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Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. sunday_express_logo ____________________ (BUTTON) * Find us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter * Check us on Google+ * Subscribe to our rss feed Daily Horoscope Our Apps Top 10 Our Paper Paper Archive Weather 4° London * HOME * News * Showbiz & TV * Sport * Comment * Finance * Travel * Entertainment * Life & Style * Films * Gaming * Theatre * Music * Books * Puzzles * Home * Entertainment * Theatre * Theatre round-up: Gypsy, Here Lies Love and The Infidel Theatre round-up: Gypsy, Here Lies Love and The Infidel 5 / 5 stars Gypsy IMELDA STAUNTON is magnificent as Mama Rose in this tale of broads, burlesque and battle-axes; Here Lies Love takes a whistle-stop tour through the life of Imelda Marcos and David Baddiel is behind the warm and witty religious satire, The Infidel By Michael Arditti PUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Oct 19, 2014 theatre, reviews, Gypsy, Here Lies Love, The Infidel, Michael Arditti Imelda Staunton is magnificent as Mama Rose[JOHAN PERSSON] “Mothers out!” shouts the creepy compère as he auditions a batch of stage children in the opening scene of Gypsy. Happily for us, Imelda Staunton’s Mama Rose slips through the net, employing a mixture of cajolery, charm and blackmail to ensure that her daughter secures the best spot. Although based on the memoirs of the stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee, the musical focuses on Mama Rose, the showbusiness mother from hell, who, after battling to make her younger daughter a headliner in vaudeville, has to swallow her pride when her neglected elder daughter becomes a star in burlesque. Staunton is magnificent, squeezing every ounce of wit, truth and pathos from the part, while not skimping on the Joan Crawford flamboyance. Her most daring touch is to undercut the triumphalism of Everything’s Coming Up Roses with a hint of hysteria. She is expertly supported by Lara Pulver and Kevin Whately in Jonathan Kent’s pitch-perfect production. theatre, reviews, Gypsy, Here Lies Love, The Infidel, Michael Arditti Here Lies Love takes us on a whistle-stop tour through the life of Imelda Marcos [TRISTAM KENTON] From good Imelda to bad Imelda: Here Lies Love takes us on a whistle-stop tour through the life of Imelda Marcos. This Evita-lite ‘musical experience’ is a triumph of style over substance. Having set my last novel, The Breath of Night, partly in the Marcos-era Philippines, I am particularly sensitive to the show’s total lack of political insight and acknowledgement that Imelda’s hands were steeped in blood. But, even without that special interest, I would object to the wafer-thin characterisation of the former first lady as a Mills & Boon heroine, whose prime concern after a lifetime of political and emotional reversals is that the epitaph on her grave reads ‘Love’. While David Byrne’s lyrics must take the blame for the failure, his music, co-written with Fatboy Slim, Thomas Gandey and Jose Luis Pardo, is rich and vibrant, albeit over-amplified for the small Dorfman auditorium. Natalie Mendoza is splendid as the sanitised Imelda and Gia Macuja Atchison deeply moving as her neglected maid. The successes of the evening are Alex Timbers’ inventive direction and Annie-B Parson’s spirited choreography, in which lithe Filipino dancers meet the lumbering English audience onthe floor of David Korins’ movable disco set. Related articles * Guys and Dolls review: The much-loved Broadway musical packs a 'genuine wallop' * Handel's Xerxes by the English National Opera: Astonishing comedy, glorious fun * Grim dance cliches from Balletboyz: The Talent at the Royal Opera House The bravest of this week’s three musicals, if the roughest in both concept and execution, is The Infidel, David Baddiel’s adaptation of his own screenplay in which an East End Muslim cab driver discovers that his biological parents were Jewish on the eve of his son’s marriage to the stepdaughter of a Fundamentalist imam. Baddiel’s lyrics (“I’m a Muslim, don’t despair; I haven’t got a bomb in my underwear”) are unlikely to give Stephen Sondheim any sleepless nights, but they are jauntily good-humoured and perfectly wedded to Erran Baron Cohen’s eclectic score. Kev Orkian leads an excellent cast in a production dynamically choreographed by Liam Steel. It is particularly heart-warming to see such a warm and witty celebration of religious tolerance in this most multicultural of London theatres. Gypsy, Chichester Festival Theatre (Tickets 01243 781312/cft.org.uk; £15-48); Here Lies