilt by other people's 'inappropriate' behaviour. I'm sure we all have an opinion on what's right and wrong.
I will be watching the NT live production of 'Best of Enemies' from the Noel Coward theatre in May and no doubt I will catch a couple of local drama group productions too. Enjoy whatever you manage to see and enjoy reading all the reviews in Theatre Record.
As always, do let us know of any feedback and/or suggestions at editor@theatrerecord.com
Sun 02 Apr 2023
April news
We hope you enjoyed the VAULT festival if you were able to go. The issue is out now and you can see it on the 'Archive' page along with the issue for the L.I.M.F. In these difficult times, I hope that the VAULT festival can find a new home.
This month has also seen the closing of Oldham Coliseum and the sad news that Riverside Studios going into administration. Even with support from folks like you and me who regularly use their theatre, it may be that spiralling costs just don't make it viable any more. It’s a tough time for arts venues and we all feel very sad about this.
We've had to fight in the past to keep our local theatre open and thanks to some great work from campaigners and many volunteers, it has worked. I'm off to see my local youth theatre company, WOW, perform 'Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – Teen Edition' next Saturday and I know the 1000+ seat theatre will be packed, full of support for these talented youngsters. Many of them have gone on to work within the drama industry using the experience they gained at WOW to help them.
As always, please do tell us your comments and ideas. They're always welcome at editor@theatrerecord.com
Happy Easter everyone
Alison Cook
Sun 05 Mar 2023
March news
Spring is in the air and for some of us it will mean being able to get out a bit more and I know many of you will have your theatre trips planned months ahead. So much to see - wonderful. Isn't it great too that so many productions are now streamed to watch at home? For those who live in regions far from a theatre it's a great idea.
The VAULT festival will finish on 19th March and we'll have reviewed over 100 productions from there which you'll see in their own issue once it's finished. It's set in 'bespoke venues across the heart of Waterloo' but will be no longer as ...'We’ve been instructed by our venue-landlord, The Vaults, that we must find a new home for all future festivals. To ensure VAULT Festival’s survival, we have launched a #SaveVAULT fundraising campaign with the goal to raise £150,000 by the end of 2023’s festival on 19th March, and we need to find a new home.' ...Have a look at their website - vaultfestival.com- for more details and to see what they do including offering opportunities to young writers, directors and critics.
I do hope enough money is raised to save both the VAULT festival and Oldham Coliseum. We all know why they're vitally important.
As always, please do tell us your comments and ideas. They're always welcome at editor@theatrerecord.com
Alison Cook
Wed 01 Feb 2023
February news
This month we will be covering the London International Mime festival and VAULTS festival and you'll see them appear in a separate issue once the festival has finished. As always you'll be able to see them listed under 'reviews' as they come out.
I was lucky enough to watch the NT live production of 'The Crucible' at my local cinema. I had never seen it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was it 'The National at its best' as Dominic Cavendish wrote in his review from the The Telegraph? A couple of reviewers wondered what was the point of the rain. A good question and one which has many answers. Part of the joy of going to the theatre is discussing it afterwards isn't it?
As always, do let us know any comments or opinions at editor@theatrerecord.com
Sun 01 Jan 2023
Happy New Year
As we start a new year I'm sure you're all looking forward to seeing live theatre again if you can. I'm going to see the NT live production of 'The Crucible' at the end of this month - I'll see if I agree with the reviews.
We shall be covering as much as we can and this year we shall be listing much more on our 'What's on' page. Don't forget too, you can click on the 'Production', 'Venue', 'Opens/Press' and 'Closes' tabs of the reviews page to list things in alphabetical or date order which helps when finding something specific.
Thank you to those of you who got in touch to suggest ideas and point things out. It's much appreciated and please continue to do so at editor@theatrerecord.com
Thank you to all of you for your continuing support.
Alison Cook
Sat 03 Dec 2022
Christmas productions
Firstly let me welcome Broadway World - www.broadwayworld.com. I am delighted be including their reviews in Theatre Record and I look forward to reading them. I hope you do too.
Secondly, I have been adding all of the pantomime/Christmas production reviews as they come out. There have been a lot of 'A Christmas Carol' but what a wonderful Christmas story and if you've been lucky enough to see one, I hope you came out feeling full of the Christmas spirit. Maybe you've seen a panto or two as well and that certainly puts anyone in a happy Christmas mood - British eccentricity at it's best. Once all the panto/Christmas production reviews are in, they will be placed in the archive in two places.They will all be included in volume 42 issue 12 and also into a separate Christmas issue.
I hope you all have a peaceful and happy Christmas and new year and thank you for all of your support during my first year as editor.
