Latest Articles - Page 453 of 658

21Jul

By Tracey BellNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Singin’ in the Rain – Sheffield Lyceum

Last night, I spent a gloriously nostalgic evening at the theatre watching the spectacle that is Singing in The Rain, it felt like a childhood embrace from a favourite grandparent - warm, happy, secure and where I belonged! We all know of the 1952 MGM classic musical comedy film ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, as it has been named as one of the greatest musical movies of all time. Made famous by the cast of Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, it light heartedly charts the 1920’s depiction of performers caught up in the transition from silent films to the ground-breaking ‘talkies’. Centring on the silver screen romantic pairing of Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont - the darlings of MGM studios. Everyone has trouble adapting to the changes but none more than Lina Lamont, a beautiful screen...

Seven Dials Playhouse announces exciting Autumn 2022 shows

20Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Seven Dials Playhouse announces exciting Autumn 2022 shows

Following a critically acclaimed inaugural season of sold-out shows and five-star reviews, followed by a mini Summer season focusing on contemporary texts, plays and new writing from breakthrough voices, Seven Dials Playhouse now announces their Autumn 2022 slate. Both productions will be accompanied by the venue’s trademark Associated Programme of events. This innovative programme serves as a stimulus for a variety of bespoke curated events created in tandem with the visiting company and Seven Dials Playhouse, bringing an ever-changing and exciting perspective to the organisation. Opening the season from 5th September to 15th October, Help! We Are Still Alive is a postapocalyptic musical comedy that will have its premiere at Seven Dials Playhouse. Directed by OFFIE nominated theatre di...

20Jul

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Footloose – Edinburgh Playhouse

Footloose tells the musically infused tail of wayward Ren and his journey from Chicago to rural backwater Bomont. A town tragedy involving the loss of the preacher’s son results in a town-wide ban on dancing in the bible-led town. Really? Oh yes. For newly arrived Ren and the preacher’s rebellious daughter Ren, this is devastating, especially as romance blossoms and the desire to dance ensues. But more interestingly, Ren embraces Christianity and uses a newly gifted bible to argue his cause for dancing which is a rather impressive move. Footloose is your classic jukebox musical complete with hits of the day spattered throughout the production for some dramatic and often comic effect. West-End star Darren Day relishes the spotlight as tough preacher Rev. Shaw Moore. In fact, his performa...

MAMMA MIA! The Party Extends Booking Period to February 2023

20Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

MAMMA MIA! The Party Extends Booking Period to February 2023

MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY, London’s premier dining experience, has extended its booking period due to extraordinary demand and is now playing to Sunday 26th February 2023. Tickets for the new booking period at The O2 London are on sale this Friday 22nd July. Created by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY is a unique and magical experience in a class of its own, bringing all ABBA’s hits to life more vividly than ever before: over the course of four glittering hours, guests can immerse themselves in a spectacular musical extravaganza, a four-course Greek feast and an ABBA disco, all in one unforgettable evening of dancing, dining and singing! MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY is set in a taverna on the beautiful Greek island of Skopelos, where most exteriors of the first MAMMA MIA! film were shot...

20Jul

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

South Pacific – Opera House, Manchester

Chichester Festival Theatre has become known for taking on some of the most challenging classics and transforming them into a triumph. Director Daniel Evans’s lively reappraisal of South Pacific is no exception. On one of Manchester’s hottest days on record the audience was transported to the South Pacific where US troops were occupying a Polynesian island in the WW2 conflict with Japan. The opening scene sees nurse Nellie Forbush (Gina Beck) on a coffee date with Emile de Becque (Julian Overden), a middle-aged plantation owner that she recently met at the officer’s club. De Becque is an ultra-suave Frenchman with a murderous past but despite this we see young nurse Forbush failing madly in love with him. The US troops are kicking their heels while restlessly waiting for the...

