Month: April 2015

Dusty Cast Announced

News, West End
Dusty at the Charing Cross Theatre

Dusty, a new multi-media show celebrating the music of the iconic Dusty Springfield will receive its World Premiere at the Charing Cross Theatre. With original music by the legendary artist Dusty Springfield, audiences will see and hear Springfield on stage using the most up-to-date 3-D technology and digital media. Combined with a musical theatre format of live performance, music and dance, Dusty follows the highs and lows of Springfield’s rise from middle class suburban London to the recording of her seminal album Dusty in Memphis. Including classic footage of Dusty performing her story as seen through the eyes of Nancy Jones, one of Dusty’s childhood friends and other key figures who accompanied her on her journey, Dusty celebrates the life of one of Britain’s most influential recording artists. The cast comprises Ellie Ann-Lowe (Mary O’Brien), Francesca Jackson (Nancy), Stewart McCheyne (DJ Dave Dean), Ben Tolley (Johnny Franz), Leo Elso (Dion … Read more

REVIEW: Closer To Heaven, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Closer To Heaven by Jonathan Harvey and The Pet Shop Boys at the Union Theatre, London

What makes the musical stand-out is it unashamed gaiety, and I use that word in its modern sense. This is, as Nicholas De Jongh said when the piece premiered, “the first truly gay musical to be written and composed by Englishmen” to reach the West End. It is also essentially youthful, and quite uncompromising in dealing head on with the vagaries and traps of young adulthood: sex, drugs (use and sale), pop music, alcohol, predatory conduct, prostitution, love, survival, sexuality and, most compellingly, the family you create separate from the family into which you are born.

Gypsy Extends West End Run

News, West End
Imelda Staunton in Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre London

Following the resounding critical response to the opening of Gypsy in the West End, the show has announced an extension and is now booking at the Savoy Theatre until 28 November 2015. BritishTheatre.com’s lead critic Stephen Collins gave the show an unprecedented 6 star review saying “Staunton is simply magnificent as Rose. In absolutely every way” and  calling the production “the event of the decade“. This is the first time that Gypsy has been seen in the West End for forty years. It is considered by many to be the greatest of the classic Broadway musicals. The story of the Burleque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, Gypsy is the story of the ultimate showbiz mother Rose and her daughters June and Louise. Gypsy is not to be missed. Tickets are still available but they won’t last long. BOOK TICKETS TO GYPSY READ STEPHEN’S 6 STAR REVIEW OF GYPSY

REVIEW: Abyss, Arcola Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Abyss by Maria Milisavljevic at the Arcola Theatre

But in the end the tension between the daily count of the passage of time and the avoidance of narrative direction is too much to sustain and in the final sections we return to a more predictable expositional technique with a measure of relief. Moreover, the performances of the actors notably relax once the abstract, staccato almost hieratic formalism gives way to a more naturalistic presentation.

REVIEW: Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭

Reviews, West End
Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill at the National theatre

There is an acute fascination in watching the richly intense banquet give way, bit by bit, to the advances of the common folk, to see the lavish table become stripped bare, and then transform into a place for measured debate instead of entitled excess. The wonderful lighting from Bruno Poet only accentuates the lush transition, as does Mary Chadwick’s atmospheric music. The hint of the regally attired Charles and his retinue, like a gorgeously detailed ghost, hovers in the background – there, but not there.

Nicole Kidman Returns To The West End Stage

News, West End
Nicole Kidman returns to the West End with the Michael Grandage Company in Photograph 51

Nicole Kidman will return to the West End stage with the Michael Grandage Company in September 2015. Kidman will play the role of Rosalind Franklin in Photograph 51, a new play by Anna Ziegler. The production is the play’s UK premiere and reunites Grandage and Kidman following their recent collaboration on the feature film Genius. Michael Grandage said , “We’re thrilled to be returning to the West End with Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51 at such a vibrant time for London theatre.” Does Rosalind Franklin know how precious her photograph is? In the race to unlock the secret of life it could be the one to hold the key. With rival scientists looking everywhere for the answer, who will be first to see it and more importantly, understand it? Anna Ziegler’s extraordinary play looks at the woman who cracked DNA and asks what is sacrificed in the pursuit of science, … Read more

REVIEW: Ah Wilderness!, Young Vic, ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
George MacKay and Dominic Rowan in Ah Wilderness at the Young Vic Theatre in London

Ah, Wilderness! Young Vic 4 stars In his 1932 play Ah, Wilderness, Eugene O’Neill returns to familiar themes such as family life, alcoholism and thwarted idealism but it stands out among his work for having a lightness of touch and event moments of comedy. Set in Connecticut on July 4 in 1906, it is a nostalgic family drama that is said to be O’Neill’s reinvention of his own less than happy childhood brought up by a distant, drug-addicted mother. In Ah, Wilderness!, the central character of 17-year-old Richard Miller is roughly the same age that young Eugene would have been in 1906. But, instead of a dysfunctional family, there is a sweet, loving mother and a father who is stern but a big softy underneath, both proud of their poetry-loving son. The play’s charm is beautifully captured in a new, trimmed-down production directed by Natalie Abrahami at the Young Vic. … Read more