In developing The Trials, the Donmar worked with more than 1,300 young people plus a further 200 in workshops at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and National Youth Theatre. Director Natalie Abrahami, helped by designer Georgia Lowe and video maker Nina Dunn, has created a compelling production, with more than half the cast making their stage debuts.
‘Modern families, money & the morals of genetics’: THE FEVER SYNDROME – Hampstead Theatre ★★★
The family at the centre of the story is that of Richard Myers (Robert Lindsay), an eminent geneticist who now has Parkinson’s Disease.
‘Throughout the play, I felt personally caught up in this family battlefield’: THE FEVER SYNDROME – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★
The first thing you notice upon entering the auditorium is the impressive dominating cross-section of the Myers’ family’s four-storey, ageing townhouse based in Manhattan.
‘Relentlessly upbeat & cheerful to watch’: ANYTHING GOES (Online review)
Light as a souffle but such a delight. It’s doubtful whether there has ever been a classier bit of froth than this Cole Porter show.
‘A ridiculous – & ridiculously enjoyable – show that boasts the finest score in musicals’: ANYTHING GOES – Barbican Theatre
As soon as the title number’s patter chorus kicks in, there’s a smile on every face at the Barbican Centre, where Cole Porter’s Broadway classic Anything Goes runs until 6 November 2021.
NEWS: Rachel York & Haydn Gwynne join the cast of Anything Goes at the Barbican & extra dates added
Broadway star Rachel York and Tony and Olivier nominee Haydn Gwynne will join the cast of critically-acclaimed Anything Goes for the final weeks before the show must end on 6 November 2021.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Anything Goes at the Barbican
We round up the reviews for Kathleen Marshall’s production of Anything Goes, now playing at the Barbican.
‘Making a splash’: Anything Goes – Barbican / Singin’ in the Rain – Sadler’s Wells
Two classic revivals — both coincidentally first launched in the spring and summer of 2011, one on Broadway (Anything Goes, in a production directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall), the other at Chichester, before transferring to the West End’s Palace Theatre (Singin’ in the Rain, directed by Jonathan Church with choreography by Andrew Wright) — have returned in triumph on consecutive nights this week.
‘The roars of joy kept coming’: ANYTHING GOES – Barbican Theatre ★★★★★
In Anything Goes at the Barbican there are celebrity gangsters and torch-singers, big stock-exchange money and big energy, jazzy lapdancers and a touching belief that poor old England is best represented by a silly-ass in tweeds who doesn’t understand words like smooch.
‘Imaginative & hugely entertaining’: The Three Musketeers… attempted by Foolhardy (Online review) ★★★★
With the news that the full reopening of theatres has been delayed until July, many of us are in need of a good laugh. Thankfully FoolHardy Productions is on hand to entertain with its latest comedy, an online production of The Three Musketeers.
‘Farcical fun all the way’: The Three Musketeers… attempted by Foolhardy (Online review)
Heavily promoted on the strength of Robert Lindsay’s involvement in the cast, this audio-animated adaptation of The Three Musketeers owes more to parody and pastiche than any serious attempt to translate the story into digital form.
Mark Shenton’s weekly chart of forthcoming theatrical comings & goings has some new entries
This weekly column keeps track of the shows that are coming back, or are newly being announced, as theatres prepare to re-open from next month onwards. It will be updated weekly until such time as it becomes a reality, and from then on will provide a weekly update to that week’s openings and future ones.
Returning & new productions heading for the West End & beyond post-lockdown: Are you up to date?
Meanwhile, I want to start keeping track of the shows that are coming back, or are newly being announced, in a new feature here that will be updated weekly until such time as it becomes a reality, and from then on will provide a weekly update to that week’s openings and future ones.
As lockdown restrictions begin to lift, where does that leave theatre?
Today, for the first time since the mid-December lockdown brought the shutters down on most forms of social interaction in public, including the closure of non-essential shops, pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas, museums and galleries, Britain is beginning the process of edging out of those some of those restrictions.
NEWS: Further casting & new schedule is announced for Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre
Anything Goes will open at London’s Barbican Theatre from 23 July 2021 for a strictly limited 12-week season until 17 October.
NEWS: Felicity Kendal & Gary Wilmot join the cast of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre
Award winning actress Felicity Kendal will make her West End musical debut starring as Evangeline Harcourt, alongside leading actor Gary Wilmot as Elisha Whitney, in Anything Goes at London’s Barbican Theatre, running for a strictly limited season from 5 June to 22 August 2021.
NEWS: Will & Grace’s Megan Mullally will make her West End musical debut in Anything Goes opposite Robert Lindsay
Emmy & SAG Award winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) will make her West End musical debut as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes opposite Tony, Olivier & BAFTA Award winner Robert Lindsay as Moonface Martin, running from 8 May 2021 (press night is 20 May) until 22 August at London’s Barbican Theatre.
‘Full of wit, humour & reminiscence’: A MARVELLOUS PARTY (Online review)
A Marvellous Party, commissioned by the Noël Coward Foundation, ostensibly marks the centenary of Coward’s first appearance on stage and has been produced to raise funds for actors on both sides of the Atlantic who are struggling with the effects of the pandemic.
‘Robert Lindsay is mesmerising’: PRISM – Touring ★★★★
Prism, written and directed by the acclaimed playwright Terry Johnson, tells the story of cinematographer Jack Cardiff in the latter years of his life.
‘Profoundly moving & tragic semi-autobiographical play’: IN PRAISE OF LOVE – Bath ★★★★
Terence Rattigan was understandably consumed with thoughts of love and death – and the right way to die – when he wrote his last great play, In Praise Of Love. Dying himself from leukaemia – after an earlier false diagnosis – the writer poured his feelings into this profoundly moving and tragic semi-autobiographical play.
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