Theatregoers Choice Awards Nominations December 5, 2008
Posted by Andy in : awards , 1 comment so farVoting opens at WhatsOnStage today for the Theatregoers Choice Awards 2008
Here is the full list of nominations:
The SPOTLIGHT Best Actress in a Play
Deanna Dunagan (August: Osage County - National Theatre Lyttelton)
Katy Stephens (The Histories - Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Lesley Sharp (Harper Regan - National Theatre Cottesloe)
Lindsay Duncan (That Face - Duke of York’s Theatre)
Margaret Tyzack (The Chalk Garden - Donmar Warehouse)
Penelope Wilton (The Chalk Garden - Donmar Warehouse)
The SPOTLIGHT Best Actor in a Play
Adam Godley (Rain Man - Apollo Theatre)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Othello - Donmar Warehouse)
Eddie Redmayne (Now Or Later - Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs)
Ian McDiarmid (Six Characters In Search Of An Author - Gielgud Theatre)
Kenneth Branagh (Ivanov - Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
Kevin Spacey & Jeff Goldblum (Speed-The-Plow - Old Vic)
Best Supporting Actress in a Play
Barbara Jefford (Pygmalion - Old Vic)
Denise Gough (Six Characters In Search Of An Author - Gielgud Theatre)
Michelle Terry (The Man Who Had All The Luck - Donmar Warehouse)
Phoebe Nicholls (The Vortex - Apollo Theatre & Waste - Almeida Theatre)
Sophie Thompson (The Female Of The Species - Vaudeville Theatre)
Susan Engel (Her Naked Skin - National Theatre Olivier)
Best Supporting Actor in a Play
Douglas Henshall (The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot - Almeida Theatre)
Kevin R McNally (Ivanov - Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
Malcolm Sinclair (Rosmersholm - Almeida Theatre)
Paul Ready (Major Barbara - National Theatre Olivier)
Pip Carter (Gethsemane - National Theatre Cottesloe)
Tom Hiddleston (Othello - Donmar Warehouse & Ivanov - Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
The VIAGOGO Best Actress in a Musical
Connie Fisher (They’re Playing Our Song - Menier Chocolate Factory)
Elena Roger (Piaf - Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville Theatre)
Leila Benn Harris (Imagine This - New London Theatre)
Lisa O’Hare (Gigi - Open Air Theatre)
Ruthie Henshall (Marguerite - Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Sofia Escobar (West Side Story - Sadler’s Wells)
The SEE TICKETS Best Actor in a Musical
Darius Danesh (Gone With The Wind - New London Theatre)
Douglas Hodge (La Cage Aux Folles - Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse Theatre)
Julian Ovenden (Marguerite - Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Matt Rawle (Zorro - Garrick Theatre)
Rolan Bell (The Harder They Come - Barbican Theatre & Playhouse Theatre)
Ryan Molloy (Jersey Boys - Prince Edward Theatre)
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Lesli Margherita (Zorro - Garrick Theatre)
Linda Thorson (Gigi - Open Air Theatre)
Lorraine Bruce (Piaf - Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville Theatre)
Natasha Yvette Williams (Gone With The Wind - New London Theatre)
Sophia Ragavelas (Never Forget - Savoy Theatre)
Tracie Bennett (La Cage Aux Folles - Playhouse Theatre)
Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
Alexander Hanson (Marguerite - Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Jason Pennycooke (La Cage Aux Folles - Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse Theatre)
Luke Evans (Piaf - Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville Theatre)
Michael Matus (Imagine This - New London Theatre)
Nick Cavaliere (Zorro - Garrick Theatre)
Stephen Ashfield (Jersey Boys - Prince Edward Theatre)
Best Solo Performance
David Bradley (The Quiz - Trafalgar Studio 2)
Derren Brown (Derren Brown Mindreader: An Evening Of Wonders - Garrick Theatre)
Eddie Izzard (Eddie Izzard: Stripped - Lyric Theatre)
