Paul Downham, Author at North West End UK

Stiles & Drewe: Best New Song Prize 2020

6Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Stiles & Drewe: Best New Song Prize 2020

In a week when the British theatre industry was despairing at the lack of support for its workers and venues, and when sectors of the country were reopening for business and the performing arts still had no light at the end of the tunnel, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe shone the spotlight on the future of musical theatre, showcasing 15 songs from new works. Stiles & Drewe, themselves known for writing Mary Poppins, Honk! and Soho Cinders among many other hits, have been hosting this competition since 2008; a competition that seeks to promote new musical theatre writing, and perhaps more importantly, encourage new writers in a landscape that must usually seem challenging, and at the moment must be pretty terrifying. Supported by five guest judges: Dan Gilespie Sells (writer of Ev...

6Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Birmingham Opera Company: The Ice Break

Birmingham Opera’s Artistic Director Graham Vick takes a brave leap in transforming this opera by Michael Tippett the first interpretation since 1977 in Covent Garden. An unused warehouse is cleverly transformed into a strange airport terminal where the audience stands and is ushered around to the dramatic action by the chorus; a lot whom are from the local community. Opera can have many connotations, high brow, difficult to understand and perhaps for an old fashioned elite; Vick throws all this on its head with an utterly gripping show where everything is energised for a fascinating heady performance that is contemporary and relevant. It is indeed even more relevant with the Black Lives Movement that has been a regular feature of the last few months. The themes focus on race, rio...

£1.57 billion investment to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

£1.57 billion investment to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions

Department for Digital Culture, Media, and Sport; HM Treasury PRESS RELEASE £1.57 billion investment to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions · Cultural and heritage organisations to be protected with £1.57 billion support package · Future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues will be protected with emergency grants and loans · Funding will also be provided to restart construction work at cultural and heritage sites paused as a result of the pandemic Britain’s globally renowned arts, culture and heritage industries will receive a world-leading £1.57 billion rescue package to help weather the impact of coronavirus, the government announced today. Thousands of organisations across ...

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: The Hand of God – BBC iPlayer

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: The Hand of God – BBC iPlayer

Television has taken over many walks of life and given them back to us all neatly packaged. Cookery, Sport, Antiques. Indeed, the latter seems to be ever present on our screens fronted by David Dickinson, Paul Martin and that funny Scottish woman with the bob hair style. I guess those who have always made a living out of these professions have to grin and bear it and hope that one day the producers of Antiques Roadshow will come knocking and ask them to join the exalted realms of telly expert. All except Celia the talking head in this Alan Bennett look at life. She is proud of the fact that she doesn’t have a television set. Costly decision that. As always, Alan Bennett, the master of making the mundane interesting, litters his observational writing with small red herrings as ...

Much Ado About Nothing – Royal Shakespeare Company

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

West Midlands

Much Ado About Nothing – Royal Shakespeare Company

Showing as part of the BBC’S Culture in Quarantine series, this Royal Shakespeare Company 2014 production, often wondered to be the missing Love’s Labour’s Won, was originally the latter half of a comic double bill – the first half being Love’s Labour’s Lost – devised by director Christopher Luscombe and designer Simon Higlett, and was live screened to cinema in 2015. In a clever re-staging, the action is set in December 2018 at the country house of Leonato (David Horovitch), and which has been converted to serve as a hospital, with daughter Hero (Flora Spencer-Longhurst) and cousin Beatrice (Michelle Terry) replete in nurses uniforms. Prince Don Pedro (John Hodgkinson) leads the returning soldiers which include his illegitimate brother Don John (Sam Alexander), Claudio (Tunji Kasim)...

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Staged – BBC iPlayer

As lockdown measures begin to ease and businesses reopen their doors, there has been a lot of focus on the effect of quarantine on theatres and whether or not the industry will survive. The crisis has created a lot of negativity for theatres, as it has for many things in our society, but Staged, written and directed by Simon Evans, may be one of the few good things that has come out of this. The series focuses on exaggerated versions of David Tennant and Michael Sheen, who are rehearsing for a production of Six Characters in Search of an Author, also directed by Evans, over Zoom. The beginning very much has the feel of The Trip as Tennant and Sheen show off their abilities to do accents, but quickly comes into its own originality. As well as the Zoom calls between the various charact...

Michael Flatley Celtic Tiger – The Shows Myst Go On

5Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Michael Flatley Celtic Tiger – The Shows Myst Go On

Michael Flatley’s famous ‘Celtic Tiger’ show opened in July 2005. This was his third big venture following ‘Riverdance’ which famously aired during the intermission on the 1994 Eurovision song contest and then ‘Lord of the Dance’ which premiered in 1996. This production, which seeks to explore Irish heritage and world cultures, is available for viewing curtsey of ‘The show must go on’ series. What it quite apparent from the start is that unfortunately, Flatley’s production has not stood the test of time and entertainment has come a long way in the last 15 years. ‘Celtic Tiger’ feels more like a variety show than a collaborative piece of entertainment. There is a mixture of solo songs, dance sequels and instrumentals which I have no problems with if they all tied together and made ...

4Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Hamilton – Disney +

It has finally arrived! The very famous “Hamilton” has landed on Disney +! This hip-hop musical, officially titled ‘Hamilton: An American Musical’, first premiered on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in July 2015. One year later it was recorded with most of the original cast intact and this much anticipated recording is now available on Disney plus for your endless viewing. The story follows the forgotten American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton and his ascent out of poverty and into power during the American War of Independence starting in 1776. Not knowing the story, it is true to say that it is educational to say the least. However, it also takes a great degree of concentration. This musical is completely conveyed through song and a huge percentage of it is rapped which...

4Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

La Bohème – Royal Opera House

By the time it was retired in 2015, the Royal Opera’s previous production of La Bohème, directed by John Copley, had notched up 25 revivals in its 41-year history, so the pressure was on for its 2017 replacement, directed by Richard Jones and with sets and costumes by Stewart Laing, for what is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide. The play is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in about 1830 where on Christmas Eve we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Michael Fabiano); a painter, Marcello (Mariusz Kwiecień); a philosopher, Colline (Luca Trittoto); and a musician, Schaunard (Florian Sempes), who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Jeremy W...

Tales from the Front Line From Talawa Theatre Company

4Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Tales from the Front Line From Talawa Theatre Company

Talawa Theatre Company are creating an online experience featuring six brand new short pieces using verbatim interviews from Black key and frontline workers which explore the historic moment of the Covid-19 crisis and its impact on them. The pandemic has had a starkly divergent impact on communities; Black people are four times more likely to die from Covid-19, according to Public Health England’s figures in May for England and Wales. What has been learned, challenged and changed forever? What might life in the UK look like in a year’s time? Tales from the Front Line will document the contribution of Black workers at the front line of the Covid-19 crisis, creating a lasting historical record. It will explore their relationships with British society and how the pandemic has challenged th...