Twang!! performed by Guildford School of Acting’s third-year musical theatre graduates at the Ivy Arts Centre, Guildford, Surrey, until 9 November. Any connection between the newly-minted version of Lionel Bart’s gigantic 1965 flop Twang!! and a sane, normal evening at the theatre is purely coincidental… but it is tremendous fun. The double exclamation mark in the title […]
The Three Shonas – The Pheasantry
The Three Shonas performed at The Pheasantry, London. Shona White, Shona Lindsay and Shonagh Daly, each of them having made their mark in musical theatre, thought that if there were The Three Tenors, then why not a cabaret act, The Three Shonas? And what an inspired idea it turned out to be for the London […]
Steve Ross – Ridin’ High – Crazy Coqs
Steve Ross performed Ridin’ High at the Crazy Coqs, London. Steve Ross almost sheepishly admits that he has been in the cabaret business for 54 years. It seems incredible that so accomplished a musician and vocalist is not more widely known outside the cabaret circuit. Toasted as New York’s Crown Prince of Cabaret by The […]
High Society – Bridewell Theatre
High Society continues at the Bridewell Theatre, London until November 9. Amateur theatre is often as highly variable in quality as the professional fringe circuit. With so many small theatres’ own productions relying on unpaid actors, sometimes the only principal difference between an amateur performance and a professional one is the amount of training the performers have had. Centre Stage, […]
Michael Feinstein and Friends – Palace Theatre
Michael Feinstein and Friends at the Palace Theatre, London. Small, dapper and a ridiculously young-looking 57, Michael Feinstein bounded on to the Palace stage and gave us a two-hour trawl through the Great American Songbook with brief assistance from Elaine Paige and Julian Ovenden in this flagship event of the first London Festival of Cabaret. […]
Mamma Mia! – Blackpool cast revealed
The producers of Mamma Mia! have announced the full cast for the exclusive UK summer season of the musical’s international tour at the Blackpool Opera House, opening in June 2014 (20 June–31 August). This will be the only UK venue outside of London to host the hit musical next year. Real-life husband and wife, Richard Standing […]
Sondheim: Inside Out – Southbank Centre
An impressive line-up of performers will join conductor Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra for Sondheim: Inside Out, showcasing the life and music of lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim as part of Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise Festival on Sunday, 10 November. Renowned Sondheim interpreter and director of the much-acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory […]
Denise Van Outen tours in new play Some Girl I Used to Know
Denise Van Outen will appear in a new one-woman play with music, Some Girl I Used to Know, which she has also co-written with Terry Ronald. The UK tour will open at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, with a press night on 5 February 2014, continuing to Birmingham, Hull, Aylesbury, Wolverhampton, Swindon, High Wycombe, Rhyl, […]
Janie Dee – St James Theatre Studio
Janie Dee performed in cabaret at the St James Studio Theatre, London as part of the London Festival of Cabaret. It would be hard to imagine a more fitting artist to end the first week of the London Festival of Cabaret than Janie Dee – a consummate performer who does not just sing a song […]
After Midnight – Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York
After Midnight continues at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York, for an open-ended run. To borrow from E.Y. (Yip) Harburg’s memorable lyric, it seems like happiness is just a thing called After Midnight. This revue of music from the heyday in the late 1920s of the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem night-spot, is escapist Broadway […]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Wimbledon/Touring
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat runs at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 2 November and then continues its tour. Playing during the school half-term, this colourful and fun production of the long-running Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical collaboration was perfect pre-Xmas fare for all the family. Indeed for much of the […]
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels reaches West End – Robert Lindsay and Rufus Hound star
The UK Premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels will arrive at London’s Savoy Theatre in March 2014 starring Olivier, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actor Robert Lindsay (Me And My Girl, Becket, Oliver! and My Family) and comedian Rufus Hound (One Man, Two Guvnors, Celebrity Juice) as the comedy duo Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson. Katherine Kingsley joins the pair as Christine Colgate (A Midsummer […]
