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Post by princeton on Feb 20, 2024 15:28:12 GMT
It is a brand new adaptation - by Rebecca Frecknall herself.
In 2016 she directed a production of Zinnie Harris's Julie at Northern Stage in Newcastle.
My understanding is that she's in Amsterdam at the moment but made a flying visit to NYC for the Cabaret company meet and greet/read-through etc and will be back there for rehearsals proper next week.
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Post by princeton on Feb 13, 2024 21:34:09 GMT
Carrie Hope Fletcher played Wednesday in the first tour (2017), Kingsley Morton played her in the second (2021/2).
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Post by princeton on Feb 8, 2024 18:59:22 GMT
Actually - it was in an interview as she was about to appear in Sister Act where she said: “It’s my last one. I will never do musical theatre again.”
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Post by princeton on Feb 2, 2024 17:18:29 GMT
We're veering away from the play to the Young Vic in general - so maybe a new thread.
I agree with Parsley that, disappointingly, I don't think Kwame has really made the expected long-term inroads at the Young Vic. I was excited about his appointment having admired many of the plays that he wrote in the early 00s (especially Elmina's Kitchen), and his direction of other people's work. Also he had experience as an AD elsewhere and people spoke highly about him as a collaborative leader. However, I've found his time at the Vic pretty patchy.
His initial announcements promised much, and often delivered, and I'm very sympathetic to any AD who had to navigate their way through the Covid-related closures. Since 2018 he's directed five productions there - one a year which seems a fair rate. However, three of those he also wrote, two of which he'd already directed elsewhere (and the third was mired in controversy about the authorship of the piece).
There's been work which I've seen during his tenure, particularly during the early years, which I've admired/enjoyed and there have been critical and box office successes (inc a very good streaming offer once the theatre re-opened). That said, almost all of the work which has had extended life: Death of A Salesman, Best of Enemies, Collaborators and Oklahoma, was brought to the Young Vic by other directors and/or commercial producers as a try-out. Also for a theatre which has three performances spaces it feels there should have been so much more (in 2016 there were c18 full productions across the three houses)
I can't help but think lately he's only had one eye on the Young Vic and stretched himself too thinly. His focus seems to have been elsewhere - developing, directing and writing films, writing a musical at New York's Public Theatre, last year he was appointed Artistic Adviser at Manhattan Theatre Club, and this year he's joined the board of the TV production company The Story Collective in what sounds like a fairly hands on capacity. All of this is, presumably, agreed by the Young Vic board but I do wonder how much of the current season was down to him and how much to the very experienced Executive Director Lucy Davies.
I think in many ways he was a very good appointment, and maybe he only intended to do five years in the role and Covid has meant that he feels he's needed to stay longer, but it's probably time for him to move on.
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Post by princeton on Jan 25, 2024 21:04:33 GMT
Presumably in her application for the job she made it clear that she intended to act rather than direct. Certainly in her first press interviews after her appointment was announced she said "I'm not going to direct [any plays], so nobody needs to worry about that, I think it's a skill that I don't have, I think it's a particular skill, and my passion is acting" and that she would appear in one production per season.
I don't remember similar criticism being levelled at Mark Rylance and I'm pretty sure he acted in one production per season as well as directing.
Dan Evans is appearing rather than directing in his first season at the RSC and I don't think he's acted in a stage production (other than as an emergency cover) for more than 10 years.
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Post by princeton on Jan 25, 2024 13:24:45 GMT
It's not a first season - It's actually the final season which Tim Sheader has programmed even though he's no longer Artistic Director. Drew McOnie is responsible for programming the 2025 season and beyond.
I seem to be alone in thinking it's not a bad season at all. A Shakespeare, a new dramatisation of a classic English novel (they've a long tradition of doing those) and a timely revival of a Broadway musical directed by someone who's worked on two of the most exciting recent musical revivals.
Also kudos to them for looking at the pricing structure and making over 33,000 tickets available at £15, and all Monday tickets at £15, £25 and £35.
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Post by princeton on Jan 23, 2024 12:24:06 GMT
Only running 22 May — 8 June 2024 (press night 29 May). 21 performances including two which are being filmed. Will be a very hot ticket.
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Post by princeton on Jan 23, 2024 11:58:57 GMT
I suspect the initial posting is a lift from the What's On Stage story. The Globe press release doesn't use the phrase 'center stage' and uses 'colour'.
Slightly surprised that Much Ado About Nothing which they only did in 2022 is returning so soon, albeit in a new production.
An earlier, one-person, incarnation of Princess Essex was co-commissioned by the Queen's Hornchurch and did a small scale tour of community venues in Essex in 2022 (same writer/actor and director). I'm assuming this is an expanded version with a full cast.
