FIRST LOOK: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at the Aldwych Theatre

On Saturday 17thMay, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies celebrated their opening night at the Aldwych Theatre, London WC2. After the performance, creative team, cast and guests headed to The Royal Horseguards in Whitehall for a party.


Following a sell-out run at the RSC’s Swan Theatre, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies open at the Aldwych Theatre. This is the first time Hilary Mantel’s enormously popular books have been adapted for the stage. Adapted by Mike Poulton and directed by Jeremy Herrin, the two plays tell the compelling story of the political rise to power of Thomas Cromwell from blacksmith’s boy to Henry VIII’s right hand man.

LET IT BE returns to the West End for limited run

Due to overwhelming public demand, LET IT BE, the international hit show celebrating the music of The Beatles returns for a third run in London’s West End, following a triumphant 18-week tour of the UK and Ireland.

LET IT BE will begin previews at the Garrick Theatre on 9th July 2014, marking the 50th anniversary of the London premiere of A Hard Day’s Night.LET IT BE will play for a strictly limited 11-weeks, with a media night to be held on Thursday 10th July.

LET IT BE established itself as one of the West End’s most popular shows when the production originally opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in September 2012, before transferring for a year-long run at the Savoy Theatre from January 2013 – February 2014.

Sell out play INVINCIBLE at St. James Theatre July 2014

St. James Theatre Productions presents the Orange Tree Theatre’s highly acclaimed Invincible byTorben Betts, directed by Ellie Jones. The production will run from Thursday 10 July to Saturday 09 August 2014, with press night on Tuesday 15 July at 7pm.

Invincible will be restaged for its run at the St. James Theatre, having been presented in-the-round at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, where it received its world premiere in March this year. The Orange Tree Theatre production of Invincible played to full houses and received wide critical acclaim.

FIRST LOOK: The Pajama Game at the Shaftesbury Theatre

Richard Eyre’s sensational production of the Broadway classic The Pajama Game has transferred to the West End, it will open at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 13th May 2014 (previews from 1st May) for a limited season until 13th September 2014 following a critically acclaimed, sold out run at Chichester Festival Theatre, starring Olivier Award-winning Joanna Riding and Michael Xavier, and featuring Peter Polycarpou until 31 May and Gary Wilmot from 2 June.

The cast also features: Alexis Owen Hobbs (Gladys), Claire Machin (Mabel), Colin Stinton (Hasler/Pop), Eugene McCoy (Prez), Siôn Lloyd (Max), Jennie Dale (Mae), Sharon Wattis (Poopsie), Keisha Amponsa Banson (Brenda), Lauren Varnham (Charlene), Helen Ternent (Martha), Jo Morris (Rita), Nolan Frederick (Charley), Richard Jones (Frank), Dan Burton (Earl) and James O’Connell (Joe)

FIRST LOOK: Ruthie Henshall as Mrs Wilkinson in BILLY ELLIOT

Olivier award-winning actor Ruthie Henshall will be joining the London cast of Billy Elliot the Musical to play Billy’s straight talking dance teacher, Mrs Wilkinson. Her first performance will be 12th May 2014 (tonight), which is also the same day the show will be celebrating nine years at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

ST. JAMES STUDIO Theatre Programme Announced

The St. James Studio will continue to present its successful lunchtime theatre programme, with both Bite-Size Theatre and Butterfly returning to the studio to provide the workers of Victoria some respite from the daily grind. The evening programme includes a ‘copyright free’ Doctor Who musical, I Need A Doctor: The Whosical, the critically acclaimed stand-up comedy adaptation of the infamousTristram Shandy and the remarkable and tragic story of Mata Hari, the famous WW1 concubine who was tried and sentenced to death by firing squad on charges of espionage.

LUNCHTIME THEATRE

BITE-SIZE – LUNCHTIME FOURPLAY 2

Monday 19 – Friday 23 May at 1pm

£8 in advance/£10 on the door

Lunchtime Fourplay 2, another refreshing lunchtime experience from Bite-Size Plays. Eat and enjoy a selection of plays from the ‘vintage menu’ and comedies from the critically acclaimed international touring show, Bite-Size Comedies A La Carte.

I CAN'T SING announces closure, final performance 10 May 2014

Stage Entertainment and Syco Entertainment, the producers of I Can’t Sing! at the London Palladium, have announced the closure of the production on Saturday 10th May 2014.

