Duncan Harley

The unfaithful Margot – a splendid Sally Bretton, kills the hit-man hired by tennis-pro-husband Tony and heads to death row. There are sharp scissors involved. Enter Inspector Hubbard who, assisted by Margot’s lover Max, solves the crime and cheats the hangman. Well, truth is Hubbard got it wrong first time around but he eventually gets his bearings. Case solved, end of story, all live happily ever after. Well not quite. Dial M is one of those classic thrillers where we, the audience, are in on the perfect-murder plot from the very beginning. But, and all power to them, it takes ages for the police to catch on. If only they had asked us at the start. But that’s not how these things work. This is a four-hander which means you won’t ever see hit-man Captain Lesgate and DCI Hubbard on stage at the same time since both are ably played by Christopher Harper. Of the two, Hubbard is the most believable and has the unenviable task of sorting out who did what to whom and how. Le...

As jukebox musicals go Beautiful hits the sweet spot. Familiar songs, slick choreography and simple staging litter the production. Add Daisy Wood-Davis to the mix, sprinkle in a measure of 60’s pop culture fold-in some sugary bio and cook slowly. Result? Mouth-watering! Ok, perhaps the bio is a little bit hazy in places. The story dwells on Carol’s first marriage and kinda glosses out the other three. And maybe music insiders would express surprise at the portrayal of a sugar-sweet music industry bereft of draconian contracts and stingy executives. But this is entertainment at its best, and not by any means a social history class. So, if the audience comes out smiling, all is well in nostalgia-land. Alongside the familiar Carol King solos, and there are quite a few, the show makes great play of the fact that the early King was in essence a prolific maker of hits. But for other people. She later found her own voice. But her early career saw her sweating as a jobbing-songwrit...

Outwardly this is a reassuringly familiar story. Rain Man the play presents as a stage remake of the familiar Hollywood blockbuster and as such is a fairly easy watch. Many of the old lines are present and thirty odd years on they still raise a wry smile or two, but only just. Times have moved on after all and Morrow and Bass’s take on autism has been somewhat dwarfed by the likes of Curious Incident and TV drama such as Autism Every Day. In any case, Rain Man’s Raymond is in a segment of the autistic spectrum not inhabited by many. As a savant, he is blessed – if that indeed is the correct term – with extraordinary abilities which set him apart from most. Card counting is one of his skills and brother Charlie Babbitt – Chris Fountain, quickly exploits this ability to ‘win a shitload of money’ from a Vegas casino. Raymond can also read and memorise two books simultaneously and recall every word. He can memorise entire telephone directories and the list goes on. The downside i...

  Fans of rock-opera unfettered by notions of either plot development or political correctness will be delighted with this cheesy as hell piece of rock n’ roll debauchery. Landing like aliens upon the Aberdeen stage, the cheap gags spewed forth amongst a feelgood pseudo-rebellious and occasionally offensive script.  A duo of Cleese-like goose-stepping Germans vie with a bevy of gyrating strippers for supremacy as a thinly spread plot tells of unrequited love and vaunted ambition. Brassy, glitzy, brash, raunchy and ultimately inhabited by pretty much all of the seven dwarfs, the show makes a mockery of correctness. Rock of Ages women exist in a bubble of Ann Summers lingerie while the guys generally get to leer and swill beer. But thankfully, the musical score makes up for the disappointing dialogue and from the opening call “Are you ready to rock?” to the closing anthem Don’t Stop Believin’ , at least the music makes sense. And that probably is the saving grace ...