Jed Berry Archives - North West End UK

Little Shop of Horrors – Hope Mill Theatre

7Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

Little Shop of Horrors – Hope Mill Theatre

This autumn the award-winning Hope Mill Theatre has been converted into Skid Row as Audrey II takes up residence until the end of November. If tonight’s press night was any gauge on how well this show is going to do, I would snap up a ticket NOW, as they will not last long. A shy florist, Seymour, discovers a mysterious plant that feeds on blood and names it Audrey II after his crush, Audrey. As the plant grows, Seymour gains fame and fortune, but its appetite becomes increasingly dangerous. With Audrey II demanding human victims, Seymour must choose between success and morality, while trying to protect Audrey, before the monstrous plant takes over his life and threatens everyone around him. I have to say Rob Kelly, the casting director could not have done a better job with this prod...

8Mar

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Wicked – Birmingham Hippodrome

“There’s No Place Like Brum!” There’s certainly no place Brum for the next few weeks as the international green-faced, broomstick-wielding, hit-stuffed mega-musical drops its house on the stage of the Birmingham Hippodrome which it will be calling no place like home until the 7th April. “Wicked” erupted on Broadway in a flume of green smoke 21 years ago and has been dazzling us with a rainbow of pizzazz ever since. Stemming from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist exploration of the characters from L.Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” itself adapted into the cloyingly sentimental and techo-surrealist 1939 movie starring Judy “Slippers” Garland, “Wicked” has become the mainstay of both West End and Broadway with many an actress donning the Shrek-hued make-up and defyi...

Fanny and Stella – The Garden Theatre at The Eagle

12Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Fanny and Stella – The Garden Theatre at The Eagle

Fairy lights twinkle in the trees, the evening air clings around us and my “Fanny and Stella Special” lemony G&T is refreshing, sipped beneath my face mask (of course). We can all sense excitement in the air; pure, buzzing, expectant joy. Even the delightfully garish bar we had to walk through to reach the Garden Theatre added an extra thrill. We’re out, we’re back, we’re together and we’re about to experience LIVE THEATRE. Special credit must instantly be given to the team behind the show for making this happen and keeping us safe! On a night where theatres around the UK were lit up in red to alert us to the ongoing crisis unveiling within our industry, how amazing to find a team working around the guidelines and putting on a show. “Fanny and Stella” follows the story of Ernest ...

Final casting announced for ‘Fanny and Stella’

27Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Final casting announced for ‘Fanny and Stella’

Final casting announced for the first London Fringe show since Lockdown, a new version of the acclaimed musical ‘Fanny and Stella’ by Glenn Chandler and Charles Miller and Directed by Steven Dexter. Final casting is announced for the first London Fringe production since Lockdown, a brand new socially distanced open-air production of ‘Fanny And Stella’, a musical with Book and Lyrics by Glenn Chandler, the creator of ‘Taggart’, and Music by Charles Miller. Joining the previously announced Jed Berry as Ernest Boulton/Stella and Kane Verrall as Frederick William Park/Fanny are: Kurt Kansley (Lord Arthur Clinton) was Coalhouse in ‘Ragtime’ at Regents Park and Shultz in ‘Miss Saigon’ in the West End. In Australia, he was twice nominated Best Actor in a Musical, as Che in ‘Evita’ and Co...