INTERVIEW: Shaun Escoffery & George Asprey, both celebrating 15 Years in the London production of The Lion King

Since opening in 1997, 24 global productions of The Lion King have been seen by more than 100 million people in over 100 cities in 20 countries, on every continent except Antarctica, and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any entertainment title in box office history and is the West End’s best-selling stage production and the sixth longest-running West End musical of all time.

Shaun Escoffery and George Asprey, who play Mufasa and Scar in Disney’s The Lion King in the West End, both celebrated their 15th anniversary in the landmark production, making them the longest-serving performers in the roles in any production of The Lion King respectively.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with them about the journey they have both been on in this mammoth West End show. 

Firstly, a massive congratulations on your 15th anniversary in The Lion King. How does it feel to have reached this huge milestone? 

George Asprey: Slightly surreal. It’s not a case of celebrating longevity because you only ever take one song at a time. It’s more like an accumulation because you’re only ever as good as your last show but now all of a sudden we've had fifteen years of the show. 

Shaun Escoffery: It’s a wonderful honour. I look back at myself and my partner in crime George with fondness and gratitude. We never dreamed we’d be doing this show for fifteen years. I feel extremely lucky to be able to do something we love with consistency. We are both aware of the huge responsibility that we have. 

REVIEW: The Little Prince at The Place, London

‘A rockpile ceases to be a rockpile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of the Cathedral.’ – The Little Prince.

A good meal is greater than the sum of its parts and in much the same way, a good show isn’t just a convergence of good aspects of production. Whilst each aspect of this show is stunning, it’s Luca Silvestrini's direction and dramaturgy, which elevates this show from good to wonderful. The cosmic concoction of Daniel Denton’s enchanting animation, Frank Moon’s gorgeous music, divine lighting by Jackie Shemesh, Yann Seabra’s touring friendly set, the choreography and script devised by the company, under Silverstrinin’s direction make for an otherworldly and moving experience. Unlike usual seasonal shows, refreshingly, this production invites the imagination to travel beyond and quite simply, it is not to be missed. I dragged my two reluctant children (10 and 11 years old) from their screens to see it and much to their dismay, they were on the edge of their seats, captivated from beginning to end.

The script, devised by the company poetically and lyrically tells Saint-Exupéry’s tale, which explores big themes such as perception, greed, art, friendship and man’s relationship to the world, through the eyes of a child, the Little Prince beguilingly played by Faith Prendergast.

REVIEW: Outside, live streamed from The Space, Isle of Dogs, London

At the moment the title ‘Outside’ is in itself enough to catch your eye. But this is not an early entry in what will surely be a wave of Covid-related dramas in the coming months. In this case, it concerns Willa, who hasn’t ever left her house until now. For 30 years, each moment of her life has been controlled, and she’s spent every night locked in her room. Now, she finds herself in a witness questioning suite, searching for evidence of her existence. 

The monologue is both written and performed by Gabrielle MacPherson. We discover her in a room full of books and papers on which she draws in an attempt to make some sort of sense of her existence. She is looking for clues about her here and now as well as her personal history. What has brought her to this room at this time? The visible disorder of its contents leaves little hope that this mess can be sorted out during our brief visit to her world. 

REVIEW: Ghost Stories at the Ambassadors

Ghost Stories takes care to manipulate you from the moment you step into the theatre. Ghostly sounds are piped into the bar so the pressure is being applied even here. Once in the auditorium it appears as though there is some sort of building work going on. None of the house lights are working, the space instead being illuminated by strings of caged bulbs, flickering ominously.

The evening begins with the rather sudden arrival of Professor Goodman (Simon Lipkin) who starts a lecture about his study of people who claim to have had super natural experiences. It’s all getting rather dull (“Stay with me,” he urges at one point). Then we are taken into the next level of the story as the first of the people he has interviewed about their experiences is brought to life on stage. So we have an episodic approach, with the Professor as our anchor. As he says, people like to look for patterns. And it seems there is one emerging here, with the professor telling us about a case, then the curtain lifting to reveal that story in front of us. And he tells us there will be three such stories. But we also know enough about writers Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman to suspect that there will be more to this pattern than there appears.

REVIEW: Witness for the Prosecution at London's County Hall

We seem to be going back in time. Well, that’s certainly how I felt after leaving Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution last night, which is currently being revived for the first time in London’s West End since 1953. Director Lucy Bailey is now summoning a new generation of audiences for jury service in the unique courtroom chamber setting of London’s County Hall in an immersive, and wildly imaginative adaptation of Christie’s play.

Based on a 1925 short story and screen adaptations, Christie’s play is arguably one of her most ingenious and timeless works. With the evidence stacked completely against him, Leonard Vole faces the hangman’s noose after being accused of murdering a widow to inherit her wealth. But will he be able to defend himself and prove his innocence against shocking witness testimony’s and his own wife?

