Broadcast on ITV1 on December 14th at 7:30 pm The 2011 Royal Variety Show took places at the Lowry Theatre Salford Keys early December in the presence of HRH Princess Anne. West End Stars performing included Adam Cooper and the cast of Singin’ in the Rain which had rave reviews at the Chichester Festival Thetre earlier this year and is due to open in London’s West End at the Palace Theatre in February. Four West End leading men who did not appear in the ITV1 billing also made an appearance:  Ramin Karimloo who has just taken over the role of Jean Valjean from Alfie Boe in Les Miserables:John Owen-Jones who is currently the Phantom of the Opera and is shortly leaving the show to play the role on a national tour which starts next year: Simon Bowman who has played Jean Valjean and the Phantom and Earl Carpenter who has been playing the role of Khasoggi in We Will Rock You and is currently in  rehearsals to take over the role of Phantom from Owen-Jones and also play it in the latter half of the tour. They were joined by Nicole Scherzinger who was spotted having dinner with Lord Lloyd Webber before the show.  She was introduced by the Lord as “performing alongside the cast of Phantom of the Opera”.  She is known to be a Phantom fan and has made a recording of “Love Never Dies”.  She said: “It was an honour to be in his company. To be asked to sing Phantom Of The Opera is amazing. I’m so excited to be performing again.”

Caissie Levy and Richard Fleeshman will be  leaving Ghost the Musical in London’s West End on 12th January 2012 in order to help transfer the show to Broadway in the USA. The lead roles in Ghost, London will then be taken by Siobhan Dillon and Mark Evans, as from  the 13th January 2012. Ghost London Full Cast List The full new cast list for Ghost in London from 13th January 2012 is as follows:

Siobhan Dillon as Molly Jensen Mark Evans as Sam Wheat Sharon D Clarke as Oda Mae Brown Andrew Langtree as Carl Bruner Ivan de Freitas as Willie Lopez Adebayo Bolaji as the Subway Ghost Mark White as the Hospital Ghost Lisa Davina Phillip as Clara Jenny Fitzpatrick as Louise

The rest of the cast are  Jaygann Ayeh, Paul Ayres, Darren Carnall, Samuel Edwards, Rebecca Giacopazzi, Emily Hawgood, Louise Lawson, Rochelle Neil, Michael Peters, Laura Selwood, Yemie Sonuga, Spencer Stafford, Philippa Stefani, Jez Unwin, Sally Whitehead and Mark Willshire.

Theatre breaks are one of the best ways of seeing the top London shows, even if you live near London. It might seem a bit mad to spend a night in a London hotel when your own bed is only 50 miles away but please hear me out
Theatre Breaks to Warhorse I was chatting to some folks in deepest Essex the other day and it soon became clear that for them, an evening trip to a West End show was not really a viable idea. They had been to see Warhorse and couldn’t speak highly enough of the show. But they said they’d think twice before going to the West End again. They live just over 50 miles from the centre of London but getting in and out of the city at night is no easy matter. Usually they drive to a train station, park the car there and hop on a train. Driving in the city means congestion charges and parking nightmares so they try to avoid it if at all possible. However, travelling into the city centre by rail at the right time means going against the flood of commuter traffic and paying the peak time fare (4pm to 7pm). You don’t really want to battle with the peak time tubes either so a black cab also adds to the cost. Most shows start around 7:30 but you want to be there a little early to pick up your tickets, maybe have a pre-theatre drink and order something for the interval.  This means you need to eat early (a special pre-theatre menu in one of the West End restaurants perhaps). If you try to wait till after the show to eat then you’ll have much less choice and you may well be rushing to catch the last train home.  The trains do run quite late but it can be 1am or even later before you get home. I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Here’s a glimpse of what Warhorse does best – some amazing life sized puppetry:

I gently suggested they might be better booking a theatre break next time and that was when I discovered people have some funny ideas about theatre breaks! Three Myths about Theatre Breaks 1. Expensive! My friends went to see Warhorse. A theatre break with top price tickets to see Warhorse a central hotel with breakfast the next morning starts from  around £120 each. Most sites will let you book your rail fare with a good discount. With  a hotel near the theatre you can  walk and avoid paying for a cab and  most sites offer a special price on a pre-theatre supper. By the time my friends had paid for all their little extras there really wasn’t much in it. 2. Bad seats My friends could only get single seats that were not next to each other. They were top priced seats and very nice, but not together. Most theatre breaks websites have better access to seats than the general public. You can often choose from a range of seat prices. You always get to sit together. The lesser known fact is that these sites often have tickets for top shows (like Warhorse!) that are reserved for theatre breaks customers. 3. These internet sites are dead dodgy! Buying stuff online is part of all our lives these days. My friends are sensible. They bought their tickets from a well known site that they have used before and trusted. That same site also sells theatre breaks!  If you are worried about how secure a site is check out this advice. (Book Theatre Breaks On Line with Confidence) So next time you are thinking about booking theatre tickets for the West End do check round first before you assume that theatre breaks aren’t a better idea.

