INTERVIEW: Dean Chisnall On Playing Shrek

Dean Chisnall plays Shrek in the Uk Tour

Dean Chisnall is currently playing the title role in Shrek The Musical on tour around the UK. It’s a role that has been a large part of his life for a while now. Douglas Mayo discovered the challenges of taking on the part and realised that it’s not easy being green! How long have you been playing the role of Shrek? By the time I’ve finished doing my stint in the show, which will be in February, I’ll have been doing the show for five years. There was a short gap between the West End and on tour, but I think I’ve had the green stuff on my face now about a thousand times! It’s best not to think about it! I can’t complain What was it like the first time you went on as Shrek? I covered the role in the West End for the first twelve months (I … Read more

INTERVIEW: Lorna Luft Talks about The Judy Garland Songbook On Tour

Lorna Luft In The Judy Garland Songbook Uk Tour

BritishTheatre.com caught up with Lorna Luft recently to talk about her current tour with The Judy Garland Songbook asking what audiences might expect from the tour. The Judy Garland Songbook has given Lorna Luft, Garland’s daughter the opportunity to revisit her mother’s legacy through her songs and what a catalogue of songs it is. “It’s all of her songbook, these are songs that nearly every person knows and they are going to have the experience of being able to remember where they were and what there doing when they first heard these songs.” Lorna said. Judy Garland’s career spanned some 40 years as a film actress, vaudevillian, recording artist and concert performer. During that time she appeared in over two dozen films with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Mikey Rooney, some of which would go on to become beloved favourites including The Wizard Of Oz. “Audiences will hear everything … Read more

INTERVIEW: Brian Conley On Playing PT Barnum On Tour

Brian Conley plays PT Barnum in Ct Coleman's Barnum the musical on tour across the UK

Following a season at the Chichester Festival in 2013, Cy Coleman’s much loved musical headed out on the road with Brian Conley in the role of Phineus Taylor Barnum, a role originally played by Michael Crawford when the show opened in London in 1981. Barnum is a musical biography of the great American showman, utilising circus acts to document the great mans life and highlight the struggles and conflicts that he encounters personally along the way. We caught up with Brian Conley during an afternoon session of wire-walking, a weekly rehearsal regimen that he maintains to keep in form as he tours with one of the toughest musicals currently on tour. “It is very demanding, it has to be one of the toughest roles in musical theatre” Brian said, “I started training six months before we started the tour. I went to circus school to learn how to walk on … Read more

A Musical Love Story – Stuart Matthew Price’s ‘Before After.’

Stuart Matthew Price

“I couldn’t imagine never singing or performing again. It is my truest passion, and drives all the other projects that I attach myself to.” People talk about being in love with the industry – an intoxicating and enduring love for theatre that might never be topped. Despite being best known as a musical theatre performer, Stuart Matthew Price’s love for theatre is about more than just saying his lines. As beautifully as he sings the notes, Stuart wants more. He wants to write the notes too, shape and change the industry, help it to grow. As he’s now working professionally as a performer, a producer (United Theatrical Productions) and a composer, it is perhaps fair to say that Stuart has landed a whole handful of roles – for where theatre is concerned, he wants to play every part. Stuart’s new musical, Before After, had its first outing last week with … Read more

INTERVIEW: Richard Marsh – Author and Actor

Richard Marsh

Edinburgh hit ‘Wingman’ is set for its next stint at the Soho Theatre; E.L. Hardy interviews writer & actor Richard Marsh.    It was the final day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I had one more job to do before boarding the overnight Megabus back to reality. All packed and puffy eyed, I walked into the Pleasance Dome for what was to be the last time this year and was greeted, as ever, by the unmistakable whiff of chlorine. The Dome’s comfy booths (a key feature of this year’s Fringe, for me anyway) were now smeared with crusted beer spills, but fortunately the coffee, like its theatre, was as good as ever. In fact the first exchange I had with Richard Marsh on this particular day, included me confessing to just having finished off a Cappuccino the size of my head. Richard politely agreed – “Gosh, yes you have, … Read more

Interview: Vicky Graham on Breeders at the St James Theatre

Breeders review St James Theatre

Just a few days prior to the opening of Breeders, by Ben Ockrent at the St James Theatre, producer Vicky Graham talks to us about what this project means to her, and why she has chosen producing as her way of contributing to the future of theatre. Why Breeders? “Breeders was first presented to me as a germ of an idea at the end of last year. Ben Ockrent (a writer I’d known since my time at Theatre503) had been asked to donate his sperm to a lesbian friend and her partner who wanted to start a family, and, in deliberating if and how he might help, identified a great premise for a play. I pitched the still embryonic idea to Stage One a month later, and when we were shortlisted, I commissioned the play. Fortunately for us, Breeders was selected at the end of March to open the One … Read more

INTERVIEW: Tim Driesen on the UK Tour of Jersey Boys

Tim Driesen

After a phenomenal seven years, Jersey Boys continues to run in the West End with no sign of stopping. As the national tour of the international hit musical Jersey Boys kicks off in Manchester, BritishTheare.com caught up with the tour’s Frankie Valli – Tim Driesen to talk about the show and the challenges of playing a living legend. You’ve just returned from playing Frankie Valli in Utrecht, that must have been an experience. “It’s a bit of a culture shock going from Dutch to English, In Utrecht, the songs were in English, but the script was in Dutch. I did a brief stint in the show in the West End last February, so I already knew the script but this is a slightly different production. It’s almost like starting from scratch with a completely new group of people in a new production which is great. “ “It does however mean … Read more