Month: September 2018

Star support for London Award Ceremony that seeks to abolish gang violence and street crime

Croydon Conference Centre, Saturday 29 September,

Time: 7-11pm

AAA Foundation Awards – Challenging Behaviours and Changing Lives

www.aaa4success.co.uk

An award and dinner ceremony, with an ambition to tackle gang violence and street crime, will be taking place in London for the 5th year anniversary on 29th September 2018.

AAA (Antoin Akpom Achievements) Foundation is a registered charity set up in memory of Antoin Akpom, a football coach from Leicester, who was tragically murdered in September 2013.  The charity will be hosting the event and nominating young people in deprived communities across various industry categories. Popular rapper and MOBO award winningKrept and Konan have been nominated for an Enterprise Award for their newly opened restaurant, Crepes and Cones.  All categories in the award ceremony are as follows:

• Sports
• Community Contribution Awards
• Enterprise Awards
• Future Star
• Performing Arts

For the first time, AAA Foundation will also be giving special recognition to two individuals who have demonstrated exemplary success and achievements within their sector.   TheHonorary Award, is an accolade that distinguishes the achievements of those that have inspired generations over decades with pioneering qualities and attributes.  The Educational Awards recognises significant services and contribution within in the sector.

The award ceremony has attracted major support since its inception.  This year the Mayor of Croydon, Her Worship Bernadette Khan, who will be opening the ceremony.  Other VIP support at the event include:

• William George Ellis (Actor) Dark Night & Pirates of the Caribbean
• Director of BAFFTA Awards – Dr Pauling London
• Chief Mrs Ezenwanyi Egbunike-Agbakoba
• Lady Lauryn Bouvier

Ms Cheryl Armatrading, set up the AAA Foundation in memory of her son, Antoin.  The Foundation’s aim is to continue his legacy which began as a community enterprise, (AAA Strike 4 Success), using arts and sports as a platform to deter young people from street crime.

Ms Armatrading says, “I am doing this not only for my son’s legacy but also for the youth’s he inspired.  Recognition such as the AAA Foundation Awards can really create change within a community as it is so important that people start to identify with positive achievements and community contribution. Bringing such values and positive dialogue forward can help to inspire, motivate people within deprived areas and naturally move young people away from street crime and gang culture”.

AAA Foundation runs a range of skills development workshops including scriptwriting, drama and acting and prop making events as well as gala award ceremonies fun days to engage young people between the ages of 16yrs – 25yrs to develop key transferable skills and core values.

Event Details

Date: Saturday 29 September

Venue: Croydon Conference Centre, 5 – 9 Surrey Street, CR0 1RG. 

Time: 7pm – 11pm. 

Park Theatre – until 20 October 2018

Reviewed by Adam Craddock

3***

The Other Place’s tale of a strong willed career minded woman slipping into the ugly grasp of dementia is a story that sits very close to my heart, having seen this personally with one of my very close family members and upon seeing that this show was to be playing at The Park Theatre, I got very excited indeed to see what it may hold. “The Other Place” follows Juliana, a scientist and speaker who is struggling with some inner demons that she is incorrectly diagnosing, and her husband Ian, a doctor seeking to find the answers to her problem. The book of the show handles the subject matter truthfully and respectfully given the circumstances but does sometimes suffer from some pacing issues slightly.

Neil McCaul plays strongly as Ian, really showing the troubling tortured life of a person whose spouse has dementia. He had a beautiful mix of anger, pain and blissful ignorance that really resonated with me and stayed extremely true to the truth of what happens in this situation. Eliza Collings did well as “the woman”, with some great character work as the daughter and good control as the doctor. Rupinder Nagra was good as “the man”, working well with what limited stage time he had, although sometimes I feel like he did get swallowed up a bit on stage. However the star of the show was of course Karen Archer as Juliana. Her brilliant slow burn portrayal of a strong woman slipping into dementia was perfect and, greatest of all in my opinion, was that it was delivered with the unexpected dry wit and sass that these people tend to have. Her performance was spot on in my opinion and her breakdown at the end really touched me. Well done Karen! The direction for Claire van Kempen was good, working well with the limited set and lighting that she chose to have and, to be honest, I think that this really made the piece; stripping it back to the basics and just delivering a real story was spot on.