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Post by princeton on Jan 19, 2024 20:10:07 GMT
Don't expect a cast of 50 - what it actually says is: "a company of over 50 including a full-scale orchestra"
Trafalgar Entertainment are notorious for blithely talking about a 'company of 50', whilst having a very loose definition of 'company' which goes beyond the cast, normally including the musicians and sometimes others involved in the production.
For Anything Goes they said "Featuring a 50 strong cast and ensemble of the finest we have to offer on the London stage and a full-sized live orchestra" when there were around 32 in the cast, including understudies. I don't know how many musicians there were - but I think the orchestrations used on Broadway was for 16.
The King and I at the Dominion says "this gloriously lavish production will feature a world-class company of over 50 West End and Broadway performers" and whilst the full cast doesn't seem to have yet been announced even though it opens tomorrow (it's certainly not on the website) it's only going to be through the double cast of Siamese children that it will get anywhere near 50.
Don't get me wrong a cast of 30 plus a 20 piece orchestra would be great - but it ain't going to be a cast of 50 and may not even be 50 cast and musos combined. For info the most recent Broadway revival was a cast of c26 and c17 musicians.
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Post by princeton on Jan 19, 2024 19:00:02 GMT
There was also a very loose adaptation of Hecuba by Marina Carr done by the RSC in 2015. Didn't see it - though reviews were mixed.
The Donmar production in 2004 was great. Directed by Jonathan Kent with Clare Higgins in the title role and Eddie Redmayne and Tim Pigott-Smith in the supporting cast. Higgins won the Olivier for her performance.
The 2005 RSC version was, as Jan says, a car crash. There was, however, a great deal of off-stage drama.
The production was built around Vanessa Redgrave returning to the RSC after more than 40 years. It was due to open in Stratford then to London, Washington and New York. However the Stratford performances were cancelled to allow Redgrave to recover from an operation. During the rehearsals she and the director Laurence Boswell had an almighty falling out, to the extent that she refused to be in the same room as him. So whilst he continued to direct the company, she did her own thing. They pretty much only came together in the theatre and, not unexpectedly, there was a complete disconnect between leading lady and the rest of the cast. There were also rumours of Redgrave developing her own language for her own character and occasionally delivering lines which made no sense to her fellow actors or the audience. It opened to terrible reviews (most comparing it very unfavourably to the Donmar production). Once opened, and prior to the US run, Tony Harrison, who had written the, not very good, translation, stepped in to try and pull everything together.
By the time it got to the Kennedy Centre and BAM Boswell was no longer credited as director - in fact no one was - rather there was the strange billing of: "written by and developed for its U.S. engagements by Tony Harrison". The reviews were no better.
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Post by princeton on Jan 18, 2024 2:01:08 GMT
Naomi Wallace is in her 60s - and her work has been produced all over the world including the RSC, Public Theater, Young Vic, Bush, New York Theatre Workshop. I first became aware of her when her rather brilliant play One Flea Spare premiered at the Bush in the mid 1990s.
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Post by princeton on Jan 18, 2024 1:20:58 GMT
I think that the Hampstead report is a pretty even-handed document. It's sets out facts clearly and doesn't seek to apportion blame to any individual writer or director but acknowledges that overall the year saw very few commercial or critical successes (and even those which were still didn't break even) and that this led to a complete breakdown of the business model. It then outlines the work they did to put a buffer in place whilst they planned a new season, and how they intend to fund their work going forward. It's actually quite unusual to see a report which is quite so frank about the problems it has faced.
The Royal Court and Young Vic are slightly less candid but still outline the highs and lows, thought the Royal Court one in particular is irritatingly full of corporate speak and jargon. All three reports include full lists of the productions, writers and directors from that year. The reports can be found by searching the companies house website.
The Stage report on the other hand is by and large a cut and paste job of the three reports, with sentences and paragraphs taken out of context, to tell the Stage's own narrative - though with very little actually editorial copy or comment included. Presumably largely in order to generate clickbait headlines. Sometimes they are direct quotes - sometimes paraphrased - and sometimes, as noted above, direct quotes but with square brackets where The Stage has added unnecessary detail, like the name of the playwright and director. It also seems to slightly screw up the chronology of what happened at Hampstead Obviously they are completely entitled write what they want - but it's little wonder that none of the theatres wanted to engage with The Stage for the piece.
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Post by princeton on Jan 17, 2024 19:30:33 GMT
Bart Sher doesn't seem like the most obvious fit for this. He rarely demonstrates a lightness of touch or a natural gift for comedy (witness both iterations of Women on the Verge - when even in spite of great comic actors - the laughs just didn't come). He's great at pieces like Light In the Piazza, South Pacific and Oslo where he can play up the dark undertones - and he's normally pretty spot on with his casting (at least in the original companies). So let's hope he has a vision for this piece and someone other than Aaron Sorkin to tweak the book - because if it's not well sung and it's not funny - then there's nothing left other than some dodgy, dated sexism. Though arguably these days the secondary plots and ensemble work are actually more interesting and entertaining than the 'romantic' stuff between the lead duo.
