Amber Gray and Patrick Page will reprise their original roles in American folk singer Anaïs Mitchell’s record-breaking Hadestown when it debuts at the National Theatre in November 2018 prior to a Broadway run in 2019. The actors who played the central roles of Persephone and Hades in the original New York Theatre Workshop will be […]
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Cast recording of It Happened in Key West to be released
The original London cast recording of award-winning Broadway composer Jill Santoriello’s latest work It Happened in Key West will be released on 5 November 2018 on all digital and streaming formats. Currently playing the final week of its well-received world premiere run at London’s Charing Cross Theatre (until Saturday 18 August 2018), the live recording […]
Hayden Tee is new Miss Trunchbull in West End’s Matilda
Award-winning New Zealand born actor Hayden Tee will step into the role of Miss Trunchbull in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s West End production of Matilda The Musical next month. The star whose previous roles include Javert in Les Misérables on Broadway, in the West End and on tour will take to the stage as the […]
The Full Monty – Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre, Birmingham
The Full Monty continues at the Old Joint Stock Pub & Theatre, Birmingham until 1 September 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ What a production. What a venue. This unforgettable musical, based of course on Simon Beaufoy and Peter Cattaneo’s 1997 film, features those rash, courageous chaps, egged on by lead Jerry Lukowski […]
Little Shop of Horrors – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Little Shop of Horrors continues at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London until 22 September 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Under Maria Aberg’s direction, this production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s 1982 classic glitters, often literally, with quality. From the moment the anonymous hooded figures slide on to the all grey impoverished Skid […]
Sparks – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard Beneath
Sparks continues at Pleasance Courtyard Beneath until 26 August 2018 (not 20). Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Jessica Butcher’s written debut explores the brain’s reaction to grief, and the messy relationship one woman forms in the wake of her own pain. It boasts a startlingly raw performance from Butcher herself, and features music by […]
Songlines – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard Beneath
Songlines continues at Pleasance Courtyard Beneath until 26 August 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Songlines is a sweet tale, and an archetypal one – two bruised misfits finding sanctuary from their circumstances in each other, whilst also struggling, as teens do, to give one another the security they each crave. It’s a messy […]
‘It’s a fun show, it’s heartfelt & I hope they learn a little bit about drag’: Velmi Celli wows the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
VELMA CELLI is the alter-ego of IAN STROUGHAIR. Velma has had a two-year-long residency at The Hippodrome, London and sold out shows at 54 Below, NYC, and London’s Charing Cross Theatre. She recently returned from sell-out performances across Australia and is now at the Edinburgh Fringe for Iconic – A Brief History of Drag which […]
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Hall
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels continues at the Assembly Hall until the 26 August 2018 (not 13 and 20). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ It’s a bold move to present a feature-length musical in amongst the Fringe’s pageant of bite-sized offerings, but the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA season kicks off with vigour, rollocking […]
Legacy: The Book of Names – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Rainy Hall
Legacy: The Book of Names continues at Assembly Rainy Hall until 26 August 2018 (not 20). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Born of a remarkable collaboration between the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the American Music Theatre Project in Chicago, the ‘Legacy’ series of new musicals explores heritage, history, and the common […]
Broken Romantics: A Unicorn’s Quest for Love – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Greenside
Broken Romantics: A Unicorn’s Quest for Love continues at Greenside until 18 August 2o18 (also 20-25). Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Emma Dean is a F&@cking Unicorn, and don’t you forget it. Heartbreak has been the muse of many an artist since the dawn of time, but Dean manages to infuse some […]
Legacy: A Mother’s Song – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Rainy Hall
Legacy: A Mother’s Song continues at Assembly Rainy Hall until 25 August 2018 (not 13). Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Born of a remarkable collaboration between the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the American Music Theatre Project in Chicago, the ‘Legacy’ series of new musicals explores heritage, history and the common resounding […]
The Last Five Years – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – PQA @Riddle’s Court
