Cameron Mackintosh has unveiled the international cast assembled to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the London production of The Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty’s Theatre.
Tag Archives | Joanna Riding
The Sound of Music – Curve Leicester
The Sound of Music continues at Curve Leicester until 17 January 2026. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This is an embracing hug of a night out and an elegant alternative to panto as the yuletide celebrations begin.
Patrick Honoré is just in time for a Broadway round-up
Patrick Honoré offers a round-up of some standout Broadway shows, beginning with a crooner’s comeback and concluding with a nostalgic and traditional nod to the past.
Oklahoma! in Concert – Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Oklahoma! in Concert was reviewed at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ We have in recent years been treated to a lot of semi-staged concerts; this Oklahoma! ranks as one of the best.
Bernadette Peters in Concert – Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Bernadette Peters in Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ What has London done to be so lucky? After decades of very little Bernadette Peters presence at all – a frankly torturous state of affairs – in the last year we have been blessed with a full run […]
Full company confirmed for Sondheim’s Old Friends
The full cast has been unveiled for the highly anticipated West End return of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends with a strictly limited season at the Gielgud Theatre later this year.
Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga to star in West End run of Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
Broadway legend Bernadette Peters will be appearing in a West End run for the very first time when Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends returns to the West End to play a special limited season at the Gielgud Theatre.
Gypsy: A Musical Fable – Buxton Opera House
Gypsy continues at Buxton Opera House until 24 July 2022 Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ It’s been only a couple of days since I sailed on the SS American in the Depression Era sparkler Anything Goes, and here I am today, back in the Great Depression to witness the 1920s and 30s […]
Carousel – Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park
Carousel continues at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park until 25 September 2021. Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩ Rodgers and Hammerstein never sidestepped a gritty issue and their 1945 piece about domestic abuse is no exception – and could hardly, given how cases have risen during lockdowns, be more topical. Yes, […]
CD Review: Flowers For Mrs Harris – Chichester Cast recording
FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS – Chichester Cast recording (SimG Records – SimGR-CD038) Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ I have loved the story of Mrs Ada Harris and her adventure to save up for a new Dior dress ever since I read the book many, many years ago. An old-fashioned story that […]
Thirty West End voices unite for new The Show Must Go On charity single
Thirty West End performers have lent their voices to a new original song created to bring a little Christmas cheer with all profits going to Acting For Others, The Fleabag Support Fund and NHS Covid-19 Urgent Appeal through the Theatre Support Fund+. Written by director and performer Anna Hale, producer and director Joe McNeice and […]
Chichester’s Flowers For Mrs Harris cast reunites for first official recording
The cast of the Chichester Festival Theatre’s hit 2018 production of Flowers For Mrs Harris has been reunited for the first official recording of Richard Taylor and Rachel Wagstaff’s award-winning musical. Due for release on CD and download on 3 December 2020 by SimG Records, the cast album was recorded in July this year. Unveiling […]
A Little Night Music – Opera Holland Park
A Little Night Music was performed at Opera Holland Park, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ What could possibly keep a dedicated Sondheimite away from an outdoor, summer evening production of A Little Night Music? A global pandemic? A very limited supply of tickets that sold out nearly instantly? An actual thunderstorm being […]
Janie Dee and Joanna Riding reunite for outdoor staging of A Little Night Music
Janie Dee and Joanna Riding will star in a special outdoor version of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s evocative A Little Night Music in London. The pair who previously appeared together in the National Theatre’s hit production of Follies will reunite for the socially distanced concert performance in Holland Park on 15 August 2020. They […]
Flowers For Mrs Harris – Chichester Festival Theatre website
Flowers For Mrs Harris is free to watch on the Chichester Festival Theatre website until 8 May 2020. There’s been precious little feelgood factor about this past miserable month but Chichester Festival Theatre is doing its bit to spread sunshine into our shrivelling lives by offering their charming 2018 production of Flowers For Mrs Harris […]
Flowers for Mrs Harris launches online productions streamed from Chichester Festival Theatre
For the first time, Chichester Festival Theatre is to stream a selection of its archive productions online, beginning with the musical Flowers for Mrs Harris from 9 April 2020 for the Easter weekend. Flowers for Mrs Harris will be available on CFT’s website for 30 days and will be free to watch. Daniel Evans and Kathy Bourne, artistic […]
Musical highlights of Chichester Festival Theatre 2018 season are Flowers For Mrs Harris and Me and My Girl
