The Industry Minds Awards 2020 will be held on 30 November 2020 at The Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester, hosted by Industry Minds and Hope Mill Theatre patron Denise Welch, a leading advocate for mental health in the arts industry.
‘It soars in its second half’: HAIR THE MUSICAL – Touring ★★★★
Over 50 years on and the Age of Aquarius is still providing a relevant, controversial (in parts) and – eventually – thunderously entertaining piece of musical theatre in Hair.
NEWS: Hope Mill Theatre’s anniversary production of Hair will embark on a major UK tour in 2019
Following the critically-acclaimed 50th anniversary production of Hair – The Musical at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre and sell-out transfer to The Vaults, London, the production will now embark on a nationwide tour.
‘A gem of a show’: IT’S ONLY LIFE – Union Theatre
Some of the reviewers of It’s Only Life still seem to talk of John Bucchino as an unknown American songwriter, which is a shame – let’s hope this production is the start of an awakening of awareness.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Pippin at the Southwark Playhouse
Jonathan O’Boyle’s production of Stephen Schwartz’s musical transfers to London from Manchester. Here’s a guide to what critics have had to say about the musical’s Southwark Playhouse run… WhatsOnStage: ***** “a gorgeous piece of theatre: endlessly inventive, the magic tricks are up close and real, William Whelton’s Fosse-style choreography is often breathtaking, Maeve Black’s garishly… Read More
‘Unmissable musical theatre’: PIPPIN – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★★
This Pippin is one of those productions rarely seen on the fringe. It captures the sparkle of Broadway, transporting it to south London in a whirl of unmissable musical theatre.
HAIR – The Vaults ★★★
No ‘turn’ unstoned? The fourteen young performers in Hair certainly give a credible impression of being out of their skulls on psychedelic substances while still managing to deliver some sharply-focused choreography and powerful vocals.
PIPPIN – Manchester ★★★★★
Pippin closed this weekend at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre with, yet again, this Northern powerhouse of fringe theatre delivering a stunning take on a Broadway Tony-winner.
PARADE – Manchester
The dimly lit, eerie walls of Manchester’s newest performance space, Hope Mill Theatre stand with pride to present the harrowing true story about the trial of Leo Frank. Frank was a Jewish pencil factory manager in Atlanta who was tried for raping and murdering Mary Phagan in 1913. The intimate performance space in the old cotton mill provides the perfect backdrop for this emotionally charged and troubling narrative driven by the murder of the thirteen-year-old girl in the factory where she worked.
PARADE – Manchester
As musicals go, Jason Robert Brown’s Parade is a tough gig. His Tony-winning score is an immense fusion of the sounds of America’s South, tackling a monstrous story of love in adversity and the utter depths of man’s capacity to hate. The Leo Frank trial in the early 20th century split America, laying bare the racist core of the Confederacy. 80 years later, Brown’s show was to become a troubling piece that held a mirror to its country’s soul – a mirror that to this day a large part of that nation still resolutely refuses to look in.