There’s still a small amount of time left to book  Christmas or New Year theatre breaks but the choice of shows left will keep getting tighter the longer you leave it. Theatre Breaks in the Holidays January is a peak time for West End theatres in general but specific dates around the school holidays always have a high demand and booking tickets only will very soon become impossible for most of the popular musicals and plays.  Not everybody realizes though, that theatre breaks packages will still be available for top shows with good seats and plush central London hotels, long after the scramble for individual seats has subsided. That’s because the holiday and theatre breaks companies block book seats in advance and have prority arrangements with the hotel groups, In this way they can still offer top  seats for London theatres and best affordable rooms in the most convenient hotels for a price that is nearly always better value than that you could put together yourself, even if the dates you wanted were still available. Top Musicals for Theatre Breaks So which are the top five musicals for theatre breaks in London this season? Top new musical for 2011 is GHOST with fabulous rock music by Dave Stewart Ghost

musical: Ghost

starring: Richard Fleeshman, CAISSIE LEVY, SHARON D CLARKE

Book Now: Ghost theatre breaks

opening night:24 June 2011 booking until 13 October 2012.

Top Family Musical, also new for 2011 is MATILDA Based on Roald Dahl’s dramatic novel.

musical: Matilda The Musical

starring: Paul Kaye

Book Now: Matilda The Musical theatre breaks

opening night:25/11/2011 booking until 12th February 2012

LAST CHANCE! Priscilla Theatre Breaks  

musical: Priscilla Queen of the Desert

starring: Ray Meagher

Book Now: Priscilla Queen of the Desert theatre breaks

opening night:March 10 2009 booking until 31/12/2011

Perennial Favourite Wicked Theatre Breaks  

musical: Wicked!

starring: Rachel Tucker

Book Now: Wicked! theatre breaks

opening night:2006 booking until Open Ended

More Wizards and Witches in the West End Wizard of Oz Theatre Breaks  

musical: The Wizard of Oz

starring: Danielle Hope

Book Now: The Wizard of Oz theatre breaks

opening night:March 1st 2011 booking until Sunday October 28th 2012

  Ghost Theatre Breaks Ghost theatre breaks are a perfect choice either for couples or for a great girly weekend break. The story is so romantic and there is something for everyone. As well as lots of great music and humour the production has some fantastic special effects. I think it would be  a good choice for hen nights too, with that mix of romance, humour and sadness. Of course the very gorgeous Richard Fleeshman is an added incentive
The show is a good length at 2 hours 30 minutes. The evening show starts at 7:30 but obviously you will need to be there about 7:15 or even a little earlier. This means that evening performances are over just after 10pm. That leaves plenty of time to grab something to eat and still sample the delights of London’s many clubs and bars. Better yet, the show has matinees on Tuesdays and Saturdays. With the matinees starting at 2:30 they are over just after 5pm, giving you lots of time for an evening meal before a big night on the town. The Piccadilly theatre is a lovely old Art Deco building dating from the late 1920s. The theatre is on Denman Street, just behind Piccadilly Circus.Unlike some London theatres it is right in the middle of the city, making it very handy for just about everything. This is great because it means you have a huge choice of hotels for your Ghost theatre breaks. You can either choose one that is very central or go a bit further out and get in by tube, or even coach, if you go for one of the “all inclusive” Ghost Theatre Breaks packages. Of course you’ll probably want a pre-theatre meal and the Piccadilly Theatre is perfectly placed to give you the widest possible choice. You are really hand for Soho and London’s China Town. That is where I would head. Chinese food sort of goes with the New York vibe of the show!  I am not going to recommend one particular restaurant there, it all depends on your budget and what you fancy. You will certainly be pleasantly surprised by the prices which are nowhere near as high as you might assume. I have found them more or less comparable with similar restaurants in Leeds or Manchester. (If you would like more guidance on choosing a London pre-theatre meal have a look at this post West End Guide to Eating Out) To give you even more of an idea what a Ghost theatre break might be like I’ve chosen a couple of videos you might enjoy: First Sharon D Clarke giving a show stopping performance at West End Live:

And now this lovely version of Unchained Melody and All My Love Spoiler Alert – don’t play this if you don’t know the story!

Now do you agree? Ghost theatre breaks are a perfect choice either for romantic couples or for a great girly outing.  

2012 Theatre Breaks 2012 is a special year for the United Kingdom and theatre breaks, not just because of the London 2012 Olympic Games, but also because it’s the The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year as well. That means a lot of extra activity and tourism in central London which will have an effect on the West End venues and on Theatre Breaks bookings.  Over twenty shows  have responded by extending booking dates early so that you can book early, right now, for all the popular musicals and plays right through into the 2012 celebration year, which may help a lot of people to combine tourism trips and spectating with theatre breaks in London. First the two main events of the year: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

To mark 60 years of the Queen’s reign the Diamond Jubilee will take place in 2012. The celebrations will centre around an extended weekend in 2012 on 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th June 2012.

