As British summer really kicks in (umbrellas at the ready), our thoughts might turn fondly to the sunny Caribbean. Good timing, then, for the return of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s 1990 musical set in the French Antilles. Based on Rosa Guy’s novel, it tells a familiar tale of boundary-crossing lovers – The Little Mermaid meets Romeo and Juliet – though with some location-specific details that give it fresh interest.
Read my full theartsdesk review here
Conductor Martyn Brabbins celebrated his 60th birthday in fine fashion: with a new commission for 14 composers to create their own set of orchestral variations on an anonymous theme, mirroring the shape of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Programme notes from the composers illustrated a genuine fondness for the great conductor, and their perceptions of him – energy, warmth, generosity, humour and virtuosity – shone through in an impressively unified work.
Following a triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ Superstar, now playing at the Barbican, the Park works its magic on another of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Seventies rock operas. Jamie Lloyd’s stripped-down, super-sleek, contemporary take excavates the biting satire of a work sometimes bogged down in period trappings and melodrama, and locates the furious spirit of Eva Perón – portrayed, with unusually convincing youth and fire, by the electrifying American actress Samantha Pauly.
It’s too darn hot, BoJo is in Downing Street, and we’re all going to Brexit hell – so we might as well sing the blues. Or at least take a night off from the apocalypse to enjoy a virtuoso company singing them for us in this rousing revival of Sheldon Epps’ 1980 musical revue, which showcases jazz greats like Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. It’s also unfinished business for Susie McKenna, who directed a short run at Hackney Empire back in 2014.
Robert James Waller’s bestselling, though critically panned, 1992 romance novel was reincarnated in the Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep-starring film, and then again in Jason Robert Brown and Marsha Norman’s Tony-winning 2013 musical – both adaptations wisely sloughing off some of the original’s schmaltz and sappiness. Now Trevor Nunn, whose Menier-originated Fiddler on the Roof is currently playing in the West End, helms the moderately successful UK premiere.
Since Dame Darcey Bussell announced in April that she was hanging up her sparkly Strictly Come Dancing paddle, there’s been feverish speculation about who might replace her.
London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Robert Icke’s latest to Fleabag, Evita and witchy adventures, here are some of this month’s most eye-catching openings. Don’t forget to check back for BroadwayWorld’s reviews, interviews and features!
Ahead of the final live performance of her hit one-woman show Fleabag, find out more about breakout star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
In Tahiti in 1940, a penniless Tennessee Williams lay in a hammock beside another writer also despairing of ever finding success, both binge-drinking rum-cocos and welcoming the dramatic storms that temporarily eclipsed their melancholy. To make matters worse, a party of German Nazis was bragging about their success in the war, and Williams’ friend pitched “the long swim to China”.
Oh Lord! The second Biblical Andrew Lloyd Webber opening of the week (taking his current London production total up to a whopping five from next month) is his early collaboration with Tim Rice, celebrating 50 years since its original concept album, and back home at the Palladium. But a joyfully fresh staging makes this a Joseph for 2019 – and a family-friendly summer hit.
