Well 2026 is here, so a few more reviews from me...
Back to the Future
First up - I went to see "Back to the Future" with the older daughter. It's a fun night out and there is some clever staging including a flying Delorean which fully flips. The staging is probably the best thing about it. The cast were good and really captured the film, but the story comes across as very clean and sanitised. Biff is just a comedy character - there's no sense of him trying to molest Lorraine and the fight is just slapstick. Jennifer has no character at all other than to be a pretty girl on Marty's arm.
The main crime though is the music. As with a few other films turned into musicals, the finale song you want to hear is the Power of Love. Nothing that the writers provide can hold a candle to Power of Love and Jonny B Goode.
Worth a see, but not world altering. Closes in April 2026.
The Producers
It's back and at the Criterion theatre. This time less money has been thrown at it, but it is still hilarious and tasteless at the same time. The cast are fantastic. Andy Nyman is a lot more sleazy and disgusting than Nathan Lane's interpretation. Marc Antolin is great as Leo although he can't hope to hit Lee
Evans heights. I wasn't that keen on Trevor Ashley as Roger, his fitness seemed questionable. Raj Ghatak and Harry Morrison were great as Carmen Ghia and Franz Liebkin. The jokes have been turned up to 11. Roger de Bris is now so gay he has a living statue with a very large member. We have a recurring performance of a dancing Rabbi waving a Torah. If you've never seen the stage show it's well worth a visit.
Kiss of the Spiderwoman
This time - not in the theatre but on the screen. Apparently this was released in Cinemas last October (2025). It seems to have had little publicity, and having watched it, I can see why. This could have been a fantastic film, but the Director / Screenwriter seems to have come up with a genius idea.
At some point during planning, someone went "Let's do the musical - but take out the music. We'll just put half the numbers in. No one will miss the rest."
"Even better - lets add some songs from the Kander and Ebb song book that aren't from the show. Oh - and lets change the story so it's completely different from the musical".
"I think, if we play this right, we can create a film musical which fans of the actual musical will hate, whilst fans of the original film and book will *also* hate because they won't understand why there are musical numbers in it!". "
Oh - and we need to modernise it. Instead of Molina just being a gay man who loves movies, lets make him
actually want to be a woman and refer to him as female at the end of the show."
" I know! Instead of Valentin being a rugged revolutionary using Molina as Molina is trying to use him, lets just give him a gay epiphany instead!"
"OMG! icing on the cake! - lets underscore with tunes from the original stage show, which
only fans of the original stage show will understand. What a brilliant easter egg!!".
In short - I've watched this so you don't have to. Just wait for the theatre production rumoured to be on its way this year.