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Post by princeton on Jan 12, 2024 17:31:19 GMT
The Grapes of Wrath at the National was 35 years ago, with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company cast. It only played for a couple of weeks as part of a season of productions from international theatre companies (which also included Moscow Arts and Ninagawa).
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Post by princeton on Jan 10, 2024 16:51:25 GMT
On Broadway, they cancelled performances when SJP got Covid, they weirdly didn't cancel when Matthew Broderick tested positive. Not quite the full story. Matthew Broderick missed three performances because of Covid, then SJP also tested positive with so they cancelled a week of performances, whilst they were both out He then returned to the show and did two performances before she returned. So each did some shows opposite a standby (who were Tony award-winner Michael McGrath and Tony nominee Erin Dilly).
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Post by princeton on Dec 29, 2023 13:23:20 GMT
Matthew Bourne's usual collaborator is designing.
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Post by princeton on Oct 31, 2023 19:28:20 GMT
Michael Bauer is playing DeMille here also. Can’t help with the Max I’m afraid, though he’s great. As are the cameos of Caroline O’Connor. If I recall correctly Max was played by Charles West who was the replacement Warbucks in the original London production of Annie, and then spent most of the 80's touring in the role. Earlier in his career he'd played Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha in Australia and a stint on Broadway (though I think he only understudied the part in London). By the time of the Sunset workshop he's was in his mid-60s and had pretty much stopped acting and begun writing crime novels.
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Post by princeton on Aug 10, 2023 23:45:11 GMT
The new Thernardier's only acting role was 13 years ago: understudy Marius. Fact. So was it a different Luke Kempner who trained at Guildford School of Acting and appeared in the Barbican Centre/UK tour of Lincoln Centre's South Pacific, the original UK tour of Avenue Q, and Lift (also featuring Cynthia Erivo) at Soho Theatre - amongst other things?
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Post by princeton on Jul 27, 2023 15:40:18 GMT
I agree - it's all most curious.
Moving out of their current venue in a couple of weeks time but no indication about when they may move into the new one - just a vague statement "We’ll be announcing more details of the new theatre in the coming months, including the shows which will be in our inaugural season". A fit out can take a very long time - and a lot of money.
And who is actually in charge? Neither of the joint Artistic Directors who were appointed in 2021 are still there - and they don't seem to have had an Executive Director for the last year or so. How can you possibly move into a new building and launch a new artistic vision without any leadership?
I do hope that the new theatre(s) does happen and reignites the King's Head brand - however it's all looking rather too opaque at the moment to be confident about the way forward.
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Post by princeton on Jul 27, 2023 11:05:46 GMT
No, the production in 1997 that played Dublin and Cork with Rebecca Storm and John Barrowman wasn't the original Trevor Nunn one. It was a local Irish production directed by Michael Scott and designed by Bronwen Casson. Sorry for the mistake and thanks for the correction. I had a very vague recollection of being told at the time that it was going to be the Nunn version. As I'd worked on the Edwards' first tour/WE - I thought it surprising because I was under the assumption that it would never be seen again, but thought that maybe someone in Ireland had very deep pockets (or Trevor was doing it to save face - his version having effectively been dumped). I guess I should have checked before posting - though it's not that easy to find info about productions in the 1990s.
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Post by princeton on Jul 27, 2023 1:02:28 GMT
The Gale Edwards' production originated in Australia in 1992 where it was well received and so it was decided that it should be used for the UK tour, which came into the Prince of Wales. Kevin Colson reprised his role of George in the Australian incarnation (and also played it for a final time in a short uk tour after the west end revival).
The Canada production, which began at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton in 1991, was directed by Robin Phillips. It did an extended run in Toronto before touring the US.
The original Trevor Nunn production actually made a brief reappearance in 1997 when it played Dublin and Cork - with Rebecca Storm as Rose and John Barrowman as Alex.
The David Essex/Matt Rawle version, in 2007, was directed by Nikolai Foster.
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Post by princeton on Jul 24, 2023 16:26:16 GMT
She actually first directed at the National more than 20 years ago, during Trevor Nunn's tenure as AD, though doesn't seem to have done anything there during the Hytner years, but more than made up for it in the last five or six. She's directed productions on all three of the National's stages which works in her favour - but she has been almost entirely focussed on new works - with almost no classic work in her cannon. That's fine, as long as she gets some other people to direct those.
