The Inbetweeners’ Blake Harrison will take over the role of Ogie from 30 Rock star Jack McBrayer following the American actor’s final performance in the London production of hit Broadway show Waitress on 15 June 2019. Best known for playing Neil Sutherland in the hit E4 show and the two movie spin-offs, Harrison was recently […]
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Full creative team announced for The Prince of Egypt
The producers of the stage musical version of The Prince of Egypt have revealed the full creative team for the London premiere of the show early next year. As previously announced the musical will be directed by Scott Schwartz (Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and choreographed by Sean Cheesman (So You Think You Can […]
Looking Forward with Janie Dee – The Pheasantry, London
Looking Forward with Janie Dee at The Pheasantry, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The adorable, dee-licious and absurdly talented Janie Dee doesn’t believe in letting the grass grow under her feet and she managed to slip in a couple of cabaret nights at The Pheasantry as part of her crowded […]
Nikki Bentley and Helen Woolf are the new Elphaba and Glinda in West End’s Wicked
Wicked touring stars Nikki Bentley, Helen Woolf and Kim Ismay will return to the roles of Elphaba, Glinda and Madame Morrible in the hit Apollo Victoria Theatre production of the West End and Broadway smash in July. Joining the previously announced Alistair Brammer as Fiyero, the stars of the most recent UK and Ireland tour […]
Little Death Club – Underbelly Festival
Little Death Club runs at the Underbelly Festival, London until 23 June 2019 and then continues touring. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This electric, jaw-dropping, boundary-breaking cabaret at the Underbelly Festival Southbank is not one to be missed this summer. Bernie Dieter’s Little Death Club is a modern day cabaret that […]
Finalists for Wicked Young Writer Awards announced
The organisers of the Wicked Young Writer Awards have announced the 120 finalists who are in the running for this year’s awards which will take place at the London home of Wicked, the Apollo Victoria Theatre on 20 June 2019. Now in its ninth year, the finalists were chosen by a judging panel headed by […]
European premiere for Broadway show Brooklyn
Broadway musical Brooklyn will receive its European premiere at London’s Greenwich Theatre this autumn over 16 years after the show’s US debut. With a book, lyrics and music by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson, the story of a Parisian street singer called Brooklyn who heads for New York in search of her father, will play […]
Full cast announced for Bare: A Rock Opera
Casting has been announced for the new production of coming-of-age rock musical Bare: A Pop Opera which will debut at The Vaults next month. Darragh Cowley (Spring Awakening, Hope Mill Theatre, Snow White, London Palladium) will step into the central role of Golden Boy Jason opposite Daniel Mack Shand (The Masters of Mystery, Marlowe Theatre, […]
Mousetrap Awards 2019 – winners revealed
Young people took centre stage at the eighth edition of The Mousetrap Awards, the UK’s only theatre awards run by and for young people, at a packed Charing Cross Theatre. Presented by Mousetrap Theatre Projects’ Youth Forum, the lively event opened with a welcome speech by the current star of hit show Everybody’s Talking About […]
Back to the office for Caroline Sheen in 9 To 5 The Musical
West End star Caroline Sheen is heading back to the Savoy theatre to re-join the cast of 9 To 5 The Musical from 4 July 2019 following the departure of Louise Redknapp. The Witches of Eastwick star previously stepped in to play Violet Newstead for the first few weeks of the show’s London run when […]
Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical – New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Touring
Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical was reviewed at New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The production continues to tour until 2 June 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ In an era when jukebox musicals have become mainly autobiographical and when original musicals aimed at younger audiences don’t always hit the mark, it […]
‘There’s going to be something for everyone’: Luke Bayer on celebrating the Main Men of Musicals & playing roles that inspire him
Luke Bayer, Ben Forster, Trevor Dion Nicholas and Liam Tamne will come together for one night in Main Men Of Musicals, a celebration of all the best male songs in musical theatre history at London’s Cadogan Hall on Friday 31 May 2019. The concert will feature songs from across the musical theatre timeline including numbers […]
Octet – The Pershing Square Signature Center, New York
Octet continues at The Pershing Square Signature Center, New York, until 30 June 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Dave Malloy is among the brainiest and most unpredictable makers of musical theatre around these days. In 2016, his rapturous, kaleidoscopic take on a slim slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, entitled Natasha, […]
