It’s Only Life continues at the Union Theatre, London until 7 July 2018. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ One disadvantage with songwriters that write highly personal, intimate songs is that there is often a preponderance of numbers about writing. This is often true with It’s Only Life, a revue of songs by John Bucchino that was originally put together […]
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Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – Betty Blue Eyes
Betty Blue Eyes was performed by Trinity Laban Musical Theatre students at Stratford Circus, London. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Betty Blue Eyes is set in the post war austerity of 1947 at the time of Princess Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip. Meat is severely rationed and people are pretty fed up. Then some local bigwigs […]
Royal Academy of Music – Working
Working, performed by the Royal Academy of Music’s Musical Theatre Company and Orchestra, continues at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London until 17 June 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Working is a strange show. Based on interviews by American journalist Studs Terkel with ordinary people from all walks of life, it consists of […]
Super-understudy Steph Parry wins leading role in 42nd Street
In a major case of life imitating art, Steph Parry will step into a leading role in the hit re-working of classic backstage musical comedy 42nd Street at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The actress who hit the headlines last week when she raced to the rescue when the leading lady in the nearby production […]
Kinky Boots to walk away from the West End in January 2018
Multi-award-winning Kinky Boots has become the latest West End favourite to announce it will close in early 2019. Following on from the news that Dreamgirls would end its Savoy Theatre run on 12 January 2019, the producers of the hugely popular tale of Charlie, Lola, Lauren and co. have announced they will be hanging up […]
Guys and Dolls – Kilworth House Theatre
Guys and Dolls continues at Kilworth House Theatre, Leicestershire until 8 July 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It’s that time of year again. Kilworth House Theatre has thrown open its gates and treated us to another summertime classic, care of director and choreographer Nick Winston and the cast of this […]
Son of Rambow – work-in-progress workshop – The Other Palace
Son of Rambow was presented in a work-in-progress workshop at The Other Palace, London. When the St James Theatre was purchased by Andrew Lloyd Webber and rebranded as The Other Palace, it was also touted as a venue for the development of new British musicals. And to be honest, some of its headlining musicals haven’t […]
Actor Mark Williams to play Dr Dolittle
Screen and stage favourite Mark Williams will star in the major new production of Leslie Bricusse’s enduringly popular Doctor Dolittle when it takes to the road in November 2018 as part of the 1960s’ film’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The star of The Fast Show, Father Brown and the Harry Potter films will take on the […]
Trevor Dion Nicholas to join cast of Light Princess concert performance
Trevor Dion Nicholas will take time out from playing the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin to take on the role of King Darius in the first concert performance of The Light Princess at Cadogan Hall on Sunday 1 July 2018. Nicholas will join the previously announced Rosalie Craig (Company), Hadley Fraser (Young Frankenstein), Norman Bowman (42nd […]
Matt Terry makes acting debut in Madagascar musical
X Factor 2016 winner Matt Terry will make his musical theatre debut in the new stage adaptation of Dreamworks’ hit animated movie Madagascar which will debut at the New Theatre Wimbledon next month ahead of a UK tour. Terry will play Alex the lion in the production and he will be joined by a cast including Antoine Murray-Straughan, Timmika […]
Matilda the Musical – Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring
Matilda the Musical continues at Milton Keynes Theatre until 30 June 2018, before continuing its tour until 17 August 2019. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ Roald Dahl’s classic tells the tale of a young girl, who has a great imagination, intellect and magical powers. However, her life isn’t made easy by her parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood who […]
The Band’s Visit tops the Tony Awards
The Band’s Visit, the anti-razzmatazz musical, was warmly welcomed at the 2018 Tony Awards, taking home 10 of the trophies, including Best Musical, and far outstripping its competition. The tender tale of a group of Egyptian musicians who by happenstance spend a night in a small Israeli desert town, a night in which they make […]
Arts Ed’s Alex Cardall wins the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award – Savoy Theatre
Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year and Stiles + Drewe Best New Song competitions at the Savoy Theatre, London. After four years of female domination, Alex Cardall struck back for the fellas by winning the 12th annual Stephen Sondheim Student Performer of the Year competition at its new venue, the Savoy Theatre. The ArtsEd student who comes […]
Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year and Stiles + Drewe Prize 2018 – meet the winners
The winners of the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year and Stiles + Drewe Prize have been announced at the 12th anniversary West End Gala at the Savoy Theatre which was hosted Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett. Alex Cardall (who is about to graduate from the Arts Educational Schools, London) won the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year award after performing ‘Buddy’s […]
Immersion Theatre’s Seussical The Musical set for festive run in London
The mischievous Cat in the Hat will lead the line-up of fantastical characters taking over the Southwark Playhouse in a major new production of Seussical The Musical this Christmas season. Presented by the inventive Immersion Theatre, the larger-than-life creations of Dr Seuss will be brought to life in a production which will run from 22 […]
Kerry Ellis and Earl Carpenter line up for new open-air festival The Wight Proms
West End and Broadway leading lady Kerry Ellis will be one of the headline acts taking to the stage during the Isle of Wight’s new annual open-air festival The Wight Proms in August. The popular star of shows as varied as Murder Ballad, Wicked and We Will Rock You will join fellow West End and […]
Oklahoma! – Grange Park Opera
Oklahoma! continues at The Theatre in the Woods, West Horsley Place, Surrey until 7 July. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Oklahoma!, granny’s favourite, is a safe choice for Grange Park Opera’s first musical in their wondrous new theatre in the Surrey woods, built by themselves with the help of generous donations after the fallout […]
Plays to feature in Other Palace repertoire alongside musicals as Paul Taylor-Mills steps down as artistic director
Leading independent producer Paul Taylor-Mills has taken on the new role of affiliate producer at The Other Palace following his two-year tenure as artistic director of the former St. James Theatre. The producer whose credits include the London premieres of In The Heights and Carrie: The Musical will mark his debut as The Other Palace’s […]
Dreamgirls to end Savoy run before UK tour
The critically-acclaimed UK premiere run of Dreamgirls will give its final performance at the Savoy Theatre on Saturday 12 January 2019 ahead of a UK tour. Currently starring Marisha Wallace, Moya Angela and Karen Mav sharing the iconic role of Effie White, with Asmeret Ghebremichael as Lorrell Robinson and Brennyn Lark as Deena Jones, the award-winning production will end after lighting up the Savoy for […]
San Domino – Tristan Bates Theatre, London
San Domino continues at the Tristan Bates Theatre until 30 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Fascism, believed Benito Mussolini and his followers, was an inherently virile regime. Homosexuality, on the other hand, was not seen as virile: therefore, there could be no homosexuality in Fascist Italy. Such illogic seems ridiculous now, but […]
Café Society Swing – Theatre Royal Stratford East, London
Café Society Swing continues at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London until 16 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ The stories of so many of America’s greatest black cabaret and jazz stars are dominated by Café Society, the club in New York’s Greenwich Village which ran for ten years from 1938 to 1948. When […]
Summer Holiday – Octagon Theatre, Bolton
Summer Holiday continues at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton until 23 June 2018. Star rating: three stars ★★★✩✩ With the theatre about to undergo major refurbishment the Octagon offers a tantalising glimpse of life on the road in the theatre’s new production of Summer Holiday, inviting the audience to join in on an adventure from Bolton to Athens […]
Interview: Actress Rebecca Trehearn is looking for the ‘it’ factor at the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year gala
The West End Gala for The Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Yearand the The Stiles + Drewe Prize, celebrating up and coming performers and writers, returns this weekend, at the Savoy Theatre on 10 June 2018. The annual competition, co-produced by the Stephen Sondheim Society and Mercury Musical Developments, features 12 of the top student performers […]
Issy van Randwyck: Songs of the Dazzling Divas – The Pheasantry
Issy van Randwyck: Songs of the Dazzling Divas at The Pheasantry, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It’s way back in the last century that I last saw Issy van Randwyck – or Baroness Isabelle of noble Dutch descent, as she was then before becoming Mrs Ed Hall, wife of the artistic director […]
Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart – Signature Theatre, New York
Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart continues at the Signature Theatre, New York until 17 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ “Can Tchaikovsky’s words influence the way you hear his music?” asks Eve Wolf, founder and executive artistic director of the Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in a programme note for her company’s […]
Alyssa Martyn joins cast of musical It Happened in Key West at the Charing Cross Theatre
Final casting has been announced for It Happened in Key West, a major new romantic comedy musical, which will get its world premiere at London’s Charing Cross Theatre in a strictly limited seven-week season from Wednesday 4 July 2018. It Happened in Key West is inspired by shocking true events that rocked the tiny island […]
Magic Mike Live to take up residence at the Hippodrome
Details have been released of the eagerly-anticipated London season of Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike Live which will debut at the Hippodrome Casino in November. Announced by the Hollywood actor during the final of Britain’s Got Talent, the show which launched in Las Vegas last year will begin previewing at the Leicester Square venue on 10 […]
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to make feature film debut
Award-winning musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is celebrating an extension to its successful West End run and the news that the show will be turned into a major movie musical. Inspired by a TV documentary, the show which has its roots in the true story of a remarkable 16-year-old boy will be transformed into a […]
Mark Petty’s first four Crazy Coqs Presents shows announced
Lyricist Mark Petty has released details of the Crazy Coqs Presents series of shows which will launch this month at Live At Zédel. Announced earlier this year as part of the packed summer season line-up at London entertainment hub, the themed shows will be co-produced and hosted by Petty, the UK half of transatlantic songwriting […]
Performance Preparation Academy – The Producers
The Producers by Performance Preparation Academy continues at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford until 9 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Mel Brooks’ outrageously camp and massively politically incorrect musical gives the PPA third years the opportunity to overact to their hearts’ content and don’t they make the most of it in […]
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – Drayton Arms Theatre
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee continues at the Drayton Arms Theatre, London until 16 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ William Finn first came to wider attention with his musical March of the Falsettos in 1981, the middle piece of his Falsetto trilogy. It won awards, transferred to Broadway […]
Hope Mill Theatre’s Aspects of Love – cast and creatives revealed
Olivier Award nominees and West End regulars will take to the stage alongside newcomers making their professional debuts in the cast for the eagerly-anticipated intimate revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love at Manchester’s award-winning Hope Mill Theatre. Hope Mill favourite Jonathan O’Boyle (Hair, Pippin) will return to direct the ten-strong company in the […]
More tickets available for Hamilton
Jeffrey Seller and Cameron Mackintosh have announced another extended booking period for the smash hit London version of the multi-award-winning Broadway hit Hamilton. Tickets for performances until Saturday 30 March 2019 will go on sale via official Hamilton ticketing channels from Monday (4 June 2018) at 12 noon GMT. Earmarked by Mackintosh as the perfect […]
The Rink – Southwark Playhouse
The Rink continues at the Southwark Playhouse, London until 23 June 2018. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ In an age where some of the biggest musicals are either faithful movie re-creations or give up on the form completely by being mere dance spectacles, it is good to welcome back the masterclass in musical theatre that is The […]
West End Live 2018 show line-up announced
Over 25 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. Shows as varied as The Lion King, Wicked, Bat Out of Hell The Musical and Kinky Boots will return to appear in the main stage line-up […]
A Little Princess – Royal Festival Hall
A Little Princess at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Star rating: two stars ★★✩✩✩ Andrew Lippa’s adaptation of A Little Princess makes its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in a one-off concert performance. Based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s original 1905 novel, the evening plays out in suitably quaint fashion, with plucky young Sara (Jasmine Sakyiama) being lovingly […]
Kiss Me, Kate – Grand Theatre, Leeds and Touring
Kiss Me, Kate at the Grand Theatre, Leeds. The Opera North production plays four performances at the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna, Italy before returning to the UK to play the London Coliseum from 20-30 June 2018. The show will then head for the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh from 4-7 July. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ Reviewing Opera […]
