Month: February 2016

Aria Entertainment and Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester announce major collaboration…and a string of musicals

News, Regional
Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

A national London-based arts producer and Manchester’s newest theatre have announced a major collaboration which will put the venue on the arts map in the North of England. Aria Entertainment has joined forces with Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats to spearhead the venue as a platform to showcase and revive musical theatre. The first show from the new partnership is the classic musical Parade, which will run for three weeks from Friday 13 May to Sunday 5 June. The performance run is unique in that there will be Sunday evening performances throughout at 6pm. The team will also be staging the musical Hair and a workshop of a brand new musical. Dates to be confirmed soon. Aria Entertainment is a theatrical production company headed up by Manchester-born producer and company director Katy Lipson, who has experience in producing new and established works in the West End, Off West End, Edinburgh … Read more

Glee’s Amber Riley To Headline UK Premiere Of Dreamgirls

News, West End
Dreamgirls will make its UK Premiere in November 2016 at the Savoy Theatre starring Glee's Amber Riley, directed by Casey Nicholaw

It was announced today thet Amber Riley will make her West End debut in the UK premiere of the Tony-Award winning Dreamgirls, which is to be presented at The Savoy Theatre from November 2016. Dreamgirls will be directed by Olivier and Tony-Award winning Casey Nicholaw. Best known for her role as Mercedes Jones in the musical comedy sensation Glee, Riley will take on the iconic role of Effie White . Amber Riley says: “I am so honoured and excited to not only be playing such an iconic role, but also to be working with Sonia Friedman and Casey Nicholaw. Working on the West End is now a dream realised, I just feel like this is going to be something special!” Inspired by R&B music acts in 1960s America, Dreamgirls transports you to a revolutionary time in American music history. Dreamgirls charts the tumultuous journey of a young female singing trio, … Read more

Savoy extends booking for Funny Girl starring Sheridan Smith

News, West End
Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice. Funny Girl to transfer to London Savoy Theatre in April

Due to unprecedented demand, the critically acclaimed production of Funny Girl, which is fast selling out its run, has extended booking at the Savoy Theatre for a further four weeks until 8 October 2016. Tickets for the extension of Michael Mayer’s production starring Olivier and BAFTA award-winning actress and Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice go on sale from 10am on 8 February. With music by Jule Styne (whose musical Gypsy recently completed its award-winning run at the Savoy Theatre, starring Imelda Staunton), lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennart, the Broadway smash which skyrocketed Barbra Streisand to stardom, is revived with book revisions by Harvey Fierstein. Sheridan Smith plays Fanny Brice, who rose from being a Brooklyn music hall singer to become one of Broadway’s biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. The score features now-classic songs such as People, You Are Woman, I Am Man, I’m the Greatest … Read more

Michael Crawford Returns To The West End In The Go-Between – On Sale Now

News, West End
Michael Crawford stars in The Go-Between. Tickets now on sale

Award-wining star Michael Crawford, remown for originating the role of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera and beloved around the world for his role as Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Have Them, will return to the West End in a new production of The Go-Between this summer. Michael Crawford plays Leo Colston, a man who can no longer hide from the memories of his past. Memories of the gloriously hot summer of 1900 and of his days spent in Norfolk come flooding back. Spending the holidays with the family of his school friend Marcus in their luxurious country home, the young Leo finds himself acting as the go-between for the beautiful upper-class Marian and tenant-farmer Ted who are embroiled in a forbidden secret love affair. The innocent Leo gets caught up in the adult atmosphere of deceit and manipulation as he risks everything in … Read more

Dominic Cooper to star in The Libertine at Theatre Royal Haymarket

News, Regional, West End
Dominic Cooper in The Libertine

Dominic Cooper returns to the stage this year to play debauched 17th Century rake the Earl of Rochester in The Libertine. This sexually charged masterpiece by award-winning playwright Stephen Jeffreys will play a limited run as part of the 2016 summer season at Bath Theatre Royal from 31 August to 17 September prior to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket from 22 September to 3 December 2016. Full casting has yet to be announced for The Libertine which will be directed by the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Terry Johnson. John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester is a charismatic poet, playwright and rake with a legendary appetite for excess. Yet this most ardent of hedonists is forced to reconsider everything he thinks and feels when a chance encounter with an actress at the Playhouse sends him reeling. With flair and wit, this wild romp through 1670s London offers an incisive … Read more

The Ale House is back in town and open for business

News, Regional
Ale House the comedy comes to Liverpool starring Philip Olivier

Fresh from recent regional success, raucous comedy The Ale House is back in the city where it was first brewed from 25 February until 19 March 2016. Actors, Philip Olivier (Brookside, Benidorm) and Jake Abraham (Game of Thrones), who recently starred in a production of the show at St Helens Theatre Royal, have decided a second round is in order. They have joined forces with the writers of Night Collar to co-direct their own site-specific version of The Ale House, at The Dome in Grand Central on Liverpool’s Renshaw Street. It will be the first experience of directing for the duo. They are particularly excited to be directing for The Dome in Grand Central Hall, which they describe as “Liverpool’s hidden gem!” Philip Olivier said: “The comedy has been really successful so far because it’s so true to life. It portrays life in a typical boozer with all the characters … Read more

Alexandra Wood’s Merit comes to the Finborough

News, Off West End
Merit at the Finborough Theatre

The London premiere of award-winning playwright Alexandra Wood’s new play Merit kicks off the Finborough Theatre’s spring season with a four week run from 1 March. Set in Spain in 2013, Merit explores what people will be driven to during times of financial chaos, when bankers are getting filthy rich whilst others are left unable to support their families. Wood’s previous plays include The Human Ear (Paines Plough and UK tour), Man to Man (Wales Millennium Centre), Ages (Old Vic New Voices), The Initiate (Paines Plough – winner of a Scotsman Fringe First), The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre) and the radio play Twelve Years (BBC Radio 4). She is a past winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and was the Big Room Playwright-in-Residence at Paines Plough in 2013. Director Tom Littler returns to the Finborough Theatre having achieved a record seven OffWestEnd Award nominations last year … Read more

FIRST LOOK: Rehearsal Photos For The UK Tour Of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Gallery, News, Touring
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang UK Tour

We are pleased to bring you this first look inside the rehearsal studio for the UK and Ireland tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Chity Bang Bang has music and lyrics by Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman, who were also responsible for Mary Poppins, The Slipper and the Rose, The Aristocats and The Jungle Book. The Sherman Brothers have won two Academy Awards with a further nine nominations, two Grammy Awards and they have received 21 gold and platinum albums. The tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang features Jason Manford (Caractacus Potts), Martin Kemp (the Childcatcher), Michelle Collins (Baroness Bomburst) and Phill Jupitus (Baron Bomburst). Directed by James Brining, Artistic Director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the tour of the much loved Sherman Brothers musical kicks off in Southampton on Wednesday 10 February. BOOK TICKETS NOW FOR CHITTY ON TOUR