  The Department for Culture, Media and Sports is responsible for coordinating the Government’s role for Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Buckingham Palace will be coordinating the Queen’s programme for the Diamond Jubilee, including the arrangements for the central Jubilee weekend in the first week of June 2012. For further information about the Diamond Jubilee and the events taking place during 2012, please visit direct.gov.uk/diamondjubilee The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games Olympic Games 27 July-12 Aug 2012 The London 2012 Olympic Games will feature 26 sports, which break down into 39 disciplines. Paralympic Games 29 Aug-9 Sept 2012 There are 20 sports in the Paralympic programme for the London 2012 Games. Paralympic Cycling breaks down into two disciplines: Road and Track. Cultural Olympiad The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. London 2012 Festival The London 2012 Festival is the finale of the four-year Cultural Olympiad, taking place from 21 June to 9 September 2012. Complementing the sport events at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Festival will be the biggest party the UK has ever seen, with a huge range of events from leading artists from all over the world. Theatre Breaks

To be honest, nobody really knows exactly what effect all of this is going to have on London theatre breaks during the 2012 celebration year. Obviously there is going to be a high demand for hotel accommodation and London is going to be prominent in the world’s attention.  People who are in London anyway may well wish to visit the West End theatres as part of the whole London experience, and there are certainly plenty of great shows on offer this year. Meanwhile the traditional theatre going public may decide to avoid certain dates in order not to get caught up in the crowds and busier traffic. In order to make the most of the 2012 opportunity presented though, the London theatres as a whole have announced extensions to the booking dates for more than 20 popular shows well in advance, so that those with Olympics tickets or other intentions can book theatre breaks as part of their overall London trip  of a lifetime. The shows which have extended so far are as follows: Some of the shows announcing 2012 booking dates extensions are the following West End musicals and plays: We Will Rock You Wicked The Wizard of Oz Billy Elliot the Musical Blood Brothers Dreamboats and Petticoats Jersey Boys The Phantom of the Opera Mamma Mia! Legally Blonde the Musical Ghost The Musical  Les Misérables Shrek The Musical Disney’s The Lion King Million Dollar Quartet  The Mousetrap The 39 Steps Stomp Thriller Live War Horse The Woman in Black Rock of Ages  Matilda The Musical

Ghost The Musical started previews in London this week at the Piccadilly Theatre with Caissie Levy as the leading lady. Caissie Levy stars in Ghost the Musical Ghost has been a great hit with the Manchester audience during its pre-West end run and one of the firm favourites of everyone who has seen it is Caissie Levy. Caissie plays Molly Gordon, the female lead of the show. Caissie is a Canadian with a gorgeous voice and good acting skills. She needs them both during Ghost. This is a very demanding role as Molly’s character goes through an amazing range of emotions as the show progresses. We saw Caissie on the West End stage last year in the visiting Broadway production of Hair. Although Hair is a very much an ensemble piece I felt when I watched it that Cassie’s performance really stood out. She played the idealistic Shelia with real conviction and her voice rang out in songs like Good Morning Starshine. I think this bodes very well for her performance as Molly. Caissie’s other most famous role is probably as Elphaba in Wicked in the Broadway production.  In recent interviews she has drawn parallels between Ghost and Wicked. She felt that the range both of vocal skills and acting required of Molly and Elphaba were rather similar. When asked she agreed it was possible that, like Wicked, critics would not like Ghost and it might be a show that would appeal more to audiences. This wasn’t true of the Manchester critics who gave the show  great reviews but London can be harder to convince. Caissie has a gorgeous voice and I thought you might enjoy a sample:

As well as Sharon D Clarke Ghost has a great female lead, the rather wonderful Caissie Levy. Caissie plays Molly Jensen, very much the heroine of the musical and a role that calls for both a good voice and strong acting abilities. Caissie, pronounced Casey, is originally Canadian. She originally intended to have a career in the straight theatre but luckily for musical theatre she auditioned for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and was accepted. a strong, slightly jazzy voice, with a smooth quality…. Caissie Levy "With You" You can hear Cassie’s voice and support a great charity at the same time by treating yourself to the new charity single charity of “With You” in aid of Stand Up to Cancer. (Buy “With You” on Amazon for only 79p) I saw Cassie on the West End stage last year when Hair came came to town. She was a shining star in the show with a great voice that rang out in some of the classic Hair numbers. Her performance of Good Morning Starshine is gorgeous and can be found on the Hair Cast CD. She showed her acting skills that night too and I found her performance as the idealistic Sheila very touching. I’d love to have seen Caissie as Elphaba in Wicked, a role she played in LA and on Broadway. She has a strong, slightly jazzy voice, with a smooth quality. Lovely for a song like Defying Gravity. Elphaba is a role that takes huge stamina, a great voice and acting ability. I’m sure Caissie learned a lot from Wicked that will help her in her performance in Ghost. Caissie will have plenty of opportunity to show us both her voice and her acting skills playing Molly and I really want to see her soon. How about you?    

