REVIEW: Ghost: The Musical (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Live every day as if it were your last - that's the message to take away from Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1990 film, on which this Bill Kenwright Productions stage musical is based. The original film starred Man of the Moment Patrick Swayze and Soon-To-Be Woman of the Moment Demi Moore and became the highest-grossing film that year, scooping five Oscar nominations (winning two of them) and four Golden Globe nominations. It was a phenomenon.

Twenty-one years later it was rejuvenated for a stage musical version, with new songs added by Eurythmics maestro Dave Stewart and veteran songwriter Glen Ballard (he's good - he co-wrote Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror). This Kenwright production is enhanced even further, with an improved story and different songs.

Rubin's original story is an undisputed classic, it's one everybody remembers and loves. At the start of the show, Molly and Sam are head over heels in love, so we know straight away that something bad is going to happen, and it does. Sam is shot and killed by a street robber, leaving heartbroken Molly alone and vulnerable. But for all the proclamations of love and devotion in the early scenes, it's only when Sam's shot dead that the show comes truly alive as his ghost hangs around in order to protect Molly from ongoing dangers.

Rambert Autumn 2016 (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

A Linha Curva

For Rambert's 90th birthday year, the company has put together a typically varied, colourful and challenging repertoire of dances which differ according to which venue you see them in, and for their visit to the North Wales coast the company chose three pieces of suitable contrasts.

First up was Mark Baldwin's Dark Arteries, an occasionally frenetic but always energetic piece accompanied by Tredegar Town Band. Matching contemporary dance with a brass band soundtrack might be seen as unconventional, and this eccentricity is carried through into both the score and the choreography.

Preview of Llawn04 Llandudno Arts Weekend

Llandudno Art Festival – Llawn04 – returns this September, a whole weekend of free events along the promenade and across various venues and spaces in the North Wales seaside resort.

There'll be performance, street games, music, robot-making, dance, visual art, film and the unexpected, all inspired by this year's theme of Hide/ Seek.

It opens with a few treats on Friday, September 23rd and then there's a weekend full of events on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th. Days and exact timings will be announced in August, but for now you can browse all the activity that will be coming and start to plan what you'd like to see.

National Dance Company Wales Spring 2016 (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Folk

It was a night with the National Dance Company of Wales. I expected contemporary dance - and I got contemporary dance - but what I didn't expect was to find myself at a rock concert!

That's the mood and atmosphere choreographer Jeroen Verbruggen wanted for his new piece A Mighty Wind, the second of three presentations at Venue Cymru from NDC Wales's Spring tour. And it's really quite exhilarating. To a soundtrack of stadium rock anthems, the dancers let rip, cavorting and moshing and headbanging their way around the stage as if they were at the V Festival, not a provincial seaside theatre.

Land of Our Fathers (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Land of Our Fathers is set on Thursday, May 3rd, 1979. Or rather, the story begins on that day. It's more accurate to say that Land of Our Fathers is set throughout May 1979, because the protagonists are six South Walian coal miners trapped hundreds of feet beneath ground following a colliery accident. It's a chamber piece boasting a bland but beautifully realised set (well done Signe Beckman) and six wonderfully written characters. But is the story strong enough to hold the attention for two and a half hours?

A play this long needs to have enough twists and turns to really demand the attention of the audience, and indeed Land of Our Fathers does have its fair share of soapy revelations and melodrama. I'm not altogether sure what does happen warrants such a taxing duration; it could have been shorter without much damage to the plot. Some might say the play is as much an endurance test for those watching as being trapped beneath ground for days on end is for the miners. That's one way of looking at it. But to be honest, the audience is not trapped down a mine and might appreciate a little more brevity.

Dirty Dancing (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

It felt like I was the only person in the audience who hadn't seen the film, but I'm sure that wasn't true because there were other men there too. Sure, the men were outnumbered by the women 10-1, but I bet a fair few of those men had seen the Dirty Dancing film under duress, or had acquired knowledge of it by osmosis.

Because Dirty Dancing is seriously big for women of a certain age. Along with Ghost and Pretty Woman, it's one of those films they completely lose themselves in, just like men do with Star Wars or Rocky or Top Gun. So although I expected to be surrounded by a majority of ladies when I went to see Dirty Dancing ("The Classic Story on Stage"), I wasn't quite prepared for the unadulterated excitement and passion that I witnessed. It was exhilarating!

The lady next to me was reciting whole passages of dialogue, word for word, verbatim, as they were spoken on stage (thankfully, her husband kept shushing her). The row behind me was very excited before the curtain lifted, swapping memories of the classic 1987 movie, and giving their thoughts about Patrick Swayze (I eventually had to tune out as these thoughts were getting a little too racy!).

An Inspector Calls (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

"It is the business of the community not simply to glorify itself but to produce better persons, to enrich its individual sphere..."

J B Priestley was a forward-thinking, radical socialist whose political achievements have been forgotten somewhat in the 70 or so years since he was at his most influential in this regard. Today he is best remembered for his works of fiction - such as An inspector Calls - and less so for his ideological breakthroughs in politics and philosophy. But Priestley's world-view is the very bricks and mortar from which An Inspector Calls is built, and his agenda is still very much evident in the production today.

Annie (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

When you think of Annie, you think of a precocious little girl with a frizzy red wig singing schmaltzy songs about being orphaned and hoping for a better tomorrow. And to some extent, that's right, especially if you're thinking of John Huston's 1982 film. But Annie - The Musical shows there's more to it than its rather unkind reputation would have you believe.

