MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Amelie: The Musical, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
Inventive staging of a contemporary film classic
Gamine: Audrey Brisson as Amelie
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
THE 2001 film Amelie has so many iconic scenes that it takes a brave person to adapt it for the stage.
Craig Lucas partly circumvents direct comparison in this musical version which, while maintaining the original’s surreal whimsicality, simultaneously makes it more physically grounded.
The basic story is untouched. Amelie, a lonely girl raised by a neurotic mother and iceberg father, spreads happiness in the lives of other people while ignoring her own needs. That changes when she meets the gently eccentric Nino and is forced to confront her own dream world.
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SUSAN DARLINGTON revels in a band that know their own continuing relevance
