Review: Cats – Drew McOnie’s new production is the epitome of passion and collective power, a huge hit!
Matthew Paluch sees Drew McOnie’s production of Cats, reaffirming his place as one of dance’s most important creatives.
musical theatre
-
-
Review: BLINDED by DELIGHT in Berlin – a highly executed low-brow show
Matthew Paluch sees BLINDED by DELIGHT at the Palast Berlin – wow, circus-style acts are worth the ticket price alone.
-
Interview: Brigadoon returns to California – Director/Choreographer Katie Spelman on Scottish Dance in a Mythical Scotland
Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Brigadoon, directed and choreographed by Katie Spelman, with a book by Alexandra Silberis, is infused with Scottish culture.
-
Interview: Kate Flatt, choreographer and movement director, on 40 years of Les Mis and Turandot
Paul Arrowsmith talks to Kate Flatt – choreographer, movement director, mentor and dance educator – on her two long-running productions, the musical Les Misérables and the opera Turandot, and a life in the theatre.
-
Review: Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre – it’s life affirming stuff
Matthew Paluch sees the National Theatre production of Ballet Shoes: “it more than brings the book alive – there’s a whole world up for the taking”.
-
Review: The Les Misérables World Tour arrives in Milan – a semi-staging of epic proportions
Graham Spicer sees Les Misérables in Milan during Cameron Mackintosh’s world tour of the 40-year-old musical – a luxury cast in an emotionally engaging performance
-
[Review] Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning film, re-imagined for the stage
Graham Watts sees Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, created by animator and director Hayao Miyazaki and re-imagined for the stage by John Caird.
-
[Review] Andrée Bernard in ‘What (is) a Woman’ – intoxicating magic
Matthew Paluch sees What (is) a Woman: “Bernard has an undeniable major presence, and the project is a bold, brave move by an artist who has a story to tell.”
-
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends – Cameron Mackintosh releases 5,000 best seats at £25
5,000 tickets have been made available at just £25 for theatregoers aged 30 or under to see Old Friends, celebrating the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim.
-
[Review and Photos] La Cage aux Folles in Regent’s Park – Magnifique!
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is home to a five-week season of La Cage aux Folles. This production is one of those moments you won’t forget. The talent onstage, the sensitivity of direction, and the mastery of the work itself.
-
[Review] 42nd Street in London – infectious and airborne
42nd Street: Be prepared to be entertained. It’s a humdinger of a show with a top-notch cast. I doth my top hat and cane to the choreographer Bill Deamer.
-
[Review] Hex – an alternative Sleeping Beauty from the National Theatre
Hex, a new take on The Sleeping Beauty: “characters – some familiar, some new – are more fallible, more human, but without losing any of the required magic.”
-
news | dance | musical theatre
The Royal Opera House says ‘Thank You NHS’
The Royal Opera House has announced a programme of performances and events to say thank you to the staff of the National Health Service.
-
Six of London’s West End theatres to reopen
Nimax, which owns six of London’s West End theatres, has announced that it will start opening up all of them, beginning with the Apollo on 22 October.
The announcement came on the six-month anniversary of the last performance in the West End.
-
Priscilla the musical in Milan reveals the heart beneath the glitter
After having seen the musical Priscilla, I’ve decided to come out: I’m a Sondheim fan. Yes, Into the Woods, Sweeney, the lot… even Merrily We Roll Along and The Frogs. Every cd, the live recordings, the scores. Now I’ve got that off my chest, I can say how thoroughly enjoyable I find Priscilla, Queen of…
-
Christopher Wheeldon and team scoop up Tony nominations
The Brit in New York, responsable for the new hit musical An American in Paris, has been nominated for a Tony award as Best Director of a Musical and also for Best Choreography. His creative team and cast have also been nominated in almost every category with twelve nominations in total: Best Musical, Best Book of a…
-
Milan’s Dirty Dancing glimmers but doesn’t shine
At the risk of sounding petty, this was the first time that I have been given restricted view tickets to review a performance, so I’ll review the three-quarters of Milan‘s Dirty Dancing that I saw. The first musical number, for example, was either performed by someone offstage, by a pre-recorded voice, or by someone standing down-right…
-
Eleanor Bergstein’s Dirty Dancing alights in Milan
Dirty Dancing comes to Milan with the biggest advance booking since Stage Entertainment took over the Teatro Nazionale, beating even Beauty and the Beast and Mamma Mia! The producers must be breathing a sigh of relief as the Italian economy’s bumpy ride doesn’t seem to be affecting ticket sales, such is the film in the cultural…
