Jon Lee stars in the new touring production of COPACABANA

Barry Manilow’s hit musical, Copacabana will return to the UK and tour in a new production starting in October. The musical, written by Manilow and his longtime collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman, has not been seen in the UK for ten years and will open at Harlow Playhouse on Thursday 2 October 2014 (press night Friday 3 October at 7.30pm).

Packed with original songs, dazzling costumes and dynamic choreography, this new production will reimagine the original stage version of Copacabana, which was first performed in the US in 1991 and has never before been seen in the UK.

Featuring Manilow hits including Dancin’ Fool, Who Needs to Dream, Welcome to Havana and of course, the Grammy Award-winning Copacabana (At The Copa), this production will have audience members dancing in the aisles.  Critics and audience members agree that Copacabana “explodes with memorable songs and dances.”   

Jersey Boys the Musical: Theatre Review

Before making it over the West End, Jersey Boys was already a hit over in the States. The Broadway production opened in 2005 and is now the 19^thlongest running Broadway show. The show started its first National Tour at the end of 2006 and after this, productions opened in Chicago, Las Vegas, Australia and New Zealand.
The West End production opened in 2008 at the Prince Edward Theatre where it is still playing. The show features songs from the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli to tell the story of their journey to stardom; you see how the group was formed, their rise in fame and eventually their breakup.
The show has been divided up cleverly into 'four seasons' in which each member of the group narrates each section.
The production is directed by Des NcAnuff who seems to really understand how to stage a production, he really worked with this show well and his direction really complemented the story, as did Sergio Trujillo's choreography.
The scenic design was interesting, at first I thought it looked a bit pants but the lights, screens and other small pieces of scenery made each location different and in the end it really worked, Klara Zieglerova did a great job. Very Clever.
Jess Goldstein did a perfect job on the costume design, everything seemed spot on and I kind of wanted to take some of the outfit's home!