Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap – the longest running show in the world, which had to be suspended when the Coronavirus pandemic resulted in the closure of UK theatres – is to reopen in the West End on 23 October 2020.
‘A courtroom setting gets round socially distanced difficulties’: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS – Guildford Shakespeare Company (Online review)
Guildford Shakespeare Company first performed their adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic in 2015. After a successful series of Zoom murder mystery evenings, they decided to recreate their hit family production.
NEWS: Designers launch #MissingLiveTheatre across the UK & Ireland
In collaboration with theatres across the UK, #scenechange – a community for stage designers taking action for theatre – has launched #MissingLiveTheatre, wrapping theatre buildings in a positive message of hope and visibility to the industry.
NEWS: Drive-in production of Six makes it the first West End musical to perform again after lockdown
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ hit musical Six looks likely to become the first West End musical to resume performances across the UK in August and September 2020.
NEWS: Royal Ballet School, ArtsEd, LAMDA & the Royal Academy of Dance receive Lynne and Land Foundation grants
Today, on the second anniversary of the death of choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne, The Lynne and Land Foundation has announced grants to the Royal Ballet School, ArtsEd, LAMDA and the Royal Academy of Dance.
How important is theatre photography to the success of a show?
Theatre photography is one of the most important ways to promote a new production and simultaneously one of the elements audiences – and probably most creatives – actively think least about.
NEWS: Sleepless reschedules month’s run from 25 Aug with social distancing measures
SLEEPLESS, A Musical Romance, based on the original screenplay Sleepless in Seattle, has rescheduled its premiere at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre for 25 August to 27 September 2020.
NEWS: Hairspray postpones for a second time, now runs for 19 weeks from April 2021
The return of Hairspray the Musical has been postponed again. It will now return next April, a full year after originally scheduled, but now for a longer, 19-week season, rather than ten weeks.
NEWS: Jermyn Street Theatre dark for rest of 2020, artistic director lambasts ‘deafening Government silence’
Jermyn Street Theatre has announced that it will remain closed until some point in 2021. Tom Littler lays bare the lack of support from Westminster.
‘If our pub landlord closes, where will the theatre go then?’: Artistic director Lisa Spirling on dual threats to Theatre503
‘In terms of the future, we want 503 to be resilient and it feels like our community of audience and artists believe in the necessity of an organisation such as ours. At the same time, there are no guarantees.’
‘How wonderful it is to see a theatre being put to good use’: IN THE WINGS – Union Theatre ★★★★★ (Online review)
No Limits: A Song Cycle was the first new musical featured in four-part series In the Wings, filmed live at the Union Theatre.
WATCH: Moment of Grace releases evocative new teaser trailer
When to touch was to heal. At a time when shaking hands feels like a distant memory, Bren Gosling’s play, inspired by a symbolic act of taboo-breaking compassion, has defied its own challenges to transform from acclaimed stage production to film. Watch the trailer and find out more.
‘We have to do something else indefinitely but keep the keys to the building & look after them’: Royal Lyceum artistic director & playwright David Greig in Edinburgh
The more you think about the invitation to the audience – as you say ‘come, be blocked off behind screens, we will spray you and present shows where actors stand apart, and we will try to encourage you not to sing along’, it’s like an anti-theatre.
I asked my MP: Where is the support for theatre?
Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon expresses her thoughts on the painful neglect of theatre during Covid-19, including a template response from her local, Cabinet Member MP.
‘I don’t want to bank on a saviour that might not come’: Hartshorn-Hook producers on their plans to reopen The Great Gatsby
‘It feels to me like, with The Great Gatsby, we had an opportunity, and resulting from that a duty, to use the show to work out some of the key things that might help the industry as a whole.’
NEWS: Cameron Mackintosh announces West End closures until 2021, starts redundancy consultations
Cameron Mackintosh has delayed the return of his West End productions of Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, Hamilton and The Phantom of the Opera until as early as practical in 2021.
‘It’s important to remain positive’: Brixton House’s Owen Calvert-Lyons on the future of fringe theatre post lockdown
Head of theatre and artist development at Brixton House (formally Ovalhouse*) Owen Calvert-Lyons talks about life during the lockdown, the post-Covid future for fringe theatre and streaming.
The Shows Must Go On: Peter Pan Live! reschedules for YouTube streaming this Fri
Free-to-view YouTube Channel The Shows Must Go On continues its theatre lockdown weekly schedule with the rescheduled stream of Peter Pan Live!
Lost Labour of Love: ‘All I had to do was turn up & say the words wot Shakespeare wrote, didn’t I?’
Knowing that some 600 people had applied the week previous to that, I had no great expectation that I would be selected but, to my amazement, I was offered the part of Costard.
11 actresses I’d love to see onstage more often post-lockdown
While there might not be quite as many meaty stage roles for actresses as there are actors (is that changing?), the plethora of acting talent I’ve seen over the past 10 years made this quite tricky to narrow down.