REVIEW: Sinatra Raw at the Oak room in the Hospital Club, London

The small intimate Oak room is a perfect setting for this marvellous show which takes the audience back to 1971 in the Purple room in Las Vegas where Frank Sinatra is preparing for his first self imposed retirement concert later in that year and over the course of the evening reveals the iconic singer's reflections on the people who have shaped his career to that time. Richard Shelton has written and performs this wonderfully insightful play that in a drink fuelled confessional both recreates the singers greatest songs but also goes behind the sparkling blue eyes and reveals his thoughts and motivations. Sinatra, he tells us was a fighter and we get a real sense of how difficult he must have been to live with and work with ; on one occasion taking 22 takes to get the recording he wanted. 

Shelton is an actor who can sing and he packs plenty of emotion into his story telling and songs and when he sings sounds, and from a side on view even looks, like Sinatra. Dressed in a tuxedo with a red handkerchief in his breast pocket, he holds your attention and engages the audience with a natural ease, ad libbing and spotting the 'stars' in his audience. As he drinks his beloved Jack Daniels on the rocks , he loosens up more and spills more of the controversies of his life. We hear about his birth and the fighting spirit that drove him. His first job was a rivet catcher in a shipyard until a New York talent show gave him his break. We learn of the birth of the Rat Pack in the Purple room in 1951 with Dean Martin ,Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop and his subsequent falling out with Lawford. We hear of his affair and marriage to Ava Gardner and his campaigning for JF Kennedy and allegations of too close association with mafia bosses.

REVIEW: Circa: Peepshow at Underbelly London

Hailing from Australia, Circa are one of the world’s leading contemporary circus companies. Since 2004 they have been wowing audiences across the world and becoming a firm Edinburgh Fringe favourite at the Underbelly.

Bringing their latest work to London, Peepshow is a bold and breath-taking production that grabs you hard and doesn’t let go. Director Yaron Lifschitz has turned the traditional ideals of a ‘peepshow’ on its head and while the show is sexy and wild, it is not about gratification and objectifying women which has become so synonymous with the genre.

The show really lent itself to the space and seeing Peepshow in a more traditional space just wouldn’t have the same impact. It’s no wonder the Australian Government are so happy to support their work. This new production only further enhances their reputation and reinforces the plaudits that have followed from their other shows including Humans and Closer.

INTERVIEW: Karen Mav, Marisha Wallace and Moya Angela, all starring as Effie White in the West End production of Dreamgirls

Tell us a bit about your Effie and how you think it differs from the other ladies playing the role. 

Marisha: I love that I get to put my own spin on it. My Effie has a lot of humour but she also has a lot of heart. I try to show a lot of truth in what I get across with the character, I really want audiences to feel like Effie could be their best friend, she’s a real person, 3D. I bring humanity to Effie.

Moya: I always tap into something real, something I’ve been through. At the end of ‘And I am Telling You I’m Not Going’, at the end of the first act, I cry. Every time, it never fails. I always cry.

Karen: I’m the baby Effie, just entering showbiz. A lot of it is what I’m going through right now. As the youngest, feels a lot of resonance to the character in the younger period of her life so I have a different perspective on it. She starts off as a young girl with big dreams.

This role is incredible demanding, how do you prepare for the show and make sure you can sustain it? 

Marisha: It is a very demanding role, I think it’s the biggest sing in musical theatre! With any muscle you have to train it and make sure you look after it - we’re vocal athletes. I prepare, I work out, I have a vocal coach. Much like opera singers we share the role across the week so each audience gets everything we got! 

Moya: That’s right, we’re ‘Team Effie’. The West End is excited to receive some really big voices. 

Karen: After a year of being in the show I’ve learnt to have a structure – I want the audience to feel like they’ve got the best performance so I make sure I rest my voice and steam every day.

INTERVIEW: Richard Trinder, currently playing Sam Carmichael in London's Mamma Mia!

Richard has been playing Sam Carmichael in the London production of Mamma Mia! since 2013. His other credits include Vince in Way Upstream (Salisbury Playhouse), Lignière in Cyrano de Bergerac and Brocklehurst in The Admirable Crichton (Chichester), Cornwall in Lear, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, Francisco in Hamlet (Sheffield Crucible), Burgundy in King Lear (Almeida) and Gruber in As You Desire Me (West End). He took some time off from the island to speak to us about his time in the hit West End show. 

When did you get into performing? What was your first exposure to theatre?

I grew up very close to Theatr Clwyd around the time it opened, and my first memory of theatre is being in the front row for a production of '3 Men In A Boat'. I must have been about 9 and I clearly remember the sudden realisation that here were grown-ups playing around pretending to be in a boat - and that was their job! It seemed too good to be true.

