Month: December 2015

REVIEW: Through The Mill, London Theatre Workshop ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Through The Mill at London Theatre Workshop

Ray Rackham’s play is infused with enormous passion for its subject, a woman who touched the lives of millions with her extraordinary singing and irrepressible charm. A witty and thoughtful piece, Through the Mill looks at snapshots from key moments from Judy Garland’s life, which demonstrate the interplay between her overwhelming professional life and personal struggles. Exceptional live music – delivered by various members of the cast – and a busy set partitioned for various stages of Garland’s career lends itself to an immersive and often powerful theatrical experience.

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty UK Tour 2016

Dance, Touring
Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty Uk Tour

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is a gothic tale for all ages; the traditional tale of good vs. evil and rebirth is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story that even the passage of time itself cannot hinder. Bourne’s new scenario introduced several characters not seen in Petipa’s famous Ballet or Grimm’s fairy tale. This imaginary kingdom is ruled over by King Benedict and Queen Eleanor. Princess Aurora’s romantic interest is not a Prince, but the royal gamekeeper, Leo. Representing the central forces of good and evil are Count Lilac (“the King of the Fairies”) and the Dark Fairy Carabosse. Bourne has also created the character of Caradoc, the sinister but charming son of Carabosse. Princess Aurora’s Fairy Godparents are characterised by their names – Ardor, Hibernia, Autumnus, Feral and Tantrum. Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty premiered in 2012, and was the fastest selling production in the company’s history. Sleeping Beauty was … Read more

Jenna Russell Sings Another Winter In A Summer Town From Grey Gardens

News, Off West End, Video
Grey Gardens musical Southwark Playhouse

We’re pleased to bring you this first look video of Olivier Award-winner Jenna Russell singing Another Winter In A Summer Town from the musical Grey Gardens. Grey Gardens will receive it’s European Premiere at the Southwark Playhouse for a six week season commencing on January 2, 2016. Based on the iconic film, with Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie, Grey Gardens, tells the spectacular real life rise and fall of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and cousin, Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale – played in the London première by Olivier Award winners Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell. Starting in 1941 at an engagement party at Grey Gardens, the Bouvier’s mansion in East Hampton, Long Island, the musical tracks the progression of the two women’s lives from American aristocrats to reclusive social outcasts living in such squalid conditions, in a home overrun by cats, that the … Read more

New Theatre Company Tiny Fires Launches at St James Theatre

News, Off West End
My Mother Said I Never Should at The St James Theatre

Director Paul Robinson and Producer Tara Finney have announced the formation of Tiny Fires Ltd. Paul and Tara are behind the critically acclaimed Land Of Our Fathers which transferred to Trafalgar Studios in September 2014. Paul and Tara have worked together on a number of shows over the last three years and have set up the new company to continue their successful collaboration. Their inaugural production, My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley is a moving exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters and the consequences of breaking the most sacred taboo of motherhood. Doris, born illegitimate in 1900, exchanges her budding teaching career for marriage and motherhood. After the war, her daughter Margaret marries an American and they have a daughter, Jackie, who becomes an archetypal 60s rebel. When Jackie can’t face being a single mother, it is decided that her baby, Rosie, will be brought … Read more

School Of Rock Opens On Broadway

Broadway, Gallery, News
School Of Rock opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway

School Of Rock opened on Broadway last night at the Winter Garden Theatre, the first time ever that a Brit has produced and opened an original musical on Broadway. Based on the smash hit 2003 film of the same title, School of Rock features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes. School of Rock – The Musical is directed by Laurence Connor with choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, set and costume designs by Anna Louizos, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Mick Potter, music supervision by Ethan Popp and hair design by Josh Marquette. Down-on-his-luck wannabe rock star Dewey Finn poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school to make ends meet. When he discovers his students’ musical talents, he enlists his fifth-graders to form a rock group and conquer the Battle of the Bands. VIP guests in … Read more

REVIEW: Cinderella And The Beanstalk, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Theatre 503

Pantomimes have the potential to be uniquely excruciating. Children are merciless critics, and decades of expectation weigh heavily on poor productions. Such is the genre’s status in British popular culture that it is very difficult for any show to achieve mass appeal – it must be original enough to set itself apart from hundreds of other pantomimes, yet inclusive enough to appeal to several generations of families. What makes Sleeping Trees’ reprisal of Cinderella and the Beanstalk so wonderful is that it doesn’t centre on celebrity performers, topical jokes or endless double entendres. Rather we are treated to three highly talented comic actors both subverting and celebrating the genre, with uproariously funny results.