Philip Quast Joins Sweeney Todd Cast

Judge Turpin (Philip Quast) and Beadle Bamford (Jeff Blumenkrantz in the New York Philharmonic Sweeney Todd. Photo: David Gordon

It was announced today that Philip Quast will join Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson in the upcoming production of Sweeney Todd for English National Opera playing the role of Judge Turpin. Multi Olivier-award winning Philip Quast will play Judge Turpin. His many UK musical theatre credits include Grahame Chandler in The Fix at the Donmar Warehouse, Georges Seurat in Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in The Park with George and Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific both for the National Theatre, Juan Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita at the Adelphi Theatre and Georges in La Cage Aux Folles for the Menier Chocolate Factory. Quast played Javert in the original Australian cast of Les Misérables as well as in the West End and can be heard as part of Les Misérables Complete Symphonic Recording and on Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert, recorded during the show’s tenth anniversary … Read more

Lenny Henry Joins Company For The Listening Space

Lenny Henry joins company for The Listening Space

Lenny Henry will join the company of actors taking part in The Listening Space – a special one off performance on 8 Nov, led by actor and theatre-maker Simon McBurney, composer Nitin Sawhney and pianist Cassie Yukawa. Henry will join a group of Britain’s foremost actors including Tom Hollander, Samuel West, Kathryn Hunter and Saskia Reeves in an evening of music and poetry – to help raise £10,000 for the restoration of the Nave in the church at the heart of St. Paul’s Steiner School, Islington. They are joined by leading violinist Diana Yukawa and musicians Rebecca Allen and Christopher Allen. With music, poetry and voices they have created an event that employs the numinous space and special atmosphere of the nineteenth-century Nave of St. Paul’s Church. It will be an evening of creative quiet that we rarely have the opportunity for, in which the audience is invited to simply … Read more

Richard Armitage In The Crucible Hits Cinemas

Richard Armitage

Digital Theatre have announced that special cinema screenings of the recent Old Vic production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible starring Richard Armitage will take place on December 4 and 7. The screenings will take place in the UK and Ireland with international screenings to follow. For more information visit www.thecrucibleonscreen.com

National Theatre Live Encore Screenings of Frankenstein

NT Live Screenings of Frankenstein

National Theatre Live’s thrilling broadcast of Frankenstein returns to cinemas for a limited time, due to unprecedented audience demand. Danny Boyle’s award-winning production of Frankenstein returns to cinemas from 30 October, due to popular demand. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller – who jointly won the Evening Standard and Olivier Award for Best Actor – alternate the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature in Nick Dear’s play, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Both versions of Frankenstein will be screened in a special two-part presentation in over 550 cinemas around the UK and worldwide from 30 October. The production was a sell-out hit at the National Theatre in 2011, and the broadcast has since become an international sensation, experienced by almost half a million people in cinemas around the world. Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe … Read more

Georgia Stitt And Friends At The Garrick

Georgia Stitt

US composer and lyricist Georgia Stitt makes a welcome return to London following her sell-out concerts at St Paul’s Church in 2007 and The Hippodrome in 2012. In her new show, My Lifelong Love, she performs some of her best-known songs from her albums This Ordinary Thursday, Alphabet City Cycle and, of course, My Lifelong Love, as well as from her shows Big Red Sun, The Danger Year, Mosaic and Samantha Spade: Ace Detective. This special one-off performance will take place at London’s Garrick Theatre on Sunday 26th October at 7.30pm. Georgia is joined by some very special guests including Simon Bailey (I Can’t Sing!), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Jamie Muscato (Dogfight), Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon) and Caroline Sheen(Putting It Together), as well as a choir from Arts Ed and her seriously cool five-piece band! This is a one-off, not-to-be-missed evening of humour, heart, and thrilling musicality. Expect to … Read more

Urinetown Holds Charity Gala for Water.org

Jonathan Slinger in Urinteown

On Monday 20 October, Urinetown will hold a special charity performance gala to support Water.org. The gala will introduce a new collaboration with Water.org which aims to raise awareness about the real global water crisis that the world’s population is facing today. Urinetown is a musical comedy set in a dystopian future where there is a water shortage is so great that peeing is a privilege. Director Jamie Lloyd said: “The best sort of theatre engages directly with the world. It may be great fun, but it should also be vital and apposite, and perhaps, instigate a broader discussion. Urinetown’s dystopian future does not have to be a prediction unless we make it so. We are delighted that the production can assist the mission of Water.org whilst keeping its audience laughing along the way”. Water.org was co-founded by Matt Damon and aims to highlight the global water crisis. Water.org pioneers … Read more

Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary Video Released

Miss Saigon 25th Anniversary

Following the sell-out success of the 25th Anniversary Gala of Miss Saigon on the 22 September, 2014, the celebratory encore teaser of that special performance has just been released via You Tube. The 25th Anniversary Gala saw the current cast of Miss Saigon joined by original 1989 cast members including Jonathan Pryce, Lea Salonga, Simon Bowman and Claire Moore. Tickets for the 25th Anniversary Gala – with tickets set at original 1989 prices sold out within minutes. Sir Cameron Mackintosh said at the end of the show: ” We never thought we would ever get this chance to do it all over again. To have two fantastic casts here is just extraordinary. We are incredibly blessed.” We’ll just have to wait to see if the rumours of Miss Saigon following Les Miserables onto the big screen eventuate. We hope so! Enjoy the teaser footage of this special event.