‘A great movie icon’: Remembering Doris Day
American actress and singing star Doris Day has died aged 97 (3 April 1922 to 13 May 2019). She enjoyed a long career of more than 50 as a performer and has outlived all her leading men. She had a great career but one that didn’t always run smoothly, mainly because of the leading men […]
Kathy Burke to direct Edinburgh Festival Fringe premiere of #HonestAmy
Multi-award-winning actress, writer and director Kathy Burke will take on directing duties when Amy Booth-Steel takes her show and ukulele to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Presented by Paul Taylor-Mills, #HonestAmy A Ukulele Comedy will receive its world premiere at the Pleasance Dome in Edinburgh from 31 July to 26 August 2019. Written and performed […]
Operation Mincemeat – New Diorama Theatre
Operation Mincemeat continues at the New Diorama Theatre, London until 15 June 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ A musical about a corpse dressed up by MI6 to fool the Nazi high command is not something you come across every day. It’s even more astonishing that this is a historically accurate […]
Man Of La Mancha – London Coliseum
Man Of La Mancha continues at the London Coliseum until 8 June 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Man Of La Mancha (1965) was a huge hit in its day, clocking up a Broadway run of more than 2,000 performances, so putting it in the same league as Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady. […]
Enter Laughing: The Musical continues at The York Theatre Company, New York
Enter Laughing: The Musical continues at The York Theatre Company, New York until 9 June 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ For audiences with a deep nostalgia for old-time Hollywood and rather rosy feelings about getting through the hard times of the Great Depression, the Off-Broadway revival of Enter Laughing: The […]
Christine Allado, Fra Fee and Wendi Peters head up cast of The Clockmaker’s Daughter concert performance
Wendi Peters will join several of the West End stars who featured on the recent studio recording of The Clockmaker’s Daughter for a concert performance of Webborn and Finn’s magical musical next month. Former Coronation Street regular turned stage star Peters (Wonderland, Follies in Concert) will appear alongside Christine Allado, Fra Fee, Lauren James Ray […]
Fundraising success for inaugural West End Flea Market
Leading theatrical charity Acting For Others is celebrating raising an impressive £26,000 from the first West End Flea Market held last weekend at The Actors’ Church, St Pauls in Covent Garden. Thousands of theatre fans turned out to join in the fun as teams from The Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Les Misérables, Mamma Mia!, The […]
Lucie Jones and Ashley Roberts are the new Jenna and Dawn in Waitress at the Adelphi Theatre
Musical theatre favourite Lucie Jones will take over the central role of Jenna alongside ex-Pussycat Doll Ashley Roberts who will make her West End debut as Dawn in the London production of hit Broadway show of Waitress from 17 June 2019. Jones, who first found fame on the ITV talent show X Factor before making […]
Les Misérables – at Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring
Les Misérables continues at Milton Keynes Theatre until 8 June 2019 and then tours until 18 July 2020. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Les Misérables is such a well-established West End show, one could worry that the grandeur and impact of the show might not translate to a touring production, but any uncertainty […]
Shows confirmed for 15th West End LIVE
Over 27 shows and many of musical theatres biggest stars will feature in this year’s West End LIVE event when it returns to London’s iconic Trafalgar Square next month. With first time appearances from new hits including Come From Away, Only Fools and Horses The Musical, Waitress, 9 To 5 The Musical, Fiddler On The […]
T’Shan Williams is cast as Celie in The Color Purple
First images have been released of T’Shan Williams in the pivotal role of Celie in the Leicester Curve and the Birmingham Hippodrome’s major new co-production of the Broadway musical version of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Williams (Heathers The Musical, Theatre Royal, Haymarket/The Other Palace, The Life, Southwark Playhouse) has joined the cast as the […]
Six The Musical to go on an extensive nationwide Royal Tour
Critically-acclaimed musical Six will take to the road for a nine-month ‘Royal Tour’ this autumn. While the show’s current second season at the Arts Theatre has been extended into January 2020, the rock-flavoured show in which the wives of Henry VIII take centre stage will visit over 33 venues nationwide. Opening at the Yvonne Arnaud […]
Back To The Future The Musical will debut in Manchester in February 2020 ahead of a West End transfer
