New musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along have topped the voting in the Olivier Awards 2014 nominations, as announced by previous winners Nigel Harman and Leigh Zimmerman in London today. Best New Musical nominees Once, The Book of Mormon and The Scottsboro Boys are hot on their heels with six nominations. The highly […]
Richard Rodgers On Broadway – Act III – Wigmore Hall
Richard Rodgers On Broadway – Act III was performed by the Nash Ensemble with soloists Kim Criswell, William Burden and Louise Dearman at the Wigmore Hall, London. Like the proverbial No. 9 bus, you wait for ages for one and then two come along at once, and so it was with Do I Hear A Waltz?, […]
It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman – Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre
It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman continues at the Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre, Walthamstow, London until 22 March. Long before superheroes were the source of blockbuster movies and 35 years before the mega-musical Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark landed on Broadway, It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman opened on […]
Imelda Staunton’s Gypsy headlines Chichester Festival Theatre season
Chichester Festival Theatre’s much-anticipated production of Gypsy, starring Imelda Staunton as Mama Rose, will open on 14 October (running to 8 November) in the newly refurbished main house as part of the 2014 season. The production will reunite Staunton with director Jonathan Kent, following their award-winning collaboration on Sweeney Todd. Also in the cast will be Lara […]
Olivier Awards nominations streamed live on March 10
In a new initiative, the nominations for the Olivier Awards 2014 will be announced at Rosewood London, the awards’ official hotel partner, and simultaneously streamed live to audiences worldwide at 11.30am on Monday 10 March. The announcements will be made by Olivier Award winners from the last two years: Nigel Harman, who is starring in […]
Do I Hear a Waltz? – Park Theatre
Do I Hear A Waltz? continues at the Park Theatre, London, until 30 March. Watching the witty and charming end-product at the cosy 200-seater Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, it was hard to imagine that the birth of Do I Hear A Waltz? almost half a century ago was so beset by behind-the-scenes disharmony. With […]
Do I Hear a Waltz? – Rebecca Seale does
Actress Rebecca Seale is taking on the lead role of Leona Samish in Charles Court’s version of the seldom-performed musical Do I Hear a Waltz? The musical is based on Arthur Laurents’ play The Time of the Cuckoo and was adapted into a musical by Laurents, Richard Rodgers (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics). Charles Court Opera’s […]
Stiles and Drewe and Gavin Creel in Singular Sensations line-up
In a further coup for this spring’s season of Edward Seckeron’s Singular Sensations, musical theatre songwriting partnership George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Betty Blue Eyes, Just So, Honk!) and Gavin Creel – who originated the role of Elder Price in the US national tour of The Book of Mormon, a role he continues in the West End production – […]
The Mistress Cycle – Landor Theatre
The Mistress Cycle continues at the Landor Theatre, London until 9 March. The From Page to Stage season continues at the Landor with the UK premiere of an all-woman tale of sacrifice, destruction and renewal that first took shape more than 14 years ago, and settled into something close to its current form at the […]
Patti Boulaye – Crazy Coqs
Patti Boulaye performs at the Crazy Coqs, London, until 8 March. First of all, I have to declare an interest. Along with thousands of red-blooded males, I was totally smitten by Patti Boulaye when she won the 1978 edition of New Faces, the X Factor of its day, and many a good marriage was put […]
Let It Be – Palace Theatre, Manchester and Touring
Let It Be continues at the Palace Theatre, Manchester until 8 March, before touring until 5 July 2014. I’m not sure that, strictly speaking, you could class Let It Be, a theatrical tribute to the Fab Four – which has been a West End mainstay since its debut in 2012 – as a musical. Forty of […]
Rebecca Craven makes it big in Hairspray at Leicester’s Curve
Best-known for playing the inconsolable Rhiannon in the BBC drama series Waterloo Road, actress Rebecca Craven is taking her talents in a new direction, making her professional theatre debut as Tracy Turnblad in the new production of Hairspray at Leicester’s Curve theatre. Playing the teenager with high hopes, huge ambitions and even bigger hair, Craven […]
