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Hairspray Theatre Breaks

Hairspray Theatre Breaks in London Guaranteed best prices on Hairspray theatre breaks in London I wasn’t really thinking about theatre breaks in London when I watched Jonathan Ross on Friday night until Michael Ball came on. I thought he was surprisingly interesting and funny. I suppose I hadn’t thought of him as a character actor before and I was struggling to imagine him in the Divine role but I really warmed to him and by the end of the programme I was starting to think I’d quite like to see him in Hairspray. The original 1988 John Walters film starred Divine and Ricki Lake. Hairspray is set in Baltimore in 1962. It’s the story of Tracy Turnblad, a fat but beautiful girl with really big hair . She wins a spot on a local TV dance programme becomes a teen icon. But will she be able to change the world and win the boy she loves? What do you think?
It became a cult classic film, the musical version has been running on Broadway since 2002 and now it’s available for theatre breaks in London. It’s been a huge hit, won lots of awards and was made into another film recently (with John Travolta as Edna, the Mom – ooh I’ve got to see that!). Now it’s showing in the West End. Michael Ball is playing Edna and on Friday night with Jonathon Ross he said the secret would be to not play it as drag but to play Edna as a real woman. I like the sound of that so I went and had a look at the official web site. The music sounds great on the website and you can even sneak a peak of the rehearsals ! The production starts on October 11th and it looks like it should be a massive hit. If you missed Michael he covers much of the same ground in a video on the production blog. Isn’t it great that so many shows are doing this now? I love reading the ups and downs and watching cast behind the scenes footage. It’s like the extras you get with DVDS
I think this one would be great for a ‘girls’ (who are we kidding?!) weekend, a relaxing train ride down, hit the London shops, and a great, girly night out, hopefully with less of a hangover than the last one! I really prefer to book a whole package when I’m organising London theatre breaks like this because it just makes life so much easier and it’s often cheaper too! Click here for guaranteed best prices on Hairspray and other Theatre Breaks in London

June 9 2009, 9:08am | Comments »

March 2009 Theatre News Roundup

Before starting the regular theatre news updates I thought I’d do a bit of a roundup of news from the previous month and the first half of April just so we know where we are starting from. And it’s been a busy month! War Horse War Horse, the sensational play with giant equine puppets arrived at the New London Theatre after an acclaimed run at the National. War Horse is based on the celebrated novel by Michael Morpurgo. The First World War is the backdrop for this exciting tale of bravery, and the extraordinary bond between a young recruit and his horse.

Sister Act News Patina Miller and the rest of the cast of Sister Act continue to build up the expectation for the Palladium’s new show. Whoopi Goldberg herself managed to overcome fear of air travel in order to appear on the Jonathon Ross show and other publicity appointments in London. Avenue Q - Theatre News is good! Avenue Q announced that it won;t be closed forever afaterall, but is due to reopen at the Gielgud Theatre on 1 June after a month-long break from the Noel Coward Theatre.

Spring Awakening The cast of Spring Awakening brought a refreshing new musical to the West End’s Novello Theatre after a successful run at the Hammersmith Lyric theatre. Previewing from March 21st this youthful, exhuberent but also dark musical play has had nothing but good reviews. Moonshadow - Theatre News not good One piece of bad news this month is that the Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens musical Moonshadow failed to find a West End theatre available for potential transfer and thus postponed opening at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton in July as originally planned. Jersey Boys Wins Olivier Awards The Jersey Boys musical goes from strength to strength coming top of the New Musical category amongst other awards at the 2009 Olivier Awards. Consolation for Zorro!, a great flamenco musical which closed this month was an award for Best Supporting Role in a Musicalwhich wentdeservedly to Lesli Margherita who was sensational in Zorro!. Emergency New Fagin for Oliver! In a surprise announcement, Russ Abbot was asked to return to the role of Fagin in Oliver for a couple of weeks in April. Rowan Atkinson was forced to pull out for three weeks to undergo minor surgery for a hernia. Russ Abbot played the role of Fagin in the 1997 production and also in a couple of touring productions. New Edna for Hairspray

Michael Ball has been a riot as the lead role in Hairspray for around two years so now a new Edna has been announced for July and it’s non other than Brian Conley whose West End theatre experience includes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 2005.

April 13 2009, 5:11am | Comments »

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