Tuesday, December 16

NEWS

Alexandra Burke joins Jac Yarrow and Jason Donovan for a Technicolor Summer
NEWS

Alexandra Burke joins Jac Yarrow and Jason Donovan for a Technicolor Summer

Michael Harrison and the Really Useful Group are delighted to announce today that Alexandra Burke will return to the West End this summer in the new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s legendary musical gets ready for a strictly limited season at the iconic London Palladium. The production will begin performances on Thursday 1st July (Gala Night: Thursday 15th July) and will be one of the highlights in the return of theatre to the UK cultural landscape. Alexandra Burke will play The Narrator in the celebrated musical. Her many West End credits include the lead roles in The Bodyguard, Sister Act, Chess and Chicago. Alexandra first rose to fame winning The...
Heathers the Musical announces West End return and UK Tour
NEWS

Heathers the Musical announces West End return and UK Tour

Heathers the Musical (WhatsOnStage 2019 award for Best New Musical) returns to the stage with a double announcement. The hit show will make its return to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket from 21st June for a strictly limited 12 week run, while simultaneously launching its new touring production from 28th July, opening at Leeds Grand Theatre for three weeks, before spreading corn nuts throughout the UK. Produced by Bill Kenwright and Paul Taylor-Mills, this high-octane black-comedy rock musical, based on one of the greatest cult teen films of all time, starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, is back with a bang!  Westerberg High’s Veronica Sawyer is just another nobody dreaming of a better day. But when she joins the beautifu...
Hope Mill Theatre to stage the first new UK production of The Wiz
NEWS

Hope Mill Theatre to stage the first new UK production of The Wiz

Hope Mill Theatre has announced that this Christmas it will stage the first new UK production of The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in 10 years.  With music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, book by William F. Brown and original orchestrations by Harold Wheeler, The Wiz is a retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This new production will be directed by Actor’s Touring Theatre’s Artistic Director and previous Royal Exchange Associate Artistic Director Matthew Xia, Musical Supervision and Orchestrations by Sean Greenand and Choreography by Leah Hill. Hope Mill Theatre are also thrilled to be co-producing alongside producer Ameena Hamid and brin...
Deva Fest Returns for 2021
NEWS

Deva Fest Returns for 2021

Organisers of the successful Deva Fest in Chester have announced the three-day event will return for Summer 2021 after lockdown has eased– and have revealed an exciting line-up of headline music acts. Officially launched in 2019 Cheshire’s Family Friendly Music, Food and Lifestyle Extravaganza, Deva Fest proved hugely popular. Like many 2020 events the second-year festival had to be postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, but the organisers promised they would not be beaten, they have stayed true to their word by doubling down and adding even more star names for their 2021 event. Deva Fest will take place across the weekend of Friday 13th August, Saturday 14th August, and Sunday 15th August 2021, at Chester Lakes in Dodleston, just outs...
Talking Gods IV: Aphrodite – Arrows & Traps Theatre
NEWS

Talking Gods IV: Aphrodite – Arrows & Traps Theatre

The penultimate episode of Talking Gods from Arrows & Traps Theatre, tells the story of Aphrodite, her marriage to Hephaestus and affair with Ares. Written and directed by Ross McGregor, this is a harrowing story of love, war and everything in between. Aphrodite (Benjamin Garrison) is the Goddess of Love and has very little patience for the moral meatbags around her, but does envy their ability to choose. Gods’ destinies are fixed from day one by the Fates, and her life is controlled by them, Zeus, Athena’s whims; everyone really, but herself. At one point she got into crafting, but Athena, Goddess of Handicraft, quickly puts a stop to that so Aphrodite resumes her life of lounging and lust. Love is accepting that it is always subject to heartbreak, unrequited feelings and pain, ...
Red Ladder are back with new show Homebaked – The Musical
NEWS

