Marianka Swain was UK Editor-in-chief of BroadwayWorld. A London-based theatre critic and arts journalist, she also contributes to other outlets such as the Telegraph, The i Paper, Ham & High, Islington Gazette, Dancing Times and theartsdesk, and she is a member of the Critics' Circle. You can find more of her work at www.mkmswain.com or follow her on Twitter @mkmswain
Musical theatre leading man Hayden Tee recently starred as Miss Trunchbull in the West End production of Matilda - for which he is nominated for a BroadwayWorld UK Award! - and he's also produced new album Face to Face. It features songs from shows like Matilda, Les Misérables, 1776 and more, and fans can catch it on tour soon.
London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From highly anticipated musicals to mountaineering and Welsh apocalypse, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!
With Extinction Rebellion looming large in the capital, it's canny programming to revive Duncan Macmillan's 2011 play about a couple debating the merits of having a child a?' including fears about how introducing another person might impact the planet. The play also gets a boost from the starry casting of The Crown's Claire Foy and Matt Smith, whose established chemistry is a huge asset here.
Today, BroadwayWorld's Emma Watkins attended the official West End press launch of AMELIE THE MUSICAL at The Other Palace. The event featured a performance of songs from the show by Audrey Brisson and the company, plus there was a Q&A with director Michael Fentiman and Brisson. Watch the video below!
Athol Fugard's 1982 play, set in 1950s Port Elizabeth, is inspired by his own boyhood in apartheid-era South Africa a?' as Fugard says in a programme note, it's a?oethe most intensely personal thing I have ever writtena??. Like his teenage character Harold (Fugard's actual first name), his father was disabled and his mother tried to keep them afloat via a struggling tearoom. And, crucially, Fugard also had a complex relationship with Sam and Willie, their black employees a?' encapsulated here in an increasingly gripping 100-minute piece of atonement.
Laura Wade isn't the first to tackle Jane Austen's unfinished novel, abandoned in 1805, but she is the only one so far to write herself, the struggling adaptor, into the text. This witty, ingenious and surprisingly philosophical play, which premiered at Chichester last year, merges Austen with Pirandello, and satire with big existential questions.
As we previously reported, actress Oluwaseyi (Seyi) Omooba was removed from Leicester Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome's revival of musical The Color Purple after Hamilton actor Aaron Lee Lambert shared a screenshot of her 2014 Facebook post. Now, the Daily Mail reports that Omooba claims she is a victim of religious discrimination.
Composer, writer and actor Dave Malloy's work includes the Tony Award-winning Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Octet, and his upcoming adaptation of Moby-Dick - the latter directed by regular collaborator Rachel Chavkin and starring Malloy. This year, London also sees two of his shows: Preludes, soon to conclude its run at Southwark Playhouse, and Ghost Quartet, which plays at the new Boulevard Theatre from 24 October.
Caryl Churchill returns with a new quartet of shorts a?' and, at 81, she's still one of the most daring, formally inventive and linguistically dexterous playwrights working today. There's never any sense that her work could slide into another medium; it requires theatre's abstract arena, its live-wire liveness, the crucial space for an audience to bring their own readings, and the very act of storytelling unfolding.
This new illustrated companion volume to Irene Sankoff and David Hein's Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical Come From Away, which tells the remarkable true story of a small Newfoundland town that welcomed stranded air passengers on 9/11, is just as beautifully and thoughtfully crafted as the show itself.
MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY, the new immersive entertainment experience, has now opened at specially adapted venue at The O2 in London. Let's see what the critics had to say!
ABBA mania shows no signs of abating. Following the Mamma Mia! stage musical and two movies, here we go again with Mamma Mia! The Party a?' a hybrid musical theatre/dinner/nightclub experience. London is the first place outside of Sweden to host it, with plans to expand to other territories soon (Las Vegas and New York are possibilities).
Breakin' Convention Presents at Sadler's Wells is a continuation of the venue's popular annual festival, offering hip-hop theatre-makers a platform for their full-length work. Innovative French b-boy Yaman Okur has collaborated with choreographer Sébastien Lefrançois and classical pianist Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven on 1mm Au Dessus Du Sol (1mm Above The Ground).
London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From Annie Baker's latest to Ealing comedy and a royal reunion, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!
How theatre should, or should not, be addressing Brexit is a constant topic of conversation. But while Lucy Prebble's phenomenal new work - a combination of horror, espionage thriller, love story and satire, with dazzlingly theatrical framing - doesn't centre around the B world, it is, unquestionably, the play for the present moment.
The hotly anticipated UK premiere of Falsettos, the Tony Award winning musical by William Finn and James Lapine opened tonight (5 September) at The Other Palace in London. Let's see what the critics had to say!
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is big business. She's a TV superstar, both comedy (Fleabag) and drama (Killing Eve); a Star Wars standout; and, in theory, the feminist saviour of James Bond. But never mind all that. Theatre needs her back.
Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) and directed by Vicky Jones, Fleabag is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life. Waller-Bridge is performing the one-woman show for the last time at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End.
Renowned medical ethicist Dr Daniel Sokol was the bioethics consultant for Robert Icke's acclaimed new play The Doctor, now playing at the Almeida Theatre and starring Juliet Stevenson. He talks to us about his role and the fascinating area of medical ethics.
London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a landmark musical and Caryl Churchill to Wall Street and ABBA immersion, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!
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