The Last Five Years continues at PQA @Riddle’s Court until 19 August 2018 (not 15, 22). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ In the same set-up as the companion piece here, Closer Than Ever, back projections on an upstage screen set a scenic tone behind a large sofa. This intimate two-hander has a ravishing […]
What Girls Are Made Of – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Traverse Theatre
What Girls Are Made Of continues at Traverse 1 until 26 August 2018 (not 15, 20). Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Cora Bissett – darling of Scottish theatre – takes us on a wee trip back in time to the Darlinghearts days of her youth. Whilst still at school, she was the lead vocalist […]
BARK! The Musical… How The Little Dog Found His Voice – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – C – Chambers Street
BARK! The Musical… How The Little Dog Found His Voice at C – Chambers Street until 27 August 2018 (not 13). Star rating: three stars ★★★✩✩ Where to begin? This was a truly unique theatrical experience, as for this one-off performance members of the audience were encouraged to bring along their own “Little Dog” with the reward […]
Sam Ferriday and Danielle Hope join Rock of Ages tour
Danielle Hope and Sam Ferriday will take on key roles in the eagerly anticipated UK and Ireland tour of the glam rock jukebox musical Rock of Ages which is due to open at the Bromley’s Churchill Theatre next month. Hope, who first found fame when she won the role of Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s […]
Twelfth Night – Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York
Twelfth Night continues at the Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York until 19 August 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Up-and-coming songwriter-performer Shaina Taub has transformed Twelfth Night into a Broadway-worthy musical comedy. It’s not transcendent Shakespeare but it’s a sturdy chunk of entertainment. And as produced by The Public Theater’s Public Works programme as […]
Liza Live! – Live at Zédel
Liza Live! at Live at Zédel, London, Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Since the cancellation of her Q&A concert at the London Paladium two seasons ago, Liza Minnelli has been away from the spotlight, so it’s good to have her back on stage, at least in spirit as portrayed by the […]
Bury the Hatchet – Hope Theatre
Bury the Hatchet at the Hope Theatre, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Lizzie Borden has been the subject of ballets, a full-length opera and films. The events that took place over a century ago continue to engage the public. Sasha Wilson and her co-creators have fashioned a concise theatre piece, less […]
Linzi Hateley will play Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers autumn 2018 tour
West End star Linzi Hateley will play the central role of Mrs Johnstone when Bill Kenwright’s acclaimed production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers begins the autumn leg of its 2018 tour next month. Recently seen as Donna in Mamma Mia!, Hateley (Carrie: The Musical, Chicago) will take centre stage as the mother forced to give […]
Closer Than Ever – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – PQA @Riddle’s Court
Closer Than Ever continues at PQA @Riddle’s Court until 27 August 2018 (not 15, 22). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ A classy visual of the cast of three men and three women all dressed in shades of grey and white sets the tone for the piece. The upstage area is used as […]
Thor and Loki – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Roxy
Thor and Loki continues at Assembly Roxy until 26 August 2018 (not 13). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Odin is a one-eyed piratical god – father of Thor (which not even his father pronounces to his satisfaction) and defender of Asgard. Loki is a giantess, and enemy of Asgard, yet she has sensitivity […]
This Ain’t No Disco – Linda Gross Theatre, New York
This Ain’t No Disco continues at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater until 12 August 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Studio 54 lives again in all its infamy in This Ain’t No Disco, a tremendously ambitious but finally dispiriting Off-Broadway musical, or, as it defines itself, “rock opera”. The creative team […]
Bring It On: The Musical – Southwark Playhouse
Bring It On: The Musical continues at Southwark Playhouse, London until 1 September 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Musical adaptations of moderately successful films are nothing new. Adaptations which proceed to throw out all the existing characters and plot lines, leaving only the barest resemblance to the original, are rarer. […]
Daniel Healy and Emma Lucia are cast in the regional premiere of Once
Singer-songwriter Daniel Healy will take the lead in the new actor/musician co-production of Tony Award-winning Once which will make its regional premiere at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich next month. Co-produced by the New Wolsey and the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, the new version of the hit show will feature Healy as Guy, a role he […]