I've actually found much of the Rufus Norris years refreshing and enjoyable (hell I even just about managed to find something positive in 'Common' - though maybe the very, very low expectations helped) and I do think that National should do a lot of new writing. However, the balance between revivals - particularly of well-directed classic work - and new hasn't quite been right for some time. So hopefully if she does get the job, she'll recognise where her own directorial strengths, weakness and interests lie - and surround herself with creatives who can fill the gaps - and have some experience in these areas.
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Post by princeton on Jun 30, 2023 18:48:12 GMT
Presumably not until April 2024 at the earliest?
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Post by princeton on Jun 26, 2023 22:52:49 GMT
As noted above Kyle Ramar Freeman has another job lined up and is going to play the Lion in the upcoming pre-Broadway tour of The Wiz. It begins in Baltimore on 23 September - which is only two weeks after A Strange Loop closes at the Barbican. Whilst it is possible that he could rehearse remotely and/or with an associate director in London then join the company for the final rehearsals (he was cast in The Wiz after he'd been confirmed for A Strange Loop - so there will definitely have been 'talks' about how to manage it). I think it's also possible he will leave early and that once the reviews come out and he is much acclaimed - a line will be added to the booking page saying "Kyle Ramar Freeman will play Usher until xxxx. Casting after that date to be announced"
Update: Just noticed that on his insta - Kyle Birch who is billed as Cover Usher - says: "Can’t wait to play this amazing role twice a week!". Doesn't seem to be mentioned on either the Barbican or show website. So presumably another line to be added to the booking page - post reviews!!
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Post by princeton on Jun 3, 2023 23:47:26 GMT
My guess is that Indhu Rubasingham will be announced as Joint Deputy Director alongside Clint Dyer from the start of 2024 which will put either of them (or indeed both if they follow the RSC model) in pole position to succeed Rufus Norris. There would still have to be an open appointment process but they would look like the preferred candidates from the outset.
It would also help explain why The Father and The Assassin, which I thought was great but didn't set the box office alight, is making a return to the Olivier theatre. Proven ability to direct on that huge stage is definitely a plus point for any incoming AD (she's also directed in the Lyttleton and the Dorfman).
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Post by princeton on May 31, 2023 22:45:21 GMT
From the website:
Maude Apatow is not scheduled to perform on 31 May (matinee), 8 June (evening), 14 June (matinee), 22-24 June (all performances), 28 June (matinee), 6 July (evening), 12 July (matinee), 20 July (evening), 26 July (matinee), 3 August (evening), 9 August (matinee), 17 August (evening), 23 August (matinee), 31 August (evening), 6 September (matinee), 14 September (evening) and 20 September (matinee). At these performances, the role will be played by our alternate Sally Bowles, Emily Benjamin.
So a similar schedule to the one which Aimee Lou Wood followed.
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Post by princeton on May 18, 2023 22:58:51 GMT
She was also the first female (and to my knowledge only so far) to actually play Hedwig. Ally Sheedy took over as Hedwig during the original off-broadway run (in 1999). She was not a critical success, missed many performances and had her limited run cut short because of her erratic on-stage behaviour.
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Post by princeton on May 5, 2023 14:47:18 GMT
Helen George was only ever supposed to appear until the end of April as Call the Midwife filming stars at the beginning of May. However the words 'until Cardiff' were buried in the press release and very few reports picked it up. Also I doubt (though I don't know) that Helen George was ever mentioned on the websites of the venues after Cardiff - and a generic picture of the previous tour was probably used. However it's disingenuous and discourteous of Trafalgar Entertainment to be so opaque in their communications especially on the production website and social media - which still indicate that HG is playing the part with no mention of the estimable Annalene Beachey who has taken over from this week. If I was her agent I'd be reading the riot act - or demanding more money!
It's such a stupid strategy. Disrepectful to the audience, to Annalene Beechey and to Helen George who will, I'm sure, get some negative comments from people who were expecting to see her. It's not enough to say that she was never 'announced' for this particular venue even if that is true - because all of the PR has focused on her. Of course it's the local theatre stuff who will have to deal with the immediate fall out. Hopefully any audience dissatisfaction will allayed when they see and hear the glorious Beechey.
Call the Midwife tends to film for about six months with a brief break in the summer so I don't imagine Helen George will do the autumn leg of the tour either - though don't rely on the producers to be open about who is appearing.
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Post by princeton on Apr 27, 2023 14:24:39 GMT
It’s for “extra entries” which I think is as effective as Today Tix’s Rush extra entries when you share on social media, so completely useless. Sorry - it was my attempt at humour and an extra hint to the codeword (your previous post snuck in whilst I was typing mine) I actually think it's a fun thing to do given the subject of the show.
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Post by princeton on Apr 27, 2023 13:49:42 GMT
Not sure about the use of a codeword for the lottery - seems there's a bit of trickery and deceit at play!
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