The Regent Theatre Stoke-on-Trent last night was buzzing as we were graced by the presence of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The theatre was packed to the rafters with excited children and adults alike. The show itself opened with a really heart-warming scene that included many of the children used throughout the show and were a credit to the cast and to Stoke as they’d used local children apart from the two leads.
The English Touring Theatre, in association with Northampton's Royal and Derngate and The Rose Theatre make a very bold and confident statement with their latest co-production currently being performed at Salford's Lowry Theatre; The Herbal Bed by acclaimed playwright Peter Whelan.
The play is set in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 1613 and is based upon the real events of Susanna Hall, Shakespeare's daughter, being publicly accused of adultery and the shame and scandal this has on them and their community, especially when the trial is held in Worcester cathedral, and set against the backdrop of her worry about her ailing father's health.
Wow what a perfectly piggy spectacular show!
The Lowry Lyric Theatre’s auditorium today was bursting with excited preschool children accompanied by grown-ups of all ages. Although Peppa Pigs Surprise show is recommended for children of 3 years and over, many of today’s audience members were under the age of 1 years old. Yet despite being very young and some were just babies in arms they were just as captivated and glued to the stage performance as the older children. Credit to this magnificent cast and staging, for its fast paced and wonderfully entertaining stage production. Transferring and adapting an immensely popular TV children’s show like Peppa Pig onto stage for live theatre is no easy feat. Although Fiery light production company and production manager Jill Ashall and her team made it all appear so easy.
For someone who sits through a lot of plays and musicals, it was a refreshing change to go back to where it all started for me, as a dancer and then a drummer, the possibility of seeing a show that combined these two things was hard to resist (and I had David Hasslehoff to thank, as his musical was mysteriously cancelled hence this last minute decision), and it was also a chance to see a venue I have not seen in many years.
Showmanship AND Genius
Simon Callow is better known as a star of films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love and The Phantom of the Opera amongst others. What is less well known about this Lawrence Olivier award winner is that it is his work in theatre, following a stage debut in 1973, and in particular his critically acclaimed performance as Mozart in the original stage production of Shaffer's Amadeus at the Royal National Theatre in 1979, that brought him great acclaim and led to greater prominence in turn in his much-loved roles in television and film.
I’ve seen Joseph a few times over the years, various different productions, and some of them have been very lame and half hearted, so part of me was expecting more of the same. I know that it began life as a fifteen minute mini musical in the late Sixties, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have augmented it over the years… and seemingly continue to do so.
Joe McElderry stars as Joseph. (He was Jacob’s favourite son. Apparently.) Joe is famous for powerful ballads and for winning the 2009 X Factor. Alongside him, as the Narrator, is Lucy Kay, a 26 year old soprano from Nottingham… which makes her sound less glamorous than she actually is. She appears on the stage constantly throughout and sings beautifully and effortlessly.
Good theatre transports you to a different time and place and at The Grand in Blackpool, Let It Be brought the older generation back to their teenage years and gave their grandchildren the experience of their youth.
Let It Be it the musical story we all know. The history of The Beatles and the soundtrack to our lives. You are taken through each Beatles album playing the iconic music and all the favourites. You are taken from The Cavern to their Royal Variety Performance, to America and finally Abbey Road.
Scripts Aloud is a relatively new concept. It is the brainchild of the Manchester Acting and Directing Partnership, where each month they will select four short scripts from up and coming writers and put them on show. Personally I think it is a great idea as it gives opportunities to writers, directors and actors to showcase their talents.
Something Wonderful: A Celebration of Rogers and Hammerstein had our toes tapping and singing along under our breath on this Saturday night at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. For my second visit to this new Manchester venue it proved its versatility by hosting a completely different layout to my last visit. I am sure Hope Mill is going to become the hottest fringe venue in Manchester before very long.
I digress, back to Rogers and Hammerstein. This evening’s cabaret revue style performance was a joyous celebration of this duo who became synonymous with musical theatre in their day, although they interestingly only wrote 5 musicals together. Presented to us by four superb performers whom all have musical theatre experience in some form or another… James Lacey, Sharon Byatt, Emily Chesterton and Michael Fletcher. They were also joined by 6 students from Rare Studios who were confident, acted their songs out well and never without a smile on their face.
Untied Artists, despite delivering shows for children, have just got themselves one more fan! I have seen, over the years, an enormous number of children's and TIE theatre, and have even acted in a fair few TIE productions myself, but it has taken me until now to find a play which quite simply ticks every box.
Using three actors and a huge amount of imagination and creativity, and with the young children invited to sit on cushions on the semi-circled front row, this was a masterclass in small-scale touring TIE theatre.
Broken Leg Theatre performed its company’s third production tonight at the Lowry theatre. Three generations of women written by Anna Jefferson and Alice Trueman, directed by Ria Parry and produced by Becky Smith and Laura Sedgwick is a powerful story of three generations of women and their individual struggles through their times. Elsie (Gilly Daniels) born in 1936 to a hardworking Irish mother. Gilly (Moir Leslie, young Gilly played by Nicola Harrison) sexually liberated in the 70s after leaving the close nit Yorkshire village to be a university student in Leeds studying French, and then Frankie (Nicola Harrison) a single childless woman in the 90s who finds herself living back home with her mother Gilly who has terminal lymphoma and supported by her lifelong best friend Maya (Emily Spetch).
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