Because it's really a story about America in the Great Depression, about how unemployment in the States reached a frightening high of 25% in 1933, the year Annie is set. Families lost their jobs and their livelihoods, many lost their homes and were forced to congregate like gypsy travellers in public parks, cobbled-together shanty towns known as Hooverville. America in 1933 was on the skids - 5,000 banks failed, drought ravaged the country's agricultural heartland, and there seemed to be no hope on the horizon to pull it out of the economic mire. But then President Franklin D Roosevelt was elected to the White House, and his public work programmes helped turn things around.

Blur (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

It was a bit of a surprise earlier this year when Blur announced the release of their first new album as a foursome in 16 years. And it was even more of a surprise last month when they announced they would be playing a handful of warm-up gigs for the summer, and one of them would be in my home town of Llandudno!

I mean, that just doesn't happen... My favourite band ever, back together, releasing new material and playing live on my doorstep? It seems fantasy can become reality.

Much has been made of the fact Blur's date at Llandudno's Venue Cymru was their first gig in Wales for 18 years (since December 1997, to be precise). But that was in Cardiff; this was their first gig in North Wales ever. But, as frontman Damon Albarn told the crowd, the oversight was never intentional.

The Magic Flute (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

The Welsh National Opera's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute is a visual feast, packed with bold colours and Lewis Carroll-style absurdities, such as a giant killer lobster and a menagerie of amusing zoo animals.

The Magic Flute tells the story of Tamino, who at the top of the production is rescued from being killed by a murderous lobster  (don't ask) by three ladies, all of whom fall desperately in lust with him. This opening routine gets things off to a great start, with the aforementioned crustacean snapping its claws at Tamino through several doors until it is defeated. Tamino finds himself in a nine-doored room in the sky and after meeting a birdcatcher called Papageno, is challenged by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the evil clutches of Sarastro.

National Dance Company Wales Spring 2015 (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Tuplet

National Dance Company Wales's 2015 Spring Programme shares two pieces that were also performed during their 2014 tour, but luckily I got to see three brand new routines when they visited Llandudno this week. The three pieces are very different and serve to satisfy an audience with eclectic tastes in modern and contemporary dance.

It kicks off with the superlative Walking Mad, a sprawling set-piece choreographed by Swede Johan Inger which imaginatively and wittily uses a garden fence to help move the performance along.

High Society (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Archive: This review was first published on January 31, 2013 by the Daily Post

High Society has had a chequered history. It all began as a stage play in 1939 written by Philip Barry, but under the guise of The Philadelphia Story.

That was turned into a film the following year, also known as The Philadelphia Story, and then 16 years later came the Cole Porter musical film version, retitled High Society. And now it's back on the stage, but in musical form and still as High Society, at Llandudno's Venue Cymru.

It's a very pleasant tale of a New York socialite whose wedding plans start to go awry with the unexpected arrival of a handsome journalist as well as her ex-husband. There's really not very much more to the plot than that, and various predictable couplings, re-couplings and unrequited couplings either crash and burn, or take flight on the wind.

The Mousetrap (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Archive: This review was first published on March 26, 2013 by the Daily Post

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is the longest running stage play in the world, and this year marks its 60th birthday by going on tour around the UK for the first time ever.

It's a very traditional play, a typical Christie plot and set-up. Giles and Mollie Ralston (Bruno Langley and Jemma Walker) are a young couple who decide to open their own guest house, despite not being well experienced in the role. Monkswell Manor is a fusty old house with wood panelling and back stairs and all those trappings that make for a good old whodunnit.

Various guests start to arrive as the snow falls heavily outside, eventually cutting them off from the outside world.

But following a telephone call from the police, it soon becomes clear there is a murderer on the loose, and it is thought the killer is heading to the guest house to carry out their twisted Three Blind Mice death spree.

The Importance of Being Earnest (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Archive: This review was first published on April 5, 2013 by the Daily Post

First performed in 1895, Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest has the perfect, self-aware subtitle. It was originally described as a A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, and that sums up the entire thing well.

The plot revolves around the sticky situations two amorous bachelors get themselves into by leading double lives - "I'm Jack in the country and Ernest in the town" - and trying to secure the hands of their beloveds. As in life, lies always lead to deeper misunderstandings and never make a situation any better or easier, and such is the case for Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing.

As their double identities get ever more complicated and characters make discoveries they were never intended to, the humour comes out of those drawing room comedy situations which tend to make one smile rather than laugh (although there was one gentleman in the row behind me who seemed to be having kittens at the slightest of quips).

Go Back for Murder (Venue Cymru, Llandudno)

Archive: This review was first published on November 5, 2013 by the Daily Post

Agatha Christie's Go Back for Murder has had a chequered history, first emerging as a novel in 1942 entitled Murder in Retrospect, and later becoming more commonly known as Five Little Pigs.

The story originally featured Belgian detective Hercule Poirot as the sleuth, but she later adapted the novel for the stage as Go Back for Murder, editing out Poirot and replacing him with a young lawyer called Justin Fogg.

Act 1 of this Agatha Christie Theatre Company production is shamelessly pedestrian and formulaic. Carla Le Marchant (Sophie Ward) decides to investigate the murder of her father, for which his wife was jailed 16 years ago, when she receives a letter from her dying mother saying she was innocent of the crime.

It is then up to her, in association with Fogg (a likeable Ben Nealon), to work out whodunit based solely upon the faded testimonies of five prime suspects.