Jukebox musicals have become a staple of Broadway and the West End for a while now; familiarity, you could say, breeds contented audiences. As Mamma Mia! used to tag the show in their advertising: “You already know you’ve going to love it!”
‘Great stuff excellently performed’: THE ARRIVAL – Bush Theatre
Director Bijan Sheibani turns playwright in a fine two-hander about family and the crisis of masculinity in The Arrival at the Bush Theatre.
From Page to Stage new musicals festival: Report from yesterday’s press launch
On behalf of Carn’s Theatre Passion, Sarah Tinsley attended the press preview event for the three-week new musicals festival From Page to Stage, which opened yesterday and runs until 3 September 2017 at The Other Palace in London.
NEWS: Ben Richards leads Some Lovers; more From Page to Stage casting
Ben Richards returns to musical theatre in the premiere of Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater’s SOME LOVERS – the headline show for Aria Entertainment’s fifth annual From Page To Stage (FPTS) Summer Festival. Further West End stars also announced for the three-week festival.
NEWS: From Page to Stage festival announces first cast & rep companies
Aria Entertainment’s From Page To Stage will have one of the largest companies in the West End this summer: a cast of 56, working alongside 18 creatives, plus musicians and over 50 composers and writers presenting all-new musicals.
PROMISES, PROMISES – Southwark Playhouse
Promises, Promises, the hit Broadway musical based on the multi Oscar-winning 1960 film The Apartment, with music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David and book by Neil Simon, has opened its doors for the first time in London since its 1969 West End premiere.
PROMISES, PROMISES – Southwark Playhouse
Based on the classic Billy Wilder film The Apartment and featuring the instantly recognisable music of Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David, Bronagh Lagan’s production of Promises, Promises is a delightful and loveable show.
PROMISES, PROMISES – Southwark Playhouse
Promises, Promises at the Southwark Playhouse is a delightful splash of Burt Bacharach, in a musical set in 1960s New York and which hasn’t played in London for nigh on fifty years.
NEWS: Full cast announced for Burt Bacharach’s Promises, Promises
Final casting is today announced for the first London production in 20 years of the hit Burt Bacharach/Hal David/Neil Simon Broadway musical PROMISES, PROMISES, based on the Billy Wilder film The Apartment, which runs at London’s Southwark Playhouse from 13 January to 18 February 2017, with a press night on 17 January.
Curtain Up: News from the past week in theatre, tickets on sale
With constant depressing news in the wider world, theatre news offers a respite. Recent news to celebrate includes Mark Rylance’s West End return, the London premiere of Owen McCafferty’s Unfaithful, Samuel Beckett tribute No’s Knife and more…
NEWS: Bacharach’s Promises, Promises gets first London revival at Southwark Playhouse
Promises, Promises, the hit Broadway musical based on the multi Oscar-winning 1960 film The Apartment, with music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David and book by Neil Simon, is to get its first London production since its 1969 West End premiere. Promises, Promises – about a junior executive at an insurance company who sets out to climb the corporate ladder by allowing his apartment to be used by his married superiors for extra-marital affairs – will open at Southwark Playhouse in January 2016.
TICKETS: Mark’s Top Ten recommendations + this week’s openings (1 Feb)
Mark Shenton’s top ten of the week, including Florian Zeller’s The Mother that has followed his play The Father (soon to return to the West End) to London from Bath. Plus, this week’s biggest openings.
TICKETS: Mark’s Top Ten recommendations + this week’s openings (25 Jan)
Top ten of the week, including Bend it Like Beckham, Close to You and In the Heights, three shows I’ve already re-visited again and again, and intend to yet again!
NEWS: Bacharach tribute Close to You extends until Valentine’s Day
CLOSE TO YOU: BACHARACH REIMAGINED has today announced that it is extending its West End transfer at the Criterion Theatre until Valentine’s Day 14 February 2016.
Diary of a theatre addict: from a pool in Gran Canaria, a sense of perspective, at last
I am writing this sitting beside a pool, in glorious sunshine, at a private hotel across the street from a beach in Gran Canaria. This is the sort of holiday my husband and I always give ourselves at least once a year — a place with no theatre at all.
Weekly Theatre Podcast: Burt Bacharach, F_ucking Men, Bye Bye Birdie and Playboy
Every week, a group of regular, dedicated, independent theatre bloggers gather together for intelligent discussion “from the audience’s perspective” about plays and musicals they’ve recently seen in London. Lively, informed and entertaining. My Theatre Mates is delighted to syndicate the (still) As Yet Unnamed London Theatre Podcast (AYULTP). Shows discussed (with timings) in this week’s podcast: Bacharach Reimagined – Menier …
NEWS: Renamed Bacharach Reimagined transfers to Criterion
CLOSE TO YOU, a new musical featuring Burt Bacharach’s songbook, makes its highly anticipated West End transfer to the Criterion Theatre from 3 October 2015. Tickets go on sale on Friday 4 September at 10am. Performed by a young, multi-talented cast led by the visionary musician and performer Kyle Riabko, the show features Riabko’s thrillingly new yet beautifully faithful interpretations …
From Burt Bacharach to Tom Jones: A theatrically easy-listening explosion
I had ninety, non-stop magic moments at the Menier Chocolate Factory earlier this month at the opening of What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined.
Diary of a theatre addict: Re-visiting shows and theatre trolls
I’ve had a ‘slow’ week — or at least a slower one! By tonight, I’ll have seen just seven shows — but also three readings, too, so perhaps that makes ten. I’ve also done two big interviews — with singer Jane McDonald, ahead of her season in Cats in Blackpool, and with actor David Suchet, as he returns to the West End in The Importance of Being Earnest this coming week, both of which will run in The Stage on July 9.