Month: May 2017

Lizzy Watts To Play Hedda Gabler in UK Tour

News, Touring
Lizzy Watts plays the title role in Hedda Gabler Uk Tour

The National Theatre has announced that Lizzy Watts will take the lead role in the National Theatre’s UK Tour of Hedda Gabler which launches on 2 October in Plymouth. Lizzy Watts’ theatre credits include Strife at Chichester Festival Theatre, The Angry Brigade and Artefacts at The Bush, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Globe, Blink for Nabokov and Wasted for Paines Plough.  TV includes The Durrells and Midsomer Murders and plays Ivy Layton in BBC Radio 4’s Home Front. This vital new version of Ibsen’s masterpiece by Olivier and Tony Award®-winning playwright Patrick Marber (Closer, Three Days in the Country) directed by Ivo van Hove, one of the world’s most exciting directors.  Olivier and Tony Award®-winning van Hove made his National Theatre debut with Hedda Gabler, which opened in December 2016. Patrick Marber said:  ‘It has been a huge honour to work with the great Ivo van Hove on this … Read more

Audra McDonald’s journey to Lady Day in London

Features, Gallery, West End
Audra McDonald in concert at Leicester Square Theatre

Mark Ludmon hears from Audra McDonald about her “long journey” to playing Billie Holiday on stage I fell in love with the voice of Audra McDonald when I first saw her perform as part of the Divas at the Donmar season in 1999. Combining a pure soprano with emotional intensity, she was already a three-time Tony winner for Carousel, Ragtime and Master Class and went on to appear in more musicals and serious dramas, including Raisin in the Sun which earned her another Tony award. Despite a stellar career on the American stage and screen and a number of best-selling solo albums, she has remarkably never performed in a musical in London’s West End. This is about to change when she takes to the stage of the Wyndham’s Theatre to play Billie Holliday in the transfer of her 2014 hit Broadway show, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. It … Read more

Alice Fearn and Sophie Evans to lead new Wicked cast

News, West End, Wicked the musical
Sophie Evans and Alice Fearn to play Glinda and Elphaba in London's Wicked

Now in its 11th smash hit year at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, the producers of Wicked have announced that Alice Fearn (Elphaba) and Sophie Evans (Glinda) will lead the new cast who start performances on Monday 24 July 2017. Also joining the cast are Bradley Jaden (Fiyero), Melanie La Barrie (Madame Morrible), Andy Hockley (The Wizard), Jack Lansbury (Boq) and Laura Pick (Standby for Elphaba), joining current cast members Martin Ball (Doctor Dillamond), Sarah McNicholas (Nessarose) and Carina Gillespie (Standby for Glinda). Alice Fearn (Elphaba) originally joined the London production of Wicked in 2016, as Standby for Elphaba, and will now assume the role. Her previous West End appearances include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Shrek The Musical, Into The Woods, Les Misérables (also the film version) and The Woman in White. Sophie Evans (Glinda) was the acclaimed runner-up in the BBC talent show ‘Over the Rainbow’ and subsequently played ‘Dorothy Gale’ in … Read more

The Girls Announces West End Closing Date and UK Tour

News, Touring, West End
Calendar Girls The Musical

  Dafydd Rogers and David Pugh, producers of Tim Firth and Gary Barlow’s musical comedy The Girls, have announced that the show will play its final London performance at the Phoenix Theatre on Saturday 15 July 2017. The critically acclaimed award-winning production will then commence a two-year UK Tour on 15 August 2018 at the Leeds Grand Theatre visiting 42 theatres across the UK. To be kept informed of details of The Girls UK Tour JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. The Girls is inspired by the true story of a group of ladies, who decide to appear nude for a Women’s Institute calendar in order to raise funds to buy a settee for their local hospital, in memory of one of their husbands, and have to date raised almost £5million for Bloodwise.  This musical comedy shows life in their Yorkshire village, how it happened, the effect on husbands, sons and daughters, … Read more