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Review by Louise Cannon
Wow, (not a word I usually start with or add into a review, but it’s warranted here). Sir Tim Rice knows how to put on a show, even when it’s not a full blown musical. It’s a show I’d watch again the chance. You forget about all the cares and concerns of the day as you’re whisked off into his wonderful show. He, the band and the Westend singers are incredibly talented. Between the songs they sing and Tim Rice (who joins in here and there) telling his life stories, it’s a lively, fun, great night of fascinating entertainment.
Think you know all there is to Tim Rice? Perhaps you do and perhaps you don’t. If you don’t, this gives a chance to discover his life’s works and if you do, it gives you time to re-live some special moments. It’s a spirited, enthusiastic show that leaves you warm-hearted and uplifted by the end.
The curtain opens and on comes his troop of fabulous singers creating a fabulous energy in the auditorium as they sing some hit songs, starting with Joseph, setting the atmosphere just right for the man everyone was waiting for, Sir Tim Rice, to enter the stage. The songs are carefully thought out and placed throughout the show, from musical theatre to pop to film, making everything succinct.
The show is jam-packed full of anecdotes of how he and Andrew Lloyd Webber got together and how things aligned to create a stellar career spanning many decades, but not necessarily easily, there were times when it may not have taken off in the direction it did. He hasn’t only worked with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, he’s worked with many others including in the music industry, like Mike Batt and David Essex, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (ABBA), also within the film industry from writing lyrics for a James Bond film to Disney films and more…
There’s humour, fascinating stories, some very special awards to glimpse at and a terrific finale.
Whether, like me, you’ve been inspired/enjoyed by Tim Rice’s musicals (for me, I was hooked after seeing Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat at a young age) or think you’ve not discovered him, this is the perfect time to find out more about the man behind the music and how he’s got to where he is today. He still has plans in the works for the future too… Tim Rice’s career seems to be one of the most fascinating careers in musical theatre history!
I see the show as one not to be missed!
You too can hear all about Joseph, Chess, Aladdin, The Lion King, Jesus Christ Superstar, which James Bond song he was involved in and which Christmas song he was involved in and more by checking out the tour here:
My Life In Musicals: I Know Him So Well
Review written by Louise Cannon
Enchanting, theatrical, dramatic, The Spectaculars: Battle of the Stars is an entertaining read for middle-grade readers to get lost in and travel with a magical theatre school.
Blurb
Jump onboard the Wondria… The Spectaculars is an enchanting adventure series filled with magic, theatre and danger, perfect for drama lovers. For fans of Nevermoor, The Train to Impossible Places and Carrie Hope Fletcher.
There’s magic in the air as Harper begins her third year as a Spectacular at the Wondria – her magical travelling theatre school.
An immersive theatre show is touring the Hidden Peaks, bewitching everyone with its starry charms. But when the show’s fortune-teller predicts danger in Harper’s future, Harper is suddenly pulled into a terrifying battle of powerful spells and sinister figures.
With her friends, Harper must uncover who is behind it all – because if they can’t, it will be closing night for the whole of the Hidden Peaks…
Immersive theatre shows are amazing and this book reflects this style of theatre to a degree. Hidden Peaks is charming everyone, but there are sinister forces at work after Harper talks to a fortune-teller who predicts her future.
What unfolds is a theatrical world of magic and friendship to pull readers in. The mild trepidation creates a desire to see how this entertaining read where the colliding fantastical world of theatre and magic ends.
Review written by Louise Cannon
If your child likes friendship and a bit of a haunted atmosphere and wonderment of what happens next, that causes that next page to turn, this is the book for them.
Welcome to Shadowhall Academy, where spirits haunt the school halls. A brilliantly spooky new series from the author of Aveline Jones.
It’s the perfect night for a ghost story, don’t you think?
As if Shadowhall Academy wasn’t creepy enough, Lilian and her friends have started a Ghost Story Society. It’s all harmless fun, until one girl warns of a sinister book hidden somewhere in the school that can bring your darkest secrets to life.
