Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors review – batty antics with a Rocky Horror bloodsucker

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonAs a gym-bunny vampire channelling Frank-N-Furter, James Daly leads a superb cast in a gender and genre-inverting romp that lacks biteBefore they took on Bram Stoker’s vampire count, co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve…

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Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors review – batty antics with a Rocky Horror bloodsucker

Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonAs a gym-bunny vampire channelling Frank-N-Furter, James Daly leads a superb cast in a gender and genre-inverting romp that lacks biteBefore they took on Bram Stoker’s vampire count, co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve…

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Give Edinburgh fringe the same status as Olympics, departing head urges

Shona McCarthy says public authorities have routinely ignored needs of world’s largest arts festivalThe Edinburgh festival fringe should be given the same status as major sporting events like the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, its outgoing chief e…

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The Last Laugh review – Eric Morecambe, Tommy Cooper and Bob Monkhouse’s antic triple act

Theatre Royal BrightonBob Golding, Simon Cartwright and Damian Williams, who have played the comedy giants before, summon them like spirits to the stage in this tribute‘You tell ’em a joke they’ve heard before, and: silence.” So says Eric Morecambe in …

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Mark Ravenhill reveals 10 new plays to be performed over two days

The writer of Shopping and Fucking will direct cycle of bawdy comedies inspired by scenarios from a 17th-century Italian collectionA premiere by Mark Ravenhill has been an event ever since the British playwright’s explosive debut 30 years ago with Shop…

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Sign of the four: Sherlock Holmes returns for Christmas comedy by two duos

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have created songs for a Theatreland mystery by Humphrey Ker and David Reed. We find out how they doubled up for the detective’s ‘gory’ new caseNew songs by musical colossi Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. A script by …

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The week in theatre: Inside No 9: Stage/Fright; Cymbeline – review

Wyndham’s; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, LondonSteve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith turn into their own live tribute act; plus, a bold attempt to make sense of Shakespeare’s wayward late tragicomedyGleaming with comic gore, intricately written, showered wit…

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The Gift review – an existential ‘poo-dunnit’ that keeps on giving

Park theatre, LondonAn anonymously delivered box of something unmentionable sends an advertising worker into a spiral in Dave Florez’s comedyA cake box arrives in the post, sent special delivery to Colin (Nicholas Burns), a 40-something north Londoner …

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Inside No 9: Stage/Fright review – slick chills in Shearsmith and Pemberton’s creepy West End comedy

Wyndham’s theatre, LondonThe double act transfer their TV hit to the stage in an ingenious edge-of-your-seat, one-step-ahead show which is in love with old theatres and their ghosts‘We finally ran out of ideas!” jokes Reece Shearsmith towards the end o…

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My heart will go onstage: Celine Dion and Dolly Parton celebrated in outlandish musicals

The comedies Titanique and Here You Come Again pay homage to two superstars in quirky style. Actors Lauren Drew and Tricia Paoluccio explain what it’s like to portray their idols – and take on their iconic songsMost biodramas about musicians sing from …

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