Casting Announced for An Officer And A Gentleman UK Tour

An Officer And A Gentleman UK Tour

Casting has been announced for An Officer And A Gentleman UK Tour which opens in April at the Leicester Curve.     Director of An Officer And A Gentleman and Artistic Director of the Curve has announced that Emma Williams will play ‘Paula Pokrifiki’, Jonny Fines is ‘Zack Mayo’, Ray Shell as ‘Foley’, Ian Macintosh as ‘Sid Worley’ and Jessica Daley as ‘Lynette Pomeroy’. View the tour schedule here. Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director of Curve and Director of ‘An Officer and Gentleman – The Musical’ said today “Douglas Day Stewart wrote An Officer and a Gentleman in response to his time serving in the American Air Force and the challenges he faced during training. It is a visceral, uncompromising and ultimately tender portrait of the these personal experiences and the lives of folk living near the training facility in the early 1980s. “We are proud to have assembled such an … Read more

Half A Sixpence Transfers To Noel Coward Theatre

Book now for Half A Sixpence at the Noel Coward Theatre

Following its critically-acclaimed, record-breaking run at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Cameron Mackintosh has announced that the production will open at the Noel Coward Theatre in London. Half A Sixpence will start previews on 29 October 2016, opening on 17 November and will book until 11 February 2017. The entire Chichester cast will transfer to the West End, starring newcomers Charlie Stemp as ‘Arthur Kipps’ and Devon-Elise Johnson as ‘Ann Pornick’ – alongside three times Olivier-nominated actor Ian Bartholomew as ‘Chitterlow’ and three times Olivier-nominated actress Emma Williams as ‘Helen Walsingham’. Based on H G Wells’s novel Kipps: The Story Of A Simple Soul, this production of Half A Sixpence is a completely fresh adaptation that reunites George Stiles and Anthony Drewe with Julian Fellowes (the creator of Downton Abbey). Together the team were responsible for adapting Mary Poppins for the stage. The score is inspired by and features several of … Read more

Eastenders’ Jamie Foreman to join the West End cast of new British Musical 

Jamie Foreman joins the cast of Mrs Henderson Presents at the Noel Coward Theatre

Eastenders actor Jamie Foreman will play Arthur in the West End transfer of Mrs Henderson Presents opening at the Noel Coward Theatre on 9 February for a strictly limited season. Foreman joins the previously announced Tracie Bennett as Laura Henderson, Ian Bartholomew as Vivian Van Damm and Emma Williams as Maureen. Foreman is best known for playing Derek Branning in EastEnders, but his other credits include Lenny in Birds of a Feather, Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, Duke in Layer Cake, Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth, Elizabeth and Sleepy Hollow. Tracie Bennett is a double Olivier Award-winner for her performances in the musicals She Loves Me and Hairspray. She received huge acclaim all over the world for her portrayal of Judy Garland in End Of The Rainbow, and was Tony Award nominated for her lead role in the production, also directed by Terry Johnson. The cast also includes … Read more

Mrs Henderson Presents Transfers To Noel Coward Theatre

Mrs Henderson Presents Theatre Royal Bath

BOOKING IS NOW OPEN FOR MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS Following a sell-out season at the Theatre Royal Bath, new musical Mrs Henderson Presents will open at the Noel Coward Theatre on Tuesday 9 February 2016. Mrs Henderson Presents will star  Tracie Bennett and Ian Bartholemew playing Mrs Henderson and Vivian Van Damm and Emma Williams playing Maureen. We believe that both Bennett and Williams will reprise their roles in the West End. Other casting will be announced shortly. It’s London, 1937, and recently-widowed eccentric, Laura Henderson, is looking for a way of spending her time and money when her attention falls on a run-down former cinema in Great Windmill Street. Hiring feisty impresario Vivian Van Damm to look after the newly renovated Windmill Theatre, the improbable duo present a bill of non-stop variety acts. But as war looms something more is required to boost morale and box office… When Mrs Henderson … Read more

REVIEW: Mrs Henderson Presents, Theatre Royal Bath ✭✭✭✭✭

Mrs Henderson Presents Theatre Royal Bath

There is no doubt that Mrs Henderson Presents should transfer to the West End. The material is first-rate and superior to many new musicals that have played there in recent years. It will need a bigger orchestra (and, accordingly, bigger orchestrations) and it could do with some casting fine-tuning and a larger ensemble (another dozen dancers at least) so that a grander sense of scale was permitted. In Bath, it comes across as a superb chamber piece, perfectly suited to the gorgeous Theatre Royal. In the West End, its aim can be higher.