In this production Prenger brings the honesty home in droves, forgoing vocal gymnastics and powerhouse divaisms to deliver emotional truth. It’s a daunting task for any performer to walk onto a stage and carry a good 70 minutes alone. Tonight, Prenger walked on and certainly showed herself to be a formidable musical theatre force.
Bar Mitzvah Boy Upstairs At The Gatehouse 11 March 2015 3 Stars BOOK NOW Originally produced in 1978 in London, Bar Mitzvah Boy with a score by Jule Styne and lyrics by Don Black didn’t last closing after 78 performances. In this reworked production, Don Black has unearthed some unused Styne melodies and given them lyrics to flesh out characters and a complete book revision has been undertaken by David Thompson. Bar Mitzvah Boy is the story of Eliot Green who is about to undertake his Bar Mitzvah and his family. Much to the dismay of his family he flees the synagogue during the ceremony, leaving his family in pieces. Bar Mitzvah Boy is very much a tale of a middle class London family. Family politics pervade throughout. Dinner with the Green’s is an affair to be navigated with extreme caution as Harold, boyfriend to Eliot’s sister Lesley discovers. Prior … Read more
Eastenders actor Jamie Foreman will play Arthur in the West End transfer of Mrs Henderson Presents opening at the Noel Coward Theatre on 9 February for a strictly limited season. Foreman joins the previously announced Tracie Bennett as Laura Henderson, Ian Bartholomew as Vivian Van Damm and Emma Williams as Maureen. Foreman is best known for playing Derek Branning in EastEnders, but his other credits include Lenny in Birds of a Feather, Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, Duke in Layer Cake, Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth, Elizabeth and Sleepy Hollow. Tracie Bennett is a double Olivier Award-winner for her performances in the musicals She Loves Me and Hairspray. She received huge acclaim all over the world for her portrayal of Judy Garland in End Of The Rainbow, and was Tony Award nominated for her lead role in the production, also directed by Terry Johnson. The cast also includes … Read more
Glenn Close was photographed on the stage of the London Coliseum this week ahead of her appearance as faded screen star Norma Desmond in a semi-staged production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. Based on Billy Wilder’s classic film, Sunset Boulevard originally premiered in London at the Adelphi Theatre in 1993, where it ran for almost four years and played to nearly two million people. It went on to open on Broadway in 1994 to what was then, the biggest advance in Broadway history, $37.5million. Sunset Boulevard will run at the London Coliseum from 1 April – & May 2016 for 43 performances. BOOK NOW FOR SUNSET BOULEVARD Photos: Richard Hubert Smith
BOOKING IS NOW OPEN FOR MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS Following a sell-out season at the Theatre Royal Bath, new musical Mrs Henderson Presents will open at the Noel Coward Theatre on Tuesday 9 February 2016. Mrs Henderson Presents will star Tracie Bennett and Ian Bartholemew playing Mrs Henderson and Vivian Van Damm and Emma Williams playing Maureen. We believe that both Bennett and Williams will reprise their roles in the West End. Other casting will be announced shortly. It’s London, 1937, and recently-widowed eccentric, Laura Henderson, is looking for a way of spending her time and money when her attention falls on a run-down former cinema in Great Windmill Street. Hiring feisty impresario Vivian Van Damm to look after the newly renovated Windmill Theatre, the improbable duo present a bill of non-stop variety acts. But as war looms something more is required to boost morale and box office… When Mrs Henderson … Read more
There is no doubt that Mrs Henderson Presents should transfer to the West End. The material is first-rate and superior to many new musicals that have played there in recent years. It will need a bigger orchestra (and, accordingly, bigger orchestrations) and it could do with some casting fine-tuning and a larger ensemble (another dozen dancers at least) so that a grander sense of scale was permitted. In Bath, it comes across as a superb chamber piece, perfectly suited to the gorgeous Theatre Royal. In the West End, its aim can be higher.
Mrs Henderson Presents – The Musical will open at the Theatre Royal in Bath in 2015. Directed by Terry Johnson, the show is based on the 2005 film of the same name, with lyrics by Don Black and music by George Fenton and Simon Chamberlain who also composed the music for the film. Mrs Henderson is the true story of a widow (Mrs Henderson) who buys the Windmill Theatre in London to help fill her time, appointing Mr Vivan Van Damm as her manager. As war looms the pair search for ways of lifting morale with the help of beautiful girls, who pose in naked tableau on the Windmill Stage. The original movie starred Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins and marked the film debut of Will Young. Rumour has it that Lesley Manville is looking at involvement with the show, which it is hoped will head to the West End after … Read more
It’s a story that offered so much but as a show Stephen Ward returns so little.
