Edinburgh & non-Edinburgh reviews; new podcast episodes: Thom Tuck on Scaramouche Jones & The Chase's Vixen + Matt Aston & David Gedge on Wedding Present musical; Lloyd Webber renames company
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1225: 17 August 2025
Editorial
After two weeks of this year’s Edinburgh festival month, we now have more than a hundred reviews from the Fringe and International festivals, but we are also publishing a lot more reviews from elsewhere in the UK than we used to in August. Most theatres used to go dark for the season, using the opportunity to carry out annual decoration and maintenance while their audiences were on holiday or engaging in outdoor pursuits, but it seems that many are now offering a summer programme.
Our first new podcast episode since the last newsletter (yes, we have more than one again) covers two shows on the Fringe in a single interview, as the performers of the two solo shows happen to be partners in real life.
Thom Tuck is playing the titular 100-year-old clown whose life story takes audiences though some of the major events of the 20th century in Justin Butcher’s Scaramouche Jones, which he performed in Edinburgh in 2005, then again in 2015. He has said he will play it every ten years until he is as old as the subject. I saw it in 2014 when the playwright was playing the role, so unfortunately I missed seeing Thom.
Jenny Ryan, best-known as The Vixen on TV quiz programme The Chase, is performing her comedy show Björn Yesterday, featuring comedy, karaoke and her theory that maybe the band ABBA never actually existed.
Yesterday, we released podcast episode number 300. Our 200th episode in 2020 was celebrated with interviews with some of our own reviewers, including our late founder, Peter Lathan. Number 300 is also special in a different way, though perhaps mainly for me and a particular niche audience.
I mentioned a month ago that there was to be a musical based on the songs of The Wedding Present, a band whose debut album, George Best, which I bought after reading about it week after week in the NME, was a favourite of mine in the ‘80s. For the podcast, I spoke to Matt Aston, who has taken a small selection of the band’s 300 songs and turned them into a musical set in Leeds, where the band was formed in 1985.
But that’s not all. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing quite a few people whose work in theatre I’ve long admired, even been a fan of, but speaking to someone from a band you were into as a teenager is a whole different ball game. My other half told me not to “go all fanboy and giddy” before I spoke to David Gedge, founder, singer and songwriter of The Wedding Present, and I think I avoided that.
In fact, he turned out to be the loveliest guy to whom I felt I could talk for hours. He paid tribute to the cast of the musical, Reception, who sing, dance, act and play different instruments, describing himself as a one-trick pony. Also, to link with the other episode, he reveals he is a big fan of ABBA. Who’d have thought?
A correction to last week’s newsletter from Midlands Editor Steve Orme. I said that his Classic Thrillers podcast episode was our first to contain a performed excerpt from a play, but his own episode about the play Welfare at Derby Theatre last September also featured one. Sorry Steve!
In his feature this week, Philip Fisher looks at Lord Lloyd Webber’s decision to rename his famous production company and take more of a back seat in its management to “focus on what I have always loved most—music”. I assume he means writing rather than listening to it; that news may be good or bad, depending on your musical taste.
Back to Edinburgh, the city’s Traverse Theatre posted this week that Terry Lane, its founder and first artistic director who designed and built Traverse Theatre Club in 1962, opening the following year, has died at the age of 88.
Finally, Bookshop.org is offering the opportunity to win a £250 digital gift card for any book bought this weekend. If you buy anything through the links here or on our web site, we get a small cut, but every sale supports independent bookshops rather than multinational corporations.
Grease Celia Mackay for Kilworth House Theatre at Kilworth House Theatre
The Addams Family, The Musical Comedy Katy Lipson, Aria Entertainment, John Stalker Productions, ADAMA Entertainment, Guy James, Ankit Agrawal and Jason Turchin at The Lowry, Salford
Death by Fatal Murder Tabs Productions and Theatre Royal Nottingham at Theatre Royal Nottingham
Noises Off The Stephen Joseph Theatre at Stephen Joseph Theatre
Hedda Theatre Royal Bath Productions at Theatre Royal Bath, Ustinov Studio
Marseille (Away) 442 Productions; part of Camden Fringe 2025 at Hen & Chickens Theatre
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Elliott & Harper Productions and Catherine Schreiber, based on the original Leeds Playhouse production) - Sadler's Wells, London, –
The Diana Mixtape (TuckShop and Walport Productions) - The Lowry, Salford, –
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Stage Entertainment, Joop van den Ende and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner) - Liverpool Empire, Liverpool, –
Pride & Prejudice (Octagon Theatre Bolton, Theatre By The Lake And Stephen Joseph Theatre) - Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, –
Noises Off (Stephen Joseph Theatre) - Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, –
Midlands
Hi-De-Hi Eric (David Graham Productions) - New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, –
The Boy With Wings (Polka Theatre) - Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Birmingham, –
Deathtrap (Tabs Productions) - Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, –
Fiddler on the Roof (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) - Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, –
Fat Ham (Royal Shakespeare Company with No Guarantees Productions, Public Theater Productions and Rashad V. Chambers) - The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, –
Be More Chill (Old Joint Stock Theatre) - The Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre, Birmingham, –
Only Human (Vaudeville Productions, Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor, Paul Sandler and Derren Brown for Only Human Productions Ltd) - Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth, –
The Koala Who Could (Nicoll Entertainment present a Rose Theatre, Lowry, Northern Stage, Unicorn Theatre and MAST Mayflower Studios production) - The Playhouse, Weston-super-Mare, –
2:22 - A Ghost Story (Runaway Entertainment) - Bristol Hippodrome Theatre, Bristol, –
As You Like It - Theatre Royal Bath / Ustinov Studio / the egg, Bath, –
Hedda (Theatre Royal Bath Productions) - Theatre Royal Bath / Ustinov Studio / the egg, Bath, –
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - The Barn Theatre, Cirencester, –
South East
SPLAT! (OfTheJackel) - G Live / Bellerby Studio, Guildford, –
The Addams Family, The Musical Comedy (Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment, John Stalker Productions and Bill Kenwright Ltd) - Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, –
