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Articles by Tim Holford-Smith

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About Tim Holford-Smith

Despite running his architectural practice full-time, Tim is a frequent theatre-goer and occasional am-dram producer. More Posts

Beautiful/Carole King musical

I’m not the biggest fan of the rock musical finding it formulaic and more of a tribute concert than genuine musical. Thus when Daffers suggested I join her  party for her South African visitor I was not 100% sure. In fact, I enjoyed it immensely, a moving tribute in words and music to one of [...]

June 3, 2016 // 0 Comments

Travels with My Aunt/ Chichester Festival Theatre

Once again but sadly for the last time as he is leaving the post, artistic director of the Chichester Festival Jonathan Church has come up with an enticing programme of new and old, classic and innovative, for the festival season.  I never cease to be impressed that every year in a place with an [...]

May 19, 2016 // 0 Comments

Sunset Boulevard

I had an interesting conversation with Neil Rosen on what constitutes a good musical. Most people would say a complete score of fine songs like My Fair Lady or Oliver or his favorite Gigi. I tend, as a theatre man, to concentrate on performance. I esteem Ron Moody as Fagin or Julie Andrews in Sound [...]

April 28, 2016 // 0 Comments

Look Back in Wonder

Yesterday on the BBC 4 Arts Programme Front Row I heard a clip of Look Back in Anger of Jimmy Porter fulminating against his upper class wife. The play will be running at the same theatre in Derby where its writer John Osborne once acted. It seemed very dated. This is ironic as critic Kenneth Tynan [...]

March 4, 2016 // 0 Comments

Alice in Pantoland/ Dome Studio Brighton

Alice in Wonderland is the production of Brighton’s Alternative Adult Pantomime founded by the late Brian Ralfe in 2002 who passed away in March of this year. It’s best described as gay burlesque. It’s a trip through Pantoland with most of the well known characters – [...]

January 30, 2016 // 0 Comments

Platonov and Ivanov/ Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Theatre has put on this season three Chechkov plays – The Seagull and his first two, Platonov and Ivanov under the banner Birth of a Genius. This might be stretching it in the case of the latter two which I saw these past 6 days. Platonov is very much a first draft . Platonov is a [...]

November 13, 2015 // 0 Comments

Rebecca/Theatre Royal Brighton

To dramatise on stage a fine novel and film is never going to be easy and Emma Rice’s production is a brave but flawed attempt. I went with Alice Mansfield, an authority on Daphne du Maurier, who wondered beforehand how a play necessarily finite and constrained to the proscenium would cope [...]

October 3, 2015 // 0 Comments

Mack and Mabel

Though the critics were lukewarm on Mack and Mabel, Jane Shillingford, her teacher friend Keith and I enjoyed it hugely. Critics do not always get it right – Les Miserables had dreadful reviews and is still going strong and I think Mack and Mabel will be a great national success, following on [...]

August 2, 2015 // 0 Comments

Gypsy

Sometimes – and it does not happen often – you see a musical that blows your mind and Gypsy is such. It does not have one memorable song whilst some great musicals like Oliver, My Fair  Lady or South Pacific have many, so what makes this such a success? I would say two factors: a [...]

June 9, 2015 // 0 Comments

The Hard Problem

Coming to the new Stoppard late, I can view it from the perspective of notices that were far from praiseworthy. The general view was that the theories of consciousness (neuro biology v physics) were too opaque and the characters that pronounced them too unsympathetic. I agree with the first, [...]

February 14, 2015 // 0 Comments

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