Maria Friedman (Maria Friedman: Rearranged - Menier Chocolate Factory)
Nadine Marshall (Random - Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs)
Vanessa Redgrave (The Year Of Magical Thinking - National Theatre Lyttelton)
The AMBASSADOR TICKETS Best Ensemble Performance
August: Osage County - National Theatre Lyttelton
Black Watch - National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican Theatre
Brief Encounter - Cinema, Haymarket
Into The Hoods - Novello Theatre
The Histories - Royal Shakespeare Compnay at the Roundhouse
The Norman Conquests - Old Vic
The MILK TWO SUGARS Best Takeover in a Role
Daniel Boys (Avenue Q - Noël Coward Theatre)
Denis Lawson (La Cage Aux Folles - Playhouse Theatre)
Kelly Brook (Fat Pig - Comedy Theatre)
Rachel Tucker (We Will Rock You - Dominion Theatre)
Summer Strallen (The Sound Of Music - London Palladium)
Suzanne Shaw (Chicago - Cambridge Theatre)
The NICK HERN BOOKS Best New Play
August: Osage County (by Tracy Letts - National Theatre Lyttelton)
Black Watch (by Gregory Burke - National Theatre of Scotland at the Barbican Theatre)
Now Or Later (by Christopher Shinn - Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs)
That Face (by Polly Stenham - Duke of York’s Theatre)
The Pitmen Painters (by Lee Hall - National Theatre Cottesloe)
Under The Blue Sky (by David Eldridge - Duke of York’s Theatre)
Best New Comedy
Fat Pig (by Neil LaBute - Trafalgar Studio 1 & Comedy Theatre)
God Of Carnage (by Yasmina Reza - Gielgud Theatre)
Lifecoach (by Nick Reed - Trafalgar Studio 2)
The Female Of The Species (by Joanna Murray-Smith - Vaudeville Theatre)
The Walworth Farce (by Enda Walsh - National Theatre Cottesloe)
Well (by Lisa Kron - Trafalgar Studio 2)
The WALDORF HILTON Best New Musical
Eurobeat (by Craig Christie & Andrew Patterson - Novello Theatre)
Imagine This (by Shuki Levy, David Goldsmith & Glenn Berenbeim - New London Theatre)
Jersey Boys (by Bob Gaudio, Bob Crewe, Rick Elice & Marshall Brickman - Prince Edward Theatre)
Marguerite (by Michel Legrand, Herbert Kretzmer, Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schönberg & Jonathan Kent - Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Never Forget (by Guy Jones, Daniel Brocklehurst & Ed Curtis -Savoy Theatre)
Zorro (by the Gipsy Kings, John Cameron, Stephen Clark & Helen Edmundson -Garrick Theatre)
The EMG Best Play Revival
Ivanov - Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre
Six Characters In Search Of An Author - Gielgud Theatre
Speed-The-Plow - Old Vic
The Chalk Garden - Donmar Warehouse
The Norman Conquests - Old Vic
Waste - Almeida Theatre
The TICKETMASTER Best Musical Revival
Candide - London Coliseum
Gigi - Open Air Theatre
La Cage Aux Folles - Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse Theatre
Piaf - Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville Theatre
They’re Playing Our Song - Menier Chocolate Factory
West Side Story - Sadler’s Wells
Best Shakespearean Production
A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Shakespeare’s Globe
Much Ado About Nothing - National Theatre Olivier
Othello - Donmar Warehouse
The Histories - Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse
The Merry Wives Of Windsor - Shakespeare’s Globe
Twelfth Night - Tricycle Theatre
The SEATCHOICE Best Director
Emma Rice (Brief Encounter - Cinema Haymarket)
Michael Grandage (Othello & The Chalk Garden - Donmar Warehouse / Ivanov, Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
Matthew Warchus (The Norman Conquests - Old Vic)
Michael Boyd (The Histories - Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
Rupert Goold (The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot - Almeida / Six Characters In Search Of An Author - Gielgud Theatre / No Man’s Land - Duke of York’s Theatre)
