Matthew Harvey chats about his new song cycle Now Or Never, streaming on demand through the Barn Theatre.
‘Suitably impressive in terms of its ambition & style’: NOW OR NEVER – Barn Theatre (Online review) ★★★★
Song cycle Now or Never brims with positivity and hope even when it seems disaster is imminent.
‘Thought-provoking but slight’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre ★★★
Violet has plenty of sincerity and perceptive lyrics to make it endearing to watch, but the book ultimately lets it down and doesn’t allow the characters to quite shine as brightly as they could. Definite potential here – but in need of some work.
‘A simple, heartwarming show’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre
An ideal choice for an Off-West End season, Violet features an exceptional lead performance from Kaisa Hammarlund.
‘A remarkable portrayal of warring pain & optimism’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre ★★★
By the time director Shuntaro Fujita’s slick and sun-kissed production draws to a close, it’s impossible not to root for Violet’s happiness.
‘The cast is stellar’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre ★★★
Based on Doris Betts’ short story The Ugliest Pilgrim, featuring music by Jeanine Tesori and libretto by Brian Crawley, Violet follows a disfigured woman as she embarks on a Greyhound Bus journey from Spruce Pine, North Carolina to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be healed by a famous television healer.
‘An intriguing proposition all told’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre
Great design work from Morgan Large and a strong lead performance from Kaisa Hammarlund make Violet an intriguing proposition at the Charing Cross Theatre.
‘Strong & enjoyable production’: VIOLET – Charing Cross Theatre
Violet is a warm, considerate musical with a lot to say about the past and some real faces of the future to look out for.
NEWS: Kaisa Hammarlund heads the cast of the UK premiere of Violet at Charing Cross Theatre
Kaisa Hammarlund will play the title role in Violet, the multi-award-winning musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, which receives its UK premiere at London’s Charing Cross Theatre for a 12-week season from 14 January to 6 April 2019 (press night is 21 January) in an international co-production that will see it transfer to Tokyo.
‘Karimloo’s voice remains a thing of wonder’: BROADWAY @ LEICESTER SQUARE – Ramin Karimloo
The Broadway @ The Leicester Square brand is one which surfaces infrequently but always pays rich rewards when it does. Having attracted Patti LuPone, then Audra McDonald and John Barrowman into the intimate surroundings of an informal chat and sing-song arrangement with Seth Rudetsky, it is now Ramin Karimloo’s turn to deliver such a boutique concert.
MACK & MABEL – London Musical Theatre Orchestra
Ostensibly, these are concert presentations of musicals but the joy in what you actually get, the bonuses that get incorporated into the creation of genuine one-off experiences makes LMTO one of the more valuable recent additions to the London theatre ecology.
WATCH: David Bedella sings ‘I Won’t Send You Roses’ ahead of LMTO concert, Full cast
Full casting has been announced for next weekend’s London Musical Theatre Orchestra much-anticipated concert presentation of Jerry Herman’s Mack and Mabel, which runs for one night only at Hackney Empire on Saturday 23 September 2017. Have you got your tickets yet? Have you entered the competition on our sister site StageFaves.com?
RAMIN KARIMLOO & the Broadgrass Band – Touring
Karimloo, a Phantom and Les Mis heavyweight, happily shrugged off the ostentation of the musical theatre world to present his stripped-down take on the songs he loves, re-arranging them with an acoustic, countrified, bluegrass tinge.
CEILI O’CONNOR: THE UNDERSTUDY – Century Club
What better way to showcase Ceili O’Connor’s cabaret than as The Understudy – treating a packed audience at the Century Club to a whirl through many of the numbers that she had evidently honed to perfection, though enchantingly, giving each of these classic songs a delightful re-imagining.