The show received a series of rave reviews and standing ovations from thousands of theatre goers following its opening earlier this year.

Rebecca Quigley, CEO of Stage Entertainment UK, said:
“We are sad to be bringing I Can’t Sing! to a close but are immensely proud to have co-produced the show.

I Can't Sing!: Musical Theatre Review

The London Palladium hosts the world premiere of I Can’t Sing!, the new musical written by Harry Hill. The musical pokes fun at the reality TV show, the X Factor, however this show is more F Factor than X Factor.

Chenice and her grandpa live in a caravan below a fly over and eat the road kill they catch, after picking up Chenices post off the floor Max, a plumber, volunteers to fix her boiler. After her grandpa dying and her house being reposed Max pushes her to enter the X Factor. Believe it or not they manage to spread this story over the course of the whole first act. In the second act we see the live finals of the X Factor and the drama unravels as Simon and Jordy (Cheryl Cole… clearly refused to let them use her name. And I don’t blame her) split Max and Chenice up. After Max wins back Chenices heart the winner is announced and an ‘interesting’ twist shakes up the ending. 

I’ll start by saying this isn’t actually as bad as you’d think, it has some good songs and some of the gags go down well. However when you have a gag every 10 seconds it starts to get old after the first 15 minutes. The show is Viva Forever with a bigger budget. 

I CAN'T SING postpones previews... Again.

Stage Entertainment and Syco Entertainment, the producers of I Can’t Sing! at the London Palladium, have decided to postpone the beginning of preview performances due to a technical problem with one of the show’s set pieces. 

An integral part of the stage mechanism for the show’s set is currently not operating correctly and this needs to be resolved before performances can begin at the Palladium. As a result Saturday's performance has, regrettably, been cancelled.
The first preview will now take place next week.

I CAN'T SING cancel first two previews

Stage Entertainment and Syco Entertainment, producers of I Can’t Sing! at the London Palladium, have decided to postpone the beginning of preview performances by 48 hours due to technical issues caused by the ambitious staging of the new musical comedy.

As a result, the performances scheduled for Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February will no longer go ahead, with the first preview now taking place on Saturday 1 March.

Rebecca Quigley, Producer for Stage Entertainment, said: "After much careful thought and discussion we’ve decided that we need to take some more time to work on technical aspects of I Can't Sing! at the Palladium. As audiences will soon see the production is hugely ambitious, and the volume of installation and scale of the set means that technical work has taken slightly longer than could have been anticipated to make the show audience-ready.

Christmas in New York: Theatre Review

Christmas in New York has been brought back by Speckulation Entertainment after a four year absence. This year Broadway Leading Lady, best known for her portrayal of Elphaba, Eden Espinosa headlines the event. Besides playing Elphaba in Wicked to extensive acclaim on Broadway, in LA and San Francisco, Espinosa's other credits include playing Maureen in the closing cast of RENT on Broadway and the title role in Brooklyn the musical. Joined by a West End line up including Tori Allen-Martin (RENT, Hair), Lucy May Barker (Sweeney Todd, Spring Awakening), Andy Coxon (Les Miserables, Rocky Horror Show), Scott Garnham (I Can’t Sing!, Les Miserables), Luke Kempner (Avenue Q, South Pacific) and Zoe Rainey (Wicked, Hairspray) with special guest Julie Atherton (Sister Act, Avenue Q). The show played the Palace Theatre in Manchester on the 7th December before returning to the West End, playing the Palace Theatre where The Commitments currently resides. 

Full cast of I CAN'T SING announced

As previously announced, Olivier Award-winner Nigel Harman will play X Factor supremo Simon, with Cynthia Erivo and Alan Morrissey as lovestruck contestants Chenice and Max.

Joining Nigel on the judging panel will be Ashley Knight as the ever-positive boyband manager Louis and Victoria Elliot as pop queen Jordy. Simon Bailey  (Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables) will play the overly affectionate X Factor host Liam O'Deary, with Billy Carter (Someone Who'll Watch Over Me) as Executive Producer and Simon's right hand man, Gerard Smalls. Simon Lipkin  (Avenue Q, Rock of Ages) plays Chenice's faithful canine sidekick Barlow and Joe Speare (The Color Purple, To Kill A Mocking Bird) is her iron-lung bound Grandad.

