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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Fiona Mountford's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Victoria Wood, Nigel Lilley (musical supervision).
Cast: Eugene O'Hare, Leanne Rowe, Suzie Toase, Mark Hadfiled, Jeffrey Holland, Mark Curry
Description: Victoria Wood's comedy about two talent contestants considering how famous they would like to be. Not suitable for under 14s.
Trains: Tube/BR: London Bridge 
Phone: 0207907 7060
Website: www.menierchocolatefactory.com
Extra info: Food, Pub
You’d have thought Talent would have been in with a fighting chance. It’s directed by its writer, the multi-talented Victoria Wood and this award-winning 1978 “comedy with songs” saw the beginning of Wood’s long and fruitful screen collaboration with Julie Walters when it was filmed for television a year later.
Dispiritingly, the bewilderingly few laughs Wood squeezes from her slightly reworked script come when we take it on trust that the decade of the Seventies itself — the Lurex, the sideburns, the Babycham — was funny.
It’s amateur talent night at “Manchester’s premier entertainment venue”, and Julie (Leanne Rowe), a would-be singer, has something of a past and Maureen (Suzie Toase), her plump friend, has a Kit Kat in her handbag. Perhaps one-night stands, sexual predators and teenage pregnancy had more dramatic clout three decades ago but their characters and back-stories seem poorly fleshed out now and everyone around them is a music-hall twerp. Noël Coward was mocking these kinds of desperate variety acts back in 1935.
The tone, not to mention send-ups of Larry Grayson-style campness, lurches between laboured and desperate as Maureen, looking discomfitingly like a 1940s evacuee, helps Julie get ready backstage. Rowe has a tough night of it but Toase is, mercifully, better value. A range of lively expressions draw our attention to her round face while she sits in the corner, letting the pretty one hog the limelight. Even so, this is no talent show winner.
Until 14 November (020 7907 7060).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
This isn't the first time this play has been revived.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the touring version which I saw in the late 90's starring two ex-soap actresses as the two leads.
I can't remember the girls names but veteran comedy actors Freddie Davies and John Junkin ('Shake' in A HARD DAYS NIGHT ) played the two older pro comics.
I remember watching the tv play first time around and realising it was written and performed by someone who would be going places.
- Jargonaut, South London
