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Chita and I – Patrick Honoré pays tribute to Chita Rivera

For anyone who had the great, grand privilege of having seen her on stage, be it in a musical, concert or cabaret, Chita Rivera’s legacy will be alive forever.

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Musical Theatre Review contributors pick their top shows of 2023

A selection of critics have chosen their ‘show of the year’ although some struggled to pick just one. The shows represent just a small percentage of productions staged this year, but we hope these ‘top picks’ bring back some happy memories.

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Five Questions With: Tosh Wanogho-Maud 

Fresh from starring in the West End premiere of Ain’t Too Proud at the Prince Edward Theatre, Tosh Wanogho-Maud has been performing a limited run of live solo shows, the latest of which is on Friday 5 January 2024 at London’s Piano Smithfield.

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Five Questions With: John Savournin

Script writer and director John Savournin and composer, lyricist and musical director David Eaton’s Christmas production Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime – a madcap retelling of one of the oldest and most thrilling journeys ever undertaken – continues at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre until 31 December 2023.

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Glorious Gwynne – looking back at the career of the incredibly talented actress Haydn Gwynne (1957-2023)

Glorious Gwynne – looking back at the career of the incredibly talented actress Haydn Gwynne (1957-2023).

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Five Questions With: Grace Hodgett Young

Grace Hodgett Young is currently making her professional stage debut as Betty Schaefer in Jamie Lloyd’s acclaimed reimagining of Sunset Boulevard at London’s Savoy Theatre.

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Five Questions With: Rebecca Caine

International opera singer and actress Rebecca Caine is currently on tour across the UK with her show Dividing Day, ‘a journey of self-discovery with help from writers including Bernstein, Bucchino, Guettel, La Chiusa, Sondheim, Weill and Yeston’. accompanied by Nathan Martin on the piano.

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Five Questions With: Rachel Tucker

West End and Broadway actress RACHEL TUCKER is very busy. This week the star of Wicked and Come From Away has released her new album ‘…you’re already home’, she’s performing a solo concert at London’s Cadogan Hall on 5 November and is currently wowing audiences as Norma Desmond on Monday nights in Jamie Lloyd’s much acclaimed West End production of Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre.

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‘I am passionate about bringing new audiences to musical theatre and challenging them’: Maimuna Memon’s Manic Street Creature arrives at Southwark Playhouse

Lucky London can experience Maimuna Memon’s multi-award-winning show Manic Street Creature at Southwark Playhouse Borough for a strictly limited run. In 2022 the production was a big hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning numerous awards, including The Fringe First, the Mental Health Fringe Award and The Stage Debut Fringe Award.

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INTERVIEW: Jeff Harnar celebrates his new album A Collective Cy at London’s The Pheasantry

Award-winning vocalist JEFF HARNAR will be celebrating the release of his album A Collective Cy: Jeff Harnar Sings Cy Coleman – featuring both hits and rarities from the Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer of Sweet Charity, City of Angels and more – with two special London concerts at The Pheasantry on 27 and 28 September 2023.

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Teenage singing sensation Lucy Thomas is set to kickstart her musical theatre career

YouTube sensation Lucy Thomas’ musical theatre career is to be launched next autumn in the title role of Rosie, the first musical by award-winning composer Chris Broom.

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Remembering Tom Jones – one of America’s finest lyricists who wrote the world’s longest-running musical

A tribute to the Broadway lyricist and writer of the longest-running musical, The Fantasticks, Tom Jones (1928 to 2023).

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Top 10 musicals to look out for at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023

It’s great to see that there is a bumper number of musical theatre shows to savour this year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Below, Musical Theatre Review’s Edinburgh Editor Fiona Orr offers her Top Ten Tips. Follow Musical Theatre Review to keep up with the latest reviews, news and, of course, the nominees for our Best Musical Award on 19 August 2023.

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SingEasy – London’s Piano Works West End

The first thing that strikes you when you enter SingEasy – a secret room located within the West End’s Piano Works bar – is the attention to detail.