I did a couple of school plays but drama school wasn't really on the radar in an 80's comp so I drifted down to London and did terrible student shows instead of lectures. Then I went to the Poor School and realised how hard those 3 blokes had worked to be allowed to mess around in that boat.

REVIEW: The Woman in Black at The Fortune Theatre, London

*** NO SPOILERS ***

To celebrate National Ghost Hunting Day, Raw PR invited a host of writers and bloggers to attend a special evening of ghostly fun at The Woman In Black at The Fortune Theatre in the heart of London’s West End. Seating only 432 people, it’s one of the smallest theatres in town, especially when you consider how dwarfed they are by their neighbour is the gargantuan Theatre Royal on Drury Lane which seats 2,196 people. The Fortune is a close and intimate theatre - perfect for a spooky evening of storytelling...

Learning of the tales of paranormal history within the theatre set the mood for the evening. We learned of hauntings and presences seen and felt in different areas of the theatre - onstage, back-stage and in the audience (beware if you ever sit in seat F17 of the Royal Circle in early November…!) The anticipation (and nerves) were amped up to eleven and then the show began.

Casting announced for BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL

Katie Brayben will play the title role in the West End production of Beautiful - The Carole King Musical opening at the Aldwych Theatre in February next year.  Alan Morrissey will play King’s husband and song-writing partner Gerry Goffin, with Lorna Want as song-writer Cynthia Weil,Glynis Barber as Genie Klein, King’s mother, and Gary Trainor as music publisher and producer Don Kirshner.  London previews beginning on 10 February 2015 and with the show currently booking to 13 June 2015.  Press night will now take place on 24 February at 7pm.   Final casting will be announced shortly.

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, is based on the early life and career of legendary singer/songwriter Carole King.   Beautiful has book by Douglas McGrath with words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and is directed by Marc Bruni.  Choreography is by Josh Prince with set designs by Derek McLane, costume designs by Alejo Viettii, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Brian Ronan.   Orchestrations and Music Arrangements are by Steve Sidwell.  Beautiful - The Carole King Musical will be produced in London by Paul Blake and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. 

After a world tour, LA SOIRÉE returns to London!

Roll up, roll up – the circus is back in town! Last seen in London in 2011, multi award-winning cult hit La Soirée returns to the capital celebrating a triumphant world tour and the 10 year anniversary of the troupe’s first show. 

Fresh from a six month residency at the spectacular Union Square Theatre in New York, a whirl around Australia and touring the land of the midnight sun, La Soirée returns at last to London.

Of course it is to London that the show returns to celebrate a decade on the road. London is the city that gave the little show with a big heart an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, four record-breaking, sell-out seasons at iconic venues including the heart-thumping Roundhouse and the decadent Hippodrome. London holds a special place in the hearts and minds of the company as the show’s creative producer Brett Haylock explains, “London is where audiences and critics fell in love with our dysfunctional family like no other. For our contemporary carnies and troubadours of no fixed abode, London is home.”

CATS will play a limited run at the London Palladium

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is to return to the West End following a 12-year absence, with a run from December at the London Palladium.

Cats is directed by Trevor Nunn, with Gillian Lynne as associate director and choreographer. It has designs by John Napier.

For this production, Chrissie Cartwright, long-term associate director of Cats, will work with Nunn and Lynne to re-direct the show for the Palladium. 

Andrew Lloyd Webber will write additional songs for Rum Tum Tugger and Growl Tiger for the production, and he has assembled many of the original creative team including Sir Trevor Nunnwho directs, with associate direction and choreography from Dame Gillian Lynne and set design by John Napier.

FIRST LOOK: New cast joins MAMMA MIA! London

MAMMA MIA! originally opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre on 6 April 1999, before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre in 2004. The musical re-opened at the Novello Theatre in 2012.

From West End to global phenomenon, the London production of MAMMA MIA! has been seen by more than 10% of the entire UK population. The show has celebrated over 6,300 performances in London and has broken box office records in all three of its London homes.  This summer, the MAMMA MIA! International Tour will play an exclusive UK Summer Season at the Blackpool Opera House from 20 June to 14 September 2014. Blackpool will be the only UK venue outside of London to host the worldwide hit musical this year.

The cast includes Dianne Pilkington as Donna, Rebecca Lock as Rosie, Kim Ismay as Tanya and Richard Trinder as Sam, Alasdair Harvey as Harry, Charles Daish as Bill, Alice Stokoe as Sophie Sheridan, Lloyd Green as Sky, Rosanna Bates as Ali, Brodie McBride as Lisa, James Alexander Gibbs as Pepper, James Evans as Eddie, Stephen John Davis as Father Alexander and Shona White as Alternate Donna/Ensemble. 

