Latest Articles - Page 381 of 645

2Feb

By Grace AnnabelNo Comments

North West

Mamma Mia – Opera House, Manchester

Mamma Mia! The smash hit jukebox musical opened tonight to a raving full house of ABBA fanatics and theatre enthusiasts, all head- bopping to the renowned hits from the overture to finale. As soon as the band began taking us through a medley of ABBA’s greatest hits during the overture, I could feel the electric energy and could tell this would be an unforgettable night of musical theatre. The creative team is comprised of highly acclaimed and accomplished theatre professionals. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, choreographed by Anthony Van Laast and musically directed by Carlton Edwards - this collective is a powerhouse, creating a truly triple-theatre piece of theatre right from the get-go. During the show we were greeted by a simplistic set. This was used to created a multitude of ...

<strong>Vix & Helen – Vault Festival</strong>

2Feb

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Vix & Helen – Vault Festival

Performed in a small brick theatre in the vault located under waterloo station creating an atmosphere; an intimate feeling of being alone with the characters. The stage set out to replicate a school locker room, simplistic but instantly recognisable. The play centred on a bemusing incident involving Vix played by Heloise Spring and Helen (Lucy Sherraft) younger siblings. Vix and Helen are friends however their friendship is intertwined with complexities of family life, their friendship and feelings of how they are perceived by each other as well as the outside world. Their story is peppered with confliction and expression of thoughts created by the turmoil they feel about themselves and how they are perceived by others. Helen is tall and effervescent in her approach to life unlike V...

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) – Ambassadors Theatre

2Feb

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) – Ambassadors Theatre

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) is a fabulous solo show that sets out to educate the audience and re-claim the word Queer as something to be celebrated! Rob Madge has successfully crafted a piece of theatre that is heart-warmingly hilarious and poignantly moving. The message is obvious, yet powerful: you should let everyone be who they are. Rob openly shares the highs and lows of their magical childhood and explains how Rob’s family encourage them to shine. The structure of the show itself is powerful: 7 steps of putting on a Disney Parade in your living room. Using clips from their family video archive, Rob explains how we can make life magical just by using our imaginations. Rob’s ode to Disney encapsulates the joy and relatable challenges of childhood. The show is written as ...

2Feb

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Head Over Heels – Hope Mill Theatre

Musical theatre productions that challenge conceived norms and push back the boundaries are nothing new for Hope Mill Theatre, their latest offering gives a European premiere to this 2015 'queer jukebox musical' and is thoroughly vindicated with a hugely entertaining spectacle that poses pertinent questions around love and acceptance in the modern world. There is no denying that the genesis of 'Head Over Heels' is an oddity. Not many people would have thought of making a Broadway musical based on 'The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia', a prose romance written by Sir Philip Sidney in 1593; still fewer would have then decided to add in songs from late 1980's indie-punk popsters, The Go Go's. Then again, not everyone is the iconoclastic figure of Jeff Whitty, the writer of Avenue Q, who once...

2Feb

By Alison BainesNo Comments

North West

Wasteland – Contact Theatre

When the mines shut down in the 1980’s, little thought was given to the catastrophic ripple affect it would have on the northern mining towns of England. This story follows Gary Clarke’s award-winning production Coal, which looks at the infamous mining strikes of 1984/5. Wasteland takes flight with its tale about the radial upheaval that followed. Mired in recession, communities struggled but born was an era of illegal raves forming escapism and euphoria. It begins with The Last Miner (Parsifal James Hurst), drunkenly swaying across the stage clutching a bottle. Every inch of his movement is carefully choreographed, from the light lyrical motions to the harsh stomps and falls, his despair and frustrations clearly evident. The Pit Men Singers were a really nice touch, unique to eac...

First full scale production to play new ‘Southwark Playhouse Elephant’

1Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

First full scale production to play new ‘Southwark Playhouse Elephant’

It's eleven o'clock in the morning in a council flat on the Walworth Road in London. In two hours' time, as is normal, three Irish men will have consumed six cans of Harp, fifteen crackers with spreadable cheese, ten pink biscuit wafers and one oven-cooked chicken with a strange blue sauce. In two hours’ time, as is normal, five people will have been killed. In a little over two hours' time, as is less normal, a further two will have met their maker. Southwark Playhouse is delighted to announce the full cast for its first major production to run at its brand new space in Elephant and Castle. The new space - Southwark Playhouse Elephant, is welcoming a revival of Enda Walsh's award winning The Walworth Farce as its debut full scale production, held in its 310-seat main auditorium. ...

An Inspector Calls – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

1Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

An Inspector Calls – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

An upper class family oblivious to fact that the world around them is falling to ruin, a family laughing around a dinner table without a care in the world; that is until he arrives. A detective. A dead girl and secrets to be explored. There’s a reason that An Inspector calls by J B Priestley has been wildly used in educational studies throughout the years and that’s simply because it fantastic. It’s a play that keeps us on our toes as it unravels itself with every character, providing us with twists and turns but also striving in the end to leave us with important moral lessons. The lessons of this tale clearly being ‘our own actions have consequences’ and that ‘we should take responsibility for how we treat others because we never know what could be going on in their lives’. T...

1Feb

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Peaky Blinders – Hull New Theatre

Period crime drama, Peaky Blinders, wowed TV audiences from 2013 to 2022. And now a Rambert Dance production of the same name, is wowing theatre audiences nationwide. On Tuesday evening, Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby came to Hull New Theatre, and from "curtain up" it was action all the way. The Peaky refers to a popular style of flat cap, and the Blinders is common slang for someone well-dressed and dapper. I spotted quite a few theatregoers sporting a Peaky and very dapper they all looked, too. The unbelievably atmospheric opening stage setting took us straight to the trenches of Flanders, during the First World War, with dramatic scenes from which emerged five young men - alive, but dead inside from the horrors they had witnessed and taken part in. Fast-forw...

<strong>Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre</strong>

1Feb

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre

Bernadette and Oliver meet at a cat's funeral. One of them is an aspiring musician and the other is a lawyer. One of them has parents who ‘live in a castle’ and the other doesn’t want to have anything to do with the circumstances they worked their way upwards from. As they begin to get to know each other, their past and present, they’re presented with a challenge - they have a strict limit on the amount of words available to speak each day. How many do they need at work and how many can they use at a party? How many are they left with to communicate with each other? What happens when one of them has more words left than the other and what happens when they run out completely? While they use made-up abbreviations and morse code to navigate the literal challenge, what does not having enough ...

<strong>There’s a New Doc in Town!</strong>

31Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

There’s a New Doc in Town!

Lead producer Colin Ingram, together with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the creators of the Back To The Future film trilogy, are delighted to announce that celebrated theatre actor, Cory English, will join the cast of BACK TO THE FUTURE The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre, playing the role of ‘Doctor Emmett Brown’. The show will also extend its booking period until Sunday 22nd October 2023. Tickets for the new booking period are on sale now. The critically acclaimed Olivier, WhatsOnStage and Broadway World Award-winning Best New Musical had its opening night in London on Monday 13th September 2021 and recently broke box office records at the Adelphi Theatre for the highest gross sales in one week. BACK TO THE FUTURE The Musical is nominated for three WhatsOnStage Awards in 2023 including...