Paul Downham, Author at North West End UK

The Theatre Channel- Episode 5: The Classics of Broadway

1Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

The Theatre Channel- Episode 5: The Classics of Broadway

Anyone visiting London for some musical theatre magic will have likely stumbled across The Theatre Café, the West End’s best-loved stagey coffee shop. In association with Adam Blanshay Productions, it’s now offering an access-all-areas peek behind the curtains as part of The Theatre Channel, a new web series brimming with all-singing, all-dancing performances filmed on location. Freddie Fox introduces Week Five- The Classics of Broadway- with excerpts from ‘Willkommen’ and ‘Money’ from Cabaret. He dominates the auditorium with an eerie presence: fitting choreography from Bill Deamer, also directing the episode, sees Fox crawling over the seats and making it rain from the Dress Circle. While his wide eyes and sinister grin replicate the original Emcee, his tattered outfit screamed ‘caugh...

27Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

West End Musical Drive-In – Show 2

The West End Musical Drive-In series took place over the late summer 2020, from the team that brought us West End Musical Brunch, to bring some live music from the West End theatre stars to the fans in times where the theatres were closed, and social distancing was a must. They took place in a large open space in outer London where a large stage was set up and the ‘seating area’ was marked out, some spaces where people who do not drive can bring a chair and see the show or you could drive in and watch from your car in your allocated space. Luckily for the people who were unable to see the Drive-In series or who want to relive the experience, it was recorded and can now be bought to stream in your own home. The second in the series involve numerous current and past cast members from the ...

26Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Perfect Stranger by ZU-UK

It’s been a little over a year since many around the world went into a lockdown, isolated from the communities around them and distanced from the social lifestyles that inform a big part of their identities. How does one then ‘connect’ in this new, strange world – how might we find a way to bring back, no, rather keep alive the intimacy and exchange that makes us human? ZU-UK’s new project Perfect Stranger aims to investigate this very question through a unique, participatory experience that challenges and delights you like never before. To put it rather simply, the project is a series of playful provocations and collaborative tasks that you, the audience, exchanges with an anonymous partner over 5 days. This partner can be living halfway across the world – you don’t know their name, th...

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Southwark Playhouse Stream

26Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Southwark Playhouse Stream

After the exciting rise of new British musical theatre came to a dreary halt last March it feels immensely hopeful to finally catch a new offering, in the form of Ben Morales Frost and Richard Hough’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, as our industry slowly comes back to life. Due to have had its premiere at the Southwark Playhouse (an innovative home for new musicals) earlier this year, the production now finds itself shifted online in the form of a three-week stream. Taking inspiration from J. W. Goethe’s 18th century poem, which went on to inspire Dukas’s orchestral piece, a section in Disney’s Fantasia and its subsequent 2010 live action adaptation, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in its new musical form sheds most of these skins until it is mostly unrecognisable aside from its magical danci...

Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre to open Community Hub and launch Hope Mill Theatre School

26Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre to open Community Hub and launch Hope Mill Theatre School

• Community space will be based on Pollard Street, next to Hope Mill Theatre and will include a large studio space and a more intimate studio. • Hope Mill Theatre School will launch in June 2021 for young people aged 7 to 18, and an early learning class for those aged 4 to 6. • Online classes for those ages 2-4 years old, Clever Cogs, will launch next month. • Performers Marcus Collins and Hayley Tamaddon to be Patrons of the Hope Mill Theatre School. • The Hope Mill Theatre Community Hub will also launch a Crowdfunding campaign with donations of any size being gratefully received in order to make a new home for the members of Hope Mill Theatre’s community so they can access and engage with the arts. Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre announced today that they are launching a Co...

The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children streams in March

26Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children streams in March

Conor Mitchell’s darkly comic children’s opera retells a familiar story: ‘who was the Pied Piper? and ‘Why did the rats all dance to his tune?’ This world premiere from the award-winning Belfast Ensemble brings opera home to Northern Ireland. Musically extraordinary, this cautionary tale explores themes of nature, nurture and just desserts! The Musician is stylishly staged using the latest in technological innovation, a medieval story told in a 21st century way. The international cast exist at the foreground in a bubble of colour and light, accompanied by a socially-distanced 16-piece orchestra, glowing and visible. Filmed live for Belfast Children's Festival in the Lyric Theatre Belfast, this production stands as proof that great theatre can happen even in a pandemic and marks a new di...

Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People – Creation Theatre

25Feb

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REVIEWS

Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People – Creation Theatre

In these dark and twisted times, Creation Theatre present dark and twisted tales, online via zoom. Using the Brothers Grimm fairy tales as their inspiration, the five-strong cast seamlessly present a digital performance that both encapsulates the creativity of real world theatre and the wonder of online. Creation Theatre have selected some of the most gruesome fairy tales including The Juniper Tree, The Moon and Godfather Death. There’s an advisory to watch this production in the darkest of rooms (I did), and it’s important to follow this to get into the mood. This is not your average sit-back-and-watch-along show, it does require concentration to follow the different actors and the different storylines. The costumes and make up, along with the settings and backdrops, are bespo...

Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives

25Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce free theatre space offer for local creatives

Leeds Playhouse today has announced the use of free theatre space and guaranteed technical support for local artists in their intimate Bramall Rock Void space. The free use of the recently refurbed theatre is being offered as part of Playhouse Connect which their ongoing response to the pandemic supporting reconnection and recovery within the City. “The Playhouse is a community resource used by many different people throughout the year,” says Artistic Director James Brining. “We’re very conscious that throughout the pandemic, despite the brilliant work we have undertaken engaging with vulnerable and isolated people through our Playhouse Connect programme, apart from 5 weeks in the autumn, the building itself has been under used. “I’m delighted that we have put the safety protoc...

25Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Hotline – Tron Theatre

If you could dial a phone number to connect with a stranger across the world, what would you expect to hear? Undoubtedly an interesting conversation would ensue. Good, now imagine that world being the moon. Perhaps some boring static or some alien speak – but definitely something that tells you a little more about the blue marble you call home. HOTLINE is a new interactive audio play on the phone devised by Produced Moon, Meghan Tyler and Nima Séne, produced in association with Platform, Glasgow and supported by the Scottish Government’s Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund. Audiences dial a phone number to experience a lunar labyrinth of cosmic confessions, transgalactic tales and some workplaces woes at the world’s premier space organization. The show uses the structure of a choose your ...

25Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Typical – Soho Theatre On Demand

Having premiered at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019 to sold out audiences, then transferring to Soho Theatre, ‘Typical’ has now taken on a hybrid digital form to begin an online season from the 24th February, on Soho Theatre’s On Demand platform. Created by Nouveau Riche and Soho Theatre and written by Ryan Calais Cameron whose previous work includes Rhapsody, Retrograde and Queens of Sheba co-written with Jessica Hagan; Typical is based on a true story and tells of the life of Christopher Alder played by Richard Blackwood. The play is set in the late 1990’s, and a selection of 90’s music, VHS tapes and Whigfield, help to transport us back to that era. Alder is in his mid-thirties, an ex-paratrooper, and a British Nigerian. We learn that he is divorced with two child...