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‘Utterly joyous & joyful’: SOUTH PACIFIC – Chichester Festival Theatre

In Musicals, Opinion, Regional theatre, Reviews by Mark ShentonLeave a Comment

While it is sadly premature to say that the theatre is fully back from its enforced hibernation of the last 15 months that put paid entirely to last summer’s Chichester Festival Theatre season, it was a (socially distanced) delight to welcome back of my favourite regional theatres with the opening, at last, of its production of South Pacific originally planned for last year.

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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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NEWS: All-star cast reunites for I Love You, You’re Perfect for two shows only, 15 Aug

In London theatre, Musicals, Native, News, Press Releases by Press ReleasesLeave a Comment

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.

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NEWS: Show Boat posts early closing notices after five-star reviews, 27 Aug

In London theatre, Musicals, Native, News, Press Releases, Regional theatre by Press ReleasesLeave a Comment

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.

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SHOW BOAT – West End

In London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Emma ClarendonLeave a Comment

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.

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SHOW BOAT – West End

In London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Reviews by Johnny FoxLeave a Comment

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.

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SHOW BOAT – West End

In London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Regional theatre, Reviews by Jonathan BazLeave a Comment

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.