Free West End Theatre This Weekend
By Douglas McFarlaneHello UK Theatre Networker
It's new, it's fresh, it's your redesigned UKTheatre.TV. I've given it a lick of paint and I'm in the process of redesigning a logo for the new look website. Have a look here:- http://www.uktheatre.tv
Also new, is the UK Radio Blog. Now live online and streaming around the world, the radio show that started out in Scotland is now a live 365 radio station where you can listen to all the latest news, stories and music. A new show is uploaded every week and you can listen to it anytime while you are social networking - http://www.live365.com/ukradioblog
Look out for Sky News next Friday between 7-7:30pm, where you'll find another TV blog on Martin Stanford's Bafta award winning "News With A Web Agenda".
This week I went to see the play Oh Well Never Mind Bye at the Union Theatre in Southwark. It's a perfect venue to get close up and personal with any performance, and where you can see the latest talent in London. Each of the actors were first class and complimented a well written play with energy in the dialogue. The set design, lighting, sound and pace were all carefully considered and well executed. Find out more about the play here:-
http://upandcoming.webeden.co.uk/#/oh-well-never-mind-bye/4533472660
And in the meantime, head down to Leicester Square this weekend where you'll see everything London’s West End has to offer, absolutely free. Among the acts taking part in this year’s West End LIVE are American talk show host Jerry Springer, who is currently appearing in Chicago, and I’d Do Anything winner Jodie Prenger, who performs with the cast of Oliver! Other shows taking to the open air stage in the middle of Leicester Square. There's also the Jersey Boys and La Cage Aux Folles, Hairspray, Wicked, We Will Rock You, Dirty Dancing, Avenue Q, Thriller Live, Stomp and two massive West End newcomers Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical and Sister Act. The main website was inactive when I checked but here it is http://www.westendlive.co.uk
Have a great week in the world of theatre, where you are.
Douglas McFarlane
editor, uk theatre network
http://www.uktheatre.tv
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Menopause: The Musical
Published by: Steve Burbridge on Friday 19th June 2009 03:06pm
Menopause: The Musical
Reviewed at The Tyne Theatre & Opera House, Newcastle
WHEN four different women are thrown together at a lingerie sale in a well-known London department store, it seems as though they have little in common. One is a shrewd business woman, one a vegan Earth mother, one a successful soap star and one a dowdy housewife from Skegness.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/menopause-the-musical_214.html
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The Pianist at Manchester Royal Exchange
Published by: Caroline May on Friday 19th June 2009 02:06am
Two years ago audiences were raving about Neil Bartlett’s Manchester International Festival production of The Pianist, which was originally staged in the highly unconventional setting of a loft above the Museum of Science and Industry. Now there’s another chance to see it with the original cast in the Royal Exchange main house.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/the-pianist-at-manchester-royal-exchange_213.html
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Mama Mia! The Musical
Published by: Elspeth Rae on Thursday 18th June 2009 07:06pm
MAMA MIA! The Prince Of Wales Theatre London
It's funny, because ever since I was little I have loved Abba songs, so it's not the music. No, I say, thank you for the music. And it's not the cast (although I could have wrung some of their necks at numerous times trhoughout.) I think it's the story. I know it's meant to be funny, but the whole thing is so cliched and so unfeasible, that at times I looked across to my friends and others in the audience who weren't struck down with incurable mamamiaitis, and watched a confused and clouded look wash over their faces.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/mama-mia!-the-musical_212.html
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Manchester's 2:47 Theatre Festival launches this year's programme
Published by: Caroline May on Thursday 18th June 2009 03:06pm
Running from 20-26 July, Manchester's top festival of new writing showcases 21 original one-hour pieces in unconventional venues.
The programme features a mix of experienced and new writers, while previous 247-ers returning this year include Steve Timms, Ian Townsend and Steve Pearce.
