Peter Viney's Blog

Emma Rice has done another classic adaptation, this time Hitchcock’s film masterpiece NORTH BY NORTHWEST, follow link to the review. That is a challenge … the crop duster scene, Mount Rusahmore, a train, all done with a cast of six. How well did they do on a proscenium stage? We saw it at Bath Theatre Royal. It’s still touring and her productions often do subsequent tours.

The 2012 Booker prize winning novel sold multi-millions of copies worldwide in 37 languages. Then Rachel Joyce scripted a film version, and now a stage musical version of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY (link to review) at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre. It stars Mark Addy as Harold Fry, a fantastic ensemble and music and lyrics from Passenger. I will be surprised if it isn’tr the best thing we see this year. We couldn’t fault it, and I haven’t read the book or seen the film. Yet. It’s on till June 14th, but you’ll only get returns. It’s sold out. However, read the review. I’m convinced it will transfer to London.

Review of THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR by Nikolai Gogol, (follow link to the review)adapted by Phil Porter. Chichester Frstival Theatre, 2025. Directed by Gregory Doran. Tom Rosenthal as Khlestakhov, the trickster.A truly sumptuous production with a large cast of a play considered to be among the very greats. This version went for all-out comedy. Did it work? Read on.

TITUS ANDRONICUS (link to review) is directed by Max Webster at the RSC. It is a total contrast to the play next door, Much Ado About Nothing. Stark. Bare. Almost minimal. A palette of greys and blues.More blood than you’d want. It focusses on the acting and the text, and when you have Simon Russell Beale as Titus, Joshua James as the Emperor Saturnius and Natey Jones as Aaron the Moor, that’s the obvious route.

This is the second production of Much Ado this year. This RSC MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (follow link to the review) is directed by Michael Longhurst and takes a football setting. Messina FC haver just won the European championship and the players return in triumph to their owner’s villa. Leonato owns the club. Benedick is team captain, Claudio just scored a hat trick, Don Pedro is the manager and Don John is the resentful injured substitute. Beatrice is a football commentator. Yes, it’s high concept. Set and costumes are a visual spectacle, but paradoxically it’s actually a very faithful rendition of the full play. Yes, words are changed here and there, but it brings the play out remarkably well.

A UK label 1967-1970. It started as if it was going for prog / psych with British artists like Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera and Zoot Money, then swiftly switched to a straight soul label. In many ways it was a British outlet for Epic. Soul artists included Sly & The Family Stone and The Chambers Brothers. The first Taj Mahal albums were CBS Direction in the UK. Follow the link:
https://aroundandaroundcom.wordpress.com/cbs-direction/

We had found a pile of old Sunday Times Culture magazines and Karen glanced through before binning them, and came across Camilla Long’s original 2015 review. In some shock, she said, ‘She prefers it to the Julie Christie version (aka John Schlesinger version / 1967 version / Terence Stamp version).
‘Impossible!’ I said.
‘Let’s watch it again to see.’
So we did. The review follows here. The 2015 film got a rough ride from Hardy fans and John Schlesinger fans. In retrospect (third viewing) it’s better than I remembered. In particular the balance between the characters has altered which helps the story.
SEE: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (2015) follow the link.

The label that encompassed Bruce Springsteen, The Clash AND The Wombles. This might be the largest article on Around & Around and it does very little after 2000 too. This was a labour of love, but a very lengthy one. It’s the era when CBS / Columbia arguably became the worlds’s biggest record label. Springsteen, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, David Essex, The Clash, Bangles, Earth Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye … and many others. SEE CBS / COLUMBIA POST 1973 (follow link)

It’s just ended at Bath Theatre Royal, where it premiered. I fear it’s unlikely to go further after near universal two star reviews. However ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: THE MUSICAL (follow link) has many virtues, and is a lesson on what can go wrong even with a superb cast. It takes eight stories out of the 268 that Hitchcock presented on TV between 1955 and 1962, and intertwines them. Do read the review from general theatre interest. I included plot spoilers

We found a pile of Anglo-Continental School of English brochures when tidying up. That’s where Karen and I met in 1971, and where we started performing, then writing. I was there until 1980. I scanned several photos and added them to the existing article THE SWISS CONNECTION (follow the link) That’s on the Swiss influence on ELT.