Too Young to Stay In: Too Old to Go Out – Nigel Osner – Sweet Werks 2, Brighton
Too Young to Stay In – Too Old to Go Out, performed by Nigel Osner, continues at Sweet Werks 2, Brighton until 28 May 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Returning to the Brighton Fringe where last year he performed Angel to Vampire, Nigel Osner premieres his latest work. His new show […]
The Leftovers – Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
The Leftovers was reviewed at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ The artistic process is, as we all know, an unknowable and elusive creature. In Nic Harvey and Rob Green’s new production of The Leftovers, five acquaintances are thrown together into a music studio, to channel their grief over the […]
Mica Paris, Keith Jack and Jorgie Porter cast in new UK tour of Fame the Musical
Pop star turned actress Mica Paris will play the pivotal role of Miss Sherman in the 30th-anniversary tour of Fame The Musical when it launches at the Manchester Palace Theatre in July 2018. The singer will appear alongside Keith Jack (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, UK tour) as classical actor Nick Piazza and Hollyoaks […]
Gary Williams Celebrates 1968 – Live at Zédel
Gary Williams Celebrates 1968 at Live at Zédel, London. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ Crazy Coqs favourite Gary Williams returns with a celebratory tribute to 1968. While the Vietnam War raged and the Civil Rights movement was finding its feet, some of the greatest popular music was being made. It was the year that Andy Williams, […]
Into the Woods – Cockpit Theatre
Into the Woods continues at the Cockpit Theatre, London until 24 June 2018. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods opened on Broadway in 1987 and won three Tony Awards. Seen some years later in London in an award-winning production at the Phoenix Theatre with a […]
London Musical Theatre Orchestra announces concert versions of Camelot, Girlfriends & A Christmas Carol
Lerner and Loewe’s haunting Camelot will return to the West End for the first time in decades this autumn when London Musical Theatre Orchestra presents a special concert version at the London Palladium. The multi-award-winning story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table is one of three more productions announced for the […]
Martin Kemp to play West End’s Billy Flynn in Chicago
Former pop star Martin Kemp will take over from Cuba Gooding Jr, as Billy Flynn in the hit revival of Chicago at London’s Phoenix Theatre from Monday 2 July 2018. Recently seen on stage in the UK tour of Million Dollar Quartet, the Spandau Ballet guitarist will step into the role of the smooth-talking lawyer […]
The Biograph Girl – Finborough Theatre
The Biograph Girl continues at the Finborough Theatre, London until 9 June 2018. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Musicals celebrating the era of silent film are rare. There is Mack and Mabel, of course; but beyond that, Singin’ in the Rain and its ilk tend to prefer to eulogise about what came after the advent of […]
The Old Vic announces cast for Suffragette musical Sylvia
Casting has been announced for choreographer Kate Prince’s latest work, the suffragette-inspired SYLVIA which will receive its world premiere at London’s Old Vic in September. Co-written by Prince, the founder of dance company Zoonation, Prince and Priya Parmar with music by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde, SYLVIA is a modern musical that will celebrate the […]
Just Another Love Story – Above The Arts
Just Another Love Story continues at Above The Arts, London until 26 May 2018. Star rating: five stars ★★★★★ There have been a rash of Sondheim shows in and around the London Fringe in the past few weeks but Ray Rackham’s love letter to the world’s greatest living composer is as good as it gets. Rackham, the […]
Interview: Gemma Sutton – star of The Rink at the Southwark Playhouse – finds the best things come in small packages
GEMMA SUTTON joins Caroline O’Connor in the first London revival of Kander and Ebb’s The Rink in 20 years, opening at London’s Southwark Playhouse this week. The Rink, running from 25 May until 23 June 2018, is the story of Italian housewife Anna (O’Connor), who runs a failing roller-skating business on the East Coast of the US, […]
Former X Factor star Holly Tandy to play Dorothy in Blackpool’s festive Wizard of Oz
The X Factor 2017 finalist Holly Tandy will make her stage debut in the Blackpool Opera House ‘s Christmas production of The Wizard of Oz. Tandy who was the youngest contestant in last year’s edition of the TV talent show will step into Dorothy’s ruby slippers alongside local radio star Radio Wave’s Scott Gallagher as the Cowardly […]
Lorna Dallas – Spring Collection – Live at Zédel
Lorna Dallas’ Spring Collection at Live at Zédel, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Back at Live at Zédel, Lorna Dallas presented an updated version of her cabaret show Spring Collection. It is still topical because we haven’t had much of a spring, weatherwise, that is, until the current heatwave. And it’s […]