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"Shining Days" a new play written and directed by Julie S. Halpern
Published by: Rachel Thomas on Wednesday 17th June 2009 10:30pm
"Shining Days," the second full-length play by Julie S. Halpern, made its debut on June 17th on the Royal Stage at the Producers Club in midtown . The play focuses on the relationships of six historical figures living in the torrid times of war and struggle in Ireland and England in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
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Killing Time
Published by: Steve Burbridge on Wednesday 17th June 2009 07:39pm
Killing Time
Reviewed at Darlington Civic Theatre
The second production of the 10th Anniversary Summer Repertory Season at Darlington Civic Theatre is an intense and gripping thriller starring, once again, Hannah Waterman and Huw Higginson.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/killing-time_208.html
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Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Reviewed by Louise Winter on Tuesday 16th June 2009 at Milton Keynes Theatre
Every obvious cliché can be used to describe this musical – thigh slapping, foot tapping, yeehah shouting, hand clapping fun! It is a lovely story and really quite sad at times.
The Pontipee brothers live a typical bachelor life out in the wilds of Oregon.
Big brother, Adam, well played by Steve Houghton, drives into town to find a wife to ‘keep house’ for him and the other boys.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/seven-brides-for-seven-brothers_207.html
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PRODUCT MEDEA 4.0 COCK TAVERN THEATRE
Published by: OLIVER VALENTINE on Monday 15th June 2009 06:06pm
Medea.4.0 at the Cock Tavern Theatre, Kilburn is a modern marketing take on the classic Greek myth that engages from beginning to end.
Slovenian playwright Sasa Rakef gives the legend a 21st Century angle by placing it in the corporate world, and spinning Medea’s tragedy for mass entertainment and maximum financial return. With an aggressiveness that would shame even Alan Sugar’s apprentices Medea. Inc uses ‘emotion design technology’ to sell their product.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/product-medea-4.0----------------cock-tavern-theatre_206.html
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PETER PAN KENSINGTON GARDENS
Published by: OLIVER VALENTINE on Monday 15th June 2009 08:06am
PETER PAN
KENSINGTON GARDENS
A new effects laden production of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, the original place where the story began, sounds like the perfect scenario for this much loved 1904 tale to return home. But on it’s journey it has lost it’s heart and soul in a messy plundering of J.M Barrie’s original concept.
http://www.uktheatre.tv/magazine/read/peter-pan------------------------kensington-gardens_205.html
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Magic Bullet' - new show with King of Comedy Magic, Christian Lee, Hackney Empire July 1 & 2 2009
Published by: Nicola Hollinshead on Sunday 14th June 2009 07:06pm
Comedy Magician Christian Lee played at Jackson's Lane Theatre, Highgate, for three nights last week with his new show 'Magic Bullet' & what an enjoyable show it was!
Lee has worked hard to produce a fully rounded themed show which is hugely entertaining, funny and skillful, appealing at Highgate to both an adult and younger audience - quite a feat!
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PANDA Spotlight On Making Work in Challenging Economic Times
Date: Tuesday 30th June 2009
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm (followed by optional networking session: 8.30pm – 9.30pm)
Venue: Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6JA
Cost: Free to PANDA members / £5 non-members
http://www.uktheatre.tv/events/profile/64
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Waiting For Godot
By Douglas McFarlaneFRONT STALLS SEATS AVAILABLE FOR LONDON'S MUST-SEE PLAY
VERY LIMITED AVAILABILITY - SECURE YOUR SEATS NOW
When Samuel Beckett’s WAITING FOR GODOT exploded on to the London stage 50 years ago, it shocked as many people as it delighted. There had never been a play like it. Two tramps clowning around, joking and arguing, repeating themselves, as they wait through one day and then another, waiting for the mysterious Godot. The combination of music hall, poetry and tension redefined what is possible in theatre, so that these days WAITING FOR GODOT is accepted as one of the most significant plays of the 20th century.
Beckett’s characters have lost none of their power to fascinate and amuse and this production, directed by the acclaimed theatre and film director, Sean Mathias, has attracted the sort of great actors that the play deserves.
Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are both renowned Shakespearean actors at Stratford-upon-Avon, in the West End and on Broadway. They first worked together in Tom Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977 and more recently in the X-Men film trilogy, as Magneto and Professor X. Each of them has established their own iconic screen persona, as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and as Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard.
Joining Ian and Patrick will be fellow masters in their field, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup, whose extensive theatre, film and television credits span four decades.
SEATS AVAILABLE UNTIL 28 JUNE 2009
Top price seats in front stalls: £47.50 (+ booking fee)
Venue: Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, SW1
Click here to book
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