FIRST LOOK: Funny Girl at the Menier Chocolate Factory starring Sheridan Smith

Double Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith will return to London’s West End next year when the Menier Chocolate Factory production of Funny Girl transfers to the Savoy Theatre in April for a 12-week season.

The production, which also stars Gone With The Wind and From Here To Eternity star Darius Campbell, runs at the hit-making off-West End theatre from 20 November to 5 March, though tickets for that run are already sold out.

Funny Girl, which has not been staged in the West End since its premiere in the 60s, is the musical that shot Barbra Streisand to fame. It tells the story of Fanny Brice, who rose from being a music hall singer to becoming one of Broadway’s biggest stars. Though on stage she was loved, her off stage life was far more turbulent.

The new production is directed by Broadway’s Mayer and features a book revised from Isobel Lennart’s original by Kinky Boots writer Harvey Fierstein.

Producer Sonia Friedman commented: “2016 will mark the 50th anniversary of the original London production of Funny Girl. It's enormously exciting to be bringing this legendary musical back to the West End for the first time since 1966, in a brand new production starring the incredible Sheridan Smith.”

Funny Girl runs at the Savoy Theatre from 9 April to 2 July. 

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REVIEW: Forbidden Broadway at the Vaudeville Theatre

Forbidden Broadway basically takes the piss of Broadway and West End shows. I couldn’t think of another way to describe it! But fear not, its not really rude or offensive (well.. it is, but in a funny way!). An edition of the show made its West End premiere in 1999, and on Broadway in 1982. It had a run at the Menier Chocolate Factory back in 2009 and this year returned to the theatre. Its now transferred to the West End and is playing at the Vaudeville Theatre. 

This show is filled with bold, laugh out loud numbers, from ‘The Show with No Imagination’ to ‘One Note Liza’. Forbidden Broadway is the show that says it how it is, for example I’ve never seen or heard someone sum up Once in a better way! Being, whats seems, one of the very few people that didn’t enjoy the Once in the West End, I absolutely howled at this section. Also, I loved the Matilda/Child Actor section! “My Daddy says I’m a triple threat” has to be one of my favourite lines from the production!

Menier Chocolate Factory announces it winter season

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced its upcoming Winter season, including Assassins directed by Jamie Lloyd and An Evening with Joan Plowright.

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins will open on 21 November, with full casting and creative team to be announced. The Tony Award-winning musical looks at various historical figures who have assassinated, or tried to, American Presidents.

The show follows a busy year for Jamie Lloyd, whose second Trafalgar Transformed season at the Trafalgar Studios has included Richard III, and other recent shows include Urinetown and The Commitments. Tickets for Assassins go on sale on 29 August for Chocolate Factory supporters and 8 September to the public.

The second show in the Menier's Winter season will be the UK premiere of Buyer and Cellar, the hit US comedy which is currently touring America. Starring Ugly Betty's Michael Urie, it follows an out-of-work actor working in Barba Streisand personal basement shopping mall.