This weekly column keeps track of the shows that are coming back, or are newly being announced, as theatres start reopening from tonight (17 May) in London and at other theatres in the UK.
Can honest critics have theatre professionals as friends?
I’m unashamedly a friend and champion of the theatre; but I can never been a simple cheerleader for it, regardless of the circumstances or my connections with people in a show I’m seeing. As honest critics find out all too often, we’re loved when we love something we see; but that can quickly pivot to becoming the enemy when we don’t.
NEWS: New plays by Ben Okri & James Graham feature in the Young Vic’s new season
Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah has announced a new season of work, Welcome Back and Welcome Home, welcoming theatre-makers and audiences back through the doors for the first time since the venues’s 50th Birthday celebrations in October 2020.
Mark Shenton’s weekly chart of forthcoming theatrical comings & goings has some new entries
This weekly column keeps track of the shows that are coming back, or are newly being announced, as theatres prepare to re-open from next month onwards. It will be updated weekly until such time as it becomes a reality, and from then on will provide a weekly update to that week’s openings and future ones.
Returning & new productions heading for the West End & beyond post-lockdown: Are you up to date?
Meanwhile, I want to start keeping track of the shows that are coming back, or are newly being announced, in a new feature here that will be updated weekly until such time as it becomes a reality, and from then on will provide a weekly update to that week’s openings and future ones.
What next for the theatre industry post-pandemic & how will it have to change?
In a feature for The Stage earlier in the week, Jessica Korvavos, president of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, was asked to sum up the last year: “A year when singing and dancing in public have been against the law? It’s been like a horrible dystopian cross between Footloose and Groundhog Day.”
‘Full of wit, humour & reminiscence’: A MARVELLOUS PARTY (Online review)
A Marvellous Party, commissioned by the Noël Coward Foundation, ostensibly marks the centenary of Coward’s first appearance on stage and has been produced to raise funds for actors on both sides of the Atlantic who are struggling with the effects of the pandemic.
Mind the Blog reflects on a theatre wish list for 2020
Mind the Blog has a fairly wide-ranging wish list of things I hope to see, including major shows such as Sunday in the Park with George, Evita, Magic Goes Wrong, Uncle Vanya and the Jamie Lloyd Company residency at the Playhouse Theatre.
NEWS: Acting honours go to Andrew Scott & Maggie Smith at 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards while Sweat wins Best Play
Acting honours go to Andrew Scott & Maggie Smith at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards while Sweat wins Best Play.
NEWS: Olivia Colman, Simon Russell Beale, Cush Jumbo, Sheila Atim & Alfie Boe all feature in Queen’s Honours list
The performing arts have featured strongly in the latest Queen’s birthday honours, with Simon Russell Beale, Olivia Colman, Cush Jumbo, Sheila Atim, Alfie Boe and David Pountney all featuring in the list of recipients.
NEWS: Cush Jumbo makes her Young Vic debut as Hamlet in Kwame Kwei-Armah’s 2020 Young Vic season
Highlights of Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah’s programme for 2020 include Cush Jumbo making her Young Vic debut as Hamlet and Academy Award-nominee Ruth Negga as Portia in Marina Carr’s haunting play Portia Coughlan.
Mark Shenton views the latest week of news, openings, non-openings & ‘absolutely remarkable” awards
News, reviews, interviews, commentary and farewells from London, New York and beyond, including The Stage Debut Awards, Sylvia at the Old Vic and regional openings in Chichester and Bristol.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Common at the National Theatre
Anne-Marie Duff and Cush Jumbo star in Jeremy Herrin’s production of DC Moore’s new play now playing at the National Theatre. But what have critics been saying about it?
COMMON – National Theatre
History is a tricky harlot. She is bought and sold, fought for and thrown over, seduced and betrayed — and always at the mercy of the winners. In a general election week, it is hard to deny that still now we are the progeny of the possessive individualism of previous centuries.
COMMON – National Theatre
Over the past few years where he may or may not have been studying sculpture at Saint Martin’s College, Northampton-born playwright DC Moore has been putting together a résumé of quietly impressive work – exploring aspects of contemporary masculinity in insightful plays such as the excellent Straight and under-rated monologue Honest, or opening up his focus to the war in Afghanistan in The Empire and family dramas in The Swan.
NEWS: Final #OlivierAwards presenters announced, including Lin-Manuel Miranda
The final line-up of guest presenters have been announced for this year’s Olivier Awards, which take place this Sunday 9 April 2017 at the Royal Albert Hall.