Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
The world’s longest-running stage show, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, celebrates 60 years of being on stage by announcing a UK tour. The tour will begin next September in Canterbury. The whodunnnit has been in the West End since 1952, but apparently its total performance number of over 24,600 performances hasn’t affected that people still don’t know whodunit, and every night there is a gasp from the audience when it is revealed.
Oh, the panto season is back! Pantomimes upcoming in the area include: the University’s own PantSoc’s The Wizard of Oz on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th in Vanbrugh Dining Hall, Aladdin at the York Grand Opera House, The York Family Robinson at York Theatre Royal, and Horse+Bamboos’s puppet extravaganza of Red Riding Hood at the Manchester Royal Exchange. At West Yorkshire Playhouse, their Christmas production this year is Annie.
Technology makes its mark even on the pantomime world: Cinderella at the Nottingham Playhouse has its own designated hashtag - #wheresmyshoe if you were wondering – for the show. What happened to audience participation? Long gone are the gleeful shouts of ‘He’s behind you!’ from the audience, now we shall all just silently tweet our responses from our smartphones.
Zach Braff, the lovable hero of TV show Scrubs, is going to star in a play he’s written at the Duke of York’s theatre in the West End in February next year. The comedy, called All New People, received divided critical opinion when it was produced Off-Broadway this year – how will it fare across the pond?
Neil Burkey’s memoir of the Bush Theatre (which spawned such greats as Julie Walters, Victoria Wood and Stephen Poliakoff) was published recently to great acclaim. ‘Close-Up Magic: 40 Years at the Bush Theatre’ contains humourous and touching anecdotes from actors and directors that have passed through its doors, and big, glossy photo spreads of this historical foundation in British theatre.
You must log in to submit a comment.
