Paul Downham, Author at North West End UK

Leeds Playhouse announce summer season and their big festive show

30Apr

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Leeds Playhouse announce summer season and their big festive show

As part of its 50th anniversary year Leeds Playhouse has announced a bold summer season and Wendy & Peter Pan will be the theatre’s now traditional festive blockbuster. The festive are now part of the city’s winter theatrical experience and this year family audiences are off to Neverland with Ella Hickson’s Wendy & Peter Pan. This adaptation of the J M Barrie classic uniquely retells the story from the viewpoint of Wendy Darling, with plenty of flying, laughs and even some Japanese video anime artistry blended with a reinvigorated classic British story. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning to Wendy & Peter Pan,” said co-director Jonathan Munby. “The new version will be created by an international team of artists including those from the UK and Japan. I’m overjoyed to ...

Incredible cast announced for the premiere of The Global Playground by Theatre-Rites

30Apr

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Incredible cast announced for the premiere of The Global Playground by Theatre-Rites

Casting has been announced for the return to the stage of Theatre-Rites, the highly acclaimed children’s theatre company who celebrate their 25th anniversary this year. Amplifying diverse voices from a team of international collaborators, The Global Playground will premiere at the Manchester International Festival and online this July. The cast is comprised of acclaimed dancers Jahmarley Bachelor (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, ZooNation; Mariposa: A Transgender Tragedy, Denada Dance), Annie Edwards (A Kate Prince Company; ZooNation), Kennedy Junior Muntanga (Phoenix Dance Theatre; Chotto Xenos, Akram Khan Company) and Charmene Pang (Iceland Dance Company; Isadora Now: A Triple Bill, The Barbican). They are joined by puppeteer and actor Sean Garratt (A Christmas Carol, National Theatr...

Critically-acclaimed outdoor production of C-o-n-t-a-c-t arrives in Manchester and Salford

29Apr

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Critically-acclaimed outdoor production of C-o-n-t-a-c-t arrives in Manchester and Salford

Aria Entertainment and WEF Productions have announced that the critically-acclaimed outdoor production of C-o-n-t-a-c-t will run for six weeks from Tuesday 18th May – 29th June 2021 (as opposed to the previously announced dates of 19th January – 28th February 2020). This immersive, two-hander outdoor performance featuring a captivating 3D sound design will run in partnership with The Lowry in two locations - Salford Quays and central Manchester for six weeks following a hugely successful run in London in autumn 2020. The casting for the two locations is Charles Angiama, Chloe Gentles, Rachael Gill-Davis, and Cellan Scott. The production has also been licensed to open further afield in Brussels, Rome, and Sweden along with Toronto which will open in April, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Bramp...

Rock of Ages Announces 2021 & 2022 Tour Dates

29Apr

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Rock of Ages Announces 2021 & 2022 Tour Dates

Following a sell-out tour in 2018/19, Dan Looney, Adam Paulden, Jason Haigh-Ellery and Richard Klin for DLAP Group are delighted to announce that the award-winning smash-hit musical “ROCK OF AGES” will return to tour the UK opening at The Alexandra, Birmingham on 19th August 2021. Tour schedule and on sale details below with further dates and star casting to be announced soon www.rockofagesmusical.co.uk “ROCK OF AGES” is the hilarious musical comedy lavished with over 25 classic rock anthems, including ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, ‘We Built This City’, ‘The Final Countdown’, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’, ‘Here I Go Again’, ‘Can’t Fight this Feeling’ and ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’, played loud and proud by an awesome live band. Leave it all behind and lose yourself in a city and a time whe...

King’s Head Theatre announces return to live performances

29Apr

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King’s Head Theatre announces return to live performances

King’s Head Theatre announces the world premiere of No Strings Attached by ‘magnificent new talent’ Charles Entsie. Originally programmed for summer 2020, this electrifying two-hander was the winner of the King’s Head Theatre’s Adrian Pagan Award for new writing, and will mark a return to live performances for the London venue after more than a year. The production will be staged at a site-specific location within the Islington Square development, just minutes from the current King’s Head Theatre space as well as its planned future home, offering audiences an exciting immersive experience. Directed by Aileen Gonsalves, this intense, powerful and startlingly original drama takes place within the charged confines of a car at midnight. A clandestine encounter between Boy (Shak Benjamin)...

