REVIEW: Disaster, Charing Cross Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭
There is no doubt in my mind that Disaster! has everything needed to be a success in the West End. Judging from the audience reaction I would have thought it might already be on the cards!
Month: November 2016
Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins To Star In Carousel
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Carousel is to be produced at the English National Opera starring Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins as Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan. The production will be presented for 41 performances only from 7 April 2017 to 13 May 2017 at the London Coliseum. Following the success of Sweeney Todd and Sunset Boulevard, this new semi-staged production will be directed by Lonny Price. The production will feature the award-winning ENO 40 piece orchestra and chorus. Fifteen years after getting caught up in an armed robbery and taking his own life, the charming carousel barker Billy Bigelow gets a chance to return to earth and make amends. Discovering that his daughter Louise has grown into a lonely, troubled teenager, haunted by her father’s legacy, Billy vows to restore pride to his family. Carousel features a sumptuous score by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and … Read more
Explaining Pantomimes To Americans
They don’t have pantomime in the States. Oh no, they don’t – not like in Britain anyway, though there are cultural pockets here and there. Sure they have a word pronounced and spelt as pantomime, but it has a rather different meaning. Picture my wife Alison and me on an American cruise ship off the coast of beautiful Alaska, partaking of a pre-dinner aperitif and talking to a very nice couple from Twenty-Nine Palms, California whom we’d just met. We tell them that we are busy learning our lines for the upcoming pantomime. A glazed look appears, rather as if they think we’ve been too long at seas. “Lines?” they ask. “In pantomime?” Although it’s not (quite) universal in the USA, the words “Pantomime” and “Mime” are interchangeable. You don’t have lines in pantomimes because they’re silent, right? “Wrong,” I Say. “Let me explain…” There are days when getting … Read more
FIRST LOOK: Peter Pan At The National Theatre, London
All children, except one, grow up….. We hope that you enjoy these great First Look production photos of Peter Pan by Steve Tanner. Everyone knows the story of Peter Pan and it’s back in a wonderous new production brought to the stage by a collaboration between the National Theatre and The Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Peter Pan is now playing at the National Theatre for a strictly limited run. Director Sally Cookson’s marvellously inventive production was a sell-out at the Bristol Old Vic. This production also marks the first time that J M Barrie’s original vision of double casting Mrs Darling and Captain Hook with Anna Francolini taking on both roles in this production. The cast also includes Saikat Ahamed, Suzanne Ahmet, Marc Antolin, Lois Chimimba, Laura Cubitt, Phoebe Fildes, Felix Hayes, Paul Hilton, John Leader, Amaka Okafor, John Pfumojena, Jessica Temple, Dan Wheeler and Madeleine Worrall. Children please note … Read more
Rufus Hound Hosts Twelve Musical Theatre Stars At Actor’s Church
Rufus Hound will host a charitable concert on the Sunday before Christmas (18 December 2016) at The Actor’s Church in Covent Garden featuring an incredible line up of musical theatre stars. The concert will be held in aid of Children with Cancer UK. Rufus Hound will be joined by Ramin Karimloo, Cassidy Janson, Ben Forster, Emma Kingston, Peter Polycarpou, Sandra Marvin, Jordan Shaw, Emmanuel Kojo, Carole Stennett, Norman Bowman, and Chris Johnson. The concert will also feature the Musical Theatre Masterclass Choir – a group of talented students from the London performing arts school, run by Michael Xavier. Michael says: “I am so grateful to these incredible musical theatre stars who are performing in this very special Christmas concert. They are already so busy, starring in hit west end shows like Phantom of the Opera, Murder Ballad, Motown, The Bodyguard, In the Heights, Beautiful and Stepping out. It’s incredibly generous … Read more
FIRST LOOK: Dreamgirls at The Savoy Theatre
We are pleased to bring you these great first-look production photos by Brinkhoff of Casey Nicholaw’s production of Dreamgirls which is now in previews at the Savoy Theatre, London. Dreamgirls stars Amber Riley (Glee) as ‘Effie White’ and is joined in Dreamgirls by Liisi LaFontaine as Deena Jones and Ibinabo Jack as Lorrell Robinson making up the soulful singing trio ‘The Dreams’. Joe Aaron Reid plays Curtis Taylor Jr, Adam J. Bernard plays Jimmy Early, Tyrone Huntley plays C.C. White, Nicholas Bailey plays Marty and Lily Frazer plays Michelle Morris with Ruth Brown and Karen Mav alternating the role of Effie White at performances when Amber Riley is not scheduled to perform. Dreamgirls is Directed and Choreographed by Olivier and Tony Award®-winning Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon, Disney’s Aladdin and Something Rotten!), with Set Design by Tim Hatley, Costume Design by Gregg Barnes, Lighting Design by Hugh Vanstone, Sound … Read more
REVIEW: The Mirror Never Lies, Cockpit Theatre ✭✭✭
As with that show, it is only possible to ‘warm’ to the characters (and we have to take their side one way or another) if they can charm us. At present, the songs do that aplenty.
REVIEW: Catch Me, Above The Arts Theatre ✭✭✭
I came away from the performance greatly impressed by the technical achievement in constructing an ingenious chamber musical with the material, but rather in the dark about what reasons had driven it along.
