Week One of this year’s Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, features new plays set in Israel, Turkey and your local pub, care of Einat Weizman (and Palestinian political prisoners), Melis Aker and Stewart Pringle. We caught up with each of them in the first of our three-part festival interview series. Time to get booking!
NEWS: Vibrant Festival returns for 11th year with nine new plays at Finborough Theatre
Vibrant – A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, the Finborough Theatre’s annual explosion of new writing, returns this week for its eleventh consecutive year, presenting nine new plays on Sundays, Mondays and Thursday from 16 June to 4 July 2019.
‘Performances are all extremely engaging’: MAGGIE MAY – Finborough Theatre
Having only being familiar with Lionel Bart’s most famous musical Oliver! it is refreshing to see the Finborough Theatre rediscovering this little known musical set in Liverpool and director Matthew Iliffe gives Maggie May it a lively production.
‘Lionel Bart’s diverse score includes sweet & rueful ballads’: MAGGIE MAY – Finborough Theatre ★★★
The London Fringe has been diligent in ploughing back catalogue after back catalogue for ‘forgotten’ musicals, and Maggie May has not been seen in London for 55 years.
THE BURNT PART BOYS – Park Theatre
In the first musical to be staged at Park 90, the Park Theatre’s smaller space, The Burnt Part Boys proves to be one of the finest examples of Off West End musical theatre.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Burnt Part Boys at the Park Theatre
This European premiere production of American musical The Burnt Part Boys, running at London’s Park Theatre until 3 September 2016, is directed by Matthew Iliffe and follows the story of a group of teenagers living under the shadow of a tragic mining accident. But what have critics been saying about it?
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – Landor Theatre
As someone raised on West End musicals, I’ve grown used to grand spectacles, produced on a huge scale and a big budget, with lavish sets and an army of stage crew. It never would have occurred to me that you could present a show of that kind in a fringe theatre, with a cast of twelve and a band of five. Yet Thoroughly Modern Millie, at the tiny and intimate Landor Theatre, does just that – and is easily as entertaining as any of those big productions.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – Landor Theatre
Derived in 2002 from the 1967 Julie Andrews movie, Thoroughly Modern Millie is thoroughly old fashioned. It’s sexist: all the women are actresses or typists; racist: landlady Mrs Meers feigns orientalism and speaks pantomime Cantonese to her migrant Hong Kong laundrymen; heteronormative: every flapper’s ambition is to secure a rich businessman husband and even white slavery is dismissed as “well, it’s one way to get a man”, but so heartwarming and jolly you can almost forgive its cartoon morality.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – Landor Theatre
The twenties don’t so much roar as whimper in SDWC’s new revival of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Landor. Matthew Iliffe’s production strips back not only the set and cast, but also the life and soul of the show, leaving us with a raw and undercooked slog of questionable casting and dull direction.
NEWS: Full cast announced for Thoroughly Modern Millie at Landor Theatre
Performances at Landor Theatre – Tuesday 18th August – Sunday 13th September 2015 This new production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, presented by SDWC Productions, marks the show’s triumphant return […]