Rob Houchen Archives - North West End UK

Riddles and Romance – Underbelly Boulevard

8Oct

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Riddles and Romance – Underbelly Boulevard

For one night only, a cast of musical theatre and singing stars presented a concert of works by composer, Clive Richard Davis. Davis debuted his work, At Last, It's Summer, at the London Palladium in 2023 and this new concert included songs from that show, a musical comedy set in July 1920 on an English country estate, telling the tale of young love, as Alice falls for a handsome stranger. He, it turns out, is a nobleman fleeing the upheaval of the Russian Civil War. Alice has to persuade her father to allow the unlikely match. Her father then too succumbs to love at first sight. Woven in between these songs of romance, the performance showcases compositions from Davis's new musical theatre project, currently in development, The Three Riddles, in which a young man must solve thr...

5Aug

By Robert BartleyNo Comments

London

South Pacific – Sadler’s Wells

For those who missed out on the Chichester Festival Theatre run in 2021, or those who loved it so much they need to see it again, its production of ‘South Pacific’ is back in London until the end of August, prior to a 3-month tour. Assembling the same highly acclaimed cast as last year, the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic sees US Ensign Nellie Forbush falling for French plantation owner Emile de Becque on an island in the South Pacific island during World War 2. Their happiness seems set despite the ongoing threat of war going on around them, while at the same time, young lieutenant Joseph Cable arrives on the island having been sent on a spy mission but is quickly distracted by his attraction to a local girl. Love may be in the Pacific Ocean air for both couples, bu...

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...

South Pacific Announces Principal Casting

4Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

South Pacific Announces Principal Casting

Jamie Wilson, Jonathan Church Theatre Productions and Gavin Kalin are delighted to announce that Julian Ovenden will star as ‘Emile de Becque’ throughout the Sadler’s Wells season and UK and Ireland Tour of the critically acclaimed, landmark Chichester Festival Theatre production of RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S SOUTH PACIFIC alongside the previously announced Gina Beck as ‘Ensign Nellie Forbush’. Julian and Gina will be joined by fellow members of the original Chichester Festival Theatre company; Rob Houchen as ‘Lieutenant Joseph Cable’, Joanna Ampil as ‘Bloody Mary’ and Sera Maehara as ‘Liat’ The production opens at Manchester Opera House on 16th July 2022 ahead of a season at Sadler’s Wells, London from 27th July to 28th August 2022 and throughout the limited 10-week UK and Ireland Tou...

24Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Rock Musicals – The Theatre Channel

In another instalment of the Theatre Café Channels’ concerts, some of the best West End talent perform a catalogue of stagey rock tunes. The obvious and over-done songs were thankfully not chosen and the choices here were unpredictable and entertaining. We start off with Aquarius, where the “Theatre Café Four” welcome us into their space. The singers entice us in with pleasing harmonies and psychedelic editing. It’s great to see these guys pop up in the other performances and add some levels there too. Francesca Jackson (Million Dollar Quartet) gives a stellar performance of Forgiven, from Jagged Little Pill. The Broadway hit, that evolved from Alanis Morisette’s album of the same name, asks for raw and impassioned vocals that Jackson excels at. If it ever jumps over the pond then th...

19Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Marry Me a Little – Barn Theatre

Hearing of a Stephen Sondheim revue, I don’t think you’d be alone in thinking that it's going to be a bunch of ballads. I’m happy to tell you that with Marry Me a Little, this is not the case. It’s much, much more. The Barn theatre have cleverly updated this celebration of Sondheim and have produced a fresh love story. A set of two apartments sharing the centre of the stage, splits the recently parted couple as they go about their newly single lives. The production is sung-through, but the plot is brought together by innovative use of the technical elements. With a genius addition of a phone-screen backdrop, and even a song brought on by tinder swiping, catapult the story into the modern day. Jukebox musicals have attempted to merge catalogues of songs and fluid storylines for years....