Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre is a fast-paced show that still demands an enormously skilled and precise technical performance from every member of its cast and Lindsay Posner’s team makes it look far easier than it really is. 40 years on, Michael Frayn’s play has still got it.
‘It’s just all very beautiful’: NOISES OFF – Bath & Touring ★★★★★
Millions know it by now, but in case like my enthralled companions last night you aren’t among them, grant me a moment or skip the the penultimate paragraph. Noises Off has been a national treasure since 1982, written by Michael Frayn after realising that the hurtling backstage business of doors, props and actors under stress is funnier than most actual farces. He wrote a squib called EXITS, the great producer Michael Codron encouraged something fuller.
‘An exquisitely paced production’: REVEALED – Bristol ★★★★
Daniel J Carver’s Revealed at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory has been heralded as the most important work the space has ever presented. Perhaps the pitch pushes this conceit a little far, but what is presented is a cracking three-hander that explores what it means to be a black man in contemporary Britain.
NEWS: Anne-Marie Duff stars in The House of Shades; Full Daddy cast announced at Almeida
Anne-Marie Duff returns to the Almeida Theatre to star in the world premiere of Beth Steel’s new play The House of Shades. Full casting for the theatre’s UK premiere of Daddy is also announced.
‘As perfect a piece of musical theatre as I could hope for’: FOLLIES – National Theatre
Just a quickie for this revisit to Follies, which remains as perfect a piece of musical theatre as I could hope for. I loved it then but I really love it now.
‘A simply outstanding piece of musical theatre’: FOLLIES – National Theatre
The Olivier Award-winning Follies returns to the National Theatre in richer, deeper, more resonant form and just blows me away.
‘Scoring top marks across the board’: FOLLIES – National Theatre ★★★★★
Eighteen months on and with a couple of well-placed casting changes Stephen Sondheim’s Follies returns to the National Theatre with the excellence of this devastating musical a breath of fresh air amidst a slew of disappointing recent openings in the capital.
NEWS: Director Peter Brook returns in National Theatre season which also features new plays from Nina Raine & Anthony Neilson
Details have been announced for the National Theatre’s season running from July 2018 to January 2019. Highlights include Peter Brook returning to direct at the NT for the first time in 50 years with The Prisoner, plus new plays from Nina Raine and Anthony Neilson.
THE LIE – Menier Chocolate Factory
British theatre’s amour fou for Florian Zeller continues apace with another of his comedies making it over to London but are we approaching diminishing returns as we delve deeper into his back catalogue?
THE LIE – Menier Chocolate Factory
This is a companion-piece to the stormingly funny, cruelly witty The Truth: Florian Zeller, translated from the French with verve by Christopher Hampton, directed by Lindsay Posner, and once again starring Alexander Hanson. An actor who does wounded-insincere-yet-sufferingly-self-righteous infidelity like nobody else.
NEWS: Alexander Hanson joins wife Samantha Bond in The Lie as James Dreyfus withdraws
Alexander Hanson joins the company of the English-language premiere of Florian Zeller’s The Lie, playing the husband of his real-life spouse Samantha Bond.
NEWS: Samantha Bond stars in Florian Zeller’s The Lie at Chocolate Factory
Samantha Bond will star Alice in the English-language premiere of Florian Zeller’s The Lie, opening at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in September.
COMMITTEE – Donmar Warehouse
There’s a rather lazy trope around ‘unlikely subjects’ for a musical which accompany any show that deviates from the apparent norm. Yet given that the Best New Musical Olivier award winners over the past few decades have covered Argentinian politics, Scouse twins, confused animals, missionaries in Africa and post-Impressionist painters, I’m not entirely sure what counts for normal here!
NEWS: Full cast announced for Donmar’s verbatim Kids Company musical premiere
The Donmar Warehouse today announces full casting for The Public Administration and Constitution Affairs Committee Take Oral Evidence on Whitehall’s Relationship with Kids Company, a new documentary musical which premieres in July.
42nd STREET – Paris
It may be in the English language but this production of 42nd Street is in a French theatre, the glorious Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris which, under Jean-Luc Choplin’s artistic directorship, has arguably entirely reshaped the Parisian relationship with musical theatre.
42nd STREET – Paris
Dan Burton who plays Sawyer’s love interest Billy Lawlor is another of Mear’s regular ingénues, last seen in the West End’s Gypsy. Arguably the best of his generation in musical theatre dance, Burton has a grace in his movement that has to be seen to be believed alongside perfectly pitched, mellifluous vocals. Other Brits in the cast include Alexander Hanson, Ria Jones and Jenny Dale.
NEWS: City Stories sets new London dates at Wilton’s Music Hall
City Stories returns to London for two nights only on 20 and 21 October 2016. A suite of short plays set to music, the fully-titled City Stories: Tales of Love and Magic in London is a sequence of interwoven love stories written and directed by award-winning playwright James Phillips in an ode to our beloved capital.
THE TRUTH – West End
Florian Zeller is a precocious writing talent. The Truth is his third play to enthral London theatregoers in a year. While the French playwright’s breakthrough import The Father reduced some viewers to tears with its poignant and painful depiction of dementia. The Truth, a modern day farce about lies and adultery, brings tears of laughter.
Plays for my Brexit & Chilcot mood: The Truth, Faith Healer, The Spoils
Has anyone else had difficulty getting back into their theatregoing after the results of the EU Referendum? The two – excellent – plays I have managed to see since the UK voted to leave on 23 June, have both, in a strange way, deepened my Brexit despair too. Neither Florian Zeller‘s The Truth nor Faith Healer by […]
THE TRUTH – West End
Florian Zeller’s name is fast becoming a byword for gripping, fascinating and often brilliantly funny theatre. Productions of The Mother and The Father have racked up critical raves and when The Truth opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory, it was greeted with equal fervour.
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