London Archives - Page 95 of 111

24Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Last Five Years – Garrick Theatre

Jason Robert Brown's musical The Last 5 Years comes to the West End a year after its sold-out London premiere at the Southwark Playhouse. The show originally premiered at Chicago's Northlight Theatre in 2001 and has been produced in Northern America and internationally ever since. The musical takes us through five years in the relationship of New Yorkers Jamie and Cathy, an emerging author and actress respectively, and the toll their demanding professions take on their lives as they fall in and out of love. The action follows a non-linear approach with Jamie's story told in chronological order, starting at the first encounter between the two, whilst Cathy’s story plays out in reverse chronological order, starting just after their marriage has ended. Their individual timelines play out i...

24Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Blithe Spirit – Harold Pinter Theatre

Noel Coward’s comedy about death and spirits has been playing at theatres around the world since 1941. Enjoying immense success during a time of war when death hung over every household like a persistent mist, it tapped into our innate fascination with the supernatural to tell us more about our present circumstances. Not only was it been adapted into a musical and a feature film, but it also continues to remain a popular choice for adaptation by theatre companies around the world. I remember seeing a version of Blithe Spirit myself in the University of Delhi, wherein the story had been contextualized for an upper class contemporary Indian society. This universal relatability of the text and its characters is an ode to its timeless nature, still drawing packed audiences to date. In this pro...

Funny Girls – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

23Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Funny Girls – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

In his new play Funny Girls, English playwright Roy Smiles imagines a fictional encounter between two American pop culture icons, Barbra Streisand and Joan Rivers. From their first on-stage gig as co-actors in an off-Broadway show called ‘Driftwood’ (an event that actually happened in real life) to their run-in many years later at the height of their stardom, this two-hander play examines their friendship built on shared Jewish identities and insecurities about a life in show business, among other things. This production is created in collaboration with Ambassador Theatre Group’s Studio at New Wimbledon Theatre as part of their new Premieres Season, travelling Upstairs at The Gatehouse Theatre next month. Throwing a spotlight on their early lives and the decisions that influenced their car...

23Sep

By Natalie J RomeoNo Comments

London

Rock Of Ages – New Wimbledon Theatre

For a show that defiantly publicised itself as the worst show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the atmosphere at the New Wimbledon Theatre yesterday evening was one of indisputable excitement. Rock of Ages, the undeniably funny musical that has lavished audiences with classic rock anthems that have been our guilty pleasures for decades, has returned to a packed out theatre. It’s understandable why some just won’t like this show- the obvious objectification (and dismissal) of women being a prime example. This is obvious from ten minutes in when Sherrie Christian (Rhiannon Chesterman) bends down to pick something up whilst wearing very short shorts, giving Dennis Dupree (Ross Dawes), the owner of The Bourbon Room, the Hollywood bar where most of the show takes place, all the motivatio...

20Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Is God Is – Royal Court Theatre

To say Aleshea Hariss’ new play is a tale of revenge would be a bit reductionist, for it wouldn’t do justice to its innate exploration of abuse and trauma through the lens of its titular character. The story follows 21-year-old twins Anaia and Racine (played by Adelayo Adedayo and Tamara Lawrance respectively) who travel across the South Western belt of the United States on a mission from ‘god’, a self-christened sobriquet for their mother who they believed was dead for the last 18 years. As kids, the twins managed to survive a gruesome fire that had not only brought their ‘god’ a life of gradual decay, but also had shaped their entire life with visible scars they carried, on their bodies and otherwise. They are now on a quest to find their father, seeking 18 year's worth of answers, justi...

16Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Catching Comets – Pleasance Theatre

Imagine that an extinction-level event that threatens the fate of humanity is unfolding right before your eyes. You there? Good, now imagine the heart wrenching moment where you know you have to break up with your partner. While it is unlikely that you’ve actually lived through both of these extraordinarily scenarios in the same lifetime, chances are your imagination is likely to associate a grandiose quality to the first scenario and a smaller, more contained quality to the second. In writer and director Piers Black’s play Catching Comets, audiences witness the interplay of these two scenarios – a disaster movie about the end of the world and a rom-com about falling in (and out of) love – each playing out at the same time. After an acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019, this one-m...

Call me Madam – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

15Sep

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Call me Madam – Upstairs at the Gatehouse

When all a country has to offer is babies and cheese, it’s little wonder they need help. Enter the good old USA with their helpful loans and Bob’s your side of chicken. Except, that’s not quite how things pan out. ‘Call me Madam’ is set in 1950, in the years following World War II, when Truman was rolling out the Marshall Plan to help finance the economic recovery of devasted European countries. If you’re thinking this is political, don’t, it’s purely a backdrop for what is essentially a double love story. At a time when women were expected to make home, Sally Adams (Rosemary Ashe), is bound for the Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg in her newly appointed role as ambassador. Her creds: Parties and socialising. Next, enter Cosmo Constantine (Richard Gibson), a man who cannot be bought, a man...

13Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Memory of Water – Hampstead Theatre

English playwright Shelagh Stephenson’s comedy returns to the Hampstead Theatre, where it was first staged in 1996, in a new revival directed by Alice Hamilton. The play deals with themes of grief and remembrance told through conversations between three sisters (and their partners) in the aftermath of their aged mother Vi’s death. Between managing the arrangements for the funeral and coming to terms with the reality of their mother’s demise, the sisters, namely Teresa, Catherine and Mary, begin to unpack incidents and conversations from the past. These “fleeting” strolls down memory lane are neither pleasant nor particularly therapeutic, for their confronted by personal demons and shared resentments they’ve held on to for far too long. The tension between them is characterized by the dysfu...

12Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Duration – Omnibus Theatre

“You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger” The printed program for Bruce Graham’s The Duration carries this simple yet moving quote by the Buddha that foreshadows what’s in store at the Omnibus Theatre that evening. Set in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States, Graham’s play explores the legacy of the devastating incident through the lens of a family trying to come to terms with their loss and anger. The show commemorates the 20th anniversary of the incident, at a time when there has been a resurgence in interest in the geopolitical scenario of Afghanistan. With the Taliban overthrowing the elected government last month, there is a renewed criticism of the US government’s reaction in the years that followed the bombing, tracing...

8Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Woman in Black – Fortune Theatre

Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel returns to the West End with a special reopening at the Fortune Theatre. For director Robin Herford, the project was inspired by an innate urge to mount grandiose artistic output using scarce resources, an endeavour which led him to approach his friend, the late Stephen Malattrat, to adapt Hill’s story with a dozen odd characters into a brisk two-hander play. The show premiered in 1987 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and transferred to London a year later, playing at the Lyric Theatre, Strand, the Playhouse and finally moved to the Fortune, where it’s been on for over thirty years. Whereas the original plot of the novel focuses on the everyday happenings and conversations in a small English town haunted by a...