Here’s a great interview with Sharon from West End Live that I thought you might enjoy:

Nick Clegg is the unlikely hero of Nicked, a new musical that’s unfashionably sympathetic to the Lib Dem leader

This article titled “Anyone for Nicked: the Clegg musical?” was written by Euan Ferguson, for The Observer on Saturday 23rd April 2011 23.05 UTC Least likely contender for Spring Hit in Theatre-World, I think it’s safe to say, is going to be Nicked. It’s basically a musical about Nick Clegg, written by a performance poet: that’s when it’s not being a play about the alternative vote. Not, on paper, I think you’ll agree, the most urgently prepossessing of dramatic ideas. And although political theatre does have a proud tradition, and the TV/film adaptations of aspects of the Blair years were enthralling, there’s also a particular recent history of turkeys, especially when “satire” is advertised within. Also… well, Cleggy. Isn’t he a bit obvious? Isn’t this what we call a laughably soft target? Fears totally unfounded. Preconceptions proved damnably and delightfully wrong. Watching early rehearsals for Nicked, one of the productions showcased in this year’s HighTide festival in Suffolk, it’s clear this could be a thing of brilliance. And, actually, something Mr Clegg might want to travel to Halesworth to see – festival director Steven Atkinson estimates about 70% of visitors come from London – because it manages the seemingly impossible at the moment: it humanises the Lib-Dem leader, and makes you think again. Among the scenes I saw, in a small, busy rehearsal room, piano in one corner, cast leaning casually against the walls as they waited to become Samantha Cameron, or Miriam Clegg, or Vince Cable, or David Laws (remember him?) or the Queen, was the crucial one that had Jason Langley and Sam Hodges, as Clegg and Cameron, meeting in an underground car park to warily woo. It’s done as a tango, perhaps the perfect form, the tango having originated in Buenos Aires as a dark celebration of the ever-changing dance of power/need/compromise, both physical and figurative, between sailors and whores. So Dave and Nick tango, head leaning against head as the music builds, and I won’t spoil it but they’re given some pretty good lines, and sing them grandly, and twirl and stamp. It’s great dramatic fun and makes you think, and I realise fairly quickly that this is not a Clegg-knocking exercise. “Absolutely not,” says the writer, Richard Marsh, as far from my idea of “performance poet” as you could imagine – self-effacing and engaging, if a little unslept. He’s been teasing and tweaking the script nightly, to give it greatest relevance when the show opens, because so much has happened to Clegg since “Cleggmania” after those election debates; and continues to happen. Marsh, and director Pia Furtado, will be changing it right up until the week of the AV vote. The script focuses, yes, on those early negotiations, our extraordinary coalition and aspects of the fallout, but it is not yet finished. “Whatever happens, this is just a human story,” continues Marsh, who has in a previous short play, among other things successfully fused Guantánamo Bay with Harry Potter. As you do. “What I wanted was to tell a story about someone whose job is politics. And humanise them, try to get people to relate to him from the view of his own set of circumstances. Everyone is the hero of his own story. But the more I’ve looked into Nick Clegg” – Marsh even read David Laws’s book. All of it – “and those extraordinary days while the coalition was being founded, a handful of very, very tired white men deciding the future of our country, the more I realised the drama of those days.” Steven Atkinson, the festival director, pulled a string or two to arrange a visit to Downing Street, to allow Marsh a glimpse into the physicality of how it all worked – men in rooms, bartering and phoning and sweating and swearing and worrying and wooing, as was happening half a mile away that sunny May in other dark corridors in and around Smith Square – but the outcome wasn’t just a power-play or a point won. It was, as we know, the car ride to Buckingham Palace, here done as another song, this time of joyous comradeship at a deal successfully done. “Just give me PR and then/ we’ll share the keys to Number 10!” Queen Liz looks on, even sings, in wonderfully sardonic fashion; Sam Cam dances with sly exuberant delight. “It’s been quite hard to hold on to my original thoughts of Nick as a person while he’s been getting stuck whack in the middle of decisions I don’t personally agree with,” says Marsh, who, when he first conceived this production, could not have foreseen the storm of opprobrium to land on Clegg of late. The team’s job, and I think rightly so, is essentially to question the knee-jerk reaction of much of this, remind us there is a person at the centre of it, fraught with his own dilemmas, and to do so in verse, with dance; it’s a little miracle it seems to be working so well thus far. As Atkinson says: “Does anyone who’s jumping on him now ever ask themselves: what would you do in the same position? What was the alternative?” The fast-changing nature of the coalition and the way it’s perceived has led to problems or, as politicians would doubtless have it, challenges and opportunities. Marsh is keen to apologise to his director. “Pia’s very patient. We’ve had to cut whole songs. Cut things that didn’t happen, insert things that did or had more impact than we’d first imagined.” Furtado smiles, patiently, itching to get back to rehearsals. She’s spent a while with them earlier just working on character, real character: “The last thing any of us wanted was some Rory Bremner-style caricature.” In one strangely touching scene, Jason Langley’s Clegg pleads with David Laws, a strong friend and fine financial mind caught in that early expenses/gay row, not to resign. Laws, a pitch-perfect Peter Caulfield, but with, I suspect, a better singing voice, breaks from song to solemn dialogue, after Clegg insists: “Most normal people won’t care.” “No, Nick,” he replies. “Most normal people will get political this year.” And they did. Which is better, surely, than apathy. But along the way, some may have forgotten the humans involved at the middle. Quite bizarrely, a sharp little musical – 70% splendid fun, 30% insights wiser than our own leader columns – could just start redressing the balance. Steven Atkinson is even talking about a West End transfer.