So when Lilian finds a mysterious book and discovers a long history of strange happenings at Shadowhall, she starts to suspect the terrifying story might be true.
Lilian’s friends warn her not to mess with dark magic, but she’s never been one to resist an adventure. And when she writes her deepest secrets in the book, she unleashes a danger far worse than she could ever imagine…
Lillian and her friends created what seemed harmless fun, an innocuous ghost story. Nothing more was to be expected. Sinister things start to happen and with a mysterious book and quite a history to be discovered, the story builds into something else that sends the girls, and readers, into a world of secrets and magic. As weird mystical things start to unfold, there’s also true friendship throughout between the girls, which brings a heart-warming element of sit on the edge of your seat darkness and discover what the whispering walls have to say.
Discovering the characters who play detective, uncover ghostly goings on are, posh Serena, goth, Marian , anxious Angela, gutsy, loyal Lillian is also fun.
The Shadowhall Academy is an entertaining read. Fans of Jennifer Killick will like this book. I highly recommend Shadowhall Academy.
Review by Louise Cannon (Lou)
Under A Riviera Moon is the second book I have read by Helen McGinn and after sinking rather nicely into the previous one, The Island of Dreams, I was delighted to review another for the blog tour. Under A Riviera Moon is Helen McGinn’s 5th stand-alone book.
Below you’ll find more about the book in the blurb, my review and a bit about the author who also knows her stuff when it comes to wine in the Saturday Kitchen.
What’s more is the book is perfect for fans of Carol Kirkwood, Karen Swan and Erica James.
When a heartsick Maggie is sent on an errand by her mother to Cannes, she is keen to get it over with as quickly as possible.
She has been tasked with collecting a treasured box of photos from her late grandmother Elizabeth’s best friend, the impossibly glamorous Allegra Morgon who is desperate to tell Maggie all about the year she and Elizabeth spent in Paris. The sixties were in full swing, the air hummed with jazz, artists and students made the streets their own, and the City of Love was weaving its magic. And against this backdrop, two people were beginning a love story that would last a lifetime – but be over too soon.
As Maggie hears more about Allegra’s life, first in Paris, then New York, and finally on the Riviera, she is captivated and inspired. Was life always leading Maggie to this moment, this beautiful place so she could finally learn to stop living in the past? Because if she can, then another love story for the ages might just be within her reach…
Set in the 60’s in Paris makes Under A Riviera Moon interesting and quite different. Helen McGinn paints a picture with words, so you can visualise the places her characters go and hear the jazz music playing. It’s all rather immersive.
Spanning 3 generations, there is a lot of life about the place as well as love and loss.
In the present day, there is Maggie who has got a lot on her plate. She’s divorced and there are uncertainties surrounding her career. She takes a trip to Scotland and this unexpectedly sends her to France to collect her grandmother’s belongings from Allegra, her grandmother’s friend. This in turn leads to a fascinating look into Allegra’s life and more importantly, Maggie’s grandmother’s whom it would seem she didn’t know much about at all in her younger days.
Under A Riviera Moon is captivating and fascinating reading about what was happening in 60’s France. With rich threads within the plot in an interesting time and setting, Under A Riviera Moon is a great holiday or wet weather read to lose yourself into for some escapism.
Helen McGinn is a wine writer & broadcaster, international wine judge and author of the award-winning Knackered Mother’s Wine Guide book and blog. She spent almost a decade sourcing wines around the world as a supermarket buyer and now appears regularly on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen and ITV’s This Morning as their wine expert. She writes about drinks for Waitrose Food Magazine among others and awards include Fortnum & Mason’s Online Drink Writer of the Year.
Her bestselling debut novel This Changes Everything was published in February 2021 and her second fiction book In Just One Day later that same year. This Is Us, her third novel, was released in September 2022 and her fourth, The Island of Dreams, in February 2024. Her latest book, Under A Riviera Moon, is published in April 2025.