The original Doc Brown, Christopher Lloyd has welcomed the news that a stage musical version of the classic movie Back To The Future will debut in Manchester early in 2020 ahead of a West End run. The brainchild of producer Colin Ingram (Ghost – The Musical) and the creators of the much-loved time-travelling film series, […]
Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens – Union Theatre
Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens continues at the Union Theatre, London – until 8 June 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It is easy to forget, in these days of effective drug treatments, that life for HIV-positive people was so very different 30 years ago. There was no drug […]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A New Celtic Musical – Southwark Playhouse
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button continues at Southwark Playhouse, London – until 8 June 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ In true Benjamin Button style, I’d like to start with my conclusion: this gorgeous new piece of British writing is a must-see – a magical, heart-rending show that will renew your faith […]
Summer Street – Waterloo East Theatre
Summer Street continues at Waterloo East Theatre, London until 2 June 2019. Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Neighbours was a global television phenomenon. Reg Watson’s suburban soap opera involved families who felt much more relatable than his previous soaps Sons and Daughters and The Young Doctors. In the UK, the […]
Little Shop of Horrors – Storyhouse Theatre, Chester
Little Shop of Horrors continues at the Storyhouse Theatre, Chester – until 2 June 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Much of the charm of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Little Shop of Horrors is in its small-scale cast and orchestration. Stephen Mear, who has directed and choreographed this new production for Chester’s Storyhouse […]
My Left/Right Foot: The Musical – Theatre Royal, Brighton and Touring
My Left Foot/Right Foot continues at the Theatre Royal, Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival until 18 May 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ My Left Foot/Right Foot – The Musical (nominated for Musical Theatre Review’s Best Musical Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018) is a joint production between Birds […]
Full cast confirmed for London Palladium’s Joseph
Full casting has been confirmed for the eagerly-anticipated new London Palladium production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. With performances due to begin on Thursday 27 June 2019, Michael Pickering (as Simeon) and Richard Carson (as Reuben) will join the previously announced Jason Donovan, Sheridan Smith and Jac Yarrow who will make his professional […]
Tyrone Huntley to join the cast of The View UpStairs
Award-winning actor Tyrone Huntley will star opposite Broadway actor and writer Andy Mientus in the European premiere of new LGBTQ+ musical The View UpStairs. Fresh from his critically-acclaimed directorial debut with Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester and the Southwark Playhouse, Huntley (Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre) will […]
Come From Away – West End run extended into February 2020
Quadruple Olivier Award-winning new musical Come From Away will extend its audience and critic-pleasing West End debut into February next year. Inspired by the remarkable true story of the 7,000 stranded air passengers who found refuge in a small Canadian town in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack, the show that celebrates man’s […]
Cast revealed for Adrian Mole’s West End run as rehearsals begin
Rehearsals have begun for next month’s London transfer run of Leicester Curve and the Menier Chocolate Factory’s crowd-pleasing production of Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ – The Musical. Following the musical’s critically acclaimed debut in Leicester in 2015 and the equally successful Menier Chocolate Factory run in Adrian’s 50th […]
On Reflection: The Cast of Follies in Cabaret – Underbelly Festival
On Reflection: The Cast of Follies in Cabaret at the Underbelly Festival, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Janie Dee, who played Phyllis in the National Theatre’s stunning revival of Follies, keeps the musical theatre magic alive with her On Reflection cabaret. In this intimate hour-long cabaret in the Underbelly spiegeltent on the […]
Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene – Arcola Theatre
Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene continues at the Arcola Theatre, London until 19 May 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ In the late 1980s, German actress Ute Lemper was playing the role of Sally Bowles in a Parisian production of Cabaret, for which the French press dubbed her “la nouvelle Marlene”. Lemper […]
Guys and Dolls – Theatre Marigny, Paris,
