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‘Must be the most sumptuous-looking touring show of the year’: Mark Shenton gives an update on theatre openings including the Bedknobs & Broomsticks tour

In Broadway, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

A new touring stage version of the 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks held a national press night last Friday at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre, after previewing beforehand at Newcastle Theatre Royal. The tour is currently booking to May 2022.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber is ready for battle over the June reopening but what about the nation’s health?

In Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

In a front page scoop in today’s Daily Telegraph, the paper lines up three heavy-hitting bylines — chief reporter Robert Mendick, political editor Ben Riley-Smith and theatre critic Dominic Cavendish — to reveal an exclusive with Andrew Lloyd Webber. The headline reads: ‘You’ll have to arrest us to stop reopening’.

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Putting profits before people? Where is the original Phantom of the Opera we were promised?

In Features, London theatre, Musicals, Online shows, Opinion by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

When The Phantom of the Opera was unloaded from the Her Majesty’s Theatre last year, it produced the forlorn sight of the original Phantom chandelier resting on the pavement outside the theatre instead of poised over the proscenium from which it famously comes crashing down over the heads of those seated in the stalls.

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Marking the nostalgia of the past for Follies’ 50th & edging towards some hope for Broadway’s future

In Broadway, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Online shows, Opinion, Plays by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

On Friday the resumption of theatre life began in New York; meanwhile, today is the 50th anniversary of the Broadway opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, his jagged and shattering tribute to the musicals as well as the marriages of yesteryear, as James Goldman’s characters confront their current predicaments as middle and old-aged people looking back on their lives through the prism of the nostalgia of their theatrical pasts — all set to a score that gently pastiches the songs of the period while actually improving on them.

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Remember all the many creatives who have brought us theatre online, not just the big-hitters

In Broadway, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Online shows, Opinion, Plays, Regional theatre by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

There’s no question that, apart from his undoubted brilliance as a composer of instantly memorable melodies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s greatest gift is as (self) publicist. He’s just wonderful at getting people to speak about him and his shows; and thereby promote them.

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NEWS: Musicals The Color Purple & Sunset Boulevard kickstart Leicester Curve’s return to live performances

In Musicals, Native, News, Plays, Press Releases, Regional theatre by Press Releases

Live theatre will return to Leicester as Curve announces plans to reopen to the public from 23 November 2020. The theatre, which was forced to close on 16 March, will open again this autumn for re-imagined, socially distanced concert performances of acclaimed Made at Curve productions, using the building’s unique theatre design.