2,695 shows make this year’s Edinburgh Fringe the biggest ever. And the programme: 376 pages and weighs 605 grams!

 cabaret, comedy, music, theatre  No Responses »
Jun 012012
 

Educating Rita 2,695 shows make this years Edinburgh Fringe the biggest ever. And the programme: 376 pages and weighs 605 grams!A record num­ber of shows will be staged at this year’s Fringe, brush­ing off fears that the clash with the would harm the Fest­ival. A 6% increase on last year’s pro­gramme will see 2,695 shows take to theatres, pubs, nooks, cran­nies and gar­dens all over Scotland’s cap­ital in August with 47 coun­tries represented .

Kath Main­land, Chief Exec­ut­ive of the Edin­burgh Fest­ival Fringe Soci­ety said:

This is the Year of Cre­at­ive Scot­land and it is the year in which the world’s greatest sport­ing event, the Olympic and Para­lympic Games, hap­pens in Lon­don while the world’s greatest cul­tural event takes place in Edin­burgh. The Edin­burgh Fest­ival Fringe is still the first choice for per­formers, pro­du­cers, artists and cre­at­ors to come and tell their story; we are proud that the Fringe is still the place to bring your work, with oppor­tun­it­ies to amaze, enthral and excite audi­ences from both far away and close to home. … [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

The Trocks return to Milan’s Teatro Arcimboldi for Christmas

 ballet, comedy  No Responses »
Dec 222011
 

trocks The Trocks return to Milans Teatro Arcimboldi for Christmas, usu­ally referred to as as The Trocks, return to ’s Teatro Arcim­boldi for two per­form­ances on Decem­ber 26 and 27.

Foun­ded in 1974 by a group of bal­let enthu­si­asts for the pur­pose of present­ing a play­ful, enter­tain­ing view of tra­di­tional, clas­sical bal­let in par­ody form and en trav­esti, Les Bal­lets Trock­a­dero de Monte Carlo first per­formed in the late-late shows in Off-Off Broad­way lofts in New York. By mid 1975, the Trocks’ inspired blend of their lov­ing know­ledge of dance, their comic approach, and the astound­ing fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe without fall­ing flat on their faces, was being noted bey­ond New York.

After more than 25 years, the ori­ginal concept of Les Bal­lets Trock­a­dero de Monte Carlo has not changed.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Barry Humphries on Dame Edna Everage’s first panto

 comedy, theatre  No Responses »
Dec 102011
 

Dame Edna at the royal wedding Barry Humphries on Dame Edna Everages first pantoDame Edna Ever­age is star­ring in her first pan­to­mime: Dick Whit­ting­ton at the New Wimble­don Theatre.

The talked to her man­ager, 77 year-old Barry Humphries.

On Mel­bourne in the 50s

“Scorn and dis­gust were my favour­ite occu­pa­tions. If you could have been in Mel­bourne in the 1950s, you would have under­stood. It was a very nice place. You see, ‘nice’ is the epi­thet. Every­one aspired to be nice.

“I’ve always felt that I was a bit cent­ral European. Lots of Jews in Mel­bourne. We had a very big quota in Aus­tralia, odi­ous though the thought of ‘quotas’ is, of people fleet­ing Nazis. I knew a lot of those people. And I felt a bit like a refugee myself. A refugee from middle-class Mel­bourne.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Rowan Atkinson talks about cars, tears, stammers and straight acting

 cinema, comedy, interview  1 Response »
Sep 242011
 

Rowan Atkinson in 2009 Rowan Atkinson talks about cars, tears, stammers and straight actingOn the eve of the release of a new Johnny Eng­lish film, Johnny Eng­lish Reborn, Rowan Atkin­son talked to ’ Ginny Dougary.

On driv­ing fast cars

“I always think the lap of a track is very sim­ilar to a ‘take’ in a film – and the good thing about a film is you can do take after take and choose all the best moments – the best corners, if you like. The prob­lem with motor racing is that every lap is dif­fer­ent. So it’s an exer­cise in dis­cip­line and craft – it’s a craft which I don’t claim to be bril­liant at, but I’m good enough to be safe… most of the time.”

On cry­ing

“I cry too much and I find it strange.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Fawlty Towers producer John Howard Davies dies at 72

 comedy, obituary, television  No Responses »
Aug 232011
 

John Howard Dav­ies, who pro­duced a string of com­edy clas­sics includ­ing Fawlty Towers and The Good Life, has died aged 72, his agent has con­firmed. Dav­ies was head of com­edy at the BBC from 1977 to 1982, launch­ing clas­sic shows such as Only Fools and Horses, Yes Min­is­ter and Allo, Allo!

The son of a com­edy writer, he found fame as a child actor, mak­ing his debut as David Lean’s Oliver Twist in 1948.

Dav­ies died yes­ter­day morn­ing at his home in Blew­bury, Oxford­shire.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

David Sedaris comes to the Edinburgh Fringe

 comedy  No Responses »
Aug 072011
 

david sedaris 400x271 David Sedaris comes to the Edinburgh FringeMy favour­ite comic author is going to Scot­land for world’s biggest fest­ival of per­form­ance art. This witty Amer­ican, who now is based in Eng­land, lives with his boy­friend in the South Downs. He talked to The Sunday Times:

“I’ve always tried to stay away from hav­ing the word com­edy attached to myself. You right­fully have expect­a­tions for com­edy, you want to leave and you want your stom­ach to hurt. I think I’m more try­ing to tell a story.”

On being polit­ic­ally correct:

“The per­son in the audi­ence in the wheel­chair was just so grate­ful to be talked about as a per­son, with a sense of humour and an actual life, instead of the poor han­di­capped per­son. But every­one else was wait­ing to see how he reacted before they could laugh.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Monty Python and the Holy Grail producer wants more of the Spamalot pension plan

 comedy, musical theatre  No Responses »
Jul 102011
 

Spamalot was described on its posters as “lov­ingly ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. Now the pro­du­cer of that 1975 film is claim­ing he has been ripped off by the musical. It is no laugh­ing mat­ter: Mark For­stater has issued a High Court writ say­ing that he is owed hun­dreds of thou­sands of pounds from Spamalot, which began its very prof­it­able run on Broad­way in 2005 before mov­ing to the West End. It is still tour­ing Britain.

When the movie was made, it was agreed that the six Pythons (Gra­ham Chap­man has since died) and For­stater would receive an income from the film itself and from spin-offs. The sum was, frankly, smallish to begin with, but rose con­sid­er­ably after Spamalot.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS
 Older Entries