The Other Place runs at the Park Theatre until 20th October.

Storyhouse, Chester – until Saturday 29th September 2018

Reviewed by Julie Noller

5***** 

When I was asked to review The Full Monty, I hoped it would be as iconic as the 1997 smash hit that took UK cinemas by storm. This could be one of the quickest reviews I could possibly write, it surpassed even my expectations, it was simply magnificant. Slick and well polished, the audience whooped with delight, we clapped and cheered. This really is a must see production.

1997 was the year I got married and I noticed more than one “hen” in the audience sporting their veils with pride. I have to admit to being surprised at the number of men happily taking their seats, for you just assume the women would far outnumber them. The Full Monty has been adapted for the stage quite brilliantly by Simon Beaufoy, he manages the transition from screen to stage in a somewhat seamless fashion. I could quite easily believe I was sat in my front room watching the boys learn their craft, such is the joy of Storyhouse.

The Full Monty for those unaware is set in a time of political upheaval in the UK; our first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was at the same time the most revered yet most hated politician ever, this is an era I remember well as a young girl. Strikes and unpopular policies, the declining industries in areas that just expected those industry jobs to always be there as they always had, left men lost and the balance of working practice was starting to shift. This is the power of behind the scenes for this production, forget the big names and music that makes you reminisce; think of all those taboo subjects of the 1980’s given a fresh twist and you see homosexuality, depression, mental illness. Add to those the fact that men just weren’t facing up to reality that the life they had always known was simply gone, never to return. The Full Monty tackles those issues head on, shows us all that there is a way out but you must have a need, want to change and fight for it tooth and nail. Only then do you stand a chance of succeeding.

Each and every actor on that stage deserved their standing ovation. As a team of merry brothers (and sisters) they have bonded wonderfully as if they really had worked together for years, I could quite easily believe that. So many one liners that had me laughing and honestly crying at times, no one left the theatre without a great big smile, what a hoot.

Gary Lucy as Gaz, now I hold my hands up I questioned his accent at first tonight, it was something I couldn’t quite place my finger on. But I soon forgave him, as I was drawn to his bad boy character, a cheeky lad about town, mischief maker, a loving Dad who may not be perfect but you could never doubt the utter devotion for his son Nathan (Fraser Kelly) who happens to be the actual brains of the family, perhaps in another era a chip off the old block. There’s lovable Dave (Kai Owen) the archetypal best mate, getting dragged along in Gaz’s antics. All whilst hiding his own insecurities and emotions from his own wife. Poor old Lomper (Joe Gill) the somewhat simple guy, initially looking to commit suicide, that shocking episode and the humour that follows may make light of a serious topic but it’s a few minutes that do so much to highlight male helplessness. What can I say about Guy (James Redmond) bringing homosexuality to the forefront, brazen and open if you remember the film where he drops his trousers; well he quite literally brought the house and curtains down. Horse (Louis Emerick) would you expect any more than his character to be played with anything other than a scouse accent? Although set in Sheffield, Yorkshire. It just doesn’t appear strange at all. And we accept it happily, almost joyously. He’s rather an old snake hips, well if it wasn’t for the arthritis; amusing really for a wannabe male stripper. Gerald (Andrew Dunn) completes our band of misfits, a former foreman, constantly lying to his wife for six months, that every morning he leaves for work. This is pre internet, pre satellite but you have to question how he managed the pretence. How his pride must have suffered to lose a prestigious job. Yet it ends with him losing everything, home, possessions and his wife. He and the other men come down to the conclusion; that one nights humiliation is nothing for they have nothing.