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Remembering Sheldon Harnick – Broadway’s own renowned genius of a lyricist

Sheldon Harnick, who has died aged 99 of natural causes, will be remembered for writing some of the cleverest lyrics for musicals such as Fiorello!, Tenderloin, She Loves Me and Fiddler on the Roof among others. Michael Darvell looks back at a long life in American musical theatre…

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Listen now: Alice Fearn discusses the Wicked movie adaptation and the rumours of her involvement on The Mayor of Musical Theatre Podcast

For weeks, rumours that beloved West End star ALICE FEARN will appear in the Wicked movies as Glinda’s mother have whirled around Oz like so many Kansas houses. On the latest episode of The Mayor of Musical Theatre podcast (in association with Musical Theatre Review), The Mayor took the opportunity to take the question directly to Fearn herself.

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Camping adventures at Wilton’s Musical Hall with Sasha Regan’s smash hit all-male The Mikado

Sasha Regan’s joyous, five-star, all-male production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado is set to pitch up at Wilton’s Music Hall in London from 7 June to 1 July for a 1950s camping adventure.

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Five Questions With: Stewart Clarke

STEWART CLARKE has recently joined the West End cast of Les Miserables at London’s Sondheim Theatre, in the role of Javert.

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An Unnecessarily Hostile Q&A with The Mayor of Musical Theatre (Did we mention the Mayor’s latest interview is with Carrie Hope Fletcher?)

A new study has revealed that there are between three and four million podcasts internationally, but only 720,000 have more than ten episodes. As The Mayor of Musical Theatre releases its eleventh – featuring West End superstar Carrie Hope Fletcher – here is a Q&A with its host and MTR contributor, Ian Bowkett.

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New York cabaret and Off-Broadway round-up

Cabaret is back, alive and well in New York, as is Off-Broadway, writes Patrick Honoré. Karen Mason: Kander & Ebb and All That Jazz – Birdland ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Directed by Barry Kleinbort and expertly accompanied on the piano by her longtime musical director Christopher Denny, with Ritt Henn on bass, Broadway veteran […]

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Five Questions With: Stavros Demetraki

Stavros Demetraki is reprising the role of Ali Hakim in the West End transfer of the critically acclaimed production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, following the show’s run at the Young Vic.

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Remembering Chaim Topol (1935-2023)

Remembering Chaim Topol (1935-2023): Famous for a single  musical role but also gifted with a concern for social problems. The Israeli actor Chaim Topol, or just Topol as he was known, had an extraordinary life and career, mostly in the theatre although he appeared in films as well. But it was the role of Tevye […]

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Five Questions With: Joel Goodman

Joel Goodman is the producer and composer of Alan Turing: The Musical (with Jan Osborne), beginning a further run at London’s King’s Head Theatre this week (7-18 March 2023).

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Remembering Burt Bacharach (1928-2023): An exceptionally gifted writer of popular songs

Burt Bacharach, the American composer, arranger, songwriter, record producer and singer who wrote hundreds of songs will always be remembered for the influence he had on popular music of the 20th century, as Michael Darvell reports..

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Victorian ghosts and a sensational cast for Ruddigore at Wilton’s Music Hall 

Victorian ghosts and a sensational cast are set to raise the roof at Wilton’s Music Hall in an unmissable production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore or  The Witch’s Curse, from 14-25 March 2023.

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Five Questions With: Darren Lee

Broadway and film star DARREN LEE is playing The King of Siam opposite Helen George as Anna Leonowens in the UK tour of the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center Theater production of The King and I embarks on its second UK tour early next month. Following on from its record-breaking season at the London Palladium in 2018 […]

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Great British Bake Off: The Musical star John Owen-Jones is the next guest in new podcast The Mayor of Musical Theatre

Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera star John Owen-Jones discusses his new role in “insane” Great British Bake Off: The Musical on Episode Two of The Mayor of Musical Theatre podcast. The Mayor of Musical Theatre – a brand-new podcast produced in association with Musical Theatre Review as part of its tenth anniversary celebrations […]

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Brand-new podcast The Mayor of Musical Theatre – in association with Musical Theatre Review – releases its first episode  

West End Legend and Mother Goose star Anna-Jane Casey shares backstage secrets from the Stephen Sondheim Old Friends memorial concert, reveals the musical score that most often gets stuck in her head and describes what it’s like to return to panto on new podcast, The Mayor of Musical Theatre.