Love, National Theatre, London SE1 (Tickets 020 7452 3000/nationaltheatre.org.uk;£15-45); The Infidel, Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London (Tickets 020 8534 0310/stratfordeast.com; £11-24) Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse: Theatre Review Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse: Theatre Review Performance of the year already: Grey Gardens - Theatre review Dance reviews: Until The Lions and Elizabeth Dance reviews: Until The Lions and Elizabeth Dance reviews: Until The Lions and Elizabeth Theatre review: Goodnight Mister Tom at the Duke Of York Theatre Theatre review: Goodnight Mister Tom at the Duke Of York Theatre Theatre review: Goodnight Mister Tom at the Duke Of York Theatre Theatre review: Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse Theatre review: Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse Theatre review: Grey Gardens at the Southwark Playhouse Opera Review Tosca Royal Opera House Opera Review Tosca Royal Opera House Opera Review: Tosca at the Royal Opera House Theatre review: Guys And Dolls at the Savoy Theatre review: Guys And Dolls at the Savoy Theatre review: Guys And Dolls at the Savoy Classical review: Viennese Christmas at the London Concertante Cadogan Hall Classical review: Viennese Christmas at the London Concertante Cadogan Hall Classical review: Viennese Christmas at the London Concertante Cadogan Hall Schubert The Complete Songs opera review Schubert The Complete Songs opera review Schubert: The Complete Songs- Opera review Theatre review Les Liaisons Dangereuses Donmar Warehouse cheap tickets seats Theatre review Les Liaisons Dangereuses Donmar Warehouse cheap tickets seats Theatre review: Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar Warehouse theatre review Guys and Dolls Savoy Theatre London cheap tickets showings theatre review Guys and Dolls Savoy Theatre London cheap tickets showings Theatre review: Guys and Dolls at the Savoy Theatre dramatic triumphant year opera cuts loomed 2015 dramatic triumphant year opera cuts loomed 2015 A dramatic and triumphant year for opera as cuts loomed in 2015 theatre 2015 reviews farinelli oppenheimer play theatre 2015 reviews farinelli oppenheimer play Stars of the theatre in 2015: New plays that dazzled with top reviews west end aladdin groundhog day harry potter pixie lott diana ross musical west end aladdin groundhog day harry potter pixie lott diana ross musical 2016 Theatre review: The year of the blockbuster Les Liaisons Dangereuses review Showboat Les Liaisons Dangereuses review Showboat Theatre review: An 'intricate round of sex, seduction, revenge and betrayal' Nutcracker On Ice Moscow review Nutcracker On Ice Moscow review Frozen nights behind the joy of Nutcracker On Ice Top skater to quit The Nutcracker on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall Top skater to quit The Nutcracker on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall Top skater to quit The Nutcracker on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall Theatre review A Christmas Carol Wonder.land Theatre review A Christmas Carol Wonder.land Theatre reviews: A Christmas Carol and Wonder.land Opera review Autumn Trilogy Puccini La Boheme Ravenna Festival Opera review Autumn Trilogy Puccini La Boheme Ravenna Festival Opera review: Puccini’s La Boheme at the Ravenna Festival Theatre Christmas shows The Snowman Cinderella The Little Match Girl The Lorax Theatre Christmas shows The Snowman Cinderella The Little Match Girl The Lorax From The Snowman to Cinderella: Our pick of Christmas shows Theatre review A Christmas Carol Noel Coward Theatre Theatre review A Christmas Carol Noel Coward Theatre Theatre review: A Christmas Carol at the Noël Coward Theatre Theatre review Oliver Around The World In Eighty Days and Hapgood Theatre review Oliver Around The World In Eighty Days and Hapgood Theatre reviews: Oliver! Around The World In Eighty Days and Hapgood Opera reviews Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana Leoncavallo Pagliacci Royal opera House Opera reviews Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana Leoncavallo Pagliacci Royal opera House Opera reviews: Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House [1] [seg?add=1781214&t=2] SEARCH ____________________ (BUTTON) CONNECT WITH US * Find us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter * Check us on Google+ * Subscribe to our rss feed * Check our YouTube channel TODAY'S PAPER todays-paper Sunday, 17th January 2016 See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive. 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