Could the ending be the highlight of my night, possibly, it’s fun, fast paced and accompanied by Tom Jones. Although I have to say the Job Centre scene accompanied by Donna Summers Hot Stuff, quite easily gives the film a run for its money. You know it’s coming but they delay it, drive up the anticipation. The humour throughout is so very typically British, there will be something for everyone to laugh at. I loved the use of music and dancers for the subtle change of sets. The set itself is simple yet effective and fully believable from working men’s club to long abandoned steel works, with the Sheffield skyline poking through the doors in the dead of night. This play needs congratulating for bringing back memories of a film that won multiple awards and was the highest grossing film of the year. Anyone who was anyone went to watch it and the same should be said for this stage version. If only for the cheeky flash of Gary Lucy’s bum from under his dressing gown, we were already standing up cheering.

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford – until 29 September, then touring

Reviewed by Antonia Hebbert

4****

Two ageing, failing actors stuck in a trailer with nothing to do but bicker – what could possibly go wrong? Even more than you think, actually, when the trailer is on a shifting Icelandic glacier with a volcano erupting underneath. So far, so much fun in this new play by Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer, who also play the sharp-tongued old luvvies, with Lois Chimimba as their harried assistant.

For those of us of a certain age (ahem), Edmondson and Planer are pretty much comedy royalty, who made their names in the 1980s with The Comic Strip and The Young Ones , the scuzzily brilliant sitcom about life in a student house. This play might as well have been called ‘The Old Ones’ – it has a lot of laughs, but it’s also a rather wonderful look back at lives spent in acting, which becomes more and more thoughtful as the play goes on. There are the reliable, perfectly timed jokes you might expect about acting and actors, but we also get an inkling of what it is actually like to spend your life in that world. And we get to hear Planer and Edmondson sing a little, which is charming in a quiet way.

Meanwhile, the volcano is getting hotter. A round of applause, please, for designer Simon Higlett’s beautifully recreated trailer interior, inconveniently placed on the erupting Eyjafjallajökull. Mic Pool (sound) and Murray Gold (music) provide jolly background effects. Steve Marmion directs.

New production by James Wilton Dance will sweep you off your feet

The Storm

Monday 15 October

Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds

theatreleeds.com

James Wilton Dance, one of Europe’s most in-demand dance companies, returns to Leeds next month to present their new production The Storm. From multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed choreographer James Wilton, this is a show guaranteed to blow audiences away, and will be performed at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre on 15 October 2018 for one night only.

Featuring a thundering electro-rock soundtrack and thousands of pieces of paper in a literal storm of confetti, this fusion of acrobatics, breakdance and martial arts is about more than just the weather.Inspired by the psychology of how we process the ‘storm’ of human emotions, seven dancers will explore how we can remain happy and not get swept away by the turbulent, challenging world around us.

Choreographed by Artistic Director James Wilton, who is renowned for creating breathtakingly physical dance works, The Storm is set to an original score composed by prog-rock superstar MichałWojtas, with costumes by Sarah Jane Taylor and lighting design by James Wilton.

James Wilton says: ‘I have always been fascinated by the inner workings of the human mind, in particular how we process and understand emotions. Physically […] our unique blend of martial arts, break dance, capoeira, acrobatics and dance is continually evolving, and The Storm will be the next step of this. It will be more physical, athletic and energised than anything we’ve previously created, but with more softness and texture.’

Tickets for The Storm by James Wilton Dance at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds are onsale now and can be booked online at theatreleeds.com or by calling the Box Office on 0113 220 8008. Tickets are priced at £13.50.

DADAFEST ANNOUNCE THEIR 2018 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

VENUES ACROSS THE LIVERPOOL CITY REGION TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF DISABILITY AND D/DEAF ARTISTS

DaDaFest International returns to Liverpool City Region venues this autumn showcasing a series of high-quality cutting-edge work which challenges stereotypes and celebrate disability and D/deaf cultures.

Comedian Francesca Martinez, theatre-maker and comedian Jess Thom, Stop Gap Dance Company, artists Faith Bebbington, Jonathan Griffith, Simon McKeown and Martin O’Brien, and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Fisher are among the 2018 line-up.

They are part of a busy programme that includes more than 50 exhibitions, performances, talks and workshops by both well-known mainstream audience artists and new emerging artists, all responding to the festival’s theme Passing: What’s your legacy?

