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‘It’s just all very beautiful’: NOISES OFF – Bath & Touring ★★★★★

In Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Libby PurvesLeave a Comment

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.

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‘Making a splash’: Anything Goes – Barbican / Singin’ in the Rain – Sadler’s Wells

In Edinburgh Festival, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Reviews by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

Two classic revivals — both coincidentally first launched in the spring and summer of 2011, one on Broadway (Anything Goes, in a production directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall), the other at Chichester, before transferring to the West End’s Palace Theatre (Singin’ in the Rain, directed by Jonathan Church with choreography by Andrew Wright) — have returned in triumph on consecutive nights this week.

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Mark Shenton’s weekly chart of forthcoming theatrical comings & goings has some new entries

In Edinburgh Festival, Features, London theatre, Musicals, Online shows, Opinion, Plays, Regional theatre, Scotland, Touring by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

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.

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Returning & new productions heading for the West End & beyond post-lockdown: Are you up to date?

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

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.

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LETTICE & LOVAGE – Menier Chocolate Factory

In Comedy, London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Johnny FoxLeave a Comment

So why doesn’t the current production of Lettice and Lovage at the Menier Chocolate Factory push my buttons? I fear it suffers from Forty Years On Syndrome – a circumstance whereby even with what seems like dream casting of Richard Wilson as an irascible headmaster, Alan Bennett’s masterly first play comes up lifeless and irrelevant at Chichester.

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What we’re looking forward to in Chichester Festival’s winter season

In Musicals, News, Opinion, Plays, Press Releases, Regional theatre, Touring by Matt MerrittLeave a Comment

We’re confirmed fans of Chichester Festival Theatre here, and for us their announcement of a new season is a bit like Christmas! The Winter 2016 season has a great range of entertainment and there’s sure to be something for everyone’s tastes! Edward Fox, Liza Goddard, Amanda Holden, Felicity Kendal, Robert Powell, Reece Shearsmith, Ken Stott and Imogen Stubbs are among the stars appearing in plays by writers from Alan Ayckbourn to Ronald Harwood, alongside contemporary work from Frantic Assembly and Spymonkey

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NEWS: Felicity Kendal stars in A Room with a View tour before West End

In Films, London theatre, Native, News, Plays, Press Releases, Regional theatre, Touring by Press ReleasesLeave a Comment

Felicity Kendal stars in A Room with a View, adapted from EM Forster’s novel by Simon Reade and directed by Adrian Noble. Full cast is now announced for the production which opens for a two-week run at the Theatre Royal Bath from 28 September to 8 October 2016, before touring until 3 December to Brighton, Richmond, Guildford Norwich, Cambridge and Chichester followed by a West End transfer.

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HAY FEVER – Duke of York’s Theatre, West End

In London theatre, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews by Johnny FoxLeave a Comment

This is a play I know extremely well. My own production (“one of the best the Nuffield Theatre has housed” – Guardian) formed part of my Theatre Studies degree at Lancaster in 1973, the year Noel Coward died. I have seen every major revival, and some dodgy tours, from the splendid Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray version which first inspired me as a teenager at the Grand Theatre Leeds, to glossy London and Chichester productions with Dame Judi, Maria Aitken, Penelope Keith, Geraldine McEwan and Diana Rigg. And the awful one with Lindsay Duncan strutting about in jodhpurs.