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The post June 10: Should Covid passports be required to go to the theatre? first appeared on Shenton Stage.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is ready for battle over the June reopening but what about the nation’s health?
In a front page scoop in today’s Daily Telegraph, the paper lines up three heavy-hitting bylines — chief reporter Robert Mendick, political editor Ben Riley-Smith and theatre critic Dominic Cavendish — to reveal an exclusive with Andrew Lloyd Webber. The headline reads: ‘You’ll have to arrest us to stop reopening’.
The unusual performing detours brought on by Covid
COVID has created unusual detours that producers and performers have been forced to navigate; and it has sometimes opened new doors in the process
As London’s Theatreland opens up to new producers, are we seeing a new dawn for the West End?
No theatre owner or producer has done more to re-ignite the West End, both then in December and especially now in May, than the forever-tenacious, ever-energetic and resilient Nica Burns.
Can honest critics have theatre professionals as friends?
I’m unashamedly a friend and champion of the theatre; but I can never been a simple cheerleader for it, regardless of the circumstances or my connections with people in a show I’m seeing. As honest critics find out all too often, we’re loved when we love something we see; but that can quickly pivot to becoming the enemy when we don’t.
Now & forever? What is the legacy of Cats 40 years on?
There’s hardly a more insistent ear worm of a song in all of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ear-wormy repertoire than ‘Memory’, the breakout hit of his 1981 musical Cats, which last night celebrated the 40th anniversary of its premiere at the then New London Theatre (now itself renamed for Gillian Lynne, the choreographer whose work on the show ignited a revolution in global musical theatre, and accidentally created the West End’s first authentic dance-based musical).
Being in the room where it happens: How quickly are theatre audiences going to return?
As theatre next week starts to finally edge cautiously out of a full lockdown of over five full months, plus only very intermittent appearances in the nine months before that, the question arises will the audiences be there for it?
As Phantom & Six announce reopening dates, plans speed up for Broadway’s return
It turns out New York is moving even faster, with the state (and its neighbours, New Jersey and Connecticut), according to the New York Times on Monday, “lifting almost all their pandemic restrictions, paving the way for a return to fuller offices and restaurants, a more vibrant nightlife and a richer array of cultural and religious gatherings for the first time in a year”.
Are we all going to rush to the theatre as soon as social distancing is no more?
Do we have to become responsible for our own Covid safety? So, the man who (allegedly) said he didn’t mind if the bodies were piled high, he didn’t want to impose another lockdown — until he, in fact, did — is now embarking on another experiment in which that may indeed turn out to be outcome. On 21 June, all social distancing is to be scrapped in the UK.
Have theatrical producers of old forgotten how to treat the people who helped them reach the top in the first place?
Now we’ve seen Cameron Mackintosh here in London twice in the last year throw his original investors overboard on his two biggest hits: Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera.
Beneath contempt: Mark Shenton reacts to the empty promises made over the return of Phantom to the West End
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The post April 27: The rotten stench of contempt for people, from the government to its people and from producers to their orchestras and audiences first appeared on Shenton Stage.
Putting profits before people? Where is the original Phantom of the Opera we were promised?
When The Phantom of the Opera was unloaded from the Her Majesty’s Theatre last year, it produced the forlorn sight of the original Phantom chandelier resting on the pavement outside the theatre instead of poised over the proscenium from which it famously comes crashing down over the heads of those seated in the stalls.
‘If you can’t join them, beat them’: Mark Shenton reacts to the Scott Rudin ‘bullying’ controversy
On Monday, leaders of three American entertainment unions — SAG-AFRA, Actors’ Equity Association and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802 released a joint statement condemning workplace harassment, bullying and violent behaviour.
Deserving talent: When will disabled arts & artists make a substantial cross-over to the mainstream?
It’s peculiar that disabled arts and artists are yet to make a substantial cross-over, at least in British theatre. Yes, there was one happy incidence of this at the Donmar Warehouse, when gay disabled actor Daniel Monks starred in their production of Teenage Dick in 2019.
Why Mamma Mia! remains an irresistible show – according to Mark Shenton
Mamma Mia! recently marked its 22nd anniversary in the West End (it premiered at the Prince Edward Theatre on 6 April 1999, subsequently moving twice — first to the Prince of Wales, and then its current home, the Novello).
There’s still uncertainties on the road to theatres’ recovery
We are just over a month away from the cautious re-opening of indoor theatre venues from 17 May, which will restore theatres to their pre-lockdown condition last December of being able to operate at 50% capacity, up to a maximum of 1,000 people.
Marking the nostalgia of the past for Follies’ 50th & edging towards some hope for Broadway’s future
On Friday the resumption of theatre life began in New York; meanwhile, today is the 50th anniversary of the Broadway opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, his jagged and shattering tribute to the musicals as well as the marriages of yesteryear, as James Goldman’s characters confront their current predicaments as middle and old-aged people looking back on their lives through the prism of the nostalgia of their theatrical pasts — all set to a score that gently pastiches the songs of the period while actually improving on them.
‘I think once you’re an entrepreneur, it’s in your DNA’: How Howard Panter & Rosemary Squire can’t resist building a theatre empire
It’s been announced that Howard Panter & Rosemary Squire’s Trafalgar Entertainment are joining forces with regional theatre operator HQ — who currently operate 11 venues from Bromley and Dartford to Southend, Swindon, Crewe and Guildford.
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.
Will an older generation of creatives be altruistic enough to make room for young talent?
A constantly recurring theme as we hopefully start emerging from this pandemic — and even long before it actually happened — was about creating space for new voices and talents, and preferably younger and more diverse voices, whether as writers, directors, producers, designers, actors or even theatre critics.