Broadway’s Bradley Gibson is leading the company of Disney Theatrical Group’s hit UK premiere production of Disney’s Hercules as the popular musical completes its run at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Tag Archives | Disney
First casting for new production of Disney’s High School Musical
First casting has been announced for the eagerly awaited first UK non-replica production of Disney’s High School Musical, the run of which been extended for an extra week.
Movie review: Frozen: The Musical – Disney+
Frozen: The Musical is streaming on Disney+. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ It will be a real treat for fans of the animated original and Theatre Royal stage door devotees alike.
UK pro premiere for Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Award-winning producer Jack Maple will present the UK professional premiere of the stage musical adaptation of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame in London this summer.
Disney finds its West End Hercules
Luke Brady will take on the title role in the upcoming UK premiere production of Disney’s Hercules at Theatre Royal Drury Lane next summer.
Tributes paid to legendary Disney songwriter Richard M. Sherman
The Walt Disney Company has been leading the tributes to Richard M. Sherman following his death at the age of 95. Half of one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in the history of Hollywood, Richard M. together with his brother Robert B. were regarded as an integral part of the Disney success story.
Disney’s Aladdin tour – cast announced
Yeukayi Ushe (Disney’s The Lion King, A Strange Loop, Kinky Boots and Motown The Musical) will star as Genie alongside recent Royal Academy of Music graduate Gavin Adams who will make his professional debut in the title role in Disney’s Aladdin as the hit show takes flight on its first UK and Ireland tour this autumn.
Film Review: The Little Mermaid – Review
The Little Mermaid is on general release, certificate PG. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Lion King West End to welcome new Simba and Nala
Owen Chaponda and Merryl Ansah will step into the iconic roles of Simba and Nala in the award-winning West End production of Disney’s The Lion King this spring.
New booking period for UK premiere production of Disney’s Newsies
The producers of the UK premiere of Tony Award-winning musical Newsies at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre have announced a new booking period with tickets now on sale for performances through to 30 July 2023.
Frozen – Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Frozen continues at at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ After a year of magic in the West End, Frozen has had some cast changes. What a splendid excuse to open up the gates for a celebratory media night.
Summer’s Something Magical in Covent Garden Disney experience launches
Disney fans are getting the chance to get closer to their favourite shows once again with the launch of this year’s Something Magical in Covent Garden campaign. A partnership between Covent Garden and Disney on Stage the Summer Pop-Up Experiences will bring the magic of Disney musicals into the heart of Covent Garden up to […]
Louis Gaunt will be Mary Poppins’ new Bert in West End
Louis Gaunt will step into the role of Bert in Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s multi-award-winning Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre from 22 June 2022. Winner of a Stage Debut Award in 2018 for his performance in Grange Park Opera’s Oklahoma!, Gaunt (Sweet Charity, Nottingham Playhouse, Gypsy, Royal Exchange Theatre) will take over from […]
Extension announced for West End’s Mary Poppins
Disney and Cameron Mackintosh have announced an extension to performances of the multi-award-winning Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre. Starring Zizi Strallen (Strictly Ballroom The Musical, Piccadilly Theatre, Mary Poppins tour UK, Ireland and Dubai) as the magical nanny alongside Charlie Stemp (Half A Sixpence, West End, Hello, Dolly!, Broadway) as Bert, the musical […]
London Palladium season for new Beauty and the Beast
The re-imagined and re-designed production of the Olivier Award-winning stage musical version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast will play a limited season at the London Palladium this summer as part of its successful UK and Ireland tour. After impressing regional audiences and the critics with her performance as Belle, Courtney Stapleton (Six, Dear Evan Hansen) […]
Trio of Golden Globe Awards for Spielberg’s West Side Story
