Mark Ludmon

Mark Ludmon has been a journalist for over 20 years, specialising in writing about theatre and the arts as well as bars, pubs and drink. He has been on the theatre judging panel for London’s Olivier Awards and has a masters degree in English literature, specialising in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. He has an MA in theatre research, criticism and dramaturgy from the University of London’s Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. You can find him tweeting about theatre as @MarkLudmon and writing about theatre at markludmon.com.

West End Transfer For Songs For Nobodies

Features, News, West End
Songs For Nobodies Ambassadors Theatre

Songs For Nobodies, where Bernadette Robinson re-creates five great singers of the past, is to transfer to London’s West End. After its European première at Wilton’s Music Hall earlier this year, this new play with songs will open at the Ambassadors Theatre on 10 January 2019, with previews from 7 January, and run until 23 February. It was written by Australian playwright Joanna Murray Smith whose works include Switzerland, which ran at Theatre Royal Bath until September 1, and Honour which is being revived at Park Theatre in London from 25 October. She wrote Songs For Nobodies specifically to showcase the extraordinary vocal ability of Australian singer and actor Bernadette Robinson. It features music from five iconic divas: Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas. First performed in Melbourne in 2010, it was commissioned by its director Simon Phillips, former artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company whose … Read more

The enduring appeal of Abigail’s Party

Features, News, Regional
Abigail's Party

With new productions at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Hull Truck Theatre this month, Mark Ludmon examines the continuing popularity of Abigail’s Party With its dissection of marriage and social mobility to the sounds and tastes of the Seventies, Abigail’s Party was very much a play for its day when it was first staged in 1977 at London’s Hampstead Theatre. Attitudes to class and the impact of “women’s lib” and other changes in society were played out in the painfully awkward drinks party hosted by Beverly and her husband Laurence for their neighbours, young couple Ange and Tone and Sue, escaping her 15-year-old daughter Abigail’s eponymous party down the road. After it was adapted for BBC1 later that year, it was such a hit that it was broadcast several times, with one repeat gaining 16 million viewers (boosted by storms and an ITV strike), putting it firmly on the path … Read more