Student newcomer Daisy Greenwood wins Lambert Jackson competition to perform in There’s Nothin’ Like a Dame
Seventeen-year-old student Daisy Greenwood has won the chance to perform alongside established West End stars in There’s Nothin’ Like a Dame – 100 Years of Women in Musical Theatre, a celebration of the genre’s female characters at Cadogan Hall later this month. The launch production from new musical theatre production company Lambert Jackson will feature […]
Alexandra Burke to return to play Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard tour
Alexandra Burke will return to the role of Rachel Marron when hit musical The Bodyguard embarks on its second UK later this year. The former X Factor winner and recording artist will revisit the character she previously played in the West End and on the sell-out first tour in 2015/2016 for the tour which is […]
Head Over Heels – Hudson Theatre, New York
Head Over Heels continues at the Hudson Theatre, New York. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ A lot of theatrical smarts are on view in Head Over Heels, but this new jukebox Broadway musical also has a tendency to wallow in some low-grade smirking, even as it offers a celebration of love in general, […]
Shit-Faced Showtime: Oliver With a Twist – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly Bristo Square
Shit-Faced Showtime: Oliver – With a Twist continues at Underbelly, Bristo Square until 27 August 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ From the masterminds behind the Fringe phenomenon Shit-Faced Shakespeare comes this inevitable branch of the franchise: musical theatre! Who could resist a Shit-Faced Showtime? For those new to the premise, it’s fairly simple. […]
Sheridan Smith’s Funny Girl to debut in cinemas
Cinemagoers will get the chance to see Sheridan Smith’s critically-acclaimed performance as Fanny Brice when a filmed version of the hit stage production of Funny Girl is screened in cinemas nationwide on 24 October 2018. Filmed by Digital Theatre during the final week of the show’s run at the Manchester Palace Theatre, the recording of […]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Kilworth House Theatre
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat continues at Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire until 9 September 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ The canopies of Kilworth House Theatre open once more to the glitz of a night at the theatre, and what could be more glitzy than the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic Joseph? It is – […]
INTERVIEW: Liza and Lykken arrive in London
Winner of the 2017 Manhattan Association of Cabarets Award for ‘Best Impersonation’ (also Best Duo 2012 for Judy and Liza Together Again), Best Achievement in Performance at the 2007 Dublin Theatre Festival, the 2006 MAC Award for Best Impersonator and the Backstage Bistro Award, Broadway veteran RICK SKYE has taken various incarnations of Liza Live! from New York to […]
Tamar Broadbent / Best Life – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly Cowgate
Tamar Broadbent: Best Life continues at Underbelly Cowgate – Belly Laugh until 26 August (not 13) 2018. Star rating: four stars ★★★★✩ Tamar’s in a pickle: her Grandma wants her to find a man to take care of her, but she’s an ambitious, independent young woman and she wants more! Also, she’s yet to meet the penis she […]
The Showstoppers’ Kids Show – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard
The Showstoppers’ Kids Show continues at the Pleasance Courtyard until 19 August 2018. Star rating: four stars ★★★★✩ Having long admired Showstoppers! The Improvised Musical, it seems only fair to see how the junior version works out… The essential formula remains the same: a team of five multi-skilled performers are supported by keyboards and percussion as they use […]
Mairi Campbell / Auld Lang Syne – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Mairi Campbell – Auld Lang Syne continuesat the Scottish Storytelling Centre until 27 August (not 13) 2018. Star rating: four stars ★★★★✩ The award-winning Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile is the perfect venue to showcase such an inherently Scottish piece of work. Auld Lang Syneis, of course, known the world over – or is it? Mairi […]
My Left Right Foot The Musical – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Assembly Roxy
My Left Right Foot – The Musical continues at Assembly Roxy until 27 August (not 8, 14, 21) 2018 (relaxed performance on 19 August). Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ From the outset, this show is different – the opening is signed in BSL, with super-titles projected above the stage. The staging is described in the most unattractive terms possible for […]
Broken Wings – Theatre Royal Haymarket
Broken Wings continues at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London until 4 August 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Based on Kahlil Gibran’s 1912 novel, this curiously old fashioned (traditional?) musical is touching without being mawkishly sentimental. The autobiographical source material tells the story of Gibran’s returning to his native Beirut after spending most […]
The Boatswain’s Mate – Arcola Theatre
