Friday, February 27

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Stick Man to open in Salford and London this Christmas
NEWS

Stick Man to open in Salford and London this Christmas

What starts off as a morning jog becomes quite the misadventure for Stick Man: a dog wants to play fetch with him, a swan builds a nest with him, and he even ends up on a fire! How will Stick Man ever get back to the family tree in time for Christmas? This much-loved adaptation from Freckle Productions, the team behind Zog and Zog and the Flying Doctors, features a trio of top actors and is packed full of puppetry, songs, live music and funky moves. Casting for both venues will be announced later this year. Executive producer Jennifer Sutherland said, “We are so excited that our beloved Stick Man – a perennial festive family favourite – will have sit down seasons in two major cities this Christmas. After twelve years at the Leicester Square Theatre, we’re so excited to move to a new ...
Ushers, The Front of House Musical returns to London to celebrate 10th anniversary
NEWS

Ushers, The Front of House Musical returns to London to celebrate 10th anniversary

Returning to London after sell-out runs at West End’s Arts Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre, homegrown British musical smash hit, USHERS: The Front of House Musical, will run at The Other Palace (Studio) from 10th April to 19th May 2024. Set in a West End theatre, USHERS: The Front of House Musical follows a working shift in the lives of the stagiest people in the theatre - the front of house staff - who portray the hilarious, ridiculous and moving stories of ice-cream and programme sellers who dare to dream... A preview performance of a new jukebox musical is due to take place, a three-year workplace romance is on the rocks, an untrained newbie is working her first shift, and the amorous manager is under pressure to cut costs. What could possibly go wrong? USHERS: The Front ...
Bonnie & Clyde the Musical hits the road
NEWS

Bonnie & Clyde the Musical hits the road

The Barrow Gang are now on the run across the country! This week, the principal cast of the first-ever UK & Ireland of BONNIE & CLYDE THE MUSICAL set off on the road in a vintage 1929 Ford Model A Saloon as the tour moves to Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday 5th - Saturday 9th March 2024. Winner of Best New Musical (What’sOnStage Awards 2023), Bonnie & Clyde The Musical then continues its major tour visiting Wolverhampton, Norwich, Sunderland, Cardiff, Southampton, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Woking, Bath, Manchester, Nottingham, Southend, Belfast, Bradford, Milton Keynes, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Dublin, Brighton, Birmingham, Portsmouth, High Wycombe, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bromley and Northampton. Credit: Grahame Larte Catherine Tyldesley (Coronation Street, Strictly C...
Noga Ritter to play Manchester Jewish Museum
NEWS

Noga Ritter to play Manchester Jewish Museum

On Mother’s Day, Sunday, 10th March, Manchester Jewish Museum will welcome Noga Ritter, an Israel-born, London-based eclectic singer-songwriter, for a performance in the museum’s 150-year-old Spanish & Portuguese synagogue. Noga’s new album “Ima” (Hebrew for “mother”) is her debut solo album, dedicated to the artist’s mother, “a healer, mover and true artist”. Noga Ritter is an eclectic singer-songwriter, band leader and workshop facilitator whose music fuses Hebrew Jazz with global grooves. Her songs, sung in both Hebrew and English, weave intimate and personal stories into a potent narrative of social-global issues. Her performances, whether in stripped-down formats or her full 9-piece band, are as passionate as they are energetic, getting any audience to dance and join in on her ...
Vanya – National Theatre Live – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse
North West

Vanya – National Theatre Live – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse

The latest offering from National Theatre Live screened this evening at Altrincham Garrick Playhouse, and whilst ‘Vanya’ featured an acting performance from Andrew Scott that garnered deserved plaudits during its West End run last year, I found the overall production something to be admired rather than loved. Scott, director Sam Yates and designer Rosanna Vize share equal billing as co-creators alongside writer Simon Stephens, who relocates Chekhov’s tragicomedy to a 20th-century Irish farm, preserving the plaintive sadness of the 1897 original story whilst seeking to shed new light onto the characters through Scott’s inventive interpretation. He plays everyone, differentiating men and women, young and old, with subtle changes of vocal register and body language. His performance is w...
Crazy For You – Hessle Theatre
NEWS

