London Theatre Breaks
Happy New Year London Theatre Breaks
A Very Happy New Year for 2010 from Andy and Linda at the London Theatre Breaks blog.
We’re looking forward to another year of West End ins and outs, hits and flops, make or breaks and helping thousands of people to choose how best to have happy time in London by taking in a classic musical or play and staying in our fabulous capital city where there’s always something for everyone. To wrap up the year, here’s a repost of most of Linda’s 2009 review as published earlier on the Theatre Breaks magazine blog:
The West End Shows
In terms of shows one or two have closed early but the old favourites like We Will Rock You carry on. Avenue Q was saved from oblivion by popular demand and has moved to a new theatre. The Lion King is as popular as ever and proudly boasts that it is so well booked that it has NEVER released tickets to the reduced ticket agencies.
Some good shows reached the end of their natural life and wonderful though Spamalot was it really was time for it to say goodbye. It’s been replaced by Priscilla and that has been a fair swap. Carousel never really quite hit the spot and its closure wasn’t any great surprise. It was sad to see the end of Cabaret and a shame they couldn’t take a leaf out of Chicago’s book and find a constant stream of new familiar faces to keep us going back. Joseph went too and no doubt was mourned by thousands of Lee Mead’s fans but it was another how that seemed ready to go. No doubt it will be back someday.
One show I thought should have done better was Spring Awakening, which I just loved. All that energy and a theatre full of young people the night we went. I felt positively ancient, and that’s a good thing! (honest!)
Oliver has of course been a total triumph with Jodie Prenger making a real name for herself. Who would have thought she’d still be there doing 8 shows a week nearly a year later? What a star. I saw her at West End live this year and she has a super voice and a lovely stage presence. She managed to upstage Christopher Biggins, to great comic effect and that takes some talent for comedy! I think we’ll see more of Jodie once she moves on but for now she seems happy where she is. She’s on her 3rd Fagin and this is the one I’d really like to see. I think Griff Reese Jones will make a great Fagin and be well worth the trip.
Hairspray has seen some major changes with the departure of Micheal Ball. Still Phil Jupitous is doing a grand job and Brain Connely was very well recieved in the part. I wonder how long Micheal will stay away, I’m sure I heard somewhere that he’s thinking of coming back to Edna. We hope!
Wicked is going from strength to strength and is the most popular musical at this witchy time of year. Kerry Ellis is just a distant memory now and Alexia Kadhim has made her own interpreation of Elphaba. I think she has a lovely voice, quite different to Kerry’s but wonderful all the same:
New year shows coming into the West End and available for theatre breaks include Legally Blonde which I was less than keen on when first announced. Since then I’ve had a good look at the videos on youtube and listened to the cast recordings and I might just change my mind. It might be fun and has the sort of casting that makes me want to see it.
What to say about Love Never dies (apart from “I can’t wait!!”)? Well it’s definitely going to be a huge event and it should be a spectacular in the best Andrew Lloyd Webber tradition. The Coney Island setting should give it a great atmosphere, you know how creepy fairgrounds can be. We’ve all seen Scoobydoo 
It’s got two faboulous stars in Sarah Boggess and Ramin Karimaloo (I’ve been doing this so long I can now spell these names without flinching!)
Have a wonderful 2010 everybody!
La Cage aux Folles
La Cage aux Folles, London
La Cage aux Folles is not just another musical with drag queens it actually stated out as a play. Then it became a film and now a West End musical which starred Graham Norton. Now John Barrowman and Simon Burke lead the cast in a return of the surprise success story of the summer, and the show will go on after that from November 30th 2009 to January 2nd 2010.
The story of Georges and Albin is both touching and ultimately uplifting.
Albin the dazzling drag artiste is the star of the La Cage aux Folles club, but the night life is threatened when Georges’ son announces his engagement to the daughter of a right-wing politician, who wants to close it down. Drastic action needs to be taken!
So it’s a feel good musical with a great story, and incredible dance performances from the whole cast. All in all La Cage Aux Folles could make an interesting complement to the larger scale show which is also getting a lot of attention this summer – Priscilla Queen of The Desert.
Graham Norton ended his run in May but you can also book theatre breaks to see La Cage Aux Folles right up to New Year. with John Barrowman starring until November 28th.
La Cage Aux Folles
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard for London Theatre Breaks
London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
** book London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard **
Arcadia has been described as Tom Stoppard`s richest and most ravishing comedy. It’s a truly dazzling and also witty masterpiece of a play, full of human misunderstandings and a genuine quest for knowledge which resonates down through the centuries. David Leveaux directs Arcadia at the Duke of York’s Theatre , and his other recent West End and Broadway collaborations with Tom Stoppard include The Real Thing and Jumpers. Arcadia is the first major revival of this brilliant play since its premiere at the National Theatre in 1993.
The cast includes Samantha Bond, Nancy Carroll, Jessie Cave, Neil Pearson, Dan Stevens and Ed Stoppard – yes, some relation.
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard – the setting
The setting takes us immediately away from St Martin’s Lane in London where we enter the theatre, way back to April 1809 at a stately home in Derbyshire, the heart of the English East Midlands. Thomasina is a gifted pupil who proposes a startling new theory, way beyond her comprehension. All around her the adults, including her tutor Septimus, are preoccupied with secret desires, illicit passions and professional rivalries. In a parallel universe two hundred years later, academic rivals Hannah and Bernard are piecing together the clues and puzzling over those events of 1809 in their search for the baffling truth about the matter as the relationship between past and present provides some unique conclusions and further questions.
London Theatre Breaks for Summer 2009
Two writers whose plays can be relied on in the testing West End are Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter so don’t miss the chance to catch Arcadia, a remarkable and wonderfully funny play by one of the world’s greatest writers, only available for London theatre breaks during the short summer season.
** book London Theatre Breaks to see Arcadia by Tom Stoppard **
Duet For One
30th June – 1st August 2009
Stephanie Abrahams, a brilliant concert violinist, who seemingly has it all, is forced to re-evaluate her life when struck down by an unforeseen tragedy. Faced with a truth too difficult to comprehend she consults psychiatrist Dr Feldmann and through a series of highly charged encounters is led to examine her deepest emotions and finally to consider a future without music.
Matthew Lloyd’s production stars Juliet Stevenson and Henry Goodman.
Come Dancing UK Tour Announced
Ray Davies’ wonderful musical Come Dancing, which we loved so much we saw it twice at Stratford last year, has just announced a UK tour! The tour starts in January at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, Kent from from Thursday 21 January 2010 to Saturday 30 January 2010 and tickets are already on sale.
The cast is said to be substantially unchanged but there’s no sign of our favourite, Gemma Salter, on the introduction to the new, currently unfinished, Come Dancing web site. It will be a bit of a shame if she isn’t going to play the lead as she really made that part her own.
Meanwhile here’s the lovely Gemma Salter and the rest of the cast doing their thing at Statford East Theatre Royal last year:
Hopefully the UK tour will lead to a transfer to the West End, where Come Dancing surely belongs.
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music in the West End
Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music is an elegant waltz time musical which transferred to the West End’s Garrick Theatre in April after an acclaimed run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Based on Ingmar Berman’s film, Smiles of a Summer Night, A Little Night Music the musical is set in Sweden at the turn of the century. A romantic and heartfelt piece of theatre, A Little Night Music contains the much-loved song Send in the Clowns.
The cast includes
- Maureen Lipman as Madame Armfeldt an elderly lady who has had a highly successful career as a courtesan and Desiree’s mother.
- Hannah Waddingham as Desiree a young and fairly self-absrobed actress who largely neglects her own duty as a mother.
- Jessie Buckley as Anne, the pretty young wife of Fredrick who is naive and obsessed by material trinkets and new dresses.
Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley was a popular contestant on the BBC’s I’d Do Anything, coming second in the contest to find the new Nancy for Oliver. A Little Night Music marks Jessie’s professional debut.
A Little Night Music Theatre Breaks
Theatre Breaks to see A Little Night Music are available up until September 5th 2009
London Theatre Breaks in Spring And Summer
Springtime London Theatre Breaks
I love London in the springtime when I can spend more time outdoors, like along the river banks or in the parks. You would love it here also if you came for a London theatre break in April May or June.
It’s true that many activities in the great city of London generally transcends seasonality but not everything. A river trip on one of the pleasure boats on a day when you can sit out on deck without wrapping up in weatherpoof coats and hats for example is a quite different experience to the wintertime.
Inside the London theatres it’s nice because people aren’t at all encumbered with heavy coats and can walk straight past the cloakroom. This makes interval easier too.
Then when the show has reached its grand climax and the cast have taken their last bows, when you exit onto the London streets it’s still nice enough for a stroll around around theatreland and there may even be a tiny bit of dusky daylight left before night breaks.
London Theatre Breaks in High Summer
In the high summer months of July and August, London Theatre Breaks are all about escapism. Some of the local Londoners will have escaped too, but the city is far from deserted. Be prepared to meet crocodiles of Italian teenagers on English language breaks, and people from the far north of the UK for whom anywhere further south of England would be simply too hot at this time of year. London has become very much more of an outdoor city in recent years, with continental style pavement terraces outside nearly every restaurant, cafe or pub that can find the tiniest bit of space on the street. The coolest place though, is always by the river and if you are in the West End vicinity near the theatres you can always nip down by the embankment to catch the maritime atmosphere and refreshing breezes. Walk over the pedestrian bridges to see what the Thames looks like from right n the middle – that’s always a romantic thing to do when the banks are lit up at night.
Top Shows for London Theatre Breaks in Spring and Summer
These are just suggestions of course, you’ll want to go and see whichever show you’ve been hankering after but for couples there is always an element of negotiation involved when deciding which musical or play is to be the centrepiece of a long awaited London theatre break.
- Priscilla Queen of The Desert – This is the new show in the prestigious Palace Theatre where Spamalot and Les Miserables used to be. It’s not a new production though, it’s been running for years in Australia and the music is full of 1970’s dance hits
- We Will Rock You – still great and still turning theatre audiences into a rock concert crowd each night and packing them in. But there are persistent rumours of the show reaching the end of its natural run so definitely worth seeing now or also worth seeing again.
- Hairspray – As Billy Conley takes over from Michael Ball as Edna, Hairspray demonstrates this is a great musical whose popularity has legs.
- Dirty Dancing and Grease – Two shows that are both about the summer with all that means for youthful love.
** Book London Theatre Breaks **
Gareth Gates as Joseph – Close Every Door
Here’s a video of Gareth Gates as Joseph singing “Close Every Door” on the Alan Titchmarsh show last week, in case you missed it:
Don’t forget, you only have until 30th May 2009 to see Gareth in Joseph at the Adelphi theatre in London.
Andrew Lloyd-Webber attacks the Internet
Musical theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd-Webber has railed against the internet broadband suppliers in the House of Lords for profiting from customers who share digital music – so called internet piracy, and urged the government to clamp down hard.
What I Think
I don’t mind a bit of eccentricity but LLoyd Webber is braying like a dinosaur at the small and furry ones. He’s desperate to preserve something called “The music Industry” at a time when the number of people who have access to the means to create music and reach new audiences has massively multiplied. But these are not the kind of ‘creatives’ he’s interested in, only the industrial megastars with their sanitised overproduced market segment targeted version of music.
His argument that without the contrived scarcity of monopolistic media industry giants generating profits for shareholders and large numbers of managers and marketers, then creative people would simply stop creating is clearly nonsense.
Lloyd-Webber said investment in higher speed broadband networks should be delayed until “there is a sustainable commercial arrangement for those creative works on which these new networks depend”, suggesting unregulated higher bandwidth would mean the film industry would suffer the same fate as the record business.
He wants to maintain a system which means that a very small number of manufactured “Stars” generate the lion’s share of the income so that the old fashioned media industries and all their hangers-on can continue to enjoy their lifestyles off the back of a restricted set of safe and successful artists. He’s using his position in the unelected House of Lords to urge The government to put try to put the internet genie back into a bottle, to stop a whole generation of people who have grown up with technology, from applying their own innovations and using the social media freely as a they have become accustomed to do so.
He might as well have been speaking at the annual dinner of the flat earth society.
The record industry has contracted largely due to its own inability to adapt to the changes in business model which the new media enables. Trying to slap government restrictions onto the digital peer to peer channels is like trying to prop up the hot metal print industry long after digital desktop publishing has been invented. Did the art of creative writing die and all the writers stop writing when the old system was replaced? No, they adapted and prospered and so will the songwriters, musicians and creative entertainers find new and different ways to earn a living in the digital age, it’s just that the shape of the pyramid structure that grew around the old system might have to change somewhat.
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