Prof Ashley Brown, a consultant at St Mary's, expressed the challenges of balancing clinical responsibilities with rehearsals, stating, 'singing is good for the heart.' He believes that 'everyone should sing more often' and suggested that singing could be prescribed on the NHS to cure various ills.
This new stage version comes from Indian playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar, who previously gave the National Theatre a stonking hit with her Gandhi play The Father and the Assassin. We're promised some fairly major changes here, with the action explicitly relocated from central India to the Sundarbans mangrove swamps of the Ganges Delta (that now straddle India and Bangladesh).
So another word about tickets. They did finally announce single-game tickets were going on sale, but only for games though June. It's not enough to keep season plans limited to those requiring fans to buy more tickets than they can use, feeding the secondary markets which the Mets also get a cut of, but "make-your-own-plan" fans like me who've reliably occupied seats for decades,
Paddington The Musical has dominated the WhatsOnStage Awards, winning nine prizes after its triumphant launch in the West End last year. The show, based on Michael Bond's original children's books and the recent film adaptations, was a hit with fans and received rave reviews from critics after its debut at the Savoy Theatre in November.
From Yes Minister co-writer Jonathan Lynn comes I'm Sorry, Prime Minister - the final act between Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey. Jim Hacker (Griff Rhys Jones) is back - older, no wiser, and still gloriously out of his depth. Dreaming of a peaceful retirement at Hacker College, Oxford, Jim instead collides with a very modern nightmare: being cancelled by the college committee.
The West End's post-pandemic revival has delivered a multimillion-pound boost to one of Britain's biggest theatre groups, with the return of Oliver! helping Sir Cameron Mackintosh's company rebound to, and surpass, pre-Covid trading levels. Cameron Mackintosh Limited reported an 18 per cent jump in revenues to £234 million last year, overtaking its 2019 performance as audiences returned in force and demand for major productions recovered.
While Miranda was hailed as a genius for creating the show, the actual breakout star was Leslie Odom Jr, who played Hamilton's nemesis Aaron Burr. Hugely praised for his magnetic, devilish performance, he pipped Miranda to the best actor in a musical gong at the 2016 Tony Awards.
London's critics are not unanimous in their praise (but that's nothing unusual). The Financial Times suggests the play occasionally gravitates into "cultural grumbling" when it tackles modern issues such as cancel culture and university politics, and argues that the material feels more reflective than razor-sharp satire. notes that while the humour "simmers gently," its plotting is uneven and its engagement with contemporary politics sometimes feels cursory rather than incisive.
At Troubadour, we are driven by a belief in creating extraordinary spaces that inspire artists, audiences, and the stories they come together to share. The 3,000 seat venue is to be built in Greenwich Securing planning permission for the new Troubadour Greenwich Peninsula Theatre marks a major milestone for us, and an exciting new chapter in our commitment to bold, large-scale live performance.
According to recent data, over 2 million people are typically out and about across the capital between 9pm and midnight, with around 1 million remaining active later into the night, in a testament to the city's enduring after-dark draw. A "rain check" no longer has to mean disappointment, though. Across the capital, nightlife has evolved into something far more flexible than a simple pub-to-club circuit. Dining, entertainment, gaming and culture increasingly blend into evenings that feel intentional rather than improvised.
First up then is Emily Lim's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which runs April 23 to August 29. Keen-eyed observers may note that there is currently a production of the same play running at the Globe's indoor Sam Wanamaker theatre. To put it bluntly, A Midsummer Night's Dream is big bucks at the box office, and there's an endless stream of things you can do to it.
The Donmar's programme is as eclectic as ever, with the opening play being (Apr 18-Jun 6). US actor-writer-director Fran Kranz's adaptation of his own hit indie film is about two sets of couples - the parents of the victim of a high school shooting, and the parents of the shooter - who attempt a painful reconciliation years after the event. Carrie Cracknell directs a top cast that includes Adeel Akhtar, Amari Bacchus, Monica Dolan, Paul Hilton, Lyndsey Marshal, Rochelle Rose and Susie Trayling.
The Richmond Theatre opened in 1899 as the Richmond Theatre and Opera House. Designed by the prolific theatre builder, Frank Matcham, barring some modest changes, it's pretty much still the same theatre that opened over 125 years ago.
The Shitheads is part period piece, part family drama and part allegorical epic. It unfolds at some time in prehistory (10,000 - 50,000 BC, to be exact). Nomadic hunter-gatherers coexist with a family of cannibalistic cave dwellers who justify their eating habits by dehumanising their human prey. Hunter-gatherers are 'shitheads', they say - inferior, stupid, without expansive interior lives. One of these cave-dwellers, a straight-talking fighter named Clare (Jacoba Williams - Vera), meets Greg (Jonny Khan - Statues), an endearing, simple-minded gatherer.
'Write what you know' is a familiar maxim for novelists. Perhaps this is why, when Dostoevsky was faced with the challenge of writing a novel within 30 days, he wrote The Gambler. He, too, like his protagonist, was addicted to roulette and was no stranger to debt. In fact, the novel writing wager was a high-stakes venture. If he failed,
The first time around, Andrew Lloyd Webber's train-tastic musical opus Starlight Express ran for a walloping 18 years, one of the most successful theatre productions in West End history. The second time around, its first major revival has lasted under two years: it's just been announced that Luke Sheppard's 2024 production will be heading to the great train shed in the sky (it's actually going on tour) in early May.
