Menier Chocolate Factory

REVIEW: Love In Idleness. Apollo Theatre ✭✭✭

Reviews, West End
Love In idleness at the Apollo Theatre

Love In Idleness Apollo Theatre 18th May 2017 3 Stars Book Tickets Recently, there has been a spate of interest in Terence Rattigan’s masterpiece, ‘The Deep Blue Sea’, with high-profile revivals, a new film, and even a brilliant new play, Mike Poulton’s, ‘Kenny’, based on both the real events that suggested it and also on the meticulously crafted drama that arose from their ashes.  So it was probably only a matter of time before someone got around to wheeling out his collection of sketches for the later, much more fully realised and successful play, the work that is known by a peculiar reference to Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that now finds itself upgrading from the Menier Chocolate Factory in this show relocation to Shaftesbury Avenue. Promoted – in Bob King’s carefully arranged graphic design – as a three-hander between a young man, Michael Brown, a woman in the prime … Read more

Curve’s Adrian Mole musical comes to the Menier

News, Off West End
The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole

A new production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ – The Musical is to be staged at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in association with Curve in Leicester. The musical, with music and lyrics by Pippa Cleary and book and lyrics by Jake Brunger, has undergone a period of further development since its original production at Curve in 2015. Directed by Luke Sheppard, the show will run at the Menier from July 26 to September 9, with previews from July 14. Casting is yet to be announced. Set in 1980s Leicester and based on Sue Townsend’s 1982 best-seller, the musical follows the daily dramas of Adrian’s adolescent life, with dysfunctional parents, a school bully and an unruly pimple on his chin, topped off by falling for new girl Pandora. A statement from Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: “Everyone at … Read more

Further Casting Announced For Menier’s She Loves Me

News, Off West End
Book tickets for Scarlett Strallen in She Loves Me at the Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory have today announced that Scarlett Strallen will be joined by Alastair Brookshaw (Ladislav Sipos), Les Dennis (Mr Maraczek), Callum Howells (Arpad Laszlo), Katherine Kingsley (Ilona Ritter), Dominic Tighe (Steven Kodaly) and Mark Umbers (Georg Nowack), with Rachel Bingham, Peter Dukes, Luke Fetherston, Olivia Fines, Aimee Hodnett, Sarah-Marie Maxwell and Vincent Pirillo for the company’s major revival of She Loves Me this Christmas. Tickets are now on sale. Meet Amalia and Georg, who work as clerks in Maraczek’s Parfumerie – and aren’t exactly the best of friends. However, they have something in common. They both rapturously write to romantic pen pals. Despite the anonymity of their secret admirers, they live for the love letters that they exchange and the day they will finally meet. This enduring love story has been the basis for the films The Shop around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail. The musical version … Read more

Scarlett Strallen To Star In She Loves Me At The Menier

News, Off West End
Book now for She Loves Me starring Scarlett Strallen at the Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory will present She Loves Me as their Christmas production from 25 November 2016 starring Scarlett Strallen. Tickets are now on sale. She Loves Me reunites Scarlett Strallen with Director Matthew White, following their previous collaboration on Candide at the Menier. Meet Amalia and Georg, who work as clerks in Maraczek’s Parfumerie — and aren’t exactly the best of friends. However, they have something in common. They both rapturously write to romantic pen pals. Despite the anonymity of their secret admirers, they live for the love letters that they exchange and the day they will finally meet. This enduring love story has been the basis for the films The Shop around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail. The musical version – written by the authors of Fiddler on the Roof – has delighted audiences since its 1963 Broadway premier and features a sparkling score that includes now-classic … Read more