-
Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson to star in Sweeney Todd in London
After the success of Sweeney Todd in concert with the New York Philharmonic in March of this year, Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson return in their roles for thirteen performances at the London Coliseum. It will be the first musical under the new collaboration between English National Opera and the GradeLinnit Company, which will see several semi-staged…
-
At 88, Elaine Stritch bows out for good
With “Elaine Stritch at the Carlyle: Movin’ Over and Out” which runs from 2 – 6 April one of the greatest stars of the stage leaves it for good. Elaine Stritch, with her signature leggings and white blouse, offered a cabaret that was more talk than song, and her colleagues turned out in force. At the…
-
Goggi shines but Gypsy deludes in its Italian première
Styne and Sondheim‘s Gypsy is the Hamlet of the musical theatre: many try, many fail, but a success in the role adds a magical aura to a career. Thank goodness that Loretta Goggi, as Italy‘s first Rose, had the taste, guts, and believability to carry it off, because it was one of the few things that truly…
-
A new Mama Rose gets her turn in Italy’s first ever ‘Gypsy’
On 15 January, Milan will welcome a new Rose to the stage as Gyspy opens in Italy. Loretta Goggi has been a household name in Italy for half a century. She made her début in television as a girl and hasn’t been far from the small screen or stage since. Starting out as a child actress,…
-
Italy’s new Titanic musical stays afloat
The world has a new Titanic musical. Italy‘s version is the work of Federico Bellone who wrote the book, lyrics and music, and is also the show’s director. It is inevitably derivative with references to the DiCaprio/Winslett blockbuster and the 1997 Broadway Tony-winning musical. It is also unfortunate that the main theme (yes, ‘Titanic’) sounds very much like…
-
Betty Buckley to star in Jerry Herman’s “Dear World” in the West End
Everyone who knows and loves the original cast recording of Jerry Herman’s musical Dear World will be delighted to have the opportunity to see it when it comes to the London stage next year. It will receive its British première at the Charing Cross Theatre with Betty Buckley in the title role – which Angela Lansbury created in 1969 –…
-
Saturday nights heat up as Tony Manero struts into Milan
Tony Manero is coming to town in a brand new production of Saturday Night Fever, performed in an all-Italian translation as La Febbre del Sabato Sera. After a few months of touring in the Netherlands earlier this year, the popular stage version of the film which launched John Travolta‘s career arrives at Milan‘s Teatro Nazionale. Apart from recreating the iconic white suit for…
-
Stage Entertainment musicals: bringing excellence to Italy
Italy has long been plagued with a lazy approach to putting on musicals. Looked on as easy money makers, the artistic and financial input is often skipped over for quicker gains. Mistake! Audiences were not happy getting ripped off by incompetent production teams providing cheap imitations of Broadway shows or Hollywood musicals. Not everything was bad, but a lot was….
-
Pointe shoes and tutus at the Ziegfeld Follies
Florenz Ziegfeld created his Follies in 1907, and the successful format continued on Broadway until 1931. The Ziegfeld Follies were extraordinarily elaborate revues inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris. While being a high-class Vaudeville variety show, mixing comics, singers and speciality dancers, it was the Ziegfeld girls that made them a hit. That whiff of sex disguised as art presented by…
-
Adam Cooper talks to the Sunday Times about ballet, Michael Jackson, Vaughan Williams and the Kirov
In today’s Sunday Times, Adam Cooper – ex-Royal Ballet dancer, and currently tip-tapping in the West End – talked about the places where he and his elder brother, Simon, grew up. Until their teens they lived in a ‘poky’ flat in Tooting. The flat was much too small for two energetic boys with a musician father who had…
-
Barbra Streisand to play Momma Rose in the screen version of Gyspy – Julian Fellowes will write the screenplay
Producers Barbra Streisand and Joel Silver have set Academy Award-winning writer Julian Fellowes to pen the screenplay adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ Tony Award winning musical, Gypsy, which Streisand and Silver are currently developing for Universal Pictures. Streisand will portray “Momma Rose” in the new version, her first musical film since Yentl in…
-
Priscilla the Musical gives the Milan catwalks an added dash of kitsch
Today is carnival day in Milan: Sabato Grasso. It comes later than all the other carnival celebrations, and this year Milan was blessed with a 20°C sunny day which gave the tourists a good excuse to get out their shorts and sandals. As carnival week also coincides this year with a fashion week, Milano Moda Donna, the streets were crowded, especially outside one of…
End of content
End of content