Matt Barton

1 month ago | sheffieldtribune.co.uk | Matt Barton

A Streetcar Named Desire has always depended on the greatness of its three central performances. This sounds like a risky bet for any production, but audiences have rarely been disappointed. Take, for example, Elia Kazan’s 1951 film adaptation, which famously featured Vivien Leigh as Southern belle Blanche DuBois, with Kim Hunter as her sister Stella and Marlon Brando defining an archetype of machismo as Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski.

1 month ago | whatsonstage.com | Matt Barton

It’s a hard pitch. A show about a singer who can’t sing but does so anyway, out of defiance, delusion or both. And then there is the actual hard – or harsh – pitch that comes out of her: glorious, it is not. But Glorious! knows that. Just look at the title with its exclamation mark, mischievously echoing both the conviction of Florence Foster Jenkins, the infamous amateur soprano, and the mocking scoff of her critics. It also knows it too much.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Matt Barton

Seven months after the Oldham Coliseum’s miraculous , after a campaign fronted by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, it has invited audiences to a party. A celebratory atmosphere greets this comeback show at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Coliseum’s temporary home until it reopens for panto season. Seated at cabaret-style tables, we’re here for an engagement party. But this production flatly fails to engage. It starts as it means to go on.

2 months ago | manchestermill.co.uk | Matt Barton

A bold Caryl Churchill double bill has shaken the theatre out of its stupor There are duos that work – Ant & Dec, Wallace & Gromit – and then there are duos that work arguably a bit too well. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor! The fights, the passion, the divorces, the remarriages. Or, say, Dr Who and David Tennant – he's so good as the character that no one seems able to replace him.

Jan 22, 2025 | whatsonstage.com | Matt Barton

“You come in handy in a calamity, Jane.” The line is aimed at her character, but it’s equally true of Carrie Hope Fletcher, the principal redeeming feature of this unswervingly faithful adaptation of the classic film Calamity Jane. One moment sees her shake down a sheet, sending a cloud of dust into the air; she could be uncloaking the show itself. At times, it is so dusty you want to shield your face and cough. But instead of blasting it away, Nikolai Foster’s production prefers to swirl in it.