As always, I welcome any comments or feedback you have at editor@theatrerecord.com
Alison Cook
Fri 04 Nov 2022
NT Live
I'm sure many of you have been to your local cinema and watched a production from the National Theatre on the screen. They broadcast to over 700 cinemas around the UK so aren't we lucky to be able to see such wonderful performances? I almost missed 'The Seagull' last night as I had heard mixed reviews. It was raining and cold so did I really want to go out only to be disappointed? I'm glad I did as I loved it. Indeed I found it a 'strangely gripping production' as did Arifa Akbar from the Guardian. Others described it as 'almost comically miserable' (Daily Mail), a 'brilliant adaptation' (Camden New Journal) and Quentin Letts describes it as a 'Ghastly night' (The Times). It did indeed divide audiences but love it or loathe it, if you never go, you'll never know. Plenty to discuss, post performance and we have all come together as an audience to forget about the outside world for a few hours and see things from a different perspective. Theatre creates discussion - that's important.
Mon 24 Oct 2022
Spare printed editions of Theatre Record
I have been looking through our archive stores for Theatre Record and we have some spare copies of the printed magazine. We have all the issues for some years and we also have random spare issues of other years. If anyone would like a printed magazine to complete their set please do send me an email and if I have it, I'll forward it on for the cost of postage and packaging.
If anyone has a spare set of the printed magazine from 1985-1988, the British Library need these years to complete their set, so again, please do get in touch.
We also have, rather randomly, folders containing New York Theatre Critics' Reviews from 1978-79, 1981, 1983-5 and 1987-88. again, if you'd like them, please let me know.
Please do email me at editor@theatrerecord.com
Sun 02 Oct 2022
Julian Oddy
It is with great sadness to tell you that the previous editor of Theatre Record, Julian Oddy passed away peacefully at home on September 17th 2022.
I worked with Julian for a couple of years before taking over the helm in January 2022 when Julian retired. I know many of you would have known Julian and will remember him as a kind, generous, larger than life character who was a true inspiration. So intelligent, so calm and relaxed even in stressful times and so positive. He always had time to offer advice and was a great friend. I will miss him.
All good things, Julian, all good things
Fri 02 Sep 2022
Edinburgh Festivals published
Edinburgh Festivals are over and it was great to see so many people enjoying it. You can find the Edinburgh Fringe and International Festival issues on the archive tab, where we will be adding the last few reviews as they come in.
For those that like figures, we have added 782 reviews over the three week period and covered 372 productions. 198 productions have just one review and 174 productions have at least 2 reviews.
As always, feel free to let us know any views on the feedback page.
Thank you,
Alison Cook, Editor
Mon 15 Aug 2022
Edinburgh Festivals
We hope you have been enjoying the new look Theatre Record.
The Edinburgh festivals are well under way and there has been a record number of ticket sales.
We have listed over 1000 theatre productions from the festivals and we’ll aim to display all of their reviews by early September. We’ve put the productions in purple so you can see them as they’re posted and these will be archived
in their own issue once the festivals have finished.
I do hope you enjoyed the Edinburgh festivals if you managed to go. I’m sure it’s wonderful to be there again and experience the atmosphere as well as some great theatre. If you didn’t manage to go, like me, you can at least read all about them.
Thank you for your continued support, as always.
Alison Cook, Editor
Sun 03 Jul 2022
Give us feedback
We do hope you are enjoying using the new website. We are keen to find out what you think, and would be pleased if you sent us some feedback.
Let us know what's good or what's not so good. Is anything missing or are there features you would like added?
We can't promise everything, but we will consider all suggestions carefully and strive to make the site as effective and useful as we can.
Please leave feedback here.
Thank you for your continued support.
Alison Cook, Editor
Tue 31 May 2022
New website launched
We are very pleased to launch our new look website, bringing to you the usual round-up of British theatre combined with some new features, including a new format for displaying the latest reviews.
We hope you like the new Theatre Record and continue to enjoy it. For more details and the opportunity to provide feedback please visit the What's New page.
Thank you for your continued support.
Alison Cook, Editor
Tue 05 Apr 2022
Ammendments to Volume 41 (2021)
A range of errors and omissions in the issues of Volume 41 (2021) have been identified. These have been amended and the revised issues have been uploaded to the website to replace the previous ones. The amendments for each issue are listed in this document.
Tue 01 Feb 2022
New editor at Theatre Record
Theatre Record has a new editor, Alison Cook, who took over in January 2022, after working for the magazine since 2018.
"With the hope that stability will return to the theatre industry after two difficult and troubling years, I am looking forward to bringing you a vibrant collation of the details and reviews for the major productions. Looking ahead, we are currently developing a new website and hope to reveal it later this year. Thank you for your continued support." - Alison Cook, Editor.