Crazy For You at the Chichester Festival Theatre, roaring into life under Susan Stroman’s choreographic wit, is the ultimate song-n-dance show. And, in this year of theatrical resurrection, the timeliest of celebrations of showbiz itself.
‘A whirlwind of dance & vocals’: CRAZY FOR YOU – Chichester Festival Theatre ★★★★
It’s that glorious Gershwin music that carries Crazy For You at Chichester Festival Theatre. Sure, there are some funny lines, and the plot has the classic boy-meets-girl-but-doesn’t-realise-the-moment-is-special trope, but ultimately, it’s the songs and the opportunities for dance that the music provides that lifts this from being a Gershwin greatest hits show to a truly great piece of theatre.
‘A scintillating production which consistently thrills’: AMADEUS – National Theatre (Online review)
Sixteen weeks ago the National Theatre At Home season was launched and this week the final show began its one week run. In Amadeus they may just have saved the best until last.
‘This proves that staying in really does have its compensation’: ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – National Theatre (Online review)
These shows, originally filmed as part of the flagship’s NT Live project, are now available on its YouTube channel. The first is Richard Bean’s gloriously silly farce, One Man, Two, Guvnors, starring the irrepressible and Tony-award winning James Corden.
‘Trying to capture just a spark of that charge that comes with live theatre’: ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – National Theatre (Online review)
National Theatre at Home is a huge success. The type of scheme that only large institutions can hope to really pull off but even so, managing the kind of appointment-to-view occasion that was its debut with One Man, Two Guvnors was still a remarkable achievement.
‘A dazzling triumph’: CYRANO DE BERGERAC – West End
James McAvoy triumphs in Martin Crimp’s magnificent makeover of the French classic Cyrano de Bergerac: a jaw-dropping success.
‘An achingly modern & exciting version’: CYRANO DE BERGERAC – West End
Reimagined for the modern stage with a contemporary cast led by James McAvoy, Jamie Lloyd’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac feels at every moment like theatre at its most exciting, liberating and inclusive.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Our Town at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for the Regent Park Open Air Theatre’s revival of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town.
‘The strength of the production is in its slow-build effect’: OUR TOWN – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Thornton Wilder’s writing in Our Town feels as fresh and innovative as it must have done in the 1930s and taking an early season risk on a less conventional play ultimately pays off.
‘Didn’t really reach out across the dark auditorium to me’: PINTER THREE – West End ★★★
I go to the theatre is to be amused or moved or challenged or interested and sadly this collection of Pinter didn’t really reach out across the dark auditorium to me.
‘Jamie Lloyd varies the tone, pace & style’: PINTER THREE – West End
Pinter Three features 11 plays, allowing director Jamie Lloyd to vary tone, pace and style with shorter, more amusing sketches bookended by two more heavyweight works; Landscape and A Kind of Alaska.
‘Showcasing comic brilliance & an ability to move an audience’: PINTER THREE & FOUR – West End ★★★★
The Pinter at the Pinter season continues with parts Three and Four which showcase both Pinter’s comic brilliance and his ability to move an audience.
‘Extremely pleasant surprise’: PINTER THREE – West End
Overall, I really rated Pinter Three. Whether you know your Pinter or not, I’d wager there’s something new for you here. Funny, touching, and staged and performed with real class. Solidly good stuff.
NEWS: Further casting for Pinter at the Pinter season includes Janie Dee & Robert Glenister
The esteemed company of Pinter at the Pinter is joined by Bríd Brennan, Janie Dee, Tom Edden, Abbie Finn, Robert Glenister, Isis Hainsworth, John Heffernan, Katherine Kingsley, Eleanor Matsuura, Peter Polycarpou, Dwane Walcott and Al Weaver.
NEWS: David Shannon & Gina Beck lead new Matilda the Musical cast
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical has announced its new adult cast with David Shannon playing Miss Trunchbull alongside Gina Beck as Miss Honey and Tom Edden and Marianne Benedict as Mr and Mrs Wormwood.
Queer Theatre at the National: The Drag
Mae West wrote The Drag in 1927 where its frankness about gay lives (and once again, drag ball culture!) scandalised its out-of-town Connecticut and New Jersey audiences so that it never made it to Broadway.
THE RESISTABLE RISE OF ARTURO UI – Donmar Warehouse
There’s something special in the timelessness of some pieces of theatre, their themes and arguments as relevant to audiences today as they were when they were written years, decades, even centuries ago. Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui falls into the middle category, written in 1941 as an allegorical response to his nation’s fall to Nazism, and was magisterially revived at Chichester a few years back.
PHOTOS: Inside rehearsals with Lenny Henry & the Artuor Ui cast
Rehearsals are well under way for Bruce Norris’ new translation of Bertolt Brecht’s satirical masterpiece The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Simon Evans with design by Peter McKintosh. The production, led by Lenny Henry who makes his Donmar debut playing the title role, runs 21 April to 17 June 2017, with a press night on 2 May. Rehearsals photos …
Ian Foster’s News Round-Up
Bruce and Trevor Horn are delighted to announce that together they are creating a new work of musical theatre – provisionally entitled The Robot Sings with an original story and score by the duo.
NEWS: Michael Pennington joins Lenny Henry in Arturo Ui, Full cast announced
Lenny Henry is joined in the cast of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Michael Pennington, who recently played King Lear at the Royal & Derngate Northampton, as Dogsborough.
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