Stephen Spielberg’s re-working of Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s classic West Side Story was named Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) at the weekend’s Golden Globe Awards. Recently released in cinemas, the musical was one of the big winners at the low-key, not so glittering event winning a trio of awards including a Best Actress award […]
Film Review: Encanto
Disney’s Encanto is now available in cinemas. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Most new Disney animations feel like a creative milestone, such is the enduring creative gravitas of the company, but Encanto, its 60th official animated feature, is being hailed as especially notable as it’s the first from the famed studio to […]
Giles Terera recollects theatre directly and authentically from the actor’s perspective in Hamilton and Me
Tom Martland writes: July marks the 17th, and hopefully final, month in which curtains have been down and house lights shut off across the West End and the rest of the country’s usually vibrant theatres. It also marks the publication of Hamilton and Me: An Actor’s Journal by London’s original Aaron Burr, Giles Terera. If […]
Covent Garden to host third Disney Pop-Up Experience
Disney fans will once again get the chance to get closer than ever before to their favourite shows when the film studios’ theatrical arm opens its Summer Pop-Up Experience in the heart of London’s Covent Garden later this month. Located in the historic Carriage Hall on Floral Street, the third Disney on Stage Summer Pop-Up […]
Dianne Pilkington to lead the cast of Bedknobs and Broomsticks musical
Dianne Pilkington will lead the company assembled for the world premiere run of the major new musical based on the much-loved Disney classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The actress whose extensive West End genre credits include Wicked, Les Misérables and Young Frankenstein will star as the mysterious Miss Eglantine Price opposite fellow West End veteran Charles […]
Courtney Stapleton and Emmanuel Kojo to star in new look Beauty and the Beast on tour
Courtney Stapleton and Emmanuel Kojo will take on the title roles in the re-imagined and re-designed production of the Olivier Award-winning stage musical version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast when the production launches at the Bristol Hippodrome on 24 August 2021. Two of musical theatre’s rising stars Stapleton (Six, Dear Evan Hansen) and Kojo […]
Summer return for West End’s Mary Poppins
Zizi Strallen and Charlie Stemp will fly back into the Prince Edward Theatre this summer when Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s multi-award-winning Mary Poppins makes its eagerly-awaited return to its West End home. Announcing that rehearsals will begin soon ahead of a 7 August 2021 reopening date, Mackintosh said: “The last year has been unbelievably hard […]
Five Questions With: Matthew Croke
Widely recognised for his critically-acclaimed performance as the title character in the West End production of Disney’s Aladdin, MATTHEW CROKE recently took centre stage as a contestant in this year’s tenth series of The Voice UK. Opening the show with his stand-out vocals, Matt performed ‘Come What May’ in the blind auditions, in the second episode of the new series, and […]
Frozen’s London opening temporarily on ice until lockdown lifts
Fans will have to wait a little longer for the eagerly-anticipated West End debut of Tony-nominated musical Frozen following a decision to delay the large-scale production for a second time in the wake of the current national lockdown. Originally due to skate into the refurbished Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the autumn of 2020, the […]
Bedknobs & Broomsticks The Musical to fly into UK theatres
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat producer Michael Harrison will present the world premiere of a major new musical based on the much-loved Disney classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the UK next summer. Featuring the original songs by the legendary Sherman Brothers (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins), the 1971 part live action part animation […]
West End Frozen cast and new dates confirmed
Full casting and new dates have been announced for Disney Theatrical Productions’ eagerly-anticipated West End production of Tony-nominated musical Frozen. Originally due to skate into the refurbished Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the autumn, the production will now open in London on 14 April 2021 with preview performances from 2 April. The initial booking period […]
Redundancies loom as Cameron Mackintosh announces Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom of the Opera won’t return until 2021
