Exhaustion and Exuberance
16 – 22 May 2026
Saturday 16 May
To London by plane
London, Coliseum • I approached this new production of Kinky Boots wondering whether the show still packed a punch thirteen years after its Broadway debut. Well, not quite. Cyndi Lauper’s score came across as mostly undistinguished, while Harvey Fierstein’s book, although providing some compelling scenes for the two protagonists, lacked structural discipline.
London, Southwark Playhouse Elephant • Korean composer Seungyeon Kwon and librettist/lyricist Jishik Kim have created a compelling one-person musical, The Last Man, based on the premise that zombies have taken over the world. A lone survivor, locked up in a bunker, chronicles their attempts at survival (the part is rotated between a male and a female actor). The show was not without flaws, but I enjoyed its originality and its craftily designed set — which looked like a low-budget cousin of the extraordinary set for Maybe Happy Ending. How satisfying that there should be writers keen to advance the musical form.
Sunday 17 May
London, Soho Theatre Walthamstow • Jinkx Monsoon took on the formidable challenge of impersonating Judy Garland in Peter Quilters’s End of the Rainbow, a play depicting Garland battling her demons while preparing for her famous 1968 London concerts, only months before dying from an overdose — also the inspiration for the movie Judy. Apart from the little vocal glitches — which made me fear for her ability to stay the course for the whole run but could also be attributed to Garland’s exhaustion — Monsoon gave a blazing performance both vocally and dramatically. I was particularly happy that the orchestrations for the on-stage band included a lot of bongos, one of the signature delights of Garland’s most famous arrangements.
To Paris by train
Monday 18 May
Paris, Théâtre de l’Athénée • Young tenor Laurence Kilsby designed an interesting programme of songs titled Paris est une fête, mostly created by composers associated with Paris in the first half of the 20th century, from Noël Coward to Ned Rorem. Supported by Ella O’Neill’s nuanced piano playing, Kilsby imbued each song with a singular and captivating dramatic intensity. Strangely, however, the emotional climax of the evening was an encore, Richard Strauss’s Morgen, which Kilsby sang as a tribute to the recently deceased Felicity Lott.
Thursday 21 May
To New York by plane
New York, Majestic Theatre • Based on the 1987 eponymous film, the musical Beaches chronicles the unlikely friendship of two women from two wildly different walks of life. The score and libretto failed to elevate the story beyond its linear, cheesy inevitability, yet the show achieved cinematic fluidity in a versatile if slightly cheap-looking set enhanced by projections. In the end, the strong performances by Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett made the experience worthwhile.
Friday 22 May
New York, Todd Haimes Theatre • The revival of Noël Coward’s 1925 parlour comedy Fallen Angels was given pace and punch by all-out performances by Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne, whose unapologetic physicality won well-deserved roars of laughter. By contrast, the secondary cast appeared weaker, and the expertly written role of the omniscient maid ended up sadly underexploited. David Rockwell’s archetypal set looked stunning.
And so, for now, the lights dim… until the next act.