Latest Articles - Page 532 of 656

Dreaming of a White Christmas in Manchester

19Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Dreaming of a White Christmas in Manchester

Jamie Wilson, Mark Goucher, Gavin Kalin and Kevin McCollum are thrilled to announce Broadway and West End star Sally Ann Triplett will join the Made at Curve’s production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas as ‘Martha Watson’ as it embarks on a UK tour. The show also stars Dan Burton as ‘Phil Davis’, Matthew Jeans as ‘Bob Wallace’, Jessica Daley as ‘Betty Haynes’, Emily Langham as ‘Judy Haynes’ and Duncan Smith as ‘General Waverly’. White Christmas comes to Manchester Palace Theatre on 22nd November until Saturday 4th December. The previously announced Sheila Ferguson has withdrawn from the production. The cast is completed by Phillip Bertioli, Imogen Bowtell, Isabel Canning, Freddie Clements, Meg Darcy, Adam Denman, Beth Devine, Kirsty Fuller, Ashton Harkness, Sam Holden, Matt Holland, ...

19Oct

By Clare ChandlerNo Comments

REVIEWS

Bluff Musical – Online

Bluff is a new musical from Matthew Cavendish and Ed Zanders that is designed to be listened to. Written especially for radio, the one act show is perfect to be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home. Director Ellie Coote and sound designer Charlie Smith have evidently worked in tandem to create a piece that fizzes through your speakers - evoking elaborate dance routines, epic storms and more. The plot, concerning perpetual underdog Alec Bonum and his nemesis Shirley Judge who – like many of the inhabitants of Paradise – has a flair for embellishment, becomes a tad repetitious and the central characters would benefit from a little development to allow them to elicit more empathy. That said the music is richly orchestrated, with Smith and Zanders working magic to...

19Oct

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Forgotten Voices – Hope Mill Theatre

The adaptable Hope Mill Theatre hosted the one woman show inspired by the life of Eva Moorhead Kadalie the wife of Clements Kadalie first black national trade union leader from South Africa. Shareesa Valentine whose stage and tv credits include Band of Gold, Hollyoaks, The Syndicate, Dumping Ground and Last Tango in Halifax played Eva a strong South African woman who was reflecting on her life and the transitions through the voices in her head that had been forgotten or suppressed that made her the female she was just before she was about to embark on the last journey to a new life in England with her son Victor. ‘Forgotten Voices’ was written by David Moorhead the grandson of Eva who stated in an interview "My grandmother was glamorous and warm hearted but beneath lay a complex pers...

Chelsea Halfpenny to star as Jenna in Waitress Musical at Wolverhampton Grand!

17Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Chelsea Halfpenny to star as Jenna in Waitress Musical at Wolverhampton Grand!

Producers Barry & Fran Weissler and David Ian are delighted to announce that Chelsea Halfpenny with join the cast as Jenna in the smash hit romantic musical comedy Waitress. Chelsea will take over the role from Lucie Jones who leaves the production to move on to a soon to be announced new project. Waitress will play at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Tuesday 28th June – Saturday 2nd July 2022. Chelsea Halfpenny began her career in the popular children’s television series Byker Grove. She appeared as Amy Wyatt in Emmerdale for three years and Alice Munroe in Casualty, a part she played for four years. Chelsea recently made her West End debut as Judy Bernly in 9 to 5 The Musical at the Savoy Theatre. Waitress is based on the 2007 movie written by Adrienne Shelly. Music and lyri...

An age old festive tale is brought to life in Salford

17Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

An age old festive tale is brought to life in Salford

Award winning theatre company Carnival of Eternal Light return to the stage with their very first seasonal production - A Christmas Carol. Based on the immensely popular and legendary novel of Charles Dickens Carnival bring to life this much-loved classic as miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is taught the error of his ways and taken on a voyage across the past, present and future of his life. As Scrooge comes to face to face with Ghosts of Christmas’ Past, Present and Yet to Come can this cruel old man redeem his soul? A Christmas Carol is Carnival’s fourth show overall after the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland adaptation The Looking Glass, the original superhero based Elysiad and their GM Fringe 2020 production The Delirium of Phobos. It is adapted and written by Actor, Playwright and Carnival...

