It’s all change at the Kiln (was Tricycle) Theatre, with a £5.5 million redevelopment resulting in a bright, light, spacious and welcoming new building – complete with a more obvious street presence, comfortable café/bar area, plentiful ladies’ loos, and a flexible auditorium with plush seats and improved sight lines.
Read my full BroadwayWorld review here
Hello again, Strictly fans! It’s Series 16! Woohoo! Series 16, AKA the one where Marianka continually squawks “A YouTuber?” at her screen in the manner of Lady Bracknell’s “A handbag?” and feels about 102 and begins to contemplate the yawning void of mortality, and then remembers the state of the world and kind of welcomes it. Series 16!
Transatlantic theatrical traffic is busier than ever, and now here at the Hampstead is not just Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning play, first seen in 2015, but director Joe Mantello and his full Broadway cast. It seems fitting that they should travel together, since Karam’s work is so dependent upon a company – as they do here – capturing the intricate rhythms of family, until the rich naturalism begins to convey something profound.
Wild, raw, hilarious and tender, Clare Barron’s electrifying play – first seen in New York earlier this year – is a candid portrait of prepubescent girls, rare compared with the myriad male coming-of-age tales. But, like its warrior women, Barron’s piece fights for its space, and with a formal daring that teeters thrillingly on the edge of chaos.
From a new hip-hop history lesson to Pinter and Shakespeare.
It’s a people’s revolution. For the very first time, a community cast takes the Olivier stage: around 200 non-professionals, led by a few actors, representing national diversity. And that’s no anaemic buzzword here, but real inclusion – assorted ages, sizes, ethnicities, experiences, performers in wheelchairs, in drag, all combining in the art of storytelling. It’s end-of-term play meets Danny Boyle’s London Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The playwright discusses the UK premiere of her latest work at the Almeida Theatre.
The resplendent partnership of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman – which produced Disney hits Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid – first took root with this 1982 Off-Broadway musical, based on a low-budget Sixties film, about a man seeking love and fortune via a bloodthirsty plant. This revelatory revival from Maria Aberg embraces the work’s B-movie dichotomy: equal parts dark, gory fable and riotous carnival of delights.
There’s an explosion of spirit and – yes – “cheer face” at Southwark Playhouse, hosting the long-awaited UK premiere of this 2011 musical; last year’s planned national tour was sadly postponed.
But Ewan Jones’s dynamic British Theatre Academy production, with its minimal scenery and tight ensemble perfectly filling a midsize space, suggests it’s the ideal piece to go on the road – not to mention its timely, uplifting message of inclusion.
On my August MoveTo Town and Country Arts page:
