Following a successful West End engagement at the Dominion back in 2019, White Christmas has been taken on the road for the 2022 festive season. This time round, the Irving Berlin classic musical stars Jay McGuiness, Dan Burton, Jessica Daley, Monique Young, Lorna Luft and Michael Starke – and of course includes several renditions of the famous title song.
‘An all-singing, all-dancing festive treat’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – West End ★★★★
White Christmas is an all-singing, all-dancing festive treat, full of showbiz razzmatazz and a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure – though with the memories of war lurking in the background, there is a dark edge that offsets the Technicolor world of the 1950s.
‘Charming & warm from start to finish’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – West End ★★★★
A joy from start to finish, White Christmas is a real treat that you will not want to miss out on.
‘Completely charismatic’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – West End ★★★★
The embodiment of glamour from start to finish, White Christmas whisks you away and takes you to a wintery wonderland where lullabies and tap dances reign supreme.
‘Delivers in style’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – West End
Before long the stage is overflowing with so much joy, romance and goodwill to all that ultimately, much like the snow song, this White Christmas proves impossible to resist.
NEWS: Curve’s production of White Christmas transfers to the West End for short festive season
Made at Curve production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas will transfer to London’s Dominion Theatre from 15 November 2019 to 4 January 2020, with a press night on 25 November.
‘A fabulous feel-good delight’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – Leicester ★★★★
With Berlin’s classic numbers and in the gifted creative hands of director Nikolai Foster and his choreographer Stephen Mear, White Christmas becomes a fabulous feel-good delight.
‘A treat for the eyes & ears’: WHITE CHRISTMAS – Leicester
With White Christmas, Curve has yet again produced a classy production filled with yuletide magic and enough fluffy escapism to warm hearts on these cold winter nights.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – Paris ★★★★★
Fittingly, the reviewing year has ended in the grandest of styles at Paris’ Grand Palais to where the city’s illustrious Theatre du Châtelet have temporarily decamped, reviving their 2015 production of Singin’ In The Rain.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – Paris ★★★★★
Fittingly, the reviewing year has ended in the grandest of styles at Paris’ Grand Palais to where the city’s illustrious Theatre du Châtelet have temporarily decamped, reviving their 2015 production of Singin’ In The Rain.
Album Review: Broadway Melodies ★★★★
It is a delight to review Dan Burton’s debut album Broadway Melodies. As choreographer Stephen Mear has long known, Burton is currently amongst the finest of musical theatre “triple threats” (defined as talented in all three skills of song, dance and acting) and a man who unassumingly provides an assured touch of class to all his roles, whether they be leading or support.
TOP HAT – Kilworth
Stephen Mear’s take on Top Hat, just opened at Leicestershire’s Kilworth House Theatre is further proof that for this summer at least, the very best musical theatre openings are all taking place outside of London.
42nd STREET – Paris
A stunning new large-scale production, 42nd Street deservedly enjoyed a sold-out season at Théâtre du Châtelet, where it finished yesterday.
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.
Diary of a Theatre Addict: Doing the timewarp again, revisiting Gypsy on TV, and catching up with Linda
I’ve been out and about over the pre- and post-Christmas week, including trips to Brighton, Manchester and Leeds, with lots of catching up to do in London, too.
GYPSY – West End
It is rare to see perfection improved upon, but in its transfer from Chichester Festival Theatre, Jonathan Kent’s Gypsy achieves just that. A highlight of 2014, the resonance of Jule Styne’s big band brassy score filled the Sussex theatre’s world class open stage. But Gypsy was written in and for the Golden Age of Broadway, to be mounted on a proscenium stage. In re-sculpting their masterpiece to fit the Savoy’s traditional confines, Kent and choreographer Stephen Mear have excelled.
GYPSY – West End
Rose Thompson Hovick must have been one of the first practitioners of NLP. By constantly drumming in to her tapdancing infant that she was ‘gonna be a star’ Rose made it happen even if stripper Gypsy Rose Lee accidentally became a somewhat bigger name than the favoured sibling, actress June Havoc
The Gypsy In Mear – Stephen Mear on Choreographing Gypsy for the West End
As Gypsy opens at the Savoy Theatre, I caught up with its choreographer and one of the country’s leading creative talents, Stephen Mear to talk about the show and in particular to understand more of his work with and respect for leading lady Imelda Staunton.