Nicked premieres on 30 April, as part of the HighTide Festival, at the Main House, The Cut, Halesworth. hightide.org.uk

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According to a report by Variety magazine, Cameron Mackintosh is launching a tour of The Phantom of the Opera in 2012, with the tour director for Les Miserables directing the production. Mackintosh told Daily Variety the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster will be produced in an all-new version. Directed by Laurence Connor, it will feature new sets and costumes by Paul Brown and lighting by three-time Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. Mackintosh said the production will open at a regional UK house. The tour of Phantom is something that has been mooted in the West End for some time. It is the 25th Anniversary of Phantom in October this year with rumours of a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. So a tour next year would make sense. Also Ramin Karimloo who has just extended his contract to play the Phantom in Love Never Dies has been tweeting that he has an exciting project lined up for next year  

Love Never Dies star and London West End diva Sierra Boggess recently left the UK  and headed back to New York to take part in a reading for Rebecca the Musical which is due to open there later this year. The latest production plans call for a REBECCA premiere on Broadway in the Fall of 2011.

Rebecca the Musical

The stage musical version of Ghost, is scheduled to open at London’s Piccadilly Theatre on June 22 and is booking initially until January 28 so that holiday period theatre breaks to see Ghost can be booked well in advance. This is going to be a very popular show for all sorts of theatre goers including hen party theatre breaks, romantic theatre breaks and anniversaries. Directed by multi-award-winning Matthew Warchus, Ghost will feature music by Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) and Glen Ballard, writer of Michael Jackson’s hit Man in the Mirror. The production will be designed by Rob Howell, and will feature extraordinary, magical stage effects by Paul Kieve, illusionist for the hit film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Bruce Joel Rubin has adapted his Oscar-winning screenplay for the stage show which will also feature the unforgettable Righteous Brothers song, Unchained Melody, which featured in the film’s iconic love scene at a potter’s wheel. A story about the power of love, Ghost revolves around a man called Sam, trapped as a ghost between this world and the next. He tries to communicate with girlfriend Molly through a phoney psychic, Oda Mae Brown, in the hope of saving her from his murderer. Richard Fleeshman, recently seen on the London stage playing Warner Huntington III opposite Sheridan Smith in Legally Blonde The Musical, will play Sam in the stage musical. Fleeshman is best known on television for his roles in Coronation Street, in which he played Craig Harris for four years and, more recently, Debbie Horsfield’s All the Small Things for the BBC. Caissie Levy will play Molly. She has most recently been seen on stage on Broadway and in the West End in the leading role of Sheila in the New York Public Theatre Cameron Mackintosh production of Hair. Levy made her Broadway debut as Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, a role she recreated on tour in the US. She went on to play Maureen Johnson in the US tour of Rent and in 2008 starred as the green witch Elphaba in the Los Angeles production of Wicked. Sharon D Clarke, who will play Oda Mae Brown, has most recently been seen on stage in the West End as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She has played Mama Morton in Chicago at London’s Adelphi and Killer Queen in We Will Rock You at the Dominion. Ghost, the highest grossing film in the UK in 1990, was directed by Jerry Zucker.

This week’s new theatre includes a Mike Leigh play, Shakespeare, David Eldridge and more. London theatres mentioned are in Islington, the Almeida, Hampstead Theatre