20Jul

By Scot CunninghamNo Comments

North West

Lizard Boy – Hope Mill Theatre

Folk rock meets reptiles in this superhero-inspired, coming-of-age musical about finding love from the most unexpected sources. Our highly-strung hero Trevor (Justin Huertas) shut himself away from the world after an encounter with a dragon left him with green, scaly skin. Twenty-years later, a first date is set to take him out of his shell and on a life-changing adventure. Musical talent in this production is off the scale: in catchy, off-West End quality songs, the original US cast of 3 adroitly jumps from guitars to xylophones to kazoos like it’s second nature. The trio boast superb vocals, particularly Kirsten ‘Kiki’ Delohr Helland whose voice elevates every number to mythical heights. William A. Williams also contributes skilful beatbox riffs to them. As Trevor, writer Justin...

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – The Alexandra, Birmingham

20Jul

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – The Alexandra, Birmingham

Across the eons of time the bleep-bleep-bleep morse code theme tune familiar to millions of viewers from those old three channel TV days comes wafting into the very hot and sticky auditorium of the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham taking every single audience member back to their childhood. “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” was an iconic show set in the heart of middle-England sit-com land which not only gave television a number of breathtaking stunts, but a number of producers a number of headaches and any number of impressionists a regular income impersonating its star. No impressionist of the 70’s was worth their show biz salt without donning a beret and saying in a slightly camp way, “Oh, Betty!” Anyone could do and everyone did. It was a show which seared itself into our s and the theme tune ...

Dreamboats & Petticoats – King’s Theatre Glasgow

20Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Dreamboats & Petticoats – King’s Theatre Glasgow

On the hottest day ever (so far!) I hauled myself along the M8 to Glasgow to this touring show. The question was – would it, could it, bring back the good times at the King’s this week? The third instalment of Bill Kenwright’s Dreamboats and Petticoats franchise, set in the mid 1960’s and following the trials and tribulations of rock ‘n roll band, Norman and the Conquests, from youth club dive to Butlins at Bognor Regis, aka ‘bonking by the sea’. At the centre of the story is the ongoing relationship of Laura and Bobby played by Elizabeth Carter and Jacob Fowler, can their love survive a Summer apart, can Bobby resist the wall-to -wall crumpet of Butlins and will Laura escape the clutches of Frankie Howard where she is booked for the Summer season at the Palace Theatre Torquay? This ...

Ghosts of the Titanic – Frinton Summer Theatre

20Jul

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Ghosts of the Titanic – Frinton Summer Theatre

What do you do when the ‘unsinkable’ sinks? The Titanic sank 110 years ago, but ‘Ghosts of the Titanic’ presents conflicting theories as to why the ship sank and who may have benefited, making this a relevant modern day psychological drama. Emma Hinton (Alex Constantinidi) is an English girl who has travelled to America to find out the truth of why the Titanic sunk. She has a key reason to know - her fiancé was playing in the band and lost his life on that fateful journey. Enter Molloy (William Meredith) an alleged journalist and his newspaper boss, Swanson (Hilary Tones), and you have a tale fit for any decent conspiracy theorist. What is fascinating is the weaving of facts within a fictional play. I did not know, for example, that J P Morgan of American banking fame, was the owner ...

Jean Paul’s Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show – Roundhouse

20Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Jean Paul’s Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show – Roundhouse

If one had been unaware of Gaultier’s work under Pierre Cardin, or his first collection in 1976, that changed in 1984 when he launched his line of skirts for men (actually kilts). The high-octane sensation this caused was akin to a cultural earthquake. This move was mocked and talked about from school playgrounds to the tabloids. Fashion’s enfant terrible had arrived. Jean Paul’s Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show has landed at London’s Roundhouse and is a hot romp through the career of a designer who didn’t just break the rules of fashion, but provoked a paradigm shift on gender, sexuality and perceptions of beauty. It’s a slick, erotic circus that takes the catwalk as a concept and injects it with the high production values of an arena gig, while keeping a well-heeled toe in the i...