Debbie Gilpin - Page 8

The Royal Albert Hall is about a month into its inaugural Festival of Science - a range of talks, screenings, concerts and comedy events that are taking enthusiasts of all ages on an exploration of space, both factual and fictional. This weekend was no exception, with special screenings of two of the recent Star Trek films (also part of their Films in Concert series): Star Trek and Star Trek Beyond.

In 2007, Across the Universe brought the songs of The Beatles to a new generation in the form of a jukebox musical film that incorporated 34 of the band's songs, from the very famous to the more obscure numbers in their back catalogue. Rather than being a band biography, it brought a new story to the screen from Julie Taymor (also director), Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and starred Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood.

Natasha Gordon's debut play opens the new season at the Dorfman Theatre. 2018 marks 70 years since the Empire Windrush brought many hopeful Jamaicans across to Britain, some were specifically recruited (due to labour shortages) to work in hospitals, the postal service or the transport system, others simply hoped to provide a better life for their families. However, rather than commemorating the invaluable service to the country, the anniversary has launched a political storm as a lack of British citizenship and the threat of deportation hang over people's heads. The recent departure of the Home Secretary definitely did not go unnoticed amidst the pre-show audience buzz.

Cheek by Jowl began life in 1981, first producing plays in English before branching out to other languages; their current production of Shakespeare's Pericles is performed in French, which has recently embarked on a tour that includes Oxford, Naples, Madrid, and several venues in France, stopping for a few weeks now at the Silk Street theatre at the Barbican Centre in London. It's a rarely played piece, though there is also due to be another production by the National Theatre over the summer.

Next up at the RSC's Swan Theatre is an oft-forgotten Restoration comedy by Mary Pix; originally titled The Beau Defeated, Jo Davies' production shifts the focus onto the widowed protagonist with the new title The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich. It comes in the same year as two new productions of another Restoration Comedy, The Country Wife, are unveiled at Southwark Playhouse and Chichester's Minerva Theatre - and plays alongside The Duchess of Malfi and Macbeth (in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre).

In our new series, BroadwayWorld UK writers nominate the shows they'd love to see revived!

The final new production in The Winter Selection at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is a daring masterclass in puppetry from Gyre & Gimble. They have used Max Richter's recompositions of Vivaldi's classic 'Four Seasons' concertos as a basis to tell an original story about 'life, death and renewal', focusing on the human angle rather than nature, taking the audience on an adventure with them. It will play alongside Emma Rice's The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales to close the season.

Emma Rice begins her association with the Old Vic by reviving her version of Brief Encounter. It has recently been performed at the Birmingham Rep (where it first began life 11 years ago) and the Lowry in Salford, but now makes a return to the West End for a run at the Empire Cinema. The screen has been specially adapted to suit a theatre production, with a stage added in for the occasion.

Gore Vidal's 1960 political play The Best Man documents the behind-the-scenes machinations of a fictional Presidential nomination. This new production, directed by Simon Evans, has been on a short tour prior to a run on London's West End - it takes the place of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. Martin Shaw and Jeff Fahey lead the cast, which also features Maureen Lipman, Glynis Barber, Jack Shepherd and Honeysuckle Weeks.

A retitled production of John Dryden's 1675 play Aureng-zebe, The Captive Queen continues the Globe's winter season and acts as a swansong for Northern Broadsides' Barrie Rutter. The artistic director takes the role of the Emperor and also directs for the company for the final time. A rarely performed play, this project has been in the works for some time and is something of a labour of love for Rutter and his company.

Kneehigh (in conjunction with the Old Vic) are about to revive their acclaimed production of Emma Rice's Brief Encounter, starting with a short tour followed by a six-month West End run. Jos Slovick, playing Stanley, talks bunking off, jazz, and returning to the West End.

After a short stay at the Bristol Old Vic, and an award-winning run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Daniel Jamieson's play about the life and love of Marc and Bella Chagall begins a UK/US tour at Wilton's Music Hall in east London. Directed by Emma Rice, it follows in the wake of Romantics Anonymous and precedes the return of Brief Encounter and the debut of her brand new theatre company Wise Children.

The forthcoming summer programme may have been announced, but The Winter Selection at Shakespeare's Globe continues apace the latest show to open is the only Shakespeare play in the season, the rarely played All's Well That Ends Well. Caroline Byrne returns to direct, following her Irish production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Globe itself in 2016.

In January 1970, Led Zeppelin played the Royal Albert Hall, widely lauded as one of their most famous gigs. Robert Plant has returned once again, this time as part of a tour with the Sensational Space Shifters that has visited the length and breadth of the UK, and will soon head to America, Canada and Australia.

Victorian music hall Wilton's takes a trip back to the 1930s this Christmas, as it brings a new version of John Masefield's fantasy story The Box of Delights to the stage. Justin Audibert directs Piers Torday's adaptation that stars Matthew Kelly, offering up alternative festive entertainment.

As usual, come the festive season, there is a plethora of shows on offer to begin the merriment - and if a pantomime or version of A Christmas Carol isn't for you, there is still plenty of choice. A popular venue in London is Penge's Bridge House Theatre, and this year their Christmas treat is a stage version of the perennial film favourite, Miracle On 34th Street.

The latest production from New. Theatre Company is a song cycle from Alex James Ellison and Tom Lees; as with last month's The Dysfunctional Guide to Being a Third Wheel it is playing in the cabaret space Live at Zedel. Directed once again by Jordan Murphy, it boasts a talented cast of four: Sabrina Aloueche, Joe Kerry, Jodie Steele and Daniel Buckley.

Terrorist plots, underfunded government departments, unjustifiable military action - all very modern worries, I'm sure you'll agree. However, playwright Anders Lustgarten and director Matthew Dunster beg to differ. The second production of The Winter Selection is a new play, The Secret Theatre, ostensibly about Sir Francis Walsingham and his Elizabethan intelligence network (after which the play is named), yet actually telling a very familiar tale for the 21st century.

Celebrated performer Barb Jungr put this collection of songs together a couple of years ago (alongside long-time collaborator and pianist, Simon Wallace) and has been taking the songs across the UK and the US, amongst other places, as well as appearing on the bill of the Art of Protest cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse earlier this year. Jungr describes the show as hundreds and hundreds of words packed together incomprehensibly , hoping to show the nice side of Dylan and the nastiness of Cohen.

This is the first in a series of original musicals that will be brought to Live at Z del thanks to New., whose aim is to showcase young, emerging talent on the stage. The Dysfunctional Guide To Being A Third Wheel was written by Henry Roadnight and Adam Johnson, and is a musical for the millennial generation.