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New podcast in association with Musical Theatre Review: The Mayor of Musical Theatre meets Anna-Jane Casey

West End legend Anna-Jane Casey reveals her favourite currently running West End musical in trailer for new podcast, The Mayor of Musical Theatre. The brand-new podcast The Mayor of Musical Theatre has released a teaser trailer for its first ever season. The show is produced in association with Musical Theatre Review – in the website’s […]

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Happy Anniversary! Founder & editor Lisa Martland celebrates 10 years of Musical Theatre Review

Publisher and editor LISA MARTLAND founded Musical Theatre Review (MTR) 10 years ago today. Starting as a one woman website, it now boasts a national network of reviewers, plus thousands of followers online and on social media, including some of showbusiness’ best-known names. Here, Lisa looks back on MTR’s first decade and its development from […]

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‘Just what we all need to start the New Year with a bang’: Lisa Gaye Wright’s new musical The Real Housewives of Codswallop is heading your way

The phenomenon of reality television is gloriously brought to life in Lisa Gaye Wright’s new and original comedy spoof musical The Real Housewives of Codswallop, running at London Fringe venues The Theatre at the Tabard in Chiswick (30 January to 2 February 2023) and The Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham (6 to 8 February).

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Musical Theatre Review contributors pick their top shows of 2022

A selection of Musical Theatre Review critics were asked to choose their ‘show of the year’ although, as you can see, some struggled to pick just one.

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Mr Palladium – The Man Who Brought Musicals To Argyll Street

Nowadays theatre-goers are used to enjoying musical theatre productions at the London Palladium, but before British theatre impresario LOUIS BENJAMIN came along, the art form was rarely represented at the iconic venue. Internationally-renowned writer Warner Brown, who witnessed Mr Benjamin at work first hand, pays tribute to a great man of entertainment in his centenary year.

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Chad Saint Louis: Revelations – Theatro Technis

Chad Saint Louis performed Revelations: A Queer Musical Theatre Cabaret at Theatro Technis, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

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Five Questions With: Emily Lane

EMILY LANE plays Anna in the West End production of Disney’s Frozen at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Emily was previously in the Frozen ensemble and second cover Anna. Having trained at Arts Educational, her theatre work includes Before the Party (Almeida Theatre) and in the West End, Les Misérables and The Sound of Music.

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‘When he told us the towers had collapsed we couldn’t believe it’: My cousin Suzie’s Come From Away experience

A few weeks ago my cousin Suzie Nash saw a post on the Musical Theatre Review Instagram account about my return trip to see the West End production of Come From Away, writes Musical Theatre Review editor Lisa Martland. After we exchanged a few messages – she was curious to know more about the show – I discovered  that Suzie was on a British Airways flight from London to the US on September 11 2001.

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Five Questions With: Jacob Fowler

Jacob Fowler is playing Prince Topher in the UK theatrical premiere of the Broadway musical version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre, running until 11 December 2022.

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Prepare for ghostly Victorian fun with Gilbert & Sullivan’s RUDDIGORE at Wilton’s Music Hall in March 2023

Surreal comedy meets genuinely spooky Victorian chiller in an unmissable production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore; or, The Witch’s Curse, at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall from 14 to 25 March 2023.

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Musicals Mash Up: 23-30 October 2022

Welcome to Musicals Mash Up in which we catch up with lots of the week’s stories that haven’t yet appeared on the Musical Theatre Review pages. We hope you approve! News editor Angela Thomas reports.