Productions of the Noel Gay classic Me and My Girl and new musical Flowers For Mrs Harris will be the musical highlights of artistic director Daniel Evans and executive director Rachel Tackley’s star-studded second season at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Following on from a record-breaking 2017, the new season will feature a mix of major revivals […]
Full cast for Romantics Anonymous at Shakespeare’s Globe
Shakespeare’s Globe has revealed the full cast for Romantics Anonymous, a new musical in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse directed by Emma Rice, with book written by Rice, lyrics by Christopher Dimond, and music by Michael Kooman. This funny, charming and awkward love story is adapted from the French-Belgian film Les Émotifs Anonymes written by Jean-Pierre […]
The Girls – Phoenix Theatre
The Girls continues at the Phoenix Theatre, London. Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Musical adaptations of films are nothing new. Nor are adaptations of plays. Adaptations of plays that were themselves based on plays are rarer – but having the film, play and now musical written by the same person is unique. […]
Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards – Groundhog Day comes out on top
The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical (new or revival) went to the Old Vic production of Groundhog Day at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2016 held today at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London. Written by Matilda the Musical’s Tim Minchin and directed by Matilda and Ghost director Matthew Warchus, Groundhog Day features a […]
The Girls at the Phoenix Theatre – Sophie-Louise Dann and Joanna Riding among cast
Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s new British musical, The Girls, based on the true story, the film and the award-winning play by Tim Firth, Calendar Girls, will open in London’s West End at the Phoenix Theatre, with performances from 28 January 2017. The West End premiere follows sold-out runs at the Grand Theatre, Leeds and the […]
The Girls – cast details revealed for Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical
Full details of the cast of The Girls, Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s much anticipated musical version of The Calendar Girls’ story have been announced. Debbie Chazen as Ruth, Sara Kestelman as Jessie, Claire Machin as Cora, Claire Moore as Chris, Vivien Parry as Celia, Joanna Riding as Annie and Harriet Thorpe as Marie (together with Shirley Jameson […]
Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens staged in West End in aid of The Make a Difference Trust
Tickets are now on sale for a West End revival of the song cycle Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, taking place at the Criterion Theatre on Sunday 31 May 2015. More than 30 of the West End’s most talented performers will take to the stage for the special ‘one night only’ performance in aid […]
Gary Barlow’s Calendar Girls musical The Girls premieres in Leeds in November
Writer Tim Firth and Take That star and composer Gary Barlow are collaborating on The Girls, a musical version of the film and stage play Calendar Girls, which will have its world premiere at the Leeds Grand on 14 November 2015 (for a six-week run) before transferring to the Lowry Centre in Salford from 13 […]
A Little Night Music – Palace Theatre
A Little Night Music 40th anniversary concert at the Palace Theatre, London. Star rating: 4 stars **** This semi-staged one-off concert version of A Little Night Music, perhaps the richest of all Stephen Sondheim’s scores in a most attractive and amusing storyline, was always likely to please and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Given that producer Alex Parker had assembled musical theatre’s creme de […]
The Pajama Game – Gary Wilmot joins cast at Shaftesbury Theatre
The Pajama Game continues at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London until 13 September. There was a little bit of musical chairs going on in the casting department last week at The Pajama Game. While the evening was all about actor Gary Wilmot taking over the role of Vernon Hines (the Sleep-Tite pajama factory’s time and motion […]
The Pajama Game – listen to Xavier and Riding in action
For all those looking forward to the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre’s staging of The Pajama Game, opening at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 13 May, there is now a song from the production available to listen to for the first time. ‘Hey There’, sung by the show’s co-stars Joanna Riding and Michael Xavier […]
Polycarpou and Wilmot confirmed for The Pajama Game
Peter Polycarpou, Gary Wilmot and Colin Stinton join the cast of the West End transfer of Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of The Pajama Game, directed by Richard Eyre. Polycarpou and Stinton reprise their roles as Vernon Hines and Hasler, with Wilmot taking over the role of Vernon Hines from 2 June. They join the previously […]
Stephen Ward the Musical – Aldwych Theatre
Stephen Ward the Musical opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London on 19 December. Set in the swinging 1960s, Stephen Ward the Musical is a biographical piece describing the rise and fall of the society playboy who fell foul of the ruling classes. Known eternally as the lynchpin to the Profumo affair –a sexual scandal that precipitated […]
Chichester Pajama Game hits West End in May 2014
Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of The Pajama Game, directed by Richard Eyre, transfers to the West End on 1 May (press night is 13 May), playing at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 13 September 2014. The musical will move in when the current show residing there – From Here to Eternity – closes. In 1950s America, […]