I survived the amazing play that is Ghost Stories, will you?
Are you certain you will when it plays with your senses and all that you think you know and see?
Discover the cast, the synopsis and no spoiler review below. You will also see a link to the website so you can see if it’s touring to a town or city near you. I highly recommend you book, if it is.
Dan Tetsell (Rivals) plays Professor Goodman
David Cardy (Birds of A Feather) plays Tony Matthews
Clive Mantle (Casualty, Vicar of Dibley) plays Mike Priddle
Eddie Loodmer-Elliott (Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness) plays
Simon Rifkind
A truly terrifying theatrical experience created by The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson, and Andy Nyman, co-creator of Derren Brown’s television and stage shows. Ghost Stories mixes the very best of theatre with the buzz of a thrill-ride, delivering something truly unique.
When Professor Goodman, arch-sceptic out to debunk the paranormal, embarks on an investigation of three apparent hauntings – as recounted by a night-watchman, a teenage boy, and a businessman awaiting his first child – Goodman finds himself at the outer limits of rationality, and fast running out of explanations.
After exhilarating audiences for two years in the West End and across the world with record breaking, sell-out productions and a smash hit film, Ghost Stories is “Genuine scary fun” (Sunday Times), a worldwide phenomenon more spine-tingling and fantastically terrifying than ever.
“I had to sleep with the lights on” (Metro).
Are you brave enough to book?
Please note: Ghost Stories contains moments of extreme shock and tension. The show is unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15. We strongly advise those of a nervous disposition to think very seriously before attending.
I don’t do ghost stories, but I thought I would give this one a try. I went to a matinee performance in Glasgow. Ghost Stories suits an intimate theatre very well.
It was absolutely brilliant! Everything from the spooky atmosphere created, filling the entire auditorium to the special effects, it was as spooky as spooky can be. They use the stage and theatre to the max!
The intensity of atmosphere builds from the moment you walk into the theatre to taking your seat. I won’t say how because that would spoil it. It’s very special and amazing! The intensity continues to build throughout the play. It’s 1 act, so no interval, so you don’t lose the tension. That was cleverly thought out.
4 ghost stories are told. Each actor tells it in monologue. Each actor owned the stage. Each performance was strongly and convincingly acted. To find out what binds them together, you’ll have to see the play for yourself.
There are moments that cause you to jump at what can be heard and seen. It’s also a play that messes with your head a bit, but by the end, you know you’ve just witnessed something so original, so awe-inspiringly impressive. Believe it or not, there is some humour here and there, which the audience laughed at with a nervous laughter before the next twists unfolded.
By the time it ends, with a genius of a twist, you suddenly feel like you can breath again. There are some holding the breath moments throughout.
Ghost Stories is something that needs to be witnessed to be believed. It will grasp hold of you from beginning to end. This is an experience to behold!
Do you dare to discover the huge twists and turns, what power the ghost stories hold over your theatre? Are you prepared to have your senses played with to the extreme? Are you ready to be spooked more than ever before?
You can check out the rest of the theatre tour below and here: Ghost Stories
15 – 19 April 2025
Norwich, Theatre Royal
22 – 26 April 2025
Newcastle, Theatre Royal
29 April – 3 May 2025
Nottingham, Theatre Royal
13 – 17 May 2025
Southend, Cliffs Pavilion
20 – 24 May 2025 onsale soon
Birmingham, Alexandra Theatre
27 – 31 May 2025
Belfast, Grand Opera House
3 – 7 June 2025
Leicester, Curve Theatre
10 – 14 June 2025
Wycombe, Swan Theatre
24 – 28 June 2025
Southampton, Mayflower Theatre
8 – 12 July 2025
Brighton, Theatre Royal
15 – 19 July 2025
Shrewsbury, Theatre Severn
22 – 26 July 2025
Malvern, Malvern Theatres
29 July – 2 August 2025
Cardiff, Wales Millennium Centre
30 September 2025 – 8 November 2025
London, The Peacock Theatre
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 