Red Ladder heads home to Leeds with timely new play

17Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Red Ladder heads home to Leeds with timely new play

This November Red Ladder Theatre Company is heading home to Leeds with a very timely new play My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored exploring race and identity. It opens with 15-year-old Reece, played by Jelani D’Aguilar, being roughly accosted by police. Misha Duncan-Barry’s young, Black teacher Gillian Misha witnesses it all but doesn’t question or intervene as the disturbing scene plays out. The consequences of her lack of action erupt the following day when Gillian finds herself locked in a classroom with Reece. As a radical theatre company Red Ladder are always looking to challenge audiences, and this time take the audience to the centre of a discussion that asks ‘if you see something you do not agree with, do you intervene?’ This new work is the stage debut from writer Na...

The Addams Family are preparing to move into your neighbourhood!

17Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

The Addams Family are preparing to move into your neighbourhood!

Aria Entertainment and Music & Lyrics are delighted to announce the final ensemble cast members for the UK and Ireland tour of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, A Musical Comedy. The final members of the ensemble are Jessica Keable, Sario Solomon and Ying Ue Li. They join the previously announced, Joanne Clifton (Morticia Addams), Cameron Blakely (Gomez Addams), Scott Paige (Uncle Fester), Kingsley Morton (Wednesday Addams), Grant McIntyre (Pugsley Addams), Valda Aviks (Grandma), Sean Kingsley (Mal Beineke), Kara Lane (Alice Beineke), Ahmed Hamad (Lucas Beineke), Dickon Gough and Ryan Bennett (sharing the role of Lurch), Abigail Brodie, Sophie Hutchinson, Castell Parker, Matthew Ives and Sean Lopeman. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and has a shocking se...

First Act presents Spring Awakening at The Hope Street Theatre

17Oct

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

First Act presents Spring Awakening at The Hope Street Theatre

Warrington based First Act, will be bringing Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s award-winning musical Spring Awakening to The Hope Street Theatre from the 28th - 30th October in a fresh and vibrant new production. Based on the 1891 German by Frank Wedekind, Spring Awakening tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of adolescent sexuality. Set in mid-19th-century Germany, the musical, with its alternative and folk-infused rock score, explores oppression, freedom, teenage angst, and the dangers of hiding the truth. First Act launched in 2017 with a simple vision: create acting classes for young performers which developed skill, technique, and talent; an acting school where theatre education is the primary goal. Since its incorporation First Act have been deliver...

17Oct

By Karen Morley-ChesworthNo Comments

North West

Home, I’m Darling – Theatre by the Lake

Drama and comedy returns to the stage of Theatre by the Lake with an entertaining play that looks at how we all pick and choose our own narrative of reality - shaped by our rose-tinted glasses approach to history writes Karen Morley-Chesworth. The main theatre is in the round for this production of Laura Wade’s deconstructed rom-com - providing a viewpoint on every perspective of a marriage cloaked in fantasy and collapsing under the weight of pretence. The relationship between Judy and Johnny has been captured within a 1950s bubble - like an insect trapped in amber. Living in the 21st century, they both have a passion for the 50’s style, fashions and music yet take it one step further to take on the philosophy and social norms of the era. From career woman to housewife carer, Jud...

17Oct

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

Starstruck – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Think of postmodernism and you won’t think of actor and dancer Gene Kelly, though his life and his work exists simultaneously to the peak years of the movement. In 1960, during the movement’s height, Kelly was lured to Paris to bring his trademark moves of the Hollywood movie scene to the world of ballet. The result was his pioneering work, ‘Pas Die Dieux.’ 61 years later, Scottish Ballet and Kelly’s widow Patricia Ward Kelly have brought this stellar piece of work back to the stage for it’s UK debut with a beguiling new twist. It’s simultaneously lavish, entrancing, and as the kids would say, ‘pretty meta’. Kelly’s original ballet, ‘Pas Die Dieux’ focused on the classical tale of Aphrodite and Zeus and the trials and tribulations that they face on Mount Olympus. In the ballet’s n...