Artists have been invited to explore the concepts of ageing, death and disability (passing time) and the changing nature of all our journeys and the legacies we leave (passing on).

The festival will also commemorate the end of the First World War as a key moment for modern recognition of disability as a social construct.

Events will be held at a wide range of venues across the city centre and beyond including St George’s Hall, Royal Court Liverpool, the Bluecoat, Tate Exchange, Constellations, the Unity Theatre and World Museum.

Award-winning artist Simon McKeown’s interactive No Passengers vintage disability cars installation will be seen at St George’s Hall from 21 November – 8 December.

And this year DaDaFest is also expanding its geographical reach with a performance by the acclaimedStop Gap Dance Company taking place at Storyhouse Chester.

Visual art is represented by Gina Czarnecki whose special exhibition of eco-friendly coffins designed by local and national artists Who We Are Now will be staged in the Oratory in the grounds of Liverpool Cathedral from November 1-18.

The Unity will host Jonathan Griffith’s Retrospective throughout the festival period, and the artist will take part in special talks at the theatre on November 20 and in Chester Lane Library in St Helens on November 22.

And Martin O’Brien’s video installation Until The Last Breath is Breathed comes to St George’s Hall from November 21 – December 8. He will also be doing a performance lecture at the same venue on 29 November.

Jess Thom showcases Samuel Beckett’s Not I, the story of a woman’s life told at top speed by a disembodied character, ‘Mouth’, at the Bluecoat on November 23-24.The Touretteshero and Battersea Arts Centre production in association with the Albany sees performer Thom reclaiming Mouth as a disabled character.

Meanwhile laugh-out-loud comedy comes from Francesca Martinez (What the **** Is Normal) at theUnity Theatre on November 23 and to Chester Lane Library in St Helens on November 24. Laurence Clark will also be live at the Unity on November 24 with The Irresponsible Father’s Guide to Parenting.

Finally, DaDaFest team up with Action Transport and Unity Theatre for a seasonal show collaboration, for the highly theatrical and bold retelling of the classic family tale – Beauty and the Beast!

Beauty and the Beast shows that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and that everyone’s attitude can, at times, be beastly!

DaDaFest Artistic Director Ruth Gould said: “I’m delighted by the programme we’re presenting during DaDaFest International 2018. We have some fantastic, absorbing and thought-provoking work developed by hugely talented artists working across a wide range of genres, from dance to visual art, music to comedy.

“The theme of this year’s festival, Passing: What’s your legacy? is a great starting point for conversations, both verbal and artistic, and I’m really looking forward to some exhilarating exchanges of thoughts and ideas over the course of DaDaFest International 2018.

“The programme includes moments that affirm, celebrate and inform on the very essence of what it is to live as people who are disabled, Deaf, young, old and the many interactions and happenings that we encounter as we journey through life. We all have stories, we all matter as we all part of the human race.”

See the full programme at www.dadafest.co.uk/eventsFollow @DaDaFest on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook #DaDaFest18

DaDaFest International talks and workshops programme will be announced 10 October.

FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR

SHEFFIELD THEATRES AND OUT OF JOINT’S CO-PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD PREMIÈRE OF KATE BOWEN’S CLOSE QUARTERS

STUDIO

A Sheffield Theatres and Out of Joint Co-Production

World Première

CLOSE QUARTERS

By Kate Bowen

25 October – 10 November 2018

Director: Kate Wasserberg; Designer: Max Jones; Lighting Designer: Sarah Jane Shiels

Composer & Sound Designer: Dyfan Jones

Casting Directors: Sooki McShane CDG & Lucy Jenkins CDG; Fight/movement Director: RC-Annie LTD

Sheffield Theatres and Out of Joint today announce the full cast for their co-production of the world première of Kate Bowen’s Close Quarters. Kate Wasserberg directs Ruby Barker (Private Sarah Findlay), Bradley Banton(Sergent Adeyemi), Chloe-Ann Tylor (