This article titled “This week’s new theatre” was written by Mark Cook & Lyn Gardner, for The Guardian on Saturday 5th March 2011 00.07 UTC Ecstasy, London So successful has Mike Leigh been as a film director, with international hits such as Secrets And Lies and the most recent, Another Year, that it’s easy to forget he started out in theatre. He’s still best known for the cult play Abigail’s Party, which premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 1977. Leigh, using his improvisational approach, has staged three more plays at Hampstead, and now he returns to direct one of them. Ecstasy is set in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher is set to change the country. In a north London bedsit, political turmoil is reflected in the maelstrom of a group of friends. Expect pain and humour in equal measure. Hampstead Theatre, NW3, Thu to 9 Apr Mark Cook The Cleansing Of Constance Brown, Birmingham Who is Constance, and how can she be everywhere and nowhere at the same time? In Stan’s Cafe’s intriguing show, first seen back in 2007 and performed without words in a 14 metre-long corridor, Constance is a mysterious presence. She’s the figure just glimpsed at the edge of the frame in a TV news story, the unidentified figure in a painting or photograph of famous people, the person nobody notices as momentous events unfurl. The corridor is the corridor of history, where the Tudor maid and the Jewish victim of the Nazis co-exist and where women are peripheral to the power machinations of men. But Constance is always there, a silent witness, unnoticed but taking note. AE Harris Factory, to 19 Mar Lyn Gardner The Knot In The Heart, London David Eldridge returns to the Almeida with a world premiere, the first since his adaptation of the Danish film Festen, which went on to conquer the West End and Broadway. He seems to have a penchant for the Scandinavians, having translated three of Ibsen’s works, but on this occasion his new play is rooted in the here and now – in fact it all takes place within a mile of the Islington theatre. The Knot Of The Heart stars Lisa Dillon – recently at the Old Vic in Design For Living and A Flea In Her Ear – as Lucy, a successful children’s TV presenter who seemingly has always had everything but gets addicted to heroin and finds her life beginning to unravel. The part was written for Dillon, and is unusual in that the character is not defined by her relationship with men. The play is ultimately about love but, says director Michael Attenborough, it defies stereotypes. Almeida Theatre, N1, Thu to 30 Apr MC From Newbury With Love, Newbury Red Cape’s The Idiot Colony, about women incarcerated and forgotten in mental asylums, put them on the map in 2008, and this new piece was also inspired by a true story. In 1971, at the height of the cold war, 73-year-old Newbury resident Harold Edwards and his wife, Olive, sent a postcard to seven-year-old Marina, the daughter of an imprisoned Soviet dissident. The result of a letter-writing campaign by Amnesty International, it led to a 15-year correspondence between the families that lasted until Harold died. By then Marina was 24. The production draws on the original letters, which were a lifeline to Marina and her family in the knowledge that there was somebody who cared about their plight. Corn Exchange, Wed to 12 Mar LG The Tempest, Stratford-upon-Avon Once seen, never forgotten, Little Angel Theatre’s collaboration with the RSC on Venus And Adonis even had hardened theatre critics professing a love of puppets. Here, Little Angel tackles Shakespeare’s late play in a shortened version for children and adults. Playwright Phil Porter has adapted the original and Peter Glanville’s production makes use of puppetry and music to create the magical isle where Prospero rules by magic. The fantastical nature of the story should lend itself well to puppetry in what should be a spellbinding spectacle. Swan, Fri to 26 Mar LG Yerma, Leeds Surprisingly, West Yorkshire Playhouse has never produced a play by Federico García Lorca, and this new adaptation has a distinctly Irish bent. Directed by Róisin McBrinn, the Trinity College Dublin-trained director whose production of Novecento was recently seen at Trafalgar Studios in London, and adapted by the Irish writer Ursula Rani Sarma, it stars Kate Stanley-Brennan, who has appeared in plays at the Abbey including Mark O’Rowe’s Young Vic-bound Terminus. Stanley-Brennan plays Yerma, a young woman who has been married to Juan for years but who has not had the child that she so desires. Desperate and fearing the lonely years ahead in a passionless marriage, she takes matters into her own hands with tragic consequences. West Yorkshire Playhouse, Sat to 26 Mar LG Diary Of A Nobody, Northampton Holloway clerk Charles Pooter really is a nobody. Condemned by class and education to be part of the faceless grind of Victorian London – unexceptional, unrecognised and unremarked upon – Charles is determined to be a somebody. So he decides to keep a diary, pointing out why he is a cut above his fellow clerks, and you are going to hear the sparkling gems within, whether you like it or not. George and Weedon Grossmith’s late-Victorian satire really is a timeless comic gem, detailing Charles’s small acts of rebellion, social gaffes and attempts to make himself appear more important than he is. This new version by Hugh Osborne is performed as a physical theatre farce by a cast of four. The Royal, Sat to 19 Mar LG Sex Idiot, Manchester There are not many shows where you learn something new: such as the fact that you can make a fake moustache out of pubic hair. That’s exactly what performance artist Bryony Kimmings does in this bonkers but really rather lovable little show, which was inspired by her experience of contracting a common sexually transmitted disease. The pubic hair belongs to members of the audience who are invited to offer it up mid-show – and many of them do in a real spirit of generosity. This probably isn’t a night out for those who hate audience participation or who are easily embarrassed, but for all its cheerful wackiness this is a serious and upfront show about love, sex, one-night stands and broken hearts. Contact, Sat LG