Guys and Dolls continues at Theatre Marigny, Paris, until 31 May 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Arguments forever rage as to which is the greatest musical of them all as there are so many contenders but Guys and Dolls always takes high rank and is certainly the wittiest. The 1950 Broadway smash-hit, […]
Three/8:38/Seven – Wilton’s Music Hall
Three/8:38/Seven continues at Wilton’s Music Hall, London until 18 May 2019. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ The originally programmed Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill with Meow Meow and Viviana Durante was cancelled at a week’s notice and replaced by this triple bill. Three is an assortment of songs from Weill’s […]
Jenna Russell to lead company for Menier and Nunn’s Bridges of Madison County
Olivier Award winner Jenna Russell will lead the cast of the Menier Chocolate Factory’s eagerly-anticipated UK premiere of the musical version of Robert James Waller’s much-loved novel The Bridges of Madison County. With music and lyrics by triple Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Honeymoon in Vegas) and a book by […]
Fanny & Stella – The Shocking True Story – Above the Stag Theatre
Fanny & Stella – The Shocking True Story continues at Above the Stag Theatre, London until 2 June 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ This rewritten and restaged revival from 2015 throws us into the story of Fanny & Stella, the stage aliases of William Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, opening […]
Star-studded tribute to Gillian Lynne announced
Stars from the worlds of theatre, film, television and dance will celebrate the life of Gillian Lynne in a special tribute show which will mark the launch of the Lynne and Land Foundation. On 2 July 2019, a year and a day after the world-renowned choreographer passed away at the age of 92, some of […]
Avenue Q, string of West End stars and more added to Floating Festivals Stages cruise line-up
Smash hit West End and Broadway musical Avenue Q, the secrets behind brand new musical The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ – The Musical and a string of West End stars will all feature in the line-up for Stages – the UK’s only musical theatre festival at sea. Classical Brit Award winner Alfie […]
Follies-inspired show On Reflection heads for Underbelly Festival
Cast members of the National Theatre’s award-winning production Follies will celebrate the critically-acclaimed production in a special show as part of the Underbelly Festival Southbank from 13-16 May 2019. Presented by Janie Dee who will also join Follies’ co-stars including Alex Hanson and Joanna Riding, On Reflection will offer audiences the chance to glimpse behind […]
Concert performance debut for new Cleopatra show
Cleopatra’s tangled relationship with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar provides the inspiration for a new musical which debuts in concert form at the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden on Saturday (11 May 2019). Performed as part of Iris Theatre Company’s Work In Progress season, Cleopatra The Musical features music by musical director Lyndon Samuel and […]
Amour – Charing Cross Theatre
Amour continues at the Charing Cross Theatre, London until 20 July 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Amour is a musical fantasy with music by multi award-winning Michel Legrand with English lyrics adapted by Jeremy Sams (from the original in French by Didier Van Cauwelaert, adapted from the 1943 story Le Passe-Muraille by […]
Matthew Kelly, Wendi Peters and Kimberley Walsh join cast of Big The Musical
Matthew Kelly, Wendi Peters and Kimberley Walsh are the latest star names to line-up alongside Jay McGuiness in the cast of Big The Musical for its eagerly-anticipated limited nine-week season at the Dominion Theatre this autumn. Based on the hit 1980s body swap film Big, the musical version which made its European debut in Plymouth […]
Sondheim Sublime: Melissa Errico – Live At Zédel
Sondheim Sublime: Melissa Errico continues at Live At Zedel, London until 8 May 2019. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ When Melissa Errico made her London cabaret bow last year, I wrote: “Sometimes five stars are not enough. Such was the case with the hypnotic New York star’s triumphant UK debut at Zedel’s, 90 […]
CD Review: Cassidy – Cassidy Janson
CASSIDY – Cassidy Janson (BMG Records) Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Cassidy Janson has just released her debut album called Cassidy and it is a winner! Although famous for her appearances in musical theatre such as Wicked, Chess, Beautiful and the currently running ENO production of Man of La Mancha, none of these […]
European premiere of Tony Award-winning musical The Bridges of Madison County set for Menier Chocolate Factory
With The Bay at Nice currently running at the Menier and Fiddler on the Roof at the Playhouse Theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory has announced the European premiere of the musical of Robert James Waller’s bestselling novel The Bridges of Madison County in a new staging by Trevor Nunn. The production opens on 23 July […]
