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Belters and bohemians: Opera Locos @Sadlers_wells

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At the start of the Opera Locos performance, the announcement says that they really are singing. You could be forgiven for wondering that, given the amplification turns up the backing track and the voices so loud that you can't always tell what's real. But this is a mostly harmless and slightly eccentric blend of opera classics fused with the occasional pop classic. However, recognising the pop tunes would help if you were over a certain age. The most recent of them dates back twenty years. It's currently playing at the Peacock Theatre .  Five performers play out a variety of archetype opera characters. There's the worn-out tenor (Jesús Álvarez), the macho baritone (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos), the eccentric counter-tenor (Michaël Kone), the dreamy soprano (María Rey-Joly) and the wild mezzo-soprano (Mayca Teba). Since my singing days, I haven't recognised these types of performers. However, once, I recall a conductor saying he wanted no mezzo-sopranos singing with the s
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Meanwhile somewhere in rural England: Weald @Finborough

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Weald, the new play by Daniel Foxsmith  currently playing at the Finborough Theatre , is a funny and   intriguing piece about rural life in England and the bond between men. The premise is that Jim arrives home after six years away in need of work at a livery yard. It is only temporary as he needs the work. Sam, the older man and father figure to him, reluctantly agrees. As they get back to work, it is as if they were picking up where they left off. But in the years since Jim left, both have changed. The harsh economic realities for both of them mean that things are going to be as they were before.
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Make a pot roast: The World Goes 'Round - the songs of Kander and Ebb @St_JamesTheatre

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After catching The World Goes Round, it is easy to appreciate the breadth of writing from composers and lyricist John Kander and Fred Ebb . In the days since catching it, many of the songs have become ear worms. Who would have thought a song about two women comparing their lives (and singing about pot roast) could do that? No doubt it is due to the fine music making on stage. The show includes songs from their best known works, Cabaret and Chicago. But it also includes many other songs from lesser known shows. And songs that might have been lost are now given the chance to shine. It is a lot of songs in to get through in one evening but the show never drags during its nearly two hour duration. Helping the proceedings along are the performers assembled for the evening and each are given their moment.
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Blowing off steam: One of Those @TristanBates

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It all happens on the mid-morning train to Cornwall in One of Those , in this funny and fresh piece of new writing by Tom Ward-Thomas . A train ride to Cornwall is full of connections, and not just of the rail kind. The play's title comes from the false assumptions that people make at first meeting and how this influences how they behave.
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Pillow talk: Jeepers Creepers @lsqtheatre

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Life is a series of bedroom scenes in this tribute to comedian Marty Feldman, Jeepers Creepers. It's playing downstairs at the Leicester Square Theatre through to 20 February. And while you learn a bit about the man from East London who found fame in Hollywood, you never really understand what made him so funny in the first place.
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Let's talk about stuff: Clickbait @theatre503

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Clickbait is a comic new play about society’s attitude to porn and the women who make it for themselves. But it is hard to know exactly what to make of it. There is enough material for several plays here; attitudes to pornography, how to set up a sex empire, concepts of consensual sex. They are all explored, but all too briefly to make much sense. The play follows Nicola (played by Georgia Groome ) who, threatened with the release of an amateur sex video, makes a snap decision to post it online herself.
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Lighter shades of grey: The Picture of Dorian Gray @Trafstudios

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Something seems missing in this new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, currently playing at Trafalgar Studios. Missing is any sense of excitement or thrills you would expect from Oscar Wilde's story about a beautiful man's hedonistic descent. The story was a scandal when it was first published. This new adaptation by Merlin Holland (Wilde's grandson) and John O'Connor, restores some homoerotic passages from the original manuscript. But as fascinating as they are, the overall piece is a bit of a damp squib.
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Dire sheep: Big Brother Blitzkrieg @KingsHeadThtr

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It seems like a great concept: after many rejections from Vienna's art school and a botched suicide attempt, Hitler wakes up in the Big Brother House. But what could pass for a five minute sketch is dragged out for an excruciating seventy minutes with few laughs.
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