Crazy For You – Hessle Theatre

We theatre reviewers are a spoilt bunch. Any productions we are invited to watch have been honed and polished to perfection - bugs given the boot and glitches dealt with, ensuring our view of proceedings isn’t hampered by such pesky events. With that in mind, I was intrigued to receive an invitation from Hessle Theatre Company to watch a “full run of the show in an open rehearsal”, with backing tracks but without scenery and costumes, for a production of Crazy For You, a show they will grace the Hull New Theatre stage with later this month. So, Sunday afternoon saw me and my regular theatre buddy, my sister Chrissy, head for Tranby School, in Anlaby, near Hull, to experience my first ever rehearsal. If it was any other company but the Hessle Theatre, I would have thought they had ...
Immersive Van Gogh Spectacular Set For Liverpool This Summer
NEWS

Immersive Van Gogh Spectacular Set For Liverpool This Summer

Liverpool is set to host the UK premiere of a stunning immersive show which brings the masterpieces of Vincent van Gogh thrillingly to life in one unforgettable cinematic multimedia experience. Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience – produced by Annerin Productions and Paquin Entertainment Group - blends more than 300 of the post-Impressionist icon’s paintings with cutting-edge technology and a specially curated musical soundtrack to tell the story of one of history’s most influential artists. It has already been seen by more than five million people across the United States and Canada. And now it is coming to the UK, with the unmissable show being staged in Liverpool on its famous waterfront at Exhibition Centre Liverpool (for a limited run) from 27th June to 14th July. Ticke...
Standing at The Skys Edge – Gillian Lynne Theatre
London

Standing at The Skys Edge – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Standing at the Skys Edge is a heartwarming musical about love and familial relationships growing through time. The musical explores love and home. Standing at the Skys Edge is a well written musical with beautiful lyrical songs which opened at The National Theatre last year to show stopping reviews and certainly deserves its west end transfer and spot on the West End. Standing at the Skys Edge tells the stories of three families living in an estate in Sheffield, starting at three different points of the same timeline. The three storylines play out simultaneously with all the characters wrapping up seamlessly towards the end of the show. Whilst this device is frequently used in film, it is rarely successfully deployed in theatre. Chris Bush’s book is cleverly structured to give all the ...
Peak Stuff – Traverse Theatre
Scotland

Peak Stuff – Traverse Theatre

Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre’s reputation as the Capital’s go-to venue for cutting edge, experimental and thought-provoking new work can only be enhanced by this belter of a play from award-winning theatre company Thickskin. Touring England for the last month, the Scottish premiere tonight of Peak Stuff, by young writer Billie Collins fairly fizzes along with new ideas and brilliant acting not to mention superb lighting and set and spectacular video design. Stage centre, on a raised LED-edged plate Meg Lewis takes us on an often-overwhelming journey, through the eyes of three characters, Alice, Ben and Charlie. All consumers, and all consumed to varying degrees by the world we live in today. Teenager, Alice wants to poke a stick into the wheel of fast fashion, Ben is hiding from reality...
Scarlett Sunday – Omnibus Theatre
London

Scarlett Sunday – Omnibus Theatre

Obsession and dark secrets of the infamous artist Ray Blackwood and what lay behind the enigma of a painting named Scarlett Sunday. Following the death of Blackwood, it was now left to his daughter Ava played by Camilla Aiko an introverted girl still living in the family home with her demons. This play was simplistic in its form and told the story of Yasmin, played by Sorcha Kennedy an excitable rather intense arts author curious to find out more about Blackwood, the man who inspired her career in the arts, a man she had feelings for and was hungry in pursuit to get the exclusive scoop on his unseen masterpiece Scarlet Sunday. The set is staged first in a coffee shop for their first meeting which sees both characters sparring with each other over childhood memories, the arts and a plan ...