The Boatswain’s Mate was presented at the Arcola Theatre, London as part of the Grimeborn Festival. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ The Arcola Theatre’s month-long Grimeborn Festival centres on operas, including fresh interpretations of classic works as well as new and neglected ones. But it has also been known to extend its remit to […]
The Girls From Oz – Because, Because, Because, Because, Because – The Other Palace and Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Girls From Oz – Because, Because, Because, Because, Because… at The Other Palace, London and then at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (theSpace @ Symposium Hall). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ On a sweltering night in London, had this been an alfresco performance, antipodean-style hats with dangly corks would have not looked out of place, given […]
Smokey Joe’s Café – Stage 42, New York
Smokey Joe’s Café continues at Stage 42, New York. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller might not have all the dewy freshness they had back in the 1950s and 1960s when the songwriting team was contributing mightily to the soundtrack of our lives. Now those songs […]
Cast announced for Wasted at Southwark Playhouse
Natasha Barnes, Siobhan Athwal, Molly Lynch and Matthew Jacobs Morgan will star in the award-winning Wasted when it receives its world premiere as a fully staged show at the Southwark Playhouse this autumn. Presented by Oli Sones and Sally Humphreys Productions, the rock musical that re-imagines the lives of the Brontë siblings in a modern […]
Fame – The Musical – Palace Theatre, Manchester and Touring
Fame – The Musical at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, then touring until 17 August 2019. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ There’s something about Fame that clearly endures. While the road to stardom was a rocky one for the students of New York’s High School of Performing Arts, each fictional incarnation – Alan Parker’s 1980 […]
Edinburgh Festival Fringe Preview – Our Top Ten Musical Theatre Tips
With only a couple of days before the Edinburgh Festival Fringe begins, we’re keen to share the Top 10 shows we’re looking forward to seeing in 2018, writes Edinburgh Editor Fiona Orr. There will be, once again, a winner selected from the huge range of musical theatre pieces staged this year for Musical Theatre Review’s […]
Hymn to Love – Jermyn Street Theatre
Hymn to Love continues at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London until 18 August 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Edith Piaf was, and probably still is, the most famous French singer of our time. She was a popular figure all over the world and yet she came from very humble and tragic beginnings. […]
Sinatra Raw – Hospital Club and Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Sinatra Raw is at The Frankenstein Pub, Edinburgh from 3-27 August 2018 (reviewed at The Hospital Club, London). Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Officially, Frank Sinatra retired from singing in 1971, with a celebratory concert at the Hollywood Bowl. He would go on to perform many times after that – but Richard Shelton’s play […]
New production company Lambert Jackson to pay tribute to musical theatre’s leading ladies in There’s Nothin’ Like a Dame
New musical theatre production company Lambert Jackson will launch with a one-night celebration of the genre’s female characters at London’s Cadogan Hall this summer. Featuring a quartet of popular West End leading ladies, There’s Nothin’ Like a Dame on 30 August 2018 will celebrate 100 years of female characters in musical theatre. Taking to the […]
Labour MP added to Women In Power writing team
High-profile Labour MP Jess Phillips has been added to the writing team for the world premiere production of Women In Power – A Musical Comedy. Phillips will join award-winning poet Wendy Cope, comedian Jenny Eclair, screenwriter and playwright Suhayla El-Bushra, writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, comedian Shappi Khorsandi and award-winning writer Brona C Titley to […]
New dance version of The Pirates of Penzance to debut in 2019
Gilbert and Sullivan’s much-loved The Pirates of Penzance will make its debut re-imagined as a major dance spectacular in the UK in 2019, 140 years after the comic opera was first performed. Presented by Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Bateman, New Level Productions and Julian Stoneman, the danced-through musical will be directed and choreographed […]
NYMT announces three-week London season
The National Youth Music Theatre a three-week summer residency at The Other Palace will include a new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s award winning Beautiful Game. Running from 15-18 August 2018, the musical set during ‘The Troubles’ in Belfast in 1969 will feature Jasper Britton, the NYMT alumnus who spoke the first lines […]
Did you know that sun-soaked Club Tropicana The Musical is launching In January 2019
The sounds and fashions of the 1980s provide the colourful inspiration for Club Tropicana The Musical which will receive its world premiere in January ahead of UK tour. Written by Michael Gyngell, co-writer of the stage adaptation of Summer Holiday, the musical comedy will feature a soundtrack composed of 1980s pop hits. Announcing the new […]
