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This is an excellent entertainment. It is based on the childrens book ‘War Horse” by Michael Morpurgo, about a horse which is brought up by a your lad who looses it when the father sells it to the army so that it can fight in the 1st world war. It is basically a puppet show with live actors. If your idea of a puppet shown is Thunderbirds think again. The play was developed at the National Theatre and a lot of time was spent in developing the the horses. The horses are very believable so much so that you can feel their pain and suffering during the performance. You do not ‘see’ the puppeteers, they blend into the back ground.
The story is very strong and moves along at a fair pace. It includes music and folk songs that add to the experience. Look at the web site to get an idea of how good it is. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/45205/home/war-horse-official-website.html

Andrew Lloyd Webber has received much negative press regarding Love Never Dies. Lover Never Dies is the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, the musical he wrote for Sarah Brightman over 21 years ago. It starred Michael Crawford and his wife Sarah Brightman. The music had been released on a CD some months before and produced three top ten hits. It was based on a very well known story which had been make into several films. The most famous was with Lon Chaney playing the disfigured Phantom. The musical was an instant hit and has been doing well all around the world.
Love Never Dies is a completely new musical. It is the first for many years not to be based on any other source. The music and the story were released only weeks before it opened. It had very mixed reviews.
I went to see it several weeks ago and was very impressed. The story has moved on by 10 years. The characters have developed and I feel they are made more believable. I never believed in the characters in the original Phantom and I felt it was the poor relation to Les Mis. The action has moved to Coney Island where the Phantom fled. The opening evokes the feeling of the fun fair and starts to pull you into the story. Christine is now a very successful Opera singer, who is saddled with her husband Raoul, who has become a gambler and an alcoholic. They also have a 10 year old boy Gustave.
The music is not as memorable as Phantom but is very powerful and a joy to listen to. The sets are well conceived and certainly as good as the original but in a different style.

Overall a very enjoyable musical with a strong ending. I feel it will develop over the coming months. The cast are excellent and it deserves to have a long run