Latest Articles - Page 274 of 668

20Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Look Behind You – Theatre at the Tabard

The 25th anniversary performance of Strut & Fret’s Look Behind You features a completely updated book both classic in its recognizable theatrical tropes and urgent in its relevance to the present moment in arts and commerce. Daniel Wain’s love letter to “the bitchiest, barmiest, bravest business of them all,” encompasses the wide range of characters and character flaws that make a theatre tick. Set during the run of Christmas pantomime, Dick Whittington, at the aptly if unsubtly named, “Britannia” this play minces no words. Subtlety is wholly eschewed and in its absence something urgent, theatrical, and true, prevails. No matter how dazzling the script, and believe me it is dazzling, this is the kind of show in which one sour note might poison the whole symphony. Fortunately, each a...

Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical – The Other Palace

20Jan

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical – The Other Palace

I will tell anyone who will listen that the ‘90s was a golden age for music. I don’t know if everyone feels that way about the music of their coming-of-age decade, but let us also remember that the ‘90s gave us The Spice Girls, No Doubt, Britney Spears… So, taking a cult ‘90s film and turning into a musical featuring classic tunes from the same era was always going to peak my interest. I’d not been to The Other Palace - just around the corner from some of Victoria’s better known theatres - before, and I really wish I’d discovered it sooner. It’s a great space with comfy seats and a fancy gin bar - what’s not to like? So far, so good… The piece opens with a stellar full cast performance - you can spot Kathryn (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsley) with her cold confidence and Daniel Barvo’s Seba...

20Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Indestructible – Omnibus Theatre

Okay or not okay? Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Kanye West… Who do we hold accountable? And how? Who even actually has this power that we’re supposed to be speaking truth to anyway? This ballsy production not only asks but demands answers to these questions. Written and directed by Proteus’s Artistic Director, Mary Swan, Indestructible is an unflinching examination of nauseatingly complex, and just plain nauseating, interplay between gender and power in the contemporary art world. Richly situated in a digital world built by the production team and multi-disciplinary artist Paula Varjack contextualizing all of the plays' imagined characters in an all too familiarly problematic alternate reality, this show offers audiences a non-traditionally immersive theatrical experience. The plot fo...

19Jan

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Kindred – Brockley Jack

This new play by Amee Walker-Reid is a journey through one tumultuous week in the lives of a young couple, Lois and Matt, as they look forward to their wedding at the end of the week. As the play starts, they have just returned from Matt's father's funeral, which was a disturbing event due to the ongoing animosities within his family. During the week, they also have to attend Lois's sister's divorce party. This would be enough for most stable couples to cope with, but Matt suffers from a fairly severe psychotic illness which he is struggling to manage, and Lois is reaching the end of her tether trying to help and support him. Thus, this is a fairly angst laden 60 minutes of theatre. There was a lot of swearing, shouting and some physical violence, with just moments of tenderness s...

Full cast announced for The Addams Family, A Musical Comedy Live in Concert at London Palladium

19Jan

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Full cast announced for The Addams Family, A Musical Comedy Live in Concert at London Palladium

Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment and John Stalker Productions are delighted to announce the full cast of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, A Musical Comedy at the London Palladium on 12th & 13th February. Joining the previously announced Michelle Visage as Morticia Addams, Ramin Karimloo as Gomez Addams and Lesley Joseph as Grandma in the THE ADDAMS FAMILY are Sam Buttery (Jesus Christ Superstar, Barbican/Regent’s Park Open Air) as Uncle Fester, Nicholas Mclean (Annie Get Your Gun, London Palladium) as Pugsley Addams, Dickon Gough (As You Like It, Soho Place) as Lurch, Sean Kingsley (Patriots, Noel Coward Theatre) as Mal, Ryan Kopel (Disney’s Newsies, Troubadour Wembley Park) as Lucas and Kara Lane (Rebecca, Charing Cross Theatre) as Alice. In the ensemble are Leeroy Boone (The Phantom of the Op...

19Jan

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Snow White – Rainhill Village Hall

Director Karen Woods has kept the spirit of the season alive – oh yes she has! – as Rainhill Musical Theatre company sing us into the New Year with their take on this famous fairy tale to a live musical accompaniment led by Musical Director Wayne Oakes. The kind and beautiful Snow White (Michelle Williams) lives happily in the village of Applebury with Muddles (David Stevens) and his mother, the Dame (Dru Fitzgerald), and other villagers (Fiona O’Gorman; Ryan Greenall; Emily Boycott). Her wicked stepmother, the evil Queen (Sarsh Johnson) is jealous of her beauty and with the assistance of Helga the Hag (Claire Heaton) decides to do away with her. Can fairy Riff (Megan Charlton) and Mirror (Dianne Glover) stop her in her tracks? Will the miners (Ruth Gibb; Annie Topping; Liam Fitzgerald;...

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake will return for its 30th anniversary with a 2024-25 UK tour

18Jan

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake will return for its 30th anniversary with a 2024-25 UK tour

New Adventures is delighted to announce that Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake will return for its 30th anniversary with a 2024-25 UK tour, playing The Lowry, Salford in November 2024. This reinvention of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece caused a sensation when it premiered almost 30 years ago and has since become the most successful dance theatre production of all time. In celebration of that ongoing impact, Swan Lake will take flight once more in this major revival. Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake begins at Theatre Royal Plymouth from 11th November until 16th November before visiting The Lowry, Salford from 19th November until 30th November, ahead of the 8-week annual Christmas season at Sadler’s Wells from 3rd December 2024 to 26th January 2025. Further tour dates and casting to be announced soon. ...

Red Ladder reprise all-female musical We’re Not Going Back

18Jan

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Red Ladder reprise all-female musical We’re Not Going Back

Radical theatre company Red Ladder are reprising their all-female musical We’re Not Going Back that tells the story of women who played pivotal roles in the 1984/85 miners’ strike. The musical is being brought back after it was first staged a decade ago to mark the 40th anniversary of the great strike through the eyes of three very different sisters who are ultimately united by a common cause. Victoria Brazier, Claire-Marie O’Connor, Stacey Sampson and Beccy Owen are back in their original roles as sisters driven to take a pivotal role in the struggle to survive. Photo: Tim Smith Red Ladder aims to remind the audience of the resilience of working-class communities, and the power of sticking two fingers up to a government hell-bent on their destruction. It was originally crea...

Julie Hesmondhalgh brings her one-woman show to Bolton’s Octagon Theatre in February

18Jan

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Julie Hesmondhalgh brings her one-woman show to Bolton’s Octagon Theatre in February

Corrie legend Julie Hesmondhalgh is performing her auto-biographical one-woman show These I Love at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre for a limited run in February. In this show Julie who found fame playing the big hearted Hayley on the Weatherfield cobbles returns to her Lancashire roots. It’s a journey of discovery and a hymn to Julie’s own working-class childhood in Accrington, to her beloved dad and to the healing power of daftness. Julie is a long time and passionate supporter of regional theatres so is generously contributing her show to support the Octagon, which is a registered charity. She is currently on TV screens starring in the smash hit ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which has done so much to finally bring justice to hundreds of postmasters and postmistresses wron...

18Jan

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Cowbois – Royal Court

This is my desert island show. It’s only January and I’ve discovered the best play of 2024. Charlie Josephine (writer and co-director) finds a very welcoming new home in the Royal Court after their run before Christmas in Stratford-upon-Avon. We explore the Wild West, a struggling town after the ‘husbands’ of the town go off in search for gold and more supplies. The ‘Wives’ are left waiting but in hearing news of a nearby explosion, hold no hope in their return. Miss Lillian (Sophie Melville) holds the bar while her husband is away- praying every morning for his return when news of the famous criminal ‘Jack’ (Vinnie Heaven) is on route to town. What unfolds is a beautiful release between two people finding their joy, passion and reason to feeling happy and being alive. This town is t...