Jeeves And Wooster in Perfect Nonsense to Return to Mark 14Oth Anniversary of P.G. Wodehouse

28Apr

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Jeeves And Wooster in Perfect Nonsense to Return to Mark 14Oth Anniversary of P.G. Wodehouse

The Barn Theatre in Cirencester and The Theatre Chipping Norton have announced that they will be remounting their 2020 production of the Goodale Brothers’ Olivier Award-winning comedy Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense to mark the 140th anniversary of o the author P.G. Wodehouse’s birth. In this joyous reimagining of the classic P.G. Wodehouse characters, three actors hurl themselves from role to role as they race to tell the story of Bertie’s own farcical adventures. Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense was created by the Goodale Brothers, adapted primarily from P.G. Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters. The show, which premiered at Richmond Theatre in 2013 with the lead roles being played by Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen, before transferring to the Duke of York’s Theat...

Manchester musical theatre fans in for a treat

27Apr

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Manchester musical theatre fans in for a treat

Theatre fans are promised a journey from London’s West End to New York’s Broadway when hit-packed production Theatreland comes to the DriveINSIDE Trafford Centre Theatre on Saturday, May 22nd. Show producer Adam Curtis says that the audience will be treated to a musical theatre journey beginning in the Emerald City with songs from the smash-hit musical Wicked. “Before you know it, you’ll find yourself in Swinging Sixties Baltimore with Hairspray,” he says. “Our amazing cast of singers and dancers will have you captivated from start to finish. “Watch the magic of Phantom of the Opera, clap your hands and stamp your feet to We Will Rock You and cheer as Baby is lifted in Dirty Dancing.” With hits from The Jersey Boys, Six, Grease, Mary Poppins, The Dream Girls and Dear E...

Full Cast Announced For Shaw Shorts at Orange Tree Theatre

27Apr

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Full Cast Announced For Shaw Shorts at Orange Tree Theatre

Orange Tree Theatre today announce the full casts for Shaw Shorts: How He Lied to Her Husband and Overruled – a double bill of Bernard Shaw’s short plays directed by Artistic Director Paul Miller. Miller directs Joe Bolland (Henry Apjohn), Jordan Mifsúd (Teddy Bompas), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Aurora Bompas) in How He Lied to Her Husband; and Alex Bhat (Gregory Lunn), Jordan Mifsúd (Sibthorpe Juno), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Mrs Lunn) and Hara Yannas (Mrs Juno) in Overruled. The production opens on 26th May, with previews from 22nd May, and runs until 26th June. It will be streamed live via OT On Screen on 3rd and 4th June. In How He Lied to Her Husband, Aurora is concerned about what has happened to the poems written for her by her admirer, the impetuous Henry, and fears they may get into t...

One actor, one spectator: new micro-plays will tour London in a Covid-secure pop-up venue

27Apr

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One actor, one spectator: new micro-plays will tour London in a Covid-secure pop-up venue

Presented in a specially designed Covid-secure pop-up venue, We Are Kilter’s Theatre For Two is a series of personal, interactive meetings between actor and audience member. The four newly commissioned micro-plays are written by some of the most exciting up-and-coming talent, Tabby Lamb, Macadie Amoroso, Ryan Lane, and Gabriella Leon, and celebrate the absurdity of human connection. After a year of being stuck, unexpectedly stranded in isolation, isn’t it time to meet someone new? Step inside and meet four eccentric characters who are desperate for company and comradeship – whether that’s sharing a cuppa, a daydream or a waxworm. These micro-plays will plunge the audience into a funny, surprising and sometimes peculiar experience. Each semi-improvised play will engage the audience in th...

27Apr

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WICKED – The Musical Phenomenon Returns

Wicked, the West End and Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, will return to London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre later this year, with performances resuming on Wednesday 15th September 2021. Tickets for this booking period, which runs through to Sunday 22nd May 2022, go on sale at 10am on Monday 17th May 2021. Wicked will play a Tuesday-Sunday performance schedule, with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Visit www.WickedTheMusical.co.uk for all information. Wicked will mark its 15th anniversary at the Apollo Victoria Theatre later in the year and will host a celebratory performance on Tuesday 28th September 2021. The music and lyrics in Wicked are by the legendary composer Stephen Schwartz (whose enduringly popular musical ...