My latest ShenTens is particularly bittersweet, as we can’t actually go to any at the moment: my favourite West End theatres.
NEWS: Cast & further date announced for Sasha Regan’s All-Male The Pirates of Penzance at the Palace Theatre
Nimax Theatres have added a second night for Sasha Regan’s all-male take on W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance at London’s Palace Theatre. The show will now run on 12 and 13 December 2020.
Love London Love Culture’s Theatre Picks for December
Love London Love Culture offers a guide to some of the shows set to open in London next month.
NEWS: Nimax Theatres will open all 6 West End theatres in sequence from October 2020 with social distancing
Nimax Theatres will open all six West End theatres in sequence from 22 October 2020 with social distancing under Covid-19 secure government guidelines. The special season will beginning at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue with This is Going to Hurt, written and performed by ex-NHS doctor Adam Kay.
FIRST-LOOK PHOTOS: Harry Potter’s new company are casting their West End spell
We’ve just got our hands on production shots for the new 2018-19 West End cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Scroll through the full gallery below…
‘Musical theatre at its best’: MISS SAIGON – Touring ★★★★★
This touring production of Miss Saigon has lost none of its sparkle and is full of so many intricacies that the experience is visceral and moving.
NEWS: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child announces new cast & more tickets available
The third West End cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will start their performances at the Palace Theatre in London on 23 May 2018 following the final performance from the current ensemble on 20 May 2018.
‘Powerful & glamorous’: EVITA – Touring ★★★★
Set against the surrounding political unrest in Argentina in the 1940s-50s, many topics, such as sexism, objectification of women, social division and corruption are touched upon, and no doubt hold current relevance for a modern audience.
SPAMALOT – Touring ★★★★★
Eric Idle has captured the essence of Monty Python in this superbly constructed musical version, demonstrating the most natural understanding of what really does make people laugh.
Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat – Touring ★★★
Following in the footsteps of likeable household-name ‘Josephs’ spanning four decades, Joe McElderry (of X-Factor) has stepped into Joseph’s Dreamcoat and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
SISTER ACT – Touring
Craig Revel Horwood’s adaptation of Sister Act remains faithful to the previous Broadway and West End productions of the show. The musical, taken away from the varying locations of Las Vegas and San Francisco in the 1992 film, is instead set solely in Philadelphia, USA – heightening the danger and the limitations that the play’s protagonist, Deloris Van Cartier.
HARRY POTTER & THE CURSED CHILD – West End
The Harry Potter franchise continues with a new generation finding themselves getting into trouble in this slickly choreographed and magical production, which won three prizes at last week’s Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.
Coming up in 2017: Upcoming reviews from Emma Clarendon
Welcome to 2017! Here’s a guide to some of the reviews to look out for (so far) from Emma (LoveLondonLoveCulture) Clarendon in the coming months.
HARRY POTTER & THE CURSED CHILD 1 & 2 – West End
could a stage presentation of the latest episode(s) of the Harry Potter series match the buzz of the books or the hype and hysteria that has surrounded the much loved movies? The answer is most definitely Yes.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has officially premiered at the West End’s Palace Theatre. Having already gone down well with preview audiences and Harry Potter fans, did it charm critics as well? It’s currently booking until 27 May 2017.
NEWS: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child announces lead cast
Today, Monday 21 December 2015, the Producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are delighted to announce thatJamie Parker, Noma Dumezweni and Paul Thornley will lead the cast as Harry, Hermione and Ron.
THREE LITTLE PIGS – West End
Strike day in a hot pedestrian London, and a surreal opening matinee for Stiles and Drew’s new family musical (fresh from the Singapore Rep’s Little Theatre and knocking out a couple of shows a day before The Commitments takes over with moodier night music). Pop meets nursery, as squads of excitable children and toddlers are ushered with difficulty through crowding paparazzi: for these are bankable pigs, with Saturday TV and boy-band credibility.
WONDER.LAND – Manchester & London
Fifty minutes in, we got a 30ft yodelling falsetto caterpillar with flashing saucer eyes, and I cheered up. It also, as it happens, sang the central message of Damon Albarn’s musical, centrepiece of the Manchester International Festival in partnership with the National Theatre ( Rufus Norris himself directs). The message is “Who are you?”, ‘cos it’s all about teenage self-realisation in the age of broken homes and feral schools under the cosh of Goveian superheads. This necessitates a girl’s escape down the rabbit-hole of the smartphone, to become a braver avatar of herself.
NEWS: Derren Brown brings latest live show Miracle to West End
The multi-award winning acknowledged master of psychological illusion returns to the West End stage with his new one-man show DERREN BROWN: MIRACLE. Following a sell-out 105-date national tour, Brown brings his unique brand of uplifting, unsettling magical showmanship to the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, 11 November 2015 to 16 January 2016. MIRACLE has a more philosophical flavour and invites audiences to look at ways of thinking that might make us all happier.