Wicked: New Cast Pictures Released

Wicked the musical, who have just celebrated their 3000th performance, changes cast tonight. The new cast includes Willemijn Verkaik (Elphaba), Savannah Stevenson (Glinda), Jeremy Taylor (Fiyero), Sue Kelvin (Madame Morrible), Sam Kelly (The Wizard), Paul Clarkson (Doctor Dillamond); Sam Lupton (Boq), Katie Rowley Jones (Nessarose), Emma Hatton (Standby Elphaba), Sophie Linder-Lee (Standby Glinda), Florence Andrews, Kyle Anthony, William Bozier, Oliver Brenin, Lauren Brooke, Philippa Buxton, Philip Catchpole, Aisling Duffy, Samuel Edwards, Kerry Enright, Michelle Francis, Jacqueline Hughes, Melissa Jacques, Marc McBride, Stacey McGuire, Natalie McQueen, Greg Miller Burns, Tom Muggeridge, Rachel Muldoon, Sean Parkins, Charlie Stemp, Lauren Stroud, Lindsay Taylor,Justin Thomas, Hannah Toy, Matt Turner, Russell Walker and Jenny Wickham.

The Bodyguard the Musical: Theatre Review

The Bodyguard has to be one of the most iconic films of all time, Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner’s performances have gone down in history. Recreating such a huge film on stage is a risky thing; it will always be compared to original film. Fortunately, the stage version really stands on its own two feet. With a few adjustments to the story it has been translated onto stage perfectly. The Bodyguard tells the story of worldwide superstar Rachel Marron (NOT Whitney Houston) and how she is being stalked by an obsessed fan. Frank Farmer is brought in as her new bodyguard to try and control the situation whilst working with people to catch the stalker. 

If you’re a fan of the film then you might be put off by the fact that there have been a few changes in the story but I actually think its for the best and the changes make the characters a lot more interesting. I’m not going to mention any of these however, you’ll need to find out for yourself! I have previously seen the show in previews and didn’t like it, there was just something missing from the production. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. Upon returning everything I thought about it before had disappeared, its a very clean and smooth show and the thing I thought was missing (whatever that was!) is definitely there! It moves like a movie, with fast paced scenes and the variety of locations created by Tim Hatley’s set. 

The Velma Celli Show: Cabaret Review

The Hippodrome has a history of producing fantastic entertainment shows, one of the recent stars being Velma Celli. The alter-ego of performer Ian Stroughair, who most recently was seen on the Rent In Concert Tour, has previously played this space earlier this year with Velma. The Matcham Room at the Hippodrome Casino is the perfect setting for the evening, being my first time going to the place I was really impressed with the beauty of the room. A very classic and elegant feel which matched the evening impeccably. 

Velma Celli makes her entrance singing Cry Me A River, coming through the audience and taking the occasional small sip (or chug) of the audiences wine. The opening set the standard or the rest of the night at such a high level you’d think it would go down hill from there; Not at all. It just got better! 

Momentous Musicals: Theatre Review

Having perviously played a One off night in Wimbledon last year, Momentous Musicals is back. Keeping some of the songs from last years show with lots of new additions. From classics like Andrew Lloyd Webber to new Broadway hits like Newsies, this show celebrates generations of shows that have audiences coming back. The production also showcases what British musical talent has to offer, from the extremely experienced and well respected John Owen-Jones to new graduates from Drama Schools such as Mountview and GSA. The set list for the show has been chosen very well, I loved the selections of songs because even though there was the expected like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and West Side Story there was also some surprises like a Disney Melody, SMASH, Ghost and The Wiz. 

For what the show was it was very good, when you see something like this you could expect a bit of a budget performance with poor quality orchestrations and average performers, this was the total opposite. First of all the stage looked very classic, a simple black background with a starry effect was elegant and made room for Tom Boucher (lighting designer) to really fill the stage with some fantastic colours. The lighting had a lot of great moments, it was a delightful design and he adjusted the lighting to every song which really added to the over quality of the performance. 

West End Men: Theatre Review

West End Men is a concert filled with Musical Theatre classics as well as some surprises, Currently playing at the Vaudeville Theatre until the 22nd June having previously toured last year. The show features West End talent such as David Thaxton, Glenn Carter (until 8th June), Lee Mead, Matt Willis and Stephen Rahman-Hughes (from 10th June) with special guests Kerry Ellis (until 15th June) and Carley Stenson (from 17th June). I’m glad that they’ve featured some of the more modern musical theatre talent rather than the ‘Michael Ball’ type people, they’re really updating what people think about West End leading men. Admittedly, these aren't the names I’d come up with if I was putting together this concert but they are all incredibly talented and really show why they are leading men within this show. 

