INTERVIEW: Anna-Jane Casey, currently playing Cilla the Goose in Mother Goose on Tour

Anna-Jane Casey is currently starring as Cilla the Goose in Mother Goose alongside Ian McKellen and John Bishop. Mother Goose previously played Duke of York’s Theatre in London before touring various cities. The show is touring to Liverpool, Oxford, Leicester, Dublin Cardiff, Salford and Bristol until mid April. 

Anna-Jane Casey has most recently been seen in the Olivier Award winning revival of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club starring as Fraulein Kost, and her prolific stage career includes the West End productions of Billy Elliot, Starlight Express, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Spamalot, Stepping Out, Chicago, Grease and so much more. On television you may have seen her in Silent Witness, Coronation Street, The Royal and Doctors among other appearances.

You’re currently starring in Mother Goose, written by the wonderful Jonathan Harvey. How has the run been so far?

The run has been amazing so far! We started previews early December in Brighton – we’d do a show and then all run around doing our Christmas shopping.

The show was in Brighton before finding a home over Christmas in the West End. How did the audiences differ?

The audiences really aren’t that different, but you obviously get a more international audience in the West End. We’ve had people from all over the world coming to see the show in London. One night we had a Brazilian couple on the second row, who had never seen a panto before - I’d never seen a man so happy for two hours, him and his partner were joyous!

REVIEW: The Wizard of Oz at the Curve, Leicester

The Wizard of Oz has had a strange relationship with the theatre. Of all the retellings of L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novel, the 1939 MGM starring Judy Garland is undoubtedly the best-known and as such, all adaptations will be compared to it. Despite its seemingly large potential, the wondrous world of Oz has often felt stagnant in the theatre and versions have only managed short runs before being relegated to endless performances by schools and amateur dramatic societies.

Just in case the one person on the planet who does not know the plot is reading this...The Wizard of Oz follows a young Kanas farm girl called Dorothy who is whisked off to the magical land of Oz via a cyclone and must follow the yellow brick road to meet the wizard and return home. Along the way, she meets a scarecrow who wants a brain, a Tin Man who longs for a heart and a cowardly lion but also has to face the wrath of the Wicked Witch of the West, who is after her magical Ruby Slippers.

REVIEW: Passion at the Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

Ruthie’s back and brimming with Passion!

Passion is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Stephen Sondheim was the legend that musical theatre lost late last year at the age of 91. The composer behind the complicated and clever lyrics of Company, Into the Woods and of course West Side Story – to name but a few – was rightly one of the most celebrated names in musical theatre throughout his career, but it is easy to see why his show Passion didn’t really take off like his others.

The story follows a young Italian soldier, Giorgio (played by Dean John-Wilson) who is having an affair with young married girl Clara (Kelly Price) and believes wholly that he is in love with her until the ailing Fosca – a relative of his superior – comes along and begins to pursue him relentlessly. At first, he is flattered and merely tries to ignore the advances made by the older woman, but as he exchanges letters with his mistress back home – staged beautifully as a series of seamlessly integrating songs – the show really starts to beg the question – what exactly is love? Is there a line between adoration and obsession? 

REVIEW: Tell Me on a Sunday at the Lowry Theatre, Salford

Tell Me on a Sunday is a one-woman song cycle with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black which charts the turbulent love life of British girl Emma who moves to the United States in constant search of love, happiness and that all-important green card. 

Needless to say, things tend to go wrong for the unlucky-in-love girl and the cycle is an erratic journey of ups and downs for both the character and the audience – injected with equal measures of comedy and pathos.

The show is a Watermill Theatre production, who have staged many hits over the years and is directed by Paul Foster.

The musical started life as a concept album back in the 1980s starring Marti Webb and was then staged as the first act of a show called Song & Dance before becoming a piece in its own right in 2003 and has toured numerous times with the likes of Denise van Outen and Faye Tozer taking on the role. This production, however, has been called the “definitive version” by the creators.

Acclaimed actress Jodie Prenger is back for her second stint in the role having first played the role the first time back in 2016. Jodie is probably best known to wider audiences for winning the role of Nancy in Oliver! through the BBC series, I’d Do Anything but has since gone on to carve out a solid and versatile career in theatre, having played leading roles in both musicals and plays such as Calamity Jane, Abigail’s Party and A Taste of Honey. In the role of Emma, Jodie is as formidable as ever. She tackles every song with perfect levels of comedy and drama and easily puts her own welcome spin onto songs that have been staples of musical theatre for decades, accompanied on stage by a live band.