In response to the continued uncertainty over when the government is going to completely withdraw social distancing measures and allow the safe return of theatre productions Cameron Mackintosh, his producing partners and Delfont Mackintosh Theatres have issued a statement confirming that they have had to take the difficult decision of delaying the return of their […]
Disney to host second summer pop-up in London
Disney fans will get the chance to get closer than ever before to their favourite shows when the film studios’ theatrical arm opens its second Summer Pop-Up in the heart of London’s Covent Garden later this month. Located at 21 Long Acre, this year’s Disney in the West End Summer Pop-Up will feature the eagerly-anticipated […]
Petula Clark and Joseph Millson join the cast of West End’s Mary Poppins
Veteran singing star Petula Clark will return to the West End stage for the first time in decades when she joins the cast of the eagerly-awaited West End return of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins. A multi award-winning recording artist, Clark who famously starred as Maria in The Sound Of Music in the West […]
Aladdin and The Lion King join forces for Disney summer event
Disney musical fans will get the chance to get closer than ever before to their favourite shows when a summer ‘Pop-Up’ opens in the heart of London’s Covent Garden later this month. Located at 25 Long Acre, the Aladdin and The Lion King Summer Experience will open every day from Tuesday 31 July until Sunday […]
Frozen – St James Theatre, New York
Frozen continues at the St James Theatre, New York. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Say what you will about the Disney people, often berated for merchandising rapacity or theme-park mentality, they know how to put on a show. And the corporation’s magic dust – or whatever you call that stuff that Tinker Bell scatters […]
If You Can Dream – Phoenix Artist Club
If You Can Dream at the Phoenix Artist Club, London. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ CherAnn & Co showcased the classic songs of Disney and animated classic movies with an afternoon of cabaret. The performers in the spotlight – CherAnn Thorkilsen, Jennie Neumann, Rebecca Kintoff and Leanne Coupland – took audience members […]
Frigid – A Musical Worth Melting For – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Greenside @ Infirmary Street
Frigid – A Musical Worth Melting For continues at Greenside @ Infirmary Street until 28 August. Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩ Grandpa Tam is visited by his granddaughter Peregrine/Perry and he relates a story to her, claiming to have shared time with Walt Disney on the golf course. Not only a […]
Disney’s Aladdin – Matthew Croke to play the title role
Matthew Croke will step into the title role in Disney’s Aladdin just months before the lavish show celebrates its first birthday at London’s Prince Edward Theatre. His first performance will be on 5 June 2017. After impressing fans and critics with his performance as Don Lockwood in the UK tour of Singin’ in the Rain, […]
Beauty and the Beast – movie review
Beauty and the Beast – Star rating: three stars ★★★✩✩ There is, let’s face it, a whole lot to live up to in remaking 1991’s Beauty and the Beast. The second masterpiece of the Disney Renaissance that started with The Little Mermaid, Beauty became the first animated film to receive a nomination for Best Picture at […]
National Theatre 2017 season – Pinocchio and Follies provide the musical interest
There will be ‘no strings to hold him down’ when Pinocchio steps on to the stage at the National Theatre this Christmas as part of the prestigious venue’s packed 2017 season. Directed by John Tiffany, the world premiere of Pinocchio by Dennis Kelly joins the new production of the 1970s Broadway musical Follies as two of […]
Disney’s Aladdin extends booking period
The much-anticipated new Disney musical Aladdin has begun previewing in the West End ahead of its opening night on 15 June. With the booking period now extended into February 2017, the lavish show makes its UK debut tonight at the Prince Edward Theatre. Featuring Dean John-Wilson in the title role alongside former Sugababe Jade Ewen […]
Gary Williams – Hollywood Swings – Crazy Coqs
Gary Williams – Hollywood Swings continues at the Crazy Coqs, London until 28 May. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Gary Williams, a great favourite of Crazy Coqs patrons, returns with his latest cabaret which he dubs ‘A Technicolor Celebration of the Silver Screen’. And what he delivers is what it says on the […]
Aladdin at the Prince Edward Theatre – check out rehearsal images
