World premieres in Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2020 include first plays by Steven Moffat and Kate Mosse and new work by Suhayla El-Bushra and Christopher Shinn.
‘The ideal tonic for our modern world’: MATILDA THE MUSICAL – West End ★★★★★
It’s no wonder Matilda The Musical has managed to stand its ground in the West End; it’s a sheer delight for adults and children alike, brimming with optimism and a clear sense of right and wrong.
NEWS: Hayden Tee will play Miss Trunchbull in West End’s Matilda The Musical as new cast announced
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical has announced new casting with Hayden Tee playing Miss Trunchbull alongside Rob Compton and Holly Dale Spencer as Mr and Mrs Wormwood.
NEWS: David Shannon & Gina Beck lead new Matilda the Musical cast
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical has announced its new adult cast with David Shannon playing Miss Trunchbull alongside Gina Beck as Miss Honey and Tom Edden and Marianne Benedict as Mr and Mrs Wormwood.
INTERVIEW: Jimmy Roberts on I Love You…, Joe DiPietro & new projects
Ahead of August’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change reunion, we catch up with the musical’s composer, Jimmy Roberts, about the musical comedy’s enduring appeal, his long-running collaboration with Joe DiPietro and his upcoming projects including a new musical about Rex Harrison and Noel Coward.
NEWS: All-star cast reunites for I Love You, You’re Perfect for two shows only, 15 Aug
Hartshorn-Hook Productions is thrilled to announce the reunion of last year’s critically-acclaimed cast – Simon Lipkin, Gina Beck, Julie Atherton and Samuel Holmes – in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The production, nominated for Best Revival in last year’s Broadway World Awards, will return for two performances at the West End’s Arts Theatre on Monday 15 August 2016.
Mourning Show Boat: Why do great shows close early?
When the news came in late yesterday that, just a fortnight after opening, Show Boat had posted West End closing notices, I was both shocked and not the least bit surprised.
Mourning Show Boat: Why do great shows close early?
When the news came in late yesterday that, just a fortnight after opening, Show Boat had posted West End closing notices, I was both shocked and not the least bit surprised.
NEWS: Show Boat posts early closing notices after five-star reviews, 27 Aug
The limited season of Daniel Evans’ five-star Sheffield Crucible production of Show Boat will now play its final West End performance on 27 August 2016. Show Boat began West End previews at the New London Theatre on 9 April 2016, with opening night on 25 April 2016 after which Evans’ production was the recipient of a second set of five-star reviews. It had initially been booking until 7 January 2017.
SHOW BOAT – West End
From the beginning, what makes this musical so perfect is the way in which it manages to balance between the seriousness and heart-wrenching moments such as when Julie and Steve are forced to leave the show boat due to some ‘questionable’ parentage with some genuinely uplifting and entertaining moments – usually involving Queenie and Joe.
SHOW BOAT – West End
In 1927, Jerome Kern shifted the shape of musical theatre from twee operetta to a tighter fusion of music with drama. He also designed Show Boat as a slap in the face to complacent audiences with its startling opening line ‘Niggers all work on the Mississippi’. In the Daniel Evans’ production which has arrived with bells and whistles and five-star accolades from Sheffield we have a version which is both polished and sanitized.
SHOW BOAT – West End
Show Boat at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre was the best musical that I saw last year and its London transfer is setting a very high bar for 2016. Daniel Evans’ production, mounted on Lez Brotherston’s spectacularly evocative set doesn’t just reprise one of Broadway’s greatest ever musicals, it recreates America’s Southlands and Midwest at the turn of the 20th century, with a spine-tingling intensity.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Show Boat at the New London Theatre
Transferring down south after its successful run in Sheffield and directed by Daniel Evans – can the show stay afloat or does it sink? Show Boat is booking at the West End’s New London Theatre until 7 January 2016.
SHOW BOAT – West End
ROLLING ALONG, CARRYING ALL BEFORE IT Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly – you gotta laugh and you gotta cry. And believe me, you won’t help loving this stunning, flawless, celebratory production. Swooping down from a five-star run in … Continue reading →
NEWS: Miss Saigon’s Chris Peluso joins Show Boat, Full West End cast
Malcolm Sinclair (Capt. Andy Hawks) and Chris Peluso (Gaylord Ravenal) will join original Sheffield cast members Gina Beck (Magnolia Hawks), Lucy Briers (Parthy Ann Hawks), Rebecca Trehearn (Julia La Verne), Emmanuel Kojo (Joe), Sandra Marvin (Queenie), Alex Young (Ellie May Chipley) and Danny Collins (Frank Schultz) in the West End cast of Daniel Evans’ five star production of Show Boat.
NEWS: Sheffield Show Boat sails into West End’s New London in April, TICKETS ON SALE
Daniel Evans’ five star production of Show Boat will transfer from Sheffield to the West End in the spring of 2016. With booking opening today (12 February 2016), previews begin at the New London Theatre on 9 April 2016, with press night on Monday 25 April 2016.
Critical Digest: Four 5* shows in London & Sheffield and a 1* Peter Pan
Review extracts from four shows that got 5-star reviews: The Lorax at the Old Vic, Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar, Show Boat at Sheffield’s Crucible & The Dazzle at Found111.
SHOW BOAT – Sheffield Crucible
2015 you sly old fox, you’ve saved the best for last.
The Confederate flag flutters over the stage as the opening bars of Show Boat play out. An ugly image, the flag defining so much of America’s troubled history and setting a dark uncompromising tone that defines Daniel Evan’s production.
TICKETS: Mark’s Top Ten recommendations + this week’s openings (14 Dec)
Another week of big openings ahead means I won’t be getting to everything even if I wanted to (and right now I am still trying to take it easier than I used to), let alone playing catch-up on what I missed when I was incapacitated after my recent double rounds of surgery! Here are the main openings of the week to look out for, followed by my current Top 10.
NEWS: Michael Xavier and Gina Beck lead Show Boat in Sheffield
Sheffield Theatres Artistic Director Daniel Evans today announces the company for his new production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical Show Boat. Spanning 40 pivotal years in American history, this epic musical follows the lives and loves of three generations aboard a show boat as it plies the Mississippi River. One of the most romantic musicals of all …