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Love Story, the new musical based on the iconic 1970 film and book, opens at the Duchess Theatre in the West End after a sell-out season at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Originally booked for only 10 weeks the show has already extended and is now booking previews from 27 November 2010 through to April 30th 2011. Love story is a romantic, heart warming and heart rending story of love and loss. It certainly captured Michael Ball’s heart as he is co-producing this ‘chamber musical’. He says: I saw Love Story in Chichester and immediately fell in love with this enchanting new British musical. The production is inspired by Erich Segal’s best-selling iconic novel, also one of the most romantic films of all time and is scored by the Emmy and BAFTA award winning composer Howard Goodall. This combined with the moving and witty lyrics by Stephen Clark and a fabulous cast add up to a wonderful evening at the theatre that is a bittersweet celebration of love and life. I’m so thrilled to be part of the team that is bringing you this critically acclaimed production. See you at the Duchess Theatre soon. The production has music by Howard Goodall (The Hired Man, Days of Hope, Two Cities), a book by Stephen Clark and lyrics by Goodall and Clark. The 90-minute piece is a co-production with Chichester Festival, where it premiered in June to critical and audience acclaim. You can get a taste of the show from this behind the scenes video:

Will it extend again and can it be even more successful than the last Chichester transfer Spring Awakening? I’m not sure but I think it has a good chance. Wouldn’t it be great, though to see new money and talent backing a really original musical? Rather than yet another film adaptation. What do you think? Love Story was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

Love Story is a new musical based on the best-selling novel and film by Erich Segal. It will preview at the Duchess Theatre from November 27 2010. It is produced by Adam Spiegel, Stephen Waley-Cohen & Michael Ball, and directed by Rachel Kavanaugh. Love Story will feature music by Howard Goodall and a book by Stephen Clark. After a critically acclaimed sell-out season at the Chichester Festival Theatre last June, Love Story transfers to the West End for a limited season. It starts previews from 27th November, opening officially on 6th December 2010 and booking to 30th April 2011. The Story Love Story was the ultimate preppy romance. Rich preppy kid Oliver Barrett IV (played in the 1970 film by Ryan O’Neil) went to Harvard and one day met poor, but talented, Jenny Cavilleri. He was sporty, she played music. They couldn’t stand each other, but of course, opposites attract and, of course, they fall in love. Described as a celebration of love and life, producers say “Love Story will win your heart. And it might just break it.”

Michael Ball said: I saw Love Story in Chichester and immediately fell in love with this enchanting new British musical. The production is inspired by Erich Segal’s best-selling iconic novel, also one of the most romantic films of all time and is scored by the Emmy and BAFTA award winning composer Howard Goodall. This combined with the moving and witty lyrics by Stephen Clark and a fabulous cast add up to a wonderful evening at the theatre that is a bittersweet celebration of love and life. I’m so thrilled to be part of the team that is bringing you this critically acclaimed production. You can get a flavour of the show from this video:

The Love Story Cast The West End cast includes:

Emma Williams as Jenny, Michael Xavier as Oliver Barratt IV Peter Polycarpou as Jenny’s father, Phil,

All  of whom are reprising their roles from the Chichester Festival Theatre. They are joined by Richard Cordery, Gary Milner, Paul Kemble and ensemble members Lillie Flynn, Christopher Killick, Jamie Muscato and Rebecca Trehearn.

I tend to bang on about rail travel as preferable to driving, but theatre breaks by coach offer a different kind of experience altogether. People over a certain age may well have bad memories of coach journeys back in the bad old days when there were no onboard facilities, long uncomfortable journeys around bendy trunk roads with groups of badly behaved people and children. I know I do. But modern coaches have air conditioning, plush comfortable seating, traffic news by radio and sat nav, personal entertainment and are a fast and relaxing way to travel hundreds of miles from city centre to city centre. When you arrive in London on a theatre break by coach, you are not left to yourself to find the hotel and the theatre because you are part of a coach party who are all going to the same show and you usually get picked up outside the theatre by the coach which then drives you all directly to the hotel after the show. That can make the whole stopover a lot more manageable for some people. Theatre Breaks by Coach - Theatre Breaks Magazine Another thing I’m really excited about being able to offer now that we have Coach Theatre Breaks available through the Magazine Readers Offers is the opportunity to book a theatre break for one. Yes, there is a single room supplement to cover the extra hotel costs, but it’s a lot better than being confronted with a booking form that asks you to select the number of tickets required starting at two! And if you go on a coach trip to London’s West End as a single person then you have the perfect choice as to whether you want to keep yourself to yourself or socialise a bit with other people who are coming from the same town as yourself and will be around at the hotel and on the coach journey home again after having seen the same show.

