When you book tickets to a musical you would ordinarily expect to see a highly polished, carefully choreographed production where every line, step and song has been rehearsed a hundred times. Not so if you’re heading to Hackney Empire for An Improbable Musical, a show which will be improvised before your eyes.
20 of the things that inspired, moved, amused & delighted John Chapman in 2020
I’ve selected 20 of the things that inspired, moved, amused and delighted, which have pushed the boundaries of what it possible and continued to fly the flag for theatre in the UK.
‘Lively, timely & in places hilarious satire’: THE BOSS OF IT ALL – New Perspectives (Online review)
Writer/director Jack McNamara’s clever play The Boss Of It All remorselessly targets the ineptitude of the governing classes and, along the way, takes some delightful pot shots at the pretensions of a certain type of actor.
NEWS: Josie Lawrence will star in New Perspectives’ streamed stage adaptation of The Boss of It All
The cult classic Lars von Trier film, The Boss of It All, has been adapted for a specially staged streamed version by theatre company New Perspectives, with Josie Lawrence playing the title character.
‘Couldn’t be more timely’: PLACE PRINTS 1-4 (Online review)
Place Prints is a fascinating audio series from writer David Rudkin about places in the UK. There are certain locations where that sense of the past is much stronger than in others. These places have their own stories and voices and Rudkin tells them with a sense of lyricism from which contemporary writers might well learn.
‘Theatrical magic’: OKLAHOMA! – Chichester ★★★★
Jeremy Sams and his creative team have delivered theatrical magic in Oklahoma! at Chichester Festival Theatre.
‘Engaging & very enjoyable production’: OKLAHOMA! – Chichester ★★★
This year Chichester Festival Theatre is taking on Oklahoma! with their usual mix of respect for the piece and urge to find a new viewpoint on it.
A play about the writing & staging of a play has always been part of a popular genre
Inevitably writers will gravitate to the world they most often inhabit and about which they can speak with a degree of authority whether that be professionally, publically or privately.
‘Light-hearted & giddily enjoyable’: EDMOND DE BERGERAC – Birmingham
Alexis Michalik’s play (translated by Jeremy Sams) detailing the fictionalised writing process behind Cyrano, impishly titled Edmond de Bergerac, receives its English premiere in Roxana Silbert’s light-hearted and giddily enjoyable production.
NEWS: John Simm, Dervla Kirwan Hugh Bonneville, James Nesbitt & Sheila Hancock all feature in Chichester Festival Theatre’s new season
Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2019 has been announced by artistic director Daniel Evans. It includes John Simm & Dervla Kirwan in Macbeth, Hugh Bonneville in Shadowlands & Tim Firth’s first solo musical starring James Nesbitt.
‘An unmistakable elegance to his prose’: LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING – Coronet Theatre
Plays about old age are often also plays about death. This is certainly true of American novelist Don DeLillo’s evocatively titled 2005 play, Love-Lies-Bleeding.
NEWS: First UK production of Don DeLillo’s Love-Lies-Bleeding will star Josie Lawrence & Joe McGann
Josie Lawrence and Joe McGann will lead the cast in the first UK production of American literary icon Don DeLillo’s Love-Lies-Bleeding at The Print Room at the Coronet from 9 November to 8 December 2018 (press night is 13 November).
MOTHER COURAGE & HER CHILDREN – Southwark Playhouse ★★★
Josie Lawrence gives a great performance as Mother Courage despite the heartache she endured on a daily basis. Giving such a poignant performance you feel like her “On stage” children were her own the way she protects them.
MOTHER COURAGE & HER CHILDREN – Southwark Playhouse ★★★
Josie Lawrence gives a great performance as Mother Courage despite the heartache she endured on a daily basis. Giving such a poignant performance you feel like her “On stage” children were her own the way she protects them.
MOTHER COURAGE & HER CHILDREN – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
Josie Lawrence is an absolute triumph, embracing the audience on her journey from cocky tradeswoman to a woman that Mother Courage would be ashamed of, so downtrodden is her outlook and situation.
NEWS: Full cast announced to join Josie Lawrence in Brecht’s Mother Courage
Final casting has been announced to join multi award-winning actor-comedian Josie Lawrence in a new production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children at London’s Southwark Playhouse.
NEWS: Josie Lawrence stars as Brecht’s Mother Courage at Southwark Playhouse
Josie Lawrence takes the title role in a new production of Brecht’s 1939 classic Mother Courage and Her Children at London’s Southwark Playhouse in November.
AMEDEE – Birmingham
It’s always a bit of risk, booking a show you don’t know to see a particular actor and I have to say I got my fingers burnt here with Amédée.
THE GLENDA J COLLECTIVE – Soho Theatre
“Who needs men?”… In advance of the return of the real Glenda J (Miss Jackson if you’re nasty…) in Deborah Warner’s King Lear for the Old Vic, The Glenda J Collective proved to be most entertaining.