Samuel West (Dealer’s Choice - Trafalgar Studio 1 / Waste - Almeida Theatre)
Best Set Designer
Eugene Lee (Imagine This - New London Theatre)
Klara Zieglerova (Jersey Boys - Prince Edward Theatre)
Miriam Buether (In The Red And Brown Water - Young Vic)
Neil Murray (Brief Encounter - Cinema Haymarket)
Rob Howell (The Norman Conquests - Old Vic)
Tom Piper (The Histories - Royal Shakespeare Company at the Roundhouse)
The WHITE LIGHT Best Lighting Designer
Chahine Yavroyan (Relocated - Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs / Wig Out! -Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs)
Jeal Kalman (The Year Of Magical Thinking - National Theatre Lyttelton / In The Red And Brown Water - Young Vic)
Malcolm Rippeth (Brief Encounter - Cinema Haymarket / Six Characters In Search Of An Author - Gielgud Theatre)
Mark Henderson (Under The Blue Sky - Duke of York’s Theatre / Marguerite & The Sea - Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Neil Austin (Piaf - Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville Theatre / No Man’s Land - Duke of York’s Theatre / Oedipus at the National Theatre Olivier)
Paule Constable (Othello & The Chalk Garden - Donmar Warehouse / Ivanov - Donmar West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre)
Best Choreographer
Akram Khan (In-I - National Theatre Lyttelton)
Karen Bruce (Never Forget - Savoy Theatre)
Kate Prince (Into The Hoods - Novello Theatre)
Lynne Page (La Cage Aux Folles - Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse Theatre)
Matthew Bourne (Dorian Gray - Sadler’s Wells)
Rafael Armago (Zorro - Garrick)
The DEWYNTERS London Newcomer of the Year
Ella Smith (Fat Pig - Trafalgar Studio 1 & Comedy Theatre)
George Sampson (Into The Hoods - Novello Theatre)
Joseph Mawle (The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot - Almeida Theatre)
Josh Hartnett (Rain Man - Apollo Theatre)
Ray Davies (Come Dancing - Theatre Royal Stratford East)
Tarell Alvin McCraney (In The Red And Brown Water & The Brothers Size - Young Vic / Wig Out! - Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs
The MOBIUS Best Off-West End Production
An Enemy Of The People - Arcola Theatre
Come Dancing - Theatre Royal Stratford East
Piranha Heights - Soho Theatre
Plague Over England - Finborough Theatre
The Vaclav Havel season - Orange Tree Theatre
The White Devil - Menier Chocolate Factory
The TARGET LIVE Best Regional Production
Calendar Girls - Chichester Festival Theatre & on tour
Hamlet - Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
On The Waterfront - Nottingham Playhouse & Edinburgh Fringe
Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi - Liverpool Playhouse
The Glass Menagerie - Royal Exchange, Manchester
The Music Man - Chichester Festival Theatre
The AKA Theatre Event of the Year
David Tennant returning to the stage in Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company
The launch of the Donmar West End season at the Wyndham’s Theatre
La Clique’s London debut at the Hippodrome
The in-the-round transformation of the Old Vic for The Norman Conquests
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s complete staging of The Histories at the Roundhouse
Widespread protests over arts funding cutbacks
Honourable mentions:
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 60th birthday celebration in Hyde Park
Robert Lepage’s nine-hour Lipsynch at the Barbican
Daniel Radcliffe & James Corden’s onstage kiss at the 2008 Theatregoers’ Choice Awards Concert
Carousel - the reviews December 4, 2008
Posted by Linda in : Carousel, opinion, press, reviews , add a commentCarousel Reviews
The newspaper critics reviews for Carousel at the Savoy Theatre are in and mostly they are fairly positive. Lesley Garrett comes in for a bit of criticism for her performance but apart from that I think they had a good time.
Benedict Nightingale in The Times at first felt the production suffered by comparison with the revival at the National 10 years ago but eventually warmed to it:
Yet gradually I thawed, as caught up in Hammerstein’s book as I was captivated by maybe the finest score even Rodgers ever produced. Yes, the show was overmiked, meaning that some songs sounded shrill. Yes, the artlessly cheerful millgirls who form half the chorus swirled about to annoyingly cute effect. Yes there wasn’t enough gravity in that wonderfully subjunctive love song, ‘If I Loved You’, and, yes, that meant that Alexandra Silber and Jeremiah James were failing to displace Joanna Riding and Michael Hayden on my mental hard disk. But by the famous ballet at the end I was won over once again.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian isn’t that keen on the show, never mind this production:
“How good is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel? … Personally, I’ve always thought it a flawed masterwork; and so it proves once again in Lindsay Posner’s well-sung revival which holds one’s attention until the death of the hero, Billy Bigelow, after which the show ascends into the empyrean and the realms of pseudo-art “
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard was enchanted by the production but not too keen on Lesley Garret’s “gross, music hall Nettie”
“Despite Lindsay Posner’s old-fashioned production I was enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s bitter-sweet musical fantasy about missed life-chances in a 1870s New England village … That wonderful designer, William Dudley, initially summons up a fairground carousel that looks unprettily low-rent……. Dudley’s vivid back-projections offer ocean views, ships sailing and, with thrilling illusionary deftness, the spectacle of Billy ascending to heaven’s ‘back-yard’
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph is more impressed and even names Carousel as “one of the greatest of all musicals”
“Most of the principals may not be famous names, but they bring real sincerity and freshness to their roles. Better yet, the cramped stage means that the show often seems to explode with vitality. In that great song of renewal and seething sexuality, ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’, Adam Cooper’s choreography sets the stage alight with high-kicks, dangerous lifts and a testosterone-charged athleticism that is thrilling. Of course, there will always be some who dismiss Carousel as gluttonously sentimental. It is not to everyone’s tastes … By the end of the show, with many in the audience audibly sniffing back the tears, it is clear that justice has been done to one of the greatest of all musicals.”
Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times enjoyed the show but felt the production ignored the darker side of Carousel.
I left the Savoy Theatre with hope in my heart, as the song exhorts, uplifted and unashamed at my immersion in the sentimentality of Lindsay Posner’s production. Only later did I remember that, to achieve this result, he has had to sell the pass on virtually every shadow in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical.
Yes, songs such as “If I Loved You” and the roustabout Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy” are heartbreaking in their yearning, and “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” is an irresistible paean to going forth and multiplying. But, as Alastair Macaulay noted on this page on the show’s last major British revival in 2006 at Chichester, the narrative elements include “unemployment and conventional ideas of feminine decency… male violence to women, excessive gambling and finally a one-parent family”. All of which, in the moment (well, the three hours), manage to glide by insubstantially.
So there you are, mostly they enjoyed Carousel. I’d love to do a round up of blog reviews at this point but there really haven’t been any yet!
Of course, if you’ve been to see Carousel at the Savoy you are welcome to add your opinions here.
** Book Carousel Theatre Breaks **
New Year Theatre Breaks Bargains December 3, 2008
Posted by Andy in : theatre breaks , add a commentNew Year Theatre Breaks
Whilst some people are all caught up in preparations for December others are snapping up New Year Theatre Breaks bargains.
Demand for hotels from business users is slacking slightly, so that means there is some increased capacity available for visitors to London on short UK theatre breaks and many bargains are there to be had in the New Year if you book now.
Bargains to be had for Theatre Breaks in the New Year
One couple landed tickets for Woman in Black with a top hotel and breakfast for less than £70 each in March 2009, and they’re not the first to come away with New Year theatre breaks bargains after searching a few possible dates. Now you might not get that price for something like Hairspray, Jersey Boys or Dirty Dancing theatre breaks on a Saturday night, but the possibilities are definitely there if you are prepared to try a few different combinations. The secret as always is not to be tied to one particular date which isn’t easy if you want to go out and celebrate a wedding anniversary for example. If you must have a specific date then you must, but you could always try asking your partner how they would feel about a big night out and stay over in London on the nearest Wednesday for once 
Book Early for New Year Theatre Breaks
Don’t forget the advance rail fare is discounted by up to 40% if you choose to travel to London the sensible way.
** Search for New Year Theatre Breaks Bargains with show and hotel **
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