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News: Cinderella reveals the full cast who will be going to the ball

The Really Useful Group has announced the full cast for the forthcoming production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, book by Academy Award winning Emerald Fennell (Best Original Screenplay Oscar at last Sunday’s ceremony) and lyrics from David Zippel. The brand new musical will open at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on Wednesday 14 July 2021, with previews from Friday 25 June 2021.

Joining the previously announced cast will be Rebecca Trehearn, who will play The Queen, Georgina Castle and Laura Baldwin as Cinderella’s stepsisters Marie and Adele and Gloria Onitiri, who will play The Godmother. They join Carrie Hope Fletcher, as title character Cinderella in the highly anticipated new production, as well as Ivano Turco as Prince Sebastian and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt playing The Stepmother. Continue reading “News: Cinderella reveals the full cast who will be going to the ball”

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News: Songwriters Anderson & Petty announce A Christmas Wish

Songwriters Anderson & Petty have announced A Christmas Wish, a virtual concert with West End stars from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, SIX: The Musical, Wicked and more, available to stream at select times from 17 December – 20 December 2020. The concert is hosted by Ben Stock and Hilary O’Neil and is in aid of theatrical charity Acting For Others who provide emotional and financial support to theatre workers in times of need through 14 member charities.

Sign up and buy tickets here: www.stream.theatre/home Continue reading “News: Songwriters Anderson & Petty announce A Christmas Wish”

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News: star-studded Agatha Christie readings to support the Theatre Support Fund and Acting for Others

A pair of star-studded staged readings of Agatha Christie thrillers will support the Theatre Support Fund+ and Acting for Others.

Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web – 9th December, 7.30pm

Clarissa, wife of a diplomat, is adept at spinning tales of adventure but when a murder takes place in her own drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with. 

Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband arrives with an important politician, she enlists the help of her guests. Hilarity ensues when they are interrupted by the arrival of wry detective, Inspector Lord. 

Starring: Nari Blair-Mangat | Nick Blakeley | Brian Bovell | Richard Clifford | Adam Gillen | Jessica Hynes | Sir Derek Jacobi | Matthew Kelley | Gerard McCarthy | Helen Monks | Gloria Onitiri | Stephanie Siadatan

Agatha Christie’s The Hollow – 10th December, 7.30pm

An unhappy game of romantic follow-the-leader explodes into murder one weekend at The Hollow, home of Sir Henry and Lucy Angkatell. Dr. Cristow, the Harley Street lothario, is at the centre of the trouble when, assembled in one place, we find his dull but devoted wife Gerda, his mistress and prominent sculptor Henrietta, and his former lover and Hollywood film star Veronica. As the list of romantic associations grows so does the list of potential suspects when someone is shot dead. 

Nearly everyone has a motive but only one of them did the deed. 

Starring: Samantha Bond | Simon Callow | James Dreyfus | Kathryn Drysdale | Richard Fleeshman | Beth Granville | Angela Griffin | Laura Haddock | Tom Hughes | Adam James | Valentine Olukoga | Nina Sosanya | Nia Towle 

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10 of my top moments of the decade

Ever behind the curve, I present 10 of my top moments in a theatre over the last ten years (plus a few bonus extra ones because whittling down this list was hard, and it will probably be different tomorrow anyway!)

© James Bellorini

Extraordinary Public Acts for a National Theatre

The establishment of the Public Acts programme at the National Theatre offered up something sensational in Pericles, an initiative designed to connect grassroot community organisations with major theatres, resulting in a production that swept over 200 non-professional performers onto the stage of the Olivier to create something that moved me more than 99% of professional productions.  A truly joyous and momentous occasion. 