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Five Questions With: Isabelle Methven

ISABELLE METHVEN plays Anne in Theatr Clwyd and Chichester Festival Theatre’s world premiere production of brand-new musical The Famous Five, based on the much-loved books by Enid Blyton, written by Elinor Cook with music and lyrics by Theo Jamieson.

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Remembering Angela Lansbury (1925-2022): An actress for all seasons

The British actress Angela Lansbury was known globally as the amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher, but there was a lot more to the famous television star, as Michael Darvell recalls… Angela Lansbury had an 80-year long career in which she captured and captivated her audiences whether they were seeing her live on the dramatic stage, enjoying […]

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Five Questions With: Leighton James House 

Composer LEIGHTON JAMES HOUSE has written the music for new British musical Are You as Nervous As I Am? which continues at London’s Greenwich Theatre until 23 October 2022. He joins a multi-award-winning creative team which also includes Simon Spencer (book) and Shaun McKenna (lyrics). Leighton made his presence known as a composer in 2004, when […]

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Five Questions With: Jeremy Secomb

JEREMY SECOMB is playing the villainous Curtis Jackson in the UK and Ireland tour of Sister Act The Musical, following the show’s hit run at London’s Eventim Apollo. He appears alongside Sandra Marvin as Deloris Van Cartier, Lesley Joseph as Mother Superior, Clive Rowe as Eddie Souther and Lizzie Bea as Sister Mary Robert. Jeremy’s […]

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‘This is our most exciting production so far’: Skitzoid Productions brings Last Sales Conference of the Apocalypse to the Waterloo East Theatre

Following the success of Game Over (‘poignant, glamorous, funny’ – North West End ★★★★) and Dissociated (‘jaw dropping’ – LondonTheatre1 ★★★★), Skitzoid Productions is excited to bring its third original musical, Last Sales Conference of the Apocalypse, to London’s Waterloo East Theatre from 4-30 October 2022. Featuring 15 original songs and the voice of Marcus […]

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Five Questions With: Michael Duke

MICHAEL DUKE plays the title role in the Olivier Award-nominated production of Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical at London’s Lyric Theatre, booking through to 8 January 2023. Developed with the backing of Bob Marley’s family and with unlimited access to the musician’s platinum-selling catalogue of music, Billy Elliot The Musical writer Lee Hall’s […]

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Five Questions With: Kerry Ellis

Recognised as the First Lady of West End musicals, KERRY ELLIS has forged a long-standing musical relationship and friendship with Queen guitarist Brian May, who describes the stage star as having “Britain’s most beautiful voice”. Now Ellis is joining Scandinavian tribute stars Queen Machine for an electrifying rock show and fully orchestrated UK tour, celebrating […]

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Remembering Olivia Newton-John (1948-2022): 
Chart-topping singer, actress and fervent charity activist

How will audiences remember Olivia Newton-John, who has died from breast cancer at age 73? Michael Darvell looks back at an artist who was very much more than just a pop singer with an astonishing musical career… Will they remember her as a singer of 11 chart-topping singles and 15 albums, with over 100 million […]

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Darius Campbell Danesh (1980-2022) – A short but successful musical career

It is sad that the life of the Scots singer and actor Darius Campbell Danesh has suddenly come to an end. From success on the television talent competitions Popstars and Pop Idol to a career writing his own hit songs and subsequently starring in West End musicals, he showed immense promise for his future career […]

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Five Questions With: Paulus

Throughout August 2022 writer and performer PAULUS is presenting his show Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood at the Assembly Rooms as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Audiences are invited along to celebrate Wood’s unforgettable characters, songs and sketches with this funny and touching tribute to the much-loved national treasure. Directed […]

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Five Questions With: Richard Katz 

RICHARD KATZ has joined the multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club in London’s West End, playing the role of Herr Schultz. Richard is an associate artist with Shakespeare’s Globe Ensemble and an associate at Complicitè. His many theatre credits include Love and Other Acts of Violence at the Donmar […]

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