Ahead of its West End premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre, rehearsal images for Aladdin have been released today. From the producer of The Lion King, the new West End musical from Disney will debut at the theatre on Wednesday 15 June 2016, with previews from Friday 27 May. Tickets are on general sale for performances up to and […]
Zizi Strallen and Matt Lee star in Mary Poppins tour
Zizi Strallen will play Mary Poppins and Matt Lee will play Bert in the forthcoming UK and Ireland tour of multi award-winning musical Mary Poppins, opening at Leicester Curve on 12 October 2015. Full casting will be announced shortly. Zizi Strallen is currently starring as Lana in Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man. She was most recently seen in the West End […]
The Lion King hosts third autism-friendly performance
Following the success of dedicated autism-friendly performances in 2013 and 2014, a third dedicated performance of Disney’s The Lion King has been announced for Sunday 30 August 2015 at 1:30pm. Tickets are now on sale. The Lion King staged the West End’s first-ever dedicated autism-friendly performance in April 2013. Working closely with the National Autistic Society, the UK’s […]
Mary Poppins begins UK and Ireland tour at Leicester Curve in October
Disney and Cameron Mackintosh have revealed that their multi award-winning musical Mary Poppins will embark on a tour of the UK and Ireland, opening at Leicester Curve on 13 October 2015. Mackintosh said today: “It’s hard to believe that it is already 11 years since Mary Poppins first landed on the London stage. My goodness… time flies even faster than our beloved Nanny! I’m […]
Into the Woods – Roundabout Theatre Company, New York
Into the Woods continues at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre, New York until 22 March. Star rating: 5 stars ***** A fresh breeze is blowing through Into the Woods. It’s not that anything ever seems stale about this enduring and always-compelling masterwork by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. But as re-envisioned by the prodigiously imaginative […]
Frozen singalong screenings planned at the Dominion Theatre
A series of singalong screenings of the smash-hit, hugely popular, Disney film Frozen will take place at London’s Dominion Theatre next half term, from 18 to 28 February. The Oscar-winning Frozen is Disney’s highest grossing film ever and has captivated children and families around the world. The score includes the hugely popular song ‘Let It Go’ which won the Academy Award for […]
Into the Woods – the movie – our verdict
Into the Woods opens in UK cinemas on 9 January 2015. As a longtime Sondheim fan and particular admirer of Into the Woods, the “be careful what you wish for” fantasy musical which the great man teased out of James Lapine’s clever book in 1986, it would be great to be wrong but where’s the […]
Disenchanted! – Theatre at St Clements, New York
Disenchanted! continues at the Theatre at St. Clements, New York until 25 January. Being a storybook princess isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. That’s the message that comes through very loud and very clear in Disenchanted!, the raucous new Off-Broadway musical that’s inhabited by a flock of Disney animated-movie heroines. The ladies have a litany […]
The Lion King celebrates its 15th anniversary at Lyceum
On Sunday 19 October Disney’s The Lion King will celebrate its 15th anniversary at London’s Lyceum Theatre. The award-winning musical has entertained more than 12 million theatregoers and remains the West End’s best-selling stage production. It also recently became the sixth longest-running West End musical of all time. To celebrate this milestone and to thank Londoners […]
Party of One – Christina Bianco – London Hippodrome
Christina Bianco performed her show Party of One at the London Hippodrome Matcham Rooms. “I’ll be your host… and also your guest list,” quips Christina Bianco at the start of her solo show at the Hippodrome’s Matcham Rooms. Bianco has gained a formidable reputation as an impressionist of female singers, but her show Party of One indicates that impressionism […]
The Lion King – the autism-friendly way
An autism-friendly matinee performance of The Lion King took place at the Lyceum Theatre, London on Sunday 4 May, 2014. I saw my first West End musical when I was ten years old (Oklahoma! at the Palace Theatre), and I am fortunate enough to have seen many, many more since. So why, on the morning […]
Aladdin – New Amsterdam Theatre, New York
Aladdin continues at the New Amsterdam Theatre, New York, in an open-ended run. All the folks involved in putting on Aladdin, the new Broadway musical based on the 1992 Disney animated film, seem to be working feverishly to make sure we, the audience, don’t take it seriously. It’s all just good-natured, expensive hokum. That includes […]