The set list is interesting, for example I really liked the opening number. They mashed together Pure Imagination, Being Alive, Love Changes Everything and Music of the Night; a very odd choice of songs to put together but it was a really nice, relaxed introduction to the show. Another highlight was the West Side Story medley which opened the second act, I really liked that they paid homage to this but they went for the obvious choices of musical theatre songs like things from South Pacific, Chess and Les Miserables. Don’t get me wrong, these are great but you’d think with this more modern feel to the show they’d go for contemporary musicals as well. I would have loved to have seen some surprise musical theatre numbers in there like something from Newsies or Next to Normal or something along those lines! They were far to safe with the set list. 

To Kill A Mocking Bird, Regents Park: Theatre Review

To Kill A Mocking Bird was first published in 1960 and since then has never been out of print. A book about civil rights, Racial Injustice and courage; this story could have ruined author Harper Lee’s career, instead, it did the opposite. To Kill A Mocking Bird is the first of four productions that are to be staged at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park this season, after seeing A Midsummer Nights Dream at the theatre the previous year I had high expectations for this. 

The play is very touching, the audience are drawn into the characters and during the trial, really get taken into the events and become the jury. Timothy Sheader directs this production and I must say that he has done a good job of it, combined with the other design aspects of the production it was visually beautiful. He really has put a lot of emphasis on the actual telling of the story, the audience have to bring their imagination and build upon that. He’s got the ensemble to read Scouts Narration from the book which really pulls everything together and reminds you that this story is from a young persons point of view.

Jon Bausor designs the show, starting with a bare stage, expect a tree, the actors literally draw the map of the road where the play takes play on the stage with chalk. Very reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time design I thought. One thing I wasn’t loving was the backdrop, just a black background that changed colour. It was very out of place and I kind of wished they could have used their natural surroundin

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt | Interview

Victoria trained at Central School of Ballet and Urdang Academy of Performing Arts, when she graduated she was cast in the UK Tour of Oh What a Night! In the role of Cat and then moving with the production to Germany. Her other credits include Stephanie Mungano in Saturday Night Fever (UK tour), Connie in the Saturday Night Fever (Scandinavian tour), Carmen Diaz in Fame (Aldwych), Anita in West Side Story (international tour) Maria and understudy Susan in Desperately Seeking Susan (Novello), Alex in Flashdance (UK Tour and West End), Rizzo in Grease (West End), Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy (Leicester Curve) and has appeared in Bohemian Rhapsody (international tour). She is currently playing Diana in the London Revival of A Chorus Line at the London Palladium. She was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions…


Your family has a musical background, how influential was that for you growing up?
Very much so in the sense I was always being entertained by my uncles who always made a racket with pots and pans and anything else they could find around the house! They are both musicians who played in bands The Clash for a brief time before the band got super famous and other bands that would play the north west London scene of Kensal rise and Camden. They are a talented drummer and bass player and pots and pans terrorists! My dad sang the soho night life were he did his Billy Fury and Elvis numbers! 

Desperately Seeking the Exit: Review

Desperately Seeking the Exit is a self exposing, one man show about what happened behind the scenes on the musical Desperately Seeking Susan which is based on the 1985 film of the same name; the show premiered in 2007 at the Novello Theatre. It received negative reviews across the board and just fifteen days after opening it announced its closing date. Over recent years new musicals have really struggled in London and in this show Peter Michael Marino opens his heart to the audience and tells how his baby was twisted and changed to be something completely different and the story of its downfall.

Its hard for anyone to open up about anything personal but opening up about something that flopped so publicly and to complete strangers much be extraordinarily hard. I struggle to call this a stand up show because its more than that, its not just a man standing there telling jokes; Its an insight as to what really happened and what his role was in the creation and the over throw of the show. There is still a part of me that wanted him to go in deeper, I wanted to know some of the darker things about some of the struggles he must have faced whilst trying to put this musical on and it felt like he had held somethings back which, to be honest, is completely understandable because the type of audience he is attracting here in London are the type of people that could turn around and say “thats my friend you’re talking about” so I can see why somethings have been left out of it!