Honourable mention: this year’s musical take on As You Like It proved just as heart-swellingly beautiful over at the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch. Continue reading “10 of my top moments of the decade”

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Review: Hadestown, National Theatre

Way down in Hadestown at the National Theatre is one of the best musicals of the year

“Damned if you don’t. Damned if you do.
Whole damn nation’s watching you”

I loved Hadestown so much that I had booked to see it for a second time before I even got home from the first. Read more about that trip here, including me trying the National’s new smart caption glasses, and read on for a review that focuses properly on Anaïs Mitchell’s brilliant musical here. An adaptation of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, developed with director Rachel Chavkin, it riffs on the myth by relocating the action to a dive bar in the Deep South and redefines hell for our capitalist age. And they fill the Olivier with music, such music, that transforms Hadestown into the kind of experience that lingers long in the mind. 

Mitchell’s score succeeds so much because it establishes such an identity for itself that it dares you not to be seduced into the world of the gods, or at least New Orleans. At its best, its simply elemental – ‘Way Down Hadestown’ has the kind of tune that sounds like it has always existed and will not quit your brain anytime soon. And as you collect the influences – hints of Jason Robert Brown on ‘All I’ve Ever Known’, the Johnny Cash-esque call and response of ‘Why We Build The Wall’, the straight up musical theatre emotion of ‘Wait For Me”s chorus, to name but a few – you realise a new form of Americana has evolved here. Continue reading “Review: Hadestown, National Theatre”

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Review: Hadestown, via smart caption glasses at the National Theatre

I try out the new smart caption glasses while watching Hadestown at the National Theatre and am blown away both by the show and the frankly amazing technology 

“Eurydice knew how to survive
Orpheus…knew how to live”

The exceedingly kind folk of the National Theatre allowed me to go and see Hadestown a few days after the press night, as I was most keen to have a try of the Smart Caption Glasses which were brought into circulation on Friday. Acclaimed as “a revolutionary new way for people with hearing loss to enjoy performance”, for once the blurb more than lives up to its billing as I found them to be truly innovative and potentially life-changingly good. 

Without wishing to open a whole can of worms about access and diversity within the critical community, it has to be said that as a (deaf) reviewer, I never get to go to captioned performances. If and when they’re scheduled, the timetables just don’t allow for it, so – as in most of my daily life – I make do. I hear what I hear and guess the rest. So the idea of this facility becoming available was one I was most keen to investigate at the earliest opportunity.  Continue reading “Review: Hadestown, via smart caption glasses at the National Theatre”

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Review: Brighton Rock, Theatre Royal Brighton

Pilot Theatre’s touring production of Brighton Rock is visually arresting, beautifully staged and very well acted. 

“How do you know what’s right and what’s wrong?”

Where else to see Graham Greene’s classic Brighton Rock than in the beautiful surroundings of the Theatre Royal Brighton, with the sound of seagulls and smell of fish suppers lingering on the air just outside. And Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal’s touring production makes for a gorgeously theatrical treat as it probes deep into the darkness under the pier.

Esther Richardson’s production has a striking physicality to it, utterly eyecatching but careful not to overly glamourise this noirish world. Case in point – the opening murder may be stylishly staged as sharp-suited gangsters operate as a sinuous ensemble to ensnare and execute. But Jennifer Jackson’s movement has them rocking queasily back and forth as they move in, an ugliness that stops them from ever seeming too cool. Continue reading “Review: Brighton Rock, Theatre Royal Brighton”

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Review: The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Birmingham Rep

“I want those puppies”

I can be accused of a fair few things but not a lack of adventurousness. It’s no secret that I am no great fan of puppets but I do try and test my prejudices on a fairly regular basis, something made spectacularly easy at this time of year as theatreland’s interpretation of family-friendly festive fare apparently means puppets for everyone! 

The main reason though for travelling to Birmingham Rep for The Hundred and One Dalmatians was to see Gloria Onitiri’s Cruella De Vil, an actress who I’ve enjoyed following since the Avenue Q days more than a decade ago now. And she did not disappoint with this most iconic of characters, ferociously dramatic and unapologetically dark, she’s an absolute force of nature on this stage. The rest of the production around her didn’t quite land as effectively though, for me at least. Continue reading “Review: The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Birmingham Rep”