Paul Downham, Author at North West End UK

Drag Royalty will Ru-Turn in 2022 for the UK’s biggest ever RuPaul tour

22Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Drag Royalty will Ru-Turn in 2022 for the UK’s biggest ever RuPaul tour

Manchester prepare yourself! Drag Royalty will Ru-Turn in 2022 for the UK’s biggest ever RuPaul tour. Join the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK for an evening of endless eleganza extravaganza as this brand-new tour takes in theatres and venues across the country including a date at Opera House, Manchester, on Saturday February 12th. Witness the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent of your favourite queens LIVE on stage as they sashay into a theatre near you. Tickets go on general sale from www.cuffeandtaylor.co.uk at 10am Friday March 26th. Acclaimed for their amazing production values, expect the unexpected in this glittering tour featuring UK Season 2 Finalists Tayce, Bimini Bon Boulash, Ellie Diamond and Laurence Chaney, along with stars from Drag Race UK. RuPaul’s Drag ...

West End Musical Drive-In – Halloween Special

22Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

West End Musical Drive-In – Halloween Special

Last year, the West End parked up and staged a series of live outdoor concerts to musical theatre lovers from the comfort of their own vehicles. They are now being streamed, allowing everyone the chance to pull in for some socially distanced showtunes. Donning a pointy hat and black cape, Shanay Holmes introduces the Halloween edition with a bewitching performance of ‘I Put a Spell on You’ from Hocus Pocus. She hosts the evening with infectious flair, firing the audience up by encouraging them to sashay in their bay and welcoming her revered fellow performers to the stage. Though Jon Robyns’ rendition of Les Misérables hit ‘Bring Him Home’ is nothing short of sensational, receiving a well-deserved standing ovation in the form of car horns and flashing lights, his supposed Dracula out...

Jersey Boys to begin performances in London on 28th July 2021

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Jersey Boys to begin performances in London on 28th July 2021

The beloved Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning smash hit musical JERSEY BOYS returns to London’s West End, opening at the new multi-million pound reinstated Trafalgar Theatre, with performances from 28th July and an opening night of 10th August 2021. Performances through Christmas 2021 are on sale and JERSEY BOYS is now booking until 2nd January 2022. JERSEY BOYS is written by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. Casting is to be announced. Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in the Tony and Olivier Award-winning, true-life phenomenon, JERSEY BOYS. They were just four guys from New Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard… and the radio just ...

Birmingham Hippodrome and Turbine Theatre present New Musical Theatre Festival

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Birmingham Hippodrome and Turbine Theatre present New Musical Theatre Festival

Birmingham Hippodrome, Turbine Theatre and Paul Taylor-Mills have announced a new partnership which will present the highly celebrated annual festival of new musical theatre, MTFestUK 2021, running from Monday 31st May – Sunday 6th June. The online streamed performances of eight brand-new musicals will be part of a nation-wide ‘digital tour’ this spring, with tickets on sale now at birminghamhippodrome.com. MTFestUK. the new musical theatre festival, sets out to promote quality artistry, showcasing new musicals to UK audiences with a view to elevating them to full production, and give audiences an insight into the process of creating new work and the art of collaboration. Paul Taylor-Mills launched the inaugural MTFestUK season at The Other Palace in 2019, followed by a 2020 season in F...

Giles Terera in Black Matter – Fane Online

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Giles Terera in Black Matter – Fane Online

Black Matter is a new song cycle written and performed by Giles Terera, the Olivier award-winning star of Hamilton. It is centred on the streets of Soho, where Terera saw “people hurting each other, people helping each other” leading him to create “songs of protest, joy, anger and love”. This song cycle is both deeply personal and fiercely political, touching on friends, colleagues, the Black Lives Matter movement, growing up Black in London, the Grenfell scandal, the private and the public. These are songs which respond to the immediacy of a moment, and a summer like no other when the rush of central London is forced to stop. A gifted singer-songwriter, Terera has crafted this project for solo performance, and in the main, this is exactly that, a concert recorded at Crazy Coqs with ...

