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News: Songs For A New World in isolation

Rachel John, Ramin Karimloo, Cedric Neal and Rachel Tucker to perform Songs For A New World in isolation

It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice… or take a stand… or turn around and go back. These are the stories and characters of today, the Songs for a New World. Starring Rachel John (Hamilton), Ramin Karimloo (Phantom of The Opera), Cedric Neal (Motown The Musical) and Rachel Tucker (Come From Away), this is the first musical from Tony Award winner, Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade, Bridges of Madison County). This moving collection of powerful songs examines life, love and the choices that we make.

Songs For A New World transports audiences through time and space to meet a startling array of characters – every one of them so different, but all representing our world today and our hopes for a new world… a better world.

Filmed entirely in isolation, this powerhouse cast will be directed by the brilliant Séimí Campbell (My Son Pinocchio – Southwark Playhouse), with music supervision by Adam Hoskins (Doctor Zhivago) and musical direction by Josh Winstone (The Last Five Years), who will be bringing this stunning musical together with the help of live musicians.

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The finalists of The Offies 2020

Offies Awards - Off West End Theatre Awards

The finalists for the 2020 Offies (for performances in 2019) have been announced and congratulations to all 89 mentioned below. A tip of the hat too to the 400+ nominees who you can find here.

DESIGN

Design: Costume
Adrian Gee, Amour, Charing Cross Theatre
Emily Bestow, 42nd Street, Upstairs at the Gatehouse
Hannah Wolfe , Great Expectations, National Youth
Theatre, Southwark Playhouse

Design: Set
Diego Pitarch, Night of the Living Dead – Live!,
Pleasance
Justin Williams, Whistle Down the Wind, Union
Theatre
Lee Newby, The View UpStairs, Soho Theatre
Rachael Ryan, Thrill Me, Hope Theatre

Design: Sound
Benjamin Grant, The War of the Worlds, New Diorama
Lex Kosanke, Hunger, Arcola
Matt Eaton, All’s Well That Ends Well, Guildford Bard,
Jermyn Street Theatre
Xana, Blood Knot, Orange Tree

Design: Lighting
Christopher Nairne, Preludes, Southwark Playhouse
Clancy Flynn, An Act of God, Vaults
Jessica Hung Han Yun, Equus, English Touring Theatre,
Theatre Royal Stratford East
Nic Farman, Night of the Living Dead – Live!, Pleasance

Design: Video
Andrzej Goulding, The Unreturning, Theatre Royal
Stratford East
Ben Bull, Baby Reindeer, Bush Theatre
Douglas Baker, Moby Dick, Jack Studio Theatre Continue reading “The finalists of The Offies 2020”

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The finalists of The Offies 2019

Some decisions that reflect my own nominations for the year, many others for plays I haven’t seen and as ever, some curious choices too.

DESIGN
COSTUME DESIGN
Gabriella Slade for Six at the Arts Theatre
Jonathan Lipman for Harold & Maude at the Charing Cross Theatre
Pam Tait for Rothschild & Sons at the Park Theatre

SET DESIGN
Bethany Wells for Distance at the Park Theatre
Francis O’Connor for Harold & Maude at the Charing Cross Theatre
Simon Daw for Humble Boy at the Orange Tree Theatre Continue reading “The finalists of The Offies 2019”

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Review: Rent, St James Theatre

I’m not one to deny anyone their fandom and Lord know Rent has some of the most devoted of the lot. But for whatever reason, the show has left me cold every time I’ve seen it, increasingly so in its determination to defend artistic excess.

I was bought a ticket as a Christmas present so I was able to go and test my feelings once again but no change, no matter how good Layton Williams’ performance was. So for once, I’m just going to leave it here.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 28th January, then touring as below

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Re-review: The Last Five Years, St James Theatre

“First, a story”

When The Last Five Years announced an extension of a week just after opening, it meant I was able to nab a pair of cheap tickets down the front, conveniently on the side where the shirtless scene happens, and take a friend. And I’m glad to I got to revisit the show, both to see it (literally) from a different angle and also to experience it with understudy Samuel Thomas playing Jamie, as Jonathan Bailey was suffering from an indisposition.

My original review of Jason Robert Brown’s production of his own musical can be read here and as per, it still stands. Samantha Barks has really got the role of Cathy down to perfection with a beautiful line in rueful, reflective humour alongside that gorgeous voice. And Thomas did a great job as Jamie, perhaps more of a vocal match for his co-star as evidenced in a stellar ‘Nobody Needs To Know’ – my only note would be his clock dancing could be a little freer (and that’s only because I’ve seen Bailey do it, my friend thought he ‘clocked’ just fine!). Continue reading “Re-review: The Last Five Years, St James Theatre”

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Review: The Last Five Years, St James Theatre

“I’m not always on time
Please don’t expect that from me” 

I think I have to rank Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years as one of my favourite new musicals (it was first performed in 2001) as any show with such a sequence of extraordinary songs as ‘A Part Of That’, ‘The Schmuel Song’ and ‘A Summer In Ohio’ at its heart surely deserves. I had the privilege to be introduced to the show by the Paul Spicer and Julie Atherton-starring version in 2009, I loved it again with Jon Robyns and Danielle Hope a couple of years ago, and I was a fan of last year’s film version and how it adapted the show’s unique structure for a different medium.

The show’s conceit is that he tells the story of a relationship between 2 twenty-something New Yorkers both from start to finish and from finish to start at the same time. So Jamie’s narrative commences in fresh hope at the beginning and Cathy’s opens at a moment of real heartbreak and as they move along their timelines, there’s one moment where they crossover, where they actually interact, a moment of glorious happiness made all the more tragic for already knowing how it is going to end.  Continue reading “Review: The Last Five Years, St James Theatre”

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Review: Exposure the Musical, St James Theatre

“It’s just a photograph”

Despite their best attempts to pull the wool over my eyes with distraction techniques (see pics below), I’m afraid I wasn’t too much of a fan of Exposure the Musical. Stay tuned for my 2 star review for Cheap Theatre Tickets as soon as it goes live.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 27th August

 

 
A photo posted by @thegrecs on
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Review: The Stripper, St James Theatre

“Baby, you give me a hard-on”

If only, for Richard O’Brien and Richard Hartley’s The Stripper is a fantastically misjudged piece of theatre, an attempt at noir-ish convention dressed up in musical theatre clothing from 1982. This pair of Dicks give us a real dick, from Carter Brown’s pulp fiction story, in Al Wheeler, a detective trying to get to the bottom of the suicide of hot actress Patty Keller but do precisely nothing to address his dickishness. You could try and argue period detail with its 60s-set sexism but failing to interrogate it in this day and age is pretty much unforgivable.

Which is a shame as there’s the makings of something interesting here. Hartley and O’Brien’s score is an enjoyable mixture of period-appropriate musical influences that is toe-tappingly tuneful and catchy in places too. And director Benji Sperring has gathered a great cast of 5 who energetically cover a multitude of roles – Sebastien Torki and Gloria Onitiri both stand out. But where Sperring was able to tap into something with his most recent pulp project The Toxic Avenger, albeit still with a couple of tonal mis-steps, it’s much harder to reconcile what happens here. Continue reading “Review: The Stripper, St James Theatre”