A year on, and after a partly recast tour, Anything Goes’ SS America drops anchor back in the Barbican and in style. Actually feels even better than before. Aboard are Cole Porter’s champagne rhymes, Kathleen Marshall’s grand direction and peerlessly witty comic choreography, moments of 1930s romantic elegance for those with a tender nature and PG Wodehouse’s high-absurd plot for the rest of us. Last year it loomed out of the grey Covid fog like a sunburst, and had us on our feet. Same again.
‘Offers spectacle & wonder in every musical number’: ANYTHING GOES – Touring & London
Featuring Oliver Award-winning talent in the form of Denis Lawson and Simon Callow, as well as musical theatre royalty such as Kerry Ellis and Bonnie Langford, this energising performance of Anything Goes offers spectacle and wonder in every musical number.
’It runs like clockwork’: ANYTHING GOES – Touring ★★★★★
The West End hits central Edinburgh this week, as Cole Porter’s seaborne musical Anything Goes sails into the Festival Theatre for a very limited run until this Sunday.
‘A revue is always tricky to review’: CLOSER THAN EVER – BroadwayHD (Online review)
This new production of Maltby and Shire’s Closer Than Ever just about gets there, though it occasionally struggles to break through the digital form.
‘There’s a musical theatre dream team’: CLOSER THAN EVER – Broadway HD (Online review)
As it’s a recorded stream, you’re at liberty to choose your own encore moments and replay any numbers which particularly take your fancy – and there are bound to be several of those.*
‘Lovely, lively celebration’: The Theatre Channel – Episode 6 The Showstoppers (Online review)
Showstoppers, the most recent episode of the Theatre Channel’s web series is a lovely, lively celebration of the reopening of the West End this week.
‘Felt like a true celebration’: MUSICALS: THE GREATEST SHOW – BBC One ★★★★★
Dazzling from start to finish, the high quality of the performances, music and of course the venue featured in Musicals: The Greatest Show reminded us why exactly we are missing the theatre.
‘The clouds will clear one day’: Offie-nominated performer Beaux Harris on how she has kept creative during lockdown
Despite Coronavirus, 25-year-old award-nominated actor Beaux Harris continues to dance her way through lockdown and is encouraging others to keep going through her Instagram page and online dance classes, suitable for all age groups.
‘Joel shows off a natural flair for comedy’: THE FOSSE FOREST BALLET (Online review) ★★★★
The Forest Fosse Ballet shows great potential to be developed further into a full series, with a great sense of comedy and many funny relatable characters.
‘A brand new way to experience live musical theatre’: Shanay Holmes tells more about West End Musical Drive-In
This summer the West End Musical Drive-In brings West End superstars direct to your cars. Shanay Holmes, one half of the creative team making this event possible, explains more.
Missed The Boat: We Will Rock You
What a difference, er, 16 years makes… Despite the show spending over a decade at the Dominion Theatre, I never managed to make it to see We Will Rock You in the height of my original Queen obsession – it actually closed just four months before I moved to London.
NEWS: Kerry Ellis makes her non-singing debut in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest on tour
Kerry Ellis will star as Gwendolen, her first non-singing role, at selected venues in the 2018 UK tour of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Album Review: The Route To Happiness (2014 Original Cast Recording)
The story follows the pursuit of fame, money and love and how the three intersect in the intertwined stories of Trinity, Marcus and Lorna. But where the show has maintained a fairly positive place in my memory, listening to the double-album of the score felt like a bit of a chore.
WONDERLAND – Touring
Alice in Wonderland has been incarnated on more occasions than I care to remember, but one thing’s for sure, the story never gets old (in my humble opinion) and the magic, craziness and wonder remains as curious as it did when I first read the book by Lewis Carroll.
HOW-TO: Singing tips from… Kerry Ellis
If you’ve ever wanted singing tips from a West End star, then this series of posts is the one for you! This post is courtesy of the wonderful Kerry Ellis who will soon be starring as Eve in the tour of the new show, Heaven on Earth.
WONDERLAND – Touring
When you first sit down and take in this bizarre but wonderfully performed musical you might think that you literally have gone mad in your own mind with the number of characters passing through and yet by the end you realise it actually made perfect sense. So maybe we are all a bit mad after all.
WONDERLAND – Edinburgh
Alice is having the Worst Day. The controlling ex she’d have back in a second is getting remarried, her car’s been stolen, she’s got the sack…
Escaped Alone reunion, Hippodrome cabaret & other news, treats & interesting titbits
Next week sees the 9th Gay Art Festival GFEST start, an eclectic showcase of art, films, and performance work by LGBTQI artists from London, UK and beyond. There’s all sorts to choose from – full details here – with this year’s theme being OUT [in the Margins] and some of the things piquing my interest are European films Jonathan and Brothers of the Night, at Rich Mix and Arthouse Crouch End respectively, and trans documentary The Pearl on at Rich Mix on 15th November. You might be interested in their performance night at the RADA Studio on the 19th November too, a 2 hour double bill of LGBTQI music and dance narratives. Visit their website at www.gaywisefestival.org.uk.
One of the more exciting pieces of casting news was the announcement that the original cast of Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone – the glorious Deborah Findlay, Linda Bassett, Kika Markham, and June Watson, will be reuniting for the show’s revival early next year. Escaped Alone (my review here) will play a short run in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs 25 January – 11 February 2017, skip over the Atlantic for a wee run at BAM Harvey Theater, New York starting on 15 February and then returns to the UK to go on a national tour 7 March – 26 March to The Lowry, Salford Quays; Cambridge Arts Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.
I suppose a few people might be interested in the return of David Tennant to the stage in Don Juan in Soho… 😉
I’m not 100% in love with the venue, more for the journey through the casino to get to the room, but Leicester Square’s Hippodrome Casino has announced a star-laden set of concerts to follow up on recent successes including Jeremy Jordan, Titus Burgess and Michael Ball. You’ll be able to see Murder Ballad’s Kerry Ellis on 20th December, Memphis’ Matt Cardle on 17th February, Sharon D Clarke – so good in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – on 10th March, and the luscious Oliver Tompsett, recently in Guys and Dolls, on 24th March. More info here.
Congratulations to Andrew Thompson, whose play In Event of Moone Disaster was announced as the winner of the biennial Theatre503 Playwriting Award. Chosen from a shortlist of five and from a longlist that stretched over 52 different countries, Thompson won a nifty £6,000 and will see his play produced as part of his prize.
Hang out the bunting too for the New Diorama Theatre, who won this year’s Empty Space Peter Brook award.
And an interesting snippet from across the pond about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Broadway version of the show, starring Christian Borle as Charlie and scheduled to open Spring 2017, will cleave closer to the Gene Wilder-starring film with Willy Wonka appearing “much earlier in the production, starting the show by welcoming children and guests to his sweetie empire” and “more classic songs from the film that were left out of the London production, as well as new songs by Shaiman and Wittman. Audiences can expect yodeling from Augustus Gloop as he enjoys a mid-breakfast snack of 50 chocolate bars, plus a number called ‘Strike That, Reverse It’ highlighting Wonka’s constant mental frenzy”.
NEWS: Brian May cancels Xmas tour with Kerry Ellis due to illness
Brian May and Kerry Ellis today announced with great regret the indefinite postponement of their December concert dates in the UK. May and Ellis were set to perform 11 Candlelight Concerts in the three weeks leading up to Christmas
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre
The UK premiere of this new American musical – a tale of love, desire and murderous obsession – stars Kerry Ellis, Ramin Karimloo, Norman Bowman and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt. It’s booking at the Arts Theatre until 3 December 2016. What have critics been saying about it?
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2