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Greatest second world war escape plan comes to the stage

25Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Greatest second world war escape plan comes to the stage

In 1944 76 allied prisoners of war escaped from Stalag Luft III and new play Tom, Dick and Harry tells their remarkable story. Tom, Dick and Harry were the codenames for three tunnels dug by the prisoners from many different nations deep under the camp’s barbed wire fence that were designed to support their mass escape. Newcastle-under-Lyme's New Vic Theatre and Kenny Wax Ltd are producing an original script co-written by Andrew Pollard, Michael Hugo and Theresa Heskins inspired by top secret information that was classified in the war archives until 1972. They will be debunking the myths while honouring the people who engineered the tunnels and their unrelenting resistance to their Nazi captors. “We’ll tell it as a really dynamic, vibrant piece of theatre that celebrates th...

25Jan

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Rent comes to Yorkshire

With the biopic of Jonathan Larson’s life tick, tick…BOOM! winning huge critical acclaim it’s just the right moment for his Tony winning masterpiece Rent to head out for a short tour of Yorkshire. Bite My Thumb are based in the white rose county and following their tour of Little Shop of Horrors are now tackling Larson’s emotional tale of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive at the end of the millennium in New York’s rundown East Village. Full of classic songs the show ran for 12 years on Broadway as the idealistic bohemians fell in love, found their voice and lived for today as the AIDS crisis raged around them. “We won’t be playing with the staging too much this time,” says director Nathan Winn, “Rent is about the music, the passion and the beautifully raw...

25Jan

By Priya GuptaNo Comments

West Midlands

Chicago – Alexandra Theatre

Start the car and head on down to the Alexandra Theatre, where Chicago really is all that jazz. The Tony award-winning, record-breaking hit musical has Fosse walked its way to Birmingham and it doesn’t disappoint. Set in Chicago in the Jazz age, the musical is based on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. With the music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, and the book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the ‘celebrity criminal’. Set in the backdrop of 1920’s decadence Roxie Hart murders her lover after he threatens to walk out on her. To avoid conviction, she dupes the public and the media by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, who will defend you for a high price, guilty ...

Northern Ballet announce 10 city autumn tour

24Jan

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Northern Ballet announce 10 city autumn tour

Northern Ballet have announced a 10 city autumn tour will visit 10 cities revising The Little Mermaid and The Nutcracker, plus a première of new work Three Short Ballets 2022. The season will open with performances of Three Short Ballets 2022 at Leeds Playhouse featuring three world premières by choreographers Dickson Mbi, Stina Quagebeur and Mthuthuzeli November. This new work will also be performed at the Linbury Theatre in London in October / November. Throughout September and October, The Little Mermaid will tour to Sheffield, Belfast, Southampton and Newcastle. This timeless classic fairy tale was David Nixon's last full-length work for the Company before announcing his retirement as Artistic Director in 2020. Photo: Emma Kauldhar It’s set to a Celtic-inspired score...

Freud’s Last Session – King’s Head Theatre

24Jan

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Freud’s Last Session – King’s Head Theatre

Freud’s Last Session directed by Peter Darney is an Off-Broadway success combining philosophical thought with comedy. As its foreboding title suggests, the play imagines Sigmund Freud’s final psychoanalysis session. He invites C.S. Lewis to meet him, to help him make sense of something that disturbs him. A debate ensues between the two, as they grapple with an age-old question; the existence of God. The eagerness and receptivity of the characters carries the arguments through with an aliveness, keeping it engaging as well as educational. Séan Browne brings C.S. Lewis’ character to life, endowing him with an earnestness and a stark vocal resemblance to Lewis himself. He enters Freud’s room as a visitor, polite and reserved with a kind of reverence for Freud but as the play progress...

Moulin Rouge! The Musical – Piccadilly Theatre

21Jan

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Moulin Rouge! The Musical – Piccadilly Theatre

Based on Baz Luhrmann’s critically acclaimed 2001 film, the highly anticipated Moulin Rouge! has finally hit the West End following its hugely successful Broadway debut in 2019. Directed by Alex Timbers, the musical tells the story of Christian, a young writer who moves to Pairs’ Montmartre quarter to join the Bohemian movement and falls in love with Satine, the illustrious headline act at the Moulin Rouge cabaret club, and the villainous Duke of Monroth, who wants Satine for himself. Photo: Matt Crockett The Piccadilly Theatre has been completely transformed to bring Luhrmann’s dreamy world of glitz and glamour to life. From the neon signs shining outside to the red lights decorating the theatre and stage, Justine Townsend’s incredible lighting design truly transports you to the...

In defence of the weird and wonderful world of the theatre chat message boards

20Jan

By Craig HepworthNo Comments

Blogs

In defence of the weird and wonderful world of the theatre chat message boards

The simple thought of the theatre chat boards like BroadwayWorld or TheatreBoard is enough to send writers, directors, performers and producers running screaming into the night. Before the curtain drops on your first night performance, the message boards have already lit up with reviews, comments and thoughts on the latest show, and unlike paid critics, they don't hold back if they do not like something. If producers had magic powers, they would make these boards vanish, but why, why do they have such a bad rap? I have been a member of the Broadway World chat board for well over a decade, I have seen everything you can see from smartly written reviews, bitching and fighting, gossiping and paid shills (more on that later). Over the years my mind has flipped back and forth on the idea of ...

20Jan

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Conundrum – Young Vic

Conundrum, written and directed by Paul Anthony Morris is an intimate and confronting piece that follows a person discovering the hidden elements of their own trauma and the journey to forgive oneself for the cycle of abuse brought onto them from society. Portrayed through movement and text, we watch how the trauma manifests itself pushing from inside mind, to grow throughout the body and into the space around them. We watch a person very comfortably enter the stage with boxes in hand in order to sort out the mess in the room, to then crumble by the memories and collapse with the overwhelming pressure of things that quite simply didn’t exist for certain others around him. Words, written all over the stage floor, chalk in hand and a mind that is more intelligent than most, this character...

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story – Jermyn Street Theatre

20Jan

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story – Jermyn Street Theatre

Stephen Dolginoff's musical dramatisation of the story of so-called "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb has been produced over 200 times in 22 countries since its opening off-Broadway in 2005. The horrible appeal of such stories is evident: dark, unsettling, gripping tales of narcissism, passion and the underlying and enduring enigma of "why". What led these two smart young men from wealthy Chicago families, both with ambitions to go into the law, to kidnap 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, kill him, hide the body then attempt to extort money from his parents? The case was dubbed "The Crime of the Century" and went on to be used as the basis for several movies including Rope, Murder By Numbers and Compulsion. Dolginoff's two-hander focuses on the twisted sexual dynamic betw...

19Jan

By Chloe StallibrassNo Comments

London

Bat Out of Hell – New Wimbledon Theatre

The award-winning musical ‘Bat Out of Hell’ revved its way into The New Wimbledon Theatre. Multiple hits rolled into one action packed musical that will get you on your feet by the end of the night, with hit songs from Jim Steinman and Meatloaf. This musical tells the story of the main characters Raven the daughter of Falco, and Strat who fall in love against family wishes. Strat is the leader of The Lost, a group of teenagers that never grow up. The reasoning behind The Lost never growing up was never quite explained in detail, however, shows a remarkable resemblance to The Lost Boys in ‘Peter Pan’ giving the audience familiarity in a childhood favourite story with a dystopian take. There are multiple subplots thought the show supporting the overarching love story with Ravens parents a...