King’s Head Theatre announces its first ever digital season

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

King’s Head Theatre announces its first ever digital season

Over a year since the King’s Head Theatre closed its doors due to Covid-19 (16th March 2021), it is delighted to announce Plays on Film: its first ever digital on-demand season, which brings together five smash-hit shows from some of the UK’s most exciting theatre makers, and combines the raw immediacy of live performance with high definition cinematography. Filmed on location at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, by the award-winning Shoot Media, the shows will be available to watch on the venue’s new on demand platform, KHTV, from anywhere in the world, ensuring every seat is the best in the house. Over 50% of ticket sales will go directly to the artists and companies involved at this difficult time for freelancers across the entertainment industry, with the remainder helping to secu...

Pitlochry Festival Theatre to reopen with exciting outdoor Summer Season

19Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Pitlochry Festival Theatre to reopen with exciting outdoor Summer Season

• Pitlochry Festival Theatre to welcome audiences again with outdoor Summer Season of stage premieres, concerts, new adaptations, and family entertainment • 2021 will be the 70th anniversary Summer Season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre • Season to be performed in newly built 80-seater outdoor amphitheatre in the grounds of Pitlochry Festival Theatre • Season to feature Stage premiere of David Greig’s new play Adventures with the Painted People • New works from leading Scottish playwrights including a new adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde by Hannah Lavery and Jo Clifford and Lesley Orr’s new promenade production Requiem which will see the two celebrated playwrights devise a ceremony which will mourn and celebrate the lives of those lost during the pandemic and support the process of ...

It’s A Little Bit Funny at The Bowdon Rooms This Summer

18Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

It’s A Little Bit Funny at The Bowdon Rooms This Summer

Elton John: It’s A Little Bit Funny tells the incredible story of Elton John’s rise and fall (and rise again) as one of the most successful singer/songwriters ever. What would you do if you got the chance to meet your all-time hero? That’s exactly what crossed the mind of Manchester’s Martin Kaye when he found himself performing in Las Vegas at the same time as Elton John a few years go – Kaye as Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet and John in his The Million Dollar Piano show. It is this concept that has formed the basis for Elton John: It’s A Little Bit Funny, a new show starring Kaye that comes to The Bowdon Rooms in Altrincham from Monday 19th - Saturday 24th July 2021. The show tells the (imagined) tale of one extraordinary night in Las Vegas when Elton superfan Kaye bu...

Sophisticated Entertainment Ltd proudly present WONDERLAND!

18Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Sophisticated Entertainment Ltd proudly present WONDERLAND!

Sophisticated Entertainment Ltd proudly present WONDERLAND! This incredible cast of Characters will take you on an immersive journey through Wonderland from the second you arrive at the DriveInside Theatre! At The Trafford Centre in Manchester. With beautiful original music by Williams & Reynolds this is a show not to be missed! Give your family the special treat they deserve. Join the Mad Hatter at his incredibly mad tea party, take part in our super speedy caucus race, join the ever so silly Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee as they create mischief throughout Wonderland and help Alice find her way home with your help! A fully Covid compliant production! An all singing all dancing extravaganza! The perfect family day out that will have you up on your feet and laughing your...

Romeo and Juliet – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

18Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Romeo and Juliet – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

"We are two worlds apart." Joseph Meighan's melding of 1990s pop culture with the 16th century tale of two tragic young lovers is a bold and innovative take on what is probably Shakespeare's best-known play. As with much of Shakespeare's work, the story of Romeo and Juliet is timelessly malleable and has been retold in countless formats, including as musicals, opera and on film, since it was written in around 1595. It has been set in any number of time periods and situations with the deep-seated hatred between the Montague and Capulet families reflecting every conflict throughout history, as the cast movingly reference at the end of the play. Everyone knows the plot: Romeo, a Montague, sneaks into a Capulet masked ball and it's love at first sight when he sees the young and bea...