Currently running at The Prince of Wales Theatre, London. Thank God for The Book of Mormon. Not only is it performing miracles at the box office – recently breaking records by taking £2.1 million in a single day – this original musical also offers a shining beacon in a market saturated with film remakes. No […]
And the nominations are…
Top Hat and Sweeney Todd are this year’s musical theatre front-runners at the 2013 Oliviers with the greatest number of nominations. Top Hat, still running at the Aldwych with a new cast in place, is named in seven categories, while the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre’s revival of Sweeney Todd is in close […]
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical
Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton. 11-16 March, then touring the UK until 5 January, 2014. Bringing to the stage a musical version of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was always going to be something of a risk. Priscilla is, after all, the nickname given to a second-hand bus and Stephan Elliot’s masterpiece of cinematography […]
The Hired Man
Reviewed at Mercury Theatre, Colchester. Transfers to Curve, Leicester, 12-27 April. The Hired Man, devised by Melvyn Bragg from his 1969 book of the same name, is based on the few facts he knew about his grandfather who was born about 1890. Bragg got to know him well during the Second World War when his […]
Stephen Ward is focus of Lloyd Webber Musical
It has been reported that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical about the 1963 Profumo Affair (reuniting him with Sunset Boulevard team, lyricist Don Black and playwright Christopher Hampton) is likely to be far more about the fate of the scandal’s scapegoat Stephen Ward, than Profumo. In the past, the composer has spoken sympathetically about Ward […]
Every Little Step She Takes
Broadway and West End actress Leigh Zimmerman is always true to the characters she plays, as Lisa Martland discovers. It’s hard to argue with Leigh Zimmerman’s record when it comes to musical theatre. Alongside a string of impressive TV and film credits, she has made a habit of playing and creating leading roles in Broadway […]
Quasimodo
King’s Head Theatre, London. 20 March to 13 April. Since the 19th century, the bells of the best-known cathedral in Paris have been ringing out with deafening clangs. So bad were they, that they were mocked as having deafened Quasimodo, the lead of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But on Palm […]
A Chorus Line
Currently running at the London Palladium. A major London revival of the iconic Broadway musical that is A Chorus Line has been a long time coming for those of us who weren’t around to catch the original West End production in 1976. Sadly, as the programme credits so poignantly point out, most of the original […]
Singin’ in the Rain hits the road
The West End production of Singin’ in the Rain will have its final performance at the Palace Theatre on Saturday, 8 June 2013, before it heads off on an extensive UK tour. The musical opens at Manchester’s Opera House on 13 November and then move to Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre for a Christmas and New […]
Special Olivier for Gillian Lynne
Acclaimed director and choreographer Gillian Lynne will receive a Special Award at the Oliviers 2013 in honour of her outstanding contribution to theatre and the arts. Lynne has most recently been in action as director of the UK premiere of Jerry Herman’s Dear World at London’s Charing Cross Theatre, but probably her best-known work has […]
Q&A with Gavin Lee from Top Hat
You’ve been treading the boards for 20 years, can you describe your training and what difference it made when you were starting out? “I started dancing at the age of 9. My first classes were disco dancing… Well, it was 1980! When I was growing up I did lots of amateur dramatics and school productions […]
The Tailor-Made Man
Musical Theatre Review catches up with the world premiere of The Tailor-Made Man, a new musical at London’s Arts Theatre. As the title suggests silent film actor William (Billy) Haines was a product of the Hollywood system, he was also its first openly gay star. This exuberant and entertaining musical tells of his career as […]
