GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
It’s Piaf alright, but...
LYNNE WALSH leaves the theatre rueing the many imperfections of a production that should have promised so much more
Elizabeth Mansfield as Edith Piaf
[Robert Day]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
Hymn to Love
Jermyn Street Theatre
London SW1
★★★
It’s often tricky to pinpoint where the gaps are in a production, but there’s something fundamental and important missing here.
Elizabeth Mansfield, delivering no fewer than 15 of Edith Piaf’s finest songs, is incredibly skilled — her delivery is flawless.
Hymn to Love is a challenging undertaking, neither musical theatre nor “tribute act.” It presents some insight into the life of La Mome Piaf [The Little Sparrow]. Abandoned at birth by her mother, she later neglected her own baby who died aged two. Betrayed lover, victim of violence, consumed by grief after the love of her life died in a plane crash.
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