Red Ladder are back with new show Homebaked – The Musical

Radical theatre company Red Ladder’s first post lockdown show is Homebaked – The Musical co-produced with Liverpool’s Royal Court. It’s a musical comedy based on Liverpool’s famous co-operative bakery inspired by the real-life group of local residents coming together to save their neighbourhood bakery - and their homes - from demolition. Back in 2012 the people of Anfield faced losing a huge slice of their local community to property developers. Things were looking bleak until a group of like-minded individuals got together to say ‘enough is enough’. They wanted a place for locals to earn a crust so they transformed a crumbling old bakery into Homebaked. What started with a half-baked idea rose and rose until it had spawned a thriving community business with plans to transform the...
Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter of Ice begins UK Tour on 8th June
NEWS

Ben Brown’s new play A Splinter of Ice begins UK Tour on 8th June

Following a highly productive and successful season of online productions, Original Theatre Company is delighted to announce its first live stage production since March 2020.  The UK Tour of Ben Brown’s new political drama, A SPLINTER OF ICE, will open on 8th June in Malvern and will tour until 31st July.  The production, starring Oliver Ford Davies as Graham Greene and Stephen Boxer as Kim Philby and directed by Alan Strachan with Alastair Whatley, has also been filmed on stage at the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and will be released online via originaltheatreonline.com from 15th April until 31st July 2021.  Whilst Sara Crowe will play Rufa Philby in the online version, she is unavailable for the tour, so the casting for Rufa on tour is to be confirmed. Moscow 1987 and th...
Guns N’ Roses’ 2021 UK summer tour dates now rescheduled to 2022
NEWS

Guns N’ Roses’ 2021 UK summer tour dates now rescheduled to 2022

Guns N’ Roses’ 2021 U.K. summer tour dates have now been rescheduled to 2022. Performances on Friday 18 June and Saturday 19th June will now take place on Friday 1st June and Saturday 2nd June 2022 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. All tickets remain valid and will be honoured for new the dates. The band says “We continue to be thankful for your understanding and support during these unprecedented times. Light is at the end of the tunnel and we are looking forward to getting back on stage...” Tickets for Friday 18th June 2021 will be honoured for Friday 1st June 2022 and tickets for Saturday 19th June 2021 will be honoured for Saturday 2d June 2022. Limited tickets are still available for fans to purchase for Guns N’ Roses at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Friday 1st June and Saturday 2nd Ju...
Iconic show to resume record-breaking run on 17th May with all-star cast
NEWS

Iconic show to resume record-breaking run on 17th May with all-star cast

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap – the longest running show in the world, which has been suspended since the pandemic resulted in the closure of UK theatres in March 2020 – is to re-open in the West End on Monday 17th May 2021. Two sets of casts – comprising Olivier Award winners and highly acclaimed stars of TV and film – will come together for the iconic thriller as it re-opens at the St. Martin’s Theatre on the day that Stage 3 in the Government’s “Road Map” to ease restrictions across society comes in to effect. The new, all-star company includes: • Danny Mac - Strictly Come Dancing finalist, star role in the West End production of Pretty Woman The Musical • Cassidy Janson - Olivier Award winner in 2020 for her starring performance in the West End smash hit musical & Jul...
Self-taught Warda Abbasi is the new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse
NEWS

Self-taught Warda Abbasi is the new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse

Set designer and miniature model-maker Warda Abbasi isthe new Resident Designer at Leeds Playhouse in partnership with Leeds-based theatre company tutti frutti, supported by the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme. There’s not many self-taught set designers, but Bradford-based Warda used her time in the box office at Halifax’s Square Chapel to to watch lots of theatre and horn model-making skills in her spare time. That led to a spot as Assistant Designer on tutti frutti’s Sweet Dreams about the joys of sleeping and dreaming written by Mike Kenny. When this production was developed into an audio play due to covid restrictions Warda was employed as a Craft Creator for tutti frutti’s digital Storytime project. Forty people applied for the Resident Designe...