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This article by Andy contains a brief review of Enlightenment at the Hampstead Theatre. We’re always on the look out for new plays and venues for visitors here on London breaks to add to the possibilities for an extra evening out at the theatre, and it doesn’t always have to be in the West End by any means. There are theatre pubs, fringe theatres, off-west-end theatres and regional theatres all within the M25, many within central London itself. The play that was brought to our notice is called “Enlightenment” written by Shelagh Stephenson and directed by Edward Hall, Hampstead Theatre’s new Artistic Director. So Monday night took us to see the venue for the first time, right next to the Swiss Cottage roundabout and tube station. Arriving inside Hampstead Theatre felt more like visiting a leading performing arts centre for one of the major UK cities, like Canterbury or St Andrews, or Exeter. Not knowing anything much about ‘Enlightenment’ beforehand, I was able to deliberately keep an unprepared mind for the unfolding emotional drama as the plot weaved its way through the minefields of improbability. There was a small scientific thread in there somewhere, citing a theory akin to or possibly preceding chaos theory which needs further investigation but the big story was a classic human tragedy investigating the nature of identity and touching themes designed to disturb the audience’s sensibilities particularly poignant to parents. As a father myself, I feel particularly well placed to understand the two main characters anguish at not knowing the fate of their missing son.

The Hampstead Theatre is an impressive modern theatre venue, small enough to be intimate and with perfect acoustics and yet large enough to stage quality serious theatre productions, drawing in audiences from all over the capital, with excellent transport links on the fast Jubilee line and all the central connections just a few stops away, so this would be a sensible logistical addition to any London Breaks package. Enlightenment is a traditionally constructed play in two acts with a beginning, middle and end, realistic characters, a straightforward time line and just about believable events. There are moments where the sanity of everybody is questioned, but that is a reasonable thing for a play to do. The staging is impressively modern and effective with good use of additional sound and video, back projection and slick scene changes with transparent rising and falling furniture. Maybe it was just me but upstairs and downstairs became strangely confused, or was it deliberate? Nothing is quite as it seems with this play which has been running since September, so the acting should be well bedded in by now. There were times when I though the playscript was possibly a class above the performance, but in the second act I dropped that misgiving, particularly with all three female characters who worked well together, and the addition of a sixth character in the second act pulls the whole play together and leaves you on the edge. Cast: Daisy Beaumont Richard Clothier Paul Freeman Julie Graham Polly Kemp Tom Weston-Jones

Love Never Dies By the time many people read this the free tickets competition will be over, so I’ll write about why I think you might like to consider Love Never Dies theatre breaks anyway. I guess you may have already seen The Phantom of The Opera ? The most successful piece of live entertainment ever, it’s been on long enough. Or maybe your parents enjoyed it thirty years ago when Michael Crawford played the Phantom. Well Love Never Dies is a continuation of the story, but with completely new twists. The scene is set ten years after the incident at the Paris Opera House, and the Phantom is now presiding over a huge entertainment complex at Coney Island, New York. He manages to manipulate Christine and Raoul into sailing across the Atlantic and into his lair. But there’s much more than that…

Some of the music in Love Never Dies comes from the operetta genre, some from light entertainment and some even from a rock background. This is the fusion which Andrew Lloyd Webber does so well. The staging, sets and costumes are magnificent, so you really do see a big musical theatre event up there on the big stage. This is certainly not one of your small cast and minimalist aesthetics plays, like many even in the West End, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are both star quality singers in the lead roles and it’s nice to hear the full orchestra getting a proper work out. Did I mention the free tickets? Love Never Dies Tickets Competition One pair of top price tickets have been donated. That’s worth around £180 normally. Now, you’d need to be able to get to the London Adelphi Theatre for tomorrow night, Saturday 9th October 2010. So if you are in London anyway, and can clear out all of your prior engagements to be free then you’d do well to nip over and quickly enter the simple competition on the Love Never Dies blog. The odds are not against you! Here’s the link again… http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks If you don’t have easy access to the capital then buying London theatre breaks packages with the tickets and convenient hotel room plus optional discount rail travel is nearly always the best way to go.

Other London Theatre Breaks to see West End Musicals

Theatre Breaks The Wizard of Oz The Phantom Of The Opera Les Miserables Ghost

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If you are very quick and can make it to London’s West End for Saturday 9th October 2010 you could very well win two free tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Adelphi. There’s a quick fire competition over on the Love Never Dies blog to win two top price tickets and all you have to do is leave a comment. Love Never Dies continues the story of the Phantom of The Opera with Raoul, Christine and the Phantom ten years later set in Coney Island, New York around 1910. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big musical has been running in London since February 2010 and is due to open in Australia and Toronto soon, then eventually Broadway, New York. Easily one of the best big musicals in London, Love Never Dies is a feast for eyes and the ears from the start and keeps your interest right the way through with some very clever changes of tone and scene. To win two tickets urgently, you’ll need to go over to the Love Never Dies blog right away and leave a comment saying why you’d like to see the show on Saturday. Here’s the link again: http://loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Good luck!

Love Never Dies Tickets Competition was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog