Never Forget – London theatre breaks

Great news for Take That fans who haven’t had a chance yet to see Never Forget or anybody who wants to plan a nineties music night out. It’s one of the shows qualifying for the free hotel offer with midweek London theatre breaks in August 2008.

This means you can get an inclusive theatre and hotel deal with top tickets to see Never Forget at the Savoy Theatre for as little as £54.50 per person, and this includes a one night stay in a three star hotel in London.

For more details, read the London Hotel Deals page here at London theatre breaks or else head straight on over to book now.

Never Forget is a musical show based on the greatest hits of reformed Nineties boyband Take That. It will run at the Savoy Theatre until 15 November 2008, when it transfers to another West End venue for Christmas followed by an open-ended run in the new year.

Cast members from Never Forget performed at West End Live

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Producers of Never Forget, the Take That musical, have ended speculation by announcing that the show will transfer to the Lyric Theatre on November 20.

The show is currently playing at the Savoy Theatre, but will move out to make way for the new production of Carousel starring Lesley Garret, which starts previews on November 22. The Stage says producers have described this as a “permanent transfer”, so that’s one mystery solved.

The final performance at the Savoy will be on November 15.

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Free London Hotel Deals

The summer sale at Show and Stay continues with the craziest London hotel deals for August. They are actually giving away one night’s stay in a posh London hotel for absolutely nothing! I don’t know how they can do it, its just mad. The only snag is that you have to sit through an entire performance at one of the West End’s top musicals. Better choose wisely then!

The Deal

It’s your chance to spend a free night in a three star London hotel after a great night out, just by buying theatre tickets for a weekday (yes, that includes Friday nights) in August 2008 out of a range of eleven of the best West End musicals or two plays (see below). In fact the offer extends right up until Friday 5th of September so this could also be very interesting to those who live just close enough to London to get home after a night out, but would relish the opportunity to stay over and do something in London the next day. You could turn an enjoyable evening at the theatre into an unforgettable city break for as little as £42.50 per person. That price would be for two people seeing The 39 Steps and then sharing a double room at the Jury’s Inn Islington.

The Hotels

You can stay in a 3* hotel from amongst the prestigious list available at Show and Stay. Some of these are closer to Theatreland whilst others are in the popular South Kensington area – it’s up to you. Or you could upgrade to a luxurious Four Star Hotel for as little as ten pounds. What?!? Ten pounds is just ridiculous, I mean you probably couldn’t get a dingy bed and breakfast in drizzly Morecombe for that price! We’re talking about prestigious international style Hotels in central London, where the jet set business community stay over and celebrities hang out.

The shows

These are the popular shows included in the free london hotel offer, together with the total inclusive show and hotel deal price per person (including a £5 supplement for the first three shows listed)

• We Will Rock You – £60 Rock On! book
• The Sound of Music – £60 book
• Billy Elliot – £65 book
• Never Forget – £54.50 Take That! book
• Chicago – £52.50 book
• Spamalot – £55 Monty Python’s hit comedy musical book
• Blood Brothers – £50 book
• Female of the Species – £47.50 *comedy book
• Marguerite – £60 book *recommended classy new musical at the Haymarket
• The 39 Steps – £42.50 book
• Buddy – £55 Rave on book
• Zorro – £55 book *recommended for the fantastic flamenco music and special effects
• Stomp – £45 book

Click on any of the shows above for more information or here to transfer to the special page on the booking site. All you have to do to get the free London hotel deals is to keep within the 13 qualifying shows, choose a weekday before September 7th 2008 and then pick one of the first hotels that comes up, with the golden “offer hotel” badge. then start looking forward to your best ever summer theatre break in London. Have a good one.

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West End LIVE 2008 is a free outdoor event taking place in Leicester Square this coming Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd June. From 11am on Saturday and 12noon Sunday, the best of what the West End has to offer is showcased live in front of an audience of anybody who is in the area or can make the time to drop by.

For the running order on both Saturday and Sunday please see our new post: West End Live 2008 Running Order

The spectacle includes performances from many of the top West End shows, alongside other great musical acts and some interactive displays and exhibits from London’s Museums and attractions.

For further details you could try visiting www.westendlive.co.uk but when I went the spectacular scrolling banner display at the top froze my browser for minutes before I could regain control so you might want to read the page at Show and Stay’s Theatre News instead.

Shows performing on the main stage:
The 39 Steps
Avenue Q
Brief Encounter
Buddy
Chicago
Dickens Unplugged
Dirty Dancing
Divas
Grease
High School Musical
Into The Hoods
Jersey Boys
Joseph
The Lord of the Rings
Mamma Mia!
Never Forget
The Sound of Music
Stomp
We Will Rock You
Wicked

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Never Forget (Take That musical) opened a couple of days ago. I’d been wondering how it was going and today I found out. I got chatting to someone in the local coffee shop who turned out to have been at the second preview on Thursday.
She isn’t a big Take That fan but she was very favourably impressed. She thought the production was quite slick and had some great special effects. She particularly liked this rain sequence for ‘Back for Good’:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Apparently Re-light My Fire has a great fire effect in the background too, very realistic.

It seems the story is well written and funny, although she was a bit worried by the slightly xenophobic portrayal of one of the tribute band as a comedy Spaniard. Too many funny foreign accent jokes wore thin and made her slightly uncomfortable. Still the story in general was good with a mix of dramatic moments along with the comedy.

As you might expect with a Take That theme there were quite a few dance numbers in the show. She particularly liked the one the Salsa Bar in Act 1 – high energy and sexy
She was surprised to discover that, just like all the Take That fans in the audience, she knew all the words to many of the songs including ‘A Million Love Songs’. In fact she said it was surprising that she recognised and remembered so many of the songs, just shows what a big influence popular music has even when we don’t realise it.

Anyway, on Thursday the Never Forget cast got a spontaneous standing ovation from a packed house. She said the whole thing was a huge buzz

Never Forget DVD via amazon:

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Never Forget

Originally uploaded by Andyrob

Never Forget the new musical at the Savoy theatre is being promoted around London now, ready for the previews and opening in May.

The new musical with the songs of Take That

A million love songs and a happy ending!

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The researchers at the Show and Stay blog have been busy finding out about the background of some of the potential Nancys for the new production of Oliver. (No tickets yet but watch this space!)

Jodie Prenger lost all that weight she mentioned on a reality tv show, Katie Rowley-Jones is currently appearing in Wicked (no great recommendation in my book . ) They’ve also managed to spot someone with even more experience, Francesca Jackson

not only did Francesca play Joanne in West End’s RENT but she also starred alongside none other than DENISE VAN OUTEN! For those of you who don’t know RENT, Joanne (Francesca) is Maureen’s (Denise) girlfriend which means they had to portray an intimate relationship on stage and kiss each other 7 nights a week. One has to ask – how the bloody hell can Denise vote fairly on Francesca when only a few months ago she had her tongue down her neck? Well I’d Do Anything fans, as always, we’ll just have to see how this one pans out!

I have to say I agree, although I’d probably been a little more delicate in phrasing it

Of course our eagle-eyed readers had already spotted Nancy Sullivan on the Never Forget DVD

So come on readers, who else on this list of potential Nancys has more TV or stage experience than we might have been led to believe?

(source Show and Stay )

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Never forget is a musical based around an unlikely Take That tribute band and their adventures as they pretend their way into and out of the limelight. We should expect a fair bit of Northern wit from the book which has been written by Danny Brocklehurst. Brocklehust is probably best known for his TV work with writing credits for Shameless and Clocking Off so don’t be surprised if it’s not totally suitable for a very young audience! These Manchester lads are going to be rough diamonds I think
The music will be mostly Take That hits, of course which should make it a nostalgia fest for those of a certain age, not to mention those who were a little older but still became big fans of the boys Don’t forget (lol Never forget!) Take that sold over 15 million records in their heyday (90-96) and they were back in the charts in 2007, with the number one hit Shine. (Without Robbie )

All of this bodes well for the musical which will feature all the hits including “Relight My Fire”, “Pray”, and of course, “Never Forget”.

Cast

Dean Chisnall who plays leading man Ash, Craig Els, Stephane Aneli, Tim Driesen and Eaton James are all coming to the West End with the production.

Where and When

The Savoy Theatre
Pre-views from May 7th 2008
Opening night May 21st 2008

Sneaky Peek

If you can’t wait you could always buy the DVD of the Manchester production, with lots of lovely interviews as well!

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Fiddler on the Roof, is to close on 16th February at the Savoy Theatre.

It has been running for nine months. The replacement show in May will be the “Take That” musical “Never Forget”

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Never Forget is the title of a new musical based on the songs of 80’s boy band Take That, which opens at the Savoy theatre on the Strand on 21 May 2008.

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