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE hosts charity gala on 24th July

The Walt Disney Company and Sonia Friedman Productions have today announced that a Gala Performance of the stage production of Shakespeare in Love will be held at the Noël Coward Theatre in aid of The Rose Theatre Trust and Chickenshed Theatre.

These extraordinary theatre charities will share a gift of at least £35,000 from the performance and, additionally, theatregoers who book tickets for the world premiere production at the Noël Coward Theatre until September 2014 will be invited to donate £2 per ticket to be shared evenly between the charities.   

The two charities were chosen to reflect both the history of the production and to celebrate a bright theatrical future. 

The Rose Theatre Trust is a charity set up to protect, investigate and make publically available the site of the Rose Theatre on Bankside. The Rose is the setting for Shakespeare in Love. Built in 1587, this theatre was the first purpose-built playhouse on bank-side to stage a production of any of Shakespeare’s plays. When the Rose was discovered in 1989, The Trust successfully delayed construction and negotiated a re-design of the proposed new building and is now largely devoted to preparing to excavate the complete site and ensure the remains are put on display as a permanent resource for the public.

FIRST LOOK: Alexandra Burke stars in The Bodyguard

Alexandra Burke will join the cast of the hit West End musical The Bodyguard, to play the leading role of Oscar-nominated superstar Rachel Marron.  Burke will play opposite Tristan Gemmill who continues in the role of Rachel’s bodyguard, Frank Farmer. Alexandra Burke will join the production at the Adelphi Theatre where the show is playing to 30 August 2014.  Beverley Knight will continue in the role of Rachel Marron until 31 May 2014.

Alexandra Burke said:  “I couldn’t be more excited about joining the cast of The Bodyguard and to play the iconic role of Rachel Marron will be adream come true. I am a massive Whitney Houston fan so to be given the opportunity to play a role made famous by her every night will be a real privilege.  I start rehearsals very soon with my fellow cast mates and thebrilliant creative team and, with a little trepidation, I am looking forward to our first performance in June.”

FIRST LOOK: New cast joins Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Alex Jennings stars as Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he is joined by new cast members Barry James, Josefina Gabrielle, Richard Dempsey and Kirsty Malpass. 

In the new cast Barry James plays the role of Grandpa Joe, Josefina Gabrielle plays Mrs Teavee and Richard Dempsey and Kirsty Malpass play Charlie’s parents Mr and Mrs Bucket. They join Clive Carter (Mr Salt), Jasna Ivir (Mrs Gloop), Paul J Medford (Mr Beauregarde), Billy Boyle (Grandpa George), Roni Page (Grandma Josephine) and Myra Sands (Grandma Georgina) who all are original cast members. 

New ensemble members include: Dan Cooke, Divine Cresswell, Connor Dowling, Gemma Fuller, Robert Jones, Matthew Rowland, Rebecca Seale, Gregory Sims, Paulo Teixeira and Laura Tyrer.

LES MISERABLES announces new cast from 16 June

Joining the company from 16 June will be: Peter Lockyer as Jean Valjean; David Thaxton as Javert; Tom Edden as Thénardier; Celinde Schoenmaker as Fantine; Michael Colbourne as Enjolras and Emilie Fleming as Cosette.

Rob Houchen will continue to play Marius, with Carrie Hope Fletcher as Eponine and Wendy Ferguson as Madame Thénardier.

Peter Lockyer recently completed a year and a half run as Jean Valjean in the North American 25th anniversary tour of Les Miserables. He has also appeared on Broadway as Chris in Miss Saigon and as Marius in the 10th anniversary production of Les Miserables.

The Almeida Theatre Announces Autumn 2014 Season

The Almeida Theatre today announces its body of work for the autumn: a World Premiere of a new work by Alecky Blythe will be directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins and the London Premiere of David Cromer’s acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.  

Also announced today is the West End transfer of Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III to the Wyndham’s Theatre in September.
The Young Friends of The Almeida will present Last Words You’ll Hear, directed by Almeida Director-in-Residence, Whitney Mosery, at the Latitude Festival in July. 

King Charles III will be the fourth production to transfer from the Almeida within the last year. Chimerica played to sell-out audiences at the Harold Pinter Theatre, Richard Eyre’s Olivier Award-winning Ghosts played at the Trafalgar Studios from last December and Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s acclaimed production of 1984, currently playing at the Playhouse Theatre, has just extended its run by five weeks until 23 August.

1984 will extend its run at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre by five weeks

Due to unprecedented demand, a 5 week extension is announced today for the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre production of 1984, a critically acclaimed adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan.


The production will now run at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre until 23 August 2014 (previously 19th July 2013), prior to a second UK tour in the autumn, as previously announced.  Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 opened in the West End on 28 April, transferring directly from the Almeida Theatre.