Marianka Swain - Page 25

For those seeking festive revelry, but with an equally seasonal undertow of quiet melancholy, She Loves Me is the blissful solution. Joe Masteroff, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's 1963 musical adaptation of Miklos Laszlo's play Parfumerie, which also inspired the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan vehicle You've Got Mail, is a sparkling Christmas bauble of a show that shone on Broadway earlier this year, and now comes to us in delectable intimate form in the small but mighty musicals powerhouse that is the Menier.

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a visionary Tennessee Williams revival to Wayne McGregor and a Dahl musical adaptation, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews...

This revival of Sam Shepard's apocalyptic 1978 play has gained resonance since 2016's most apocalyptic political development - namely, Donald Trump cynically harnessing Midwestern anger and disillusionment. The latter is on display in heightened, American Gothic form in this Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, teeming with tragic mysteries, family skeletons and a (literally) buried past.

Alexia Khadime made her West End debut in The Lion King aged 17, and went on to play Nala. Her other West End leads include Wicked, Les Miserables and The Book of Mormon, and this Christmas she stars as Princess Tahlia in Hackney Empire's Sleeping Beauty.

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a big musical revival to starry panto and Matthew Bourne's latest, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews…

Actress Lisa Dillon's numerous stage credits include King John at Rose Theatre, Kingston, Hapgood at Hampstead Theatre, Design for Living at the Old Vic, The Knot of the Heart at the Almeida, and The Taming of the Shrew for the RSC. She's back with the RSC playing Rosaline and Beatrice in Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing respectively. The acclaimed double bill, set either side of the First World War, begins previews at Theatre Royal Haymarket on 9 December.

The Hospital Club is auctioning two tickets to HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD Parts One and Two at the Palace Theatre in London's West End. Between the shows the winner will experience a dinner at the restaurant in private members' club The Hospital Club, where they will also be given an overnight stay in a premier suite and take home a copy of the special rehearsal edition script book signed by J.K. Rowling.

Following rave reviews for both the show and its leading man Charlie Stemp, Cameron Mackintosh announced today that booking for the Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre production of HALF A SIXPENCE at the Noel Coward Theatre has been extended to 22 April 2017. Tickets are priced from £12.50 to £77.50. A limited number of £20 seats are released each day from 10am in person at the box office.

Imelda Staunton has revealed plans for the London production of GYPSY to hit Broadway in 2018, according to The Stage. The show, already tipped for a New York transfer, began at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2014, and subsequently had an acclaimed West End run at the Savoy Theatre. It picked up four Olivier Awards, including Best Musical Revival and Best Actress in a Musical for Staunton.

Following a critically acclaimed world tour, the UK's leading circus company NoFit State bring their ground-breaking promenade show BIANCO to London's Southbank Centre for the first time, running from 23 November 2016 to 22 January 2017.

Globe Education's production for the 2017 Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank will be THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, opening at Shakespeare's Globe on 28 February and running until 25 March. Over 20,000 free tickets are available for state secondary schools in London and Birmingham.

New family musical MR POPPER'S PENGUINS will open at the Criterion Theatre for a magical Christmas season from 15 December to 31 December. Mr and Mrs Popper and their remarkable family of performing penguin puppets come to London direct from a UK tour and US premiere at New York's renowned New Victory Theatre.

'Inmates, coming through.' That's our introduction to Phyllida Lloyd's landmark trilogy, as the homogenised prisoners are steered through the audience by prison officers. But this extraordinarily empathetic project, developed with Clean Break, gives those inmates individual voices and means of expression, while the all-female cast that inhabit them gives new voice to three familiar plays.

Following sold-out seasons at the Royal Albert Hall and several world tours, The Imperial Ice Stars have brought their dazzling production of THE NUTCRACKER ON ICE to London's Hyde Park. The show runs every day until 2 January, 2017 at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Cabaret sensation LA SOIREE has returned to London for its seventh season in the capital this Christmas, running until 8 January, 2017 - read our review here. The spectacular line-up includes cirQle master David Girard, physical comedians Daredevil Chicken, quirky trickster Olivia Porter, and hula hoop artist Satya Bella. See them in action photographed below by Ana Maria Wiggins for BroadwayWorld

The world premiere of Matthew Bourne's production of THE RED SHOES has its world premiere at the Theatre Royal Plymouth tonight, with an eight-week Christmas season at Sadler's Wells from Tuesday 6 December 2016 to Sunday 29 January 2017. 

Photographs from the opening of HALF A SIXPENCE

Anna-Jane Casey made her West End debut in Cats, and has since starred in Chicago, West Side Story, Sunday in the Park with George and Billy Elliot, among others. She's currently in rehearsals for Sheffield Crucible's Christmas show, Annie Get Your Gun, in which she plays gun-totin' Annie Oakley. Previews begin on 9 December.

This Sixties Tommy Steele vehicle is joyfully reborn in another Chichester Festival Theatre musical triumph, now comfortably ensconced in the West End. The unstoppable George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have seamlessly renewed and added to David Heneker's original score, and Julian Fellowes has done the same for Beverley Cross's book, giving this gently passe show a smart new suit of clothes.

Renowned choreographer Arlene Phillips is making her pantomime debut in as Fairy Bowbells in New Wimbledon Theatre's Christmas Pantomime, DICK WHITTINGTON, from Friday 9 December 2016 to Sunday 15 January 2017. Joining her are award-winning actor Matthew Kelly, who returns to New Wimbledon Theatre to play Sarah the Cook and comedian Tim Vine as Idle Jack.