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Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Liverpool Empire

8Jun

By Anne PritchardNo Comments

North West

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Liverpool Empire

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical show collaboratively written by musical theatre legends Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber, based on an Old Testament bible story. For those not familiar with the story, it is about Jacob who has a large family of twelve sons. He has more affection for one of his sons, Joseph, and favours him over his eleven brothers. He has a special multi-coloured coat made for him and this causes jealousy among the brothers, so they decide to sell Joseph into slavery; after doing so they take his beautiful multi-coloured coat back to their father telling him that his beloved son has been killed. Joseph has an ability to interpret dreams and his predictions for people had proved correct prior to being in captivity. This comes to the no...

Singin’ In The Rain – Birmingham Hippodrome

8Jun

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Singin’ In The Rain – Birmingham Hippodrome

This famous water-logged Hollywood icon splish, splash and sploshed its way into the Birmingham Hippodrome last night dripping with joy, fun and a fountain of hummable, singable and danceable numbers which have woven themselves into our consciousness over the last 70 years. “Singin the Rain” burst onto the big screen in 1952 with the iridescent Gene Kelly, the avuncular Donald O’Connor and the endearing Debbie Reynolds a trio of triple threats whose unique talents Jonathan Church’s production comes very close to emulating, but all three are very hard acts to follow. Sam Lips and Charlotte Gooch, make fine attempts at the leading roles of Don Lockwood and Charlotte Gooch, with great comic support from Ross McLaren as Cosmo who bashes himself into a comic maelstrom during “Make ‘em Laugh” an...

8Jun

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Foundations – New Wimbledon Theatre

As part of a series of Fringe shows, WrongTree Theatre and Ultraviolet Production’s Foundations had its one-night run at the snug New Wimbledon theatre studio. MJ finds herself dissatisfied with her workplace and out of curiosity, wanders around the factory where she discovers another factory within a different world. This coraline-esque show is dazzling in its fluidity and imagination. It is a tale of friendship but also offers insights about humankind, stimulating for both children and adults. The simple but captivating plot was easy to follow, and the writing was accessible and flowed well. The concept is unique whilst also evoking nostalgia as it reminds me of Charlie and Lola which I watched growing up. The cast brought vividly brought their world to life with cleverly co-or...

Dianne Buswell is ready to Burn The Floor this summer

7Jun

By Leanne RushtonNo Comments

Interviews

Dianne Buswell is ready to Burn The Floor this summer

The original Broadway production of Jason Gilkison’s BURN THE FLOOR is being recreated for a strictly limited tour in July 2022. THE REUNION features some of the most celebrated alumni of Burn the Floor including Strictly Come Dancing’s Aljaž Škorjanec, Kevin Clifton, Janette Manrara, Karen Hauer, Dianne Buswell, Joanne Clifton, Luba Mushtuk, Kai Widdrington & Robin Windsor, plus more cast just announced. Ahead of the tour hitting the road next month we sat down with one of its stars Dianne Buswell to talk all things dance. What is your favourite dance of the show? Although they’ve not started rehearsals Dianne said she’d been in the show for 8 years before Strictly! She said she really hopes that ‘Ballroom Beat’ is in the show again though as she says the music and choreography ...

Manchester LGBTQ+ Theatre Company return to Hope Mill Theatre

7Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Manchester LGBTQ+ Theatre Company return to Hope Mill Theatre

Manchester based LGBTQ+ theatre company Green Carnation make their return to the stage this October with a new production of Philip Ridley’s scorching psychological thriller, ‘Vincent River’. Green Carnation Company, whose mission is to tell queer stories through quality theatre, will return to Hope Mill Theatre from Wednesday 12th to Wednesday 19th October to premiere their first production since the pandemic. The play, ‘Vincent’ River’, is a tense, heart-breaking, and at times darkly humorous thriller examining hate crime, loss, prejudice and sexuality in a tense game of cat and mouse set in London’s East End. Green Carnation began its life in 2018 when it was founded by Manchester based co-directors Dan Ellis and Dan Jarvis (aka ‘The Dans’) to produce Alexi Kaye Campbell’s time-tr...

7Jun

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Starcrossed – Wilton’s Music Hall

While in Verona a few years ago, I was lucky enough to eat Polpette di cavallo at Osteria Sottoriva, the oldest eatery on the medieval arcade that runs along the bank of the Adige river. That city in Veneto, Italy is the romantic setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. One can ponder the balcony and courtyard said to have inspired our William’s tale of feuding families and adolescent co-dependence. Sadly, it’s an architectural fiction (from the 1930s) and a cynical ploy for travellers’ coins. Despite this deceit, it’s a scene of frenzied selfies and chaotic milling from pushy tourists. Truth and accuracy are far less alluring than the illusion of romance. Did Shakespeare visit Verona? There is no evidence of it, so while Romeo and Juliet rema...

Don Giovanni – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

7Jun

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Don Giovanni – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

‘Hurry hurry’ one character sings to another. ‘I can’t’ the other character replies. This is Mozart after all and the composer has never been known to keep things short and to the point. Don Giovanni doesn’t drag like the final acts of Figaro, but you do have to buckle yourself in for a lengthy ride. For those who don’t know the storyline of one of the greatest operas in the canon, the titular character of the opera, Don Giovanni, is more than just a philandering womanizing rake. He’s a liar, a rapist and a murderer. This is all apparent in the first 10 minutes when he’s already a committed a murder. As the opera progresses there are a series of characters baying for his blood, all wronged by his actions. When it seems he has achieved the impossible and dodged his demise he meets his en...

Britain’s Got Talent Winner Jon Courtenay To Star In St Helens Christmas Show

6Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Britain’s Got Talent Winner Jon Courtenay To Star In St Helens Christmas Show

The greatest fairytale of them all will entertain family audiences at St Helens Theatre Royal this Christmas - and today producers have announced that Britain’s Got Talent 2020 winner Jon Courtenay will appear as Dandini in the spellbinding seasonal spectacular, following his appearance on the show on Friday night. Cinderella will make it a magical Christmas at St Helens complete with fairy godmothers, glass slippers, enchanted pumpkins, ugly sisters and a fantastic fairytale finale. The theatre’s Christmas pantomimes have become a real highlight of the festive season year after year, and this sparkling production of Cinderella will be no exception. The pantomime will run at St Helens Theatre Royal from Saturday 3rd December 2022 to Sunday 8th January 2023. Tickets are on sale now...

2Jun

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Britannicus – Lyric Hammersmith

This intense adaptation by Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Arti Banerjee explores a dictator’s rise to power and the intense jealousy that bubbles in those that seemingly have the love of a nation but no genuine love around them. This is the inciting fire for Nero to punish his brother Britannicus by demanding his love Junia for his own, in hopes that it’ll settle that lacking inside him and banish any enemies that threaten his position on the throne. However, with this tragedy you get a real inside of Nero’s vulnerability towards his mother and how her passiveness has affected how he loves other people, a man who is the most powerful leader in the world seeking only the approval of his mother and in not getting it, turns to resentment and devastation onto others. Nero played fan...

The Concrete Jungle Book – The Pleasance Theatre

2Jun

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Concrete Jungle Book – The Pleasance Theatre

Twisting the colourful Disney version of The Jungle Book, reproducing the grimness of Rudyard Kipling’s classic, interpolating it with live rap music, grime, reggae and spoken word, the Highrise present a dynamic and reverberating Hip-hop musical The Concrete Jungle Book at the Pleasance. Written and directed by Dominic Garfield, the play explores homelessness, abandonment, and survival in a concrete jungle where “there’s no fair when there’s hunger in the air…” Set on the streets of London, the opening scene invites the audience into a run-down, dark, sketchy neighbourhood with a pulsating score often drowning the words of the actors. Nonetheless, their performance energy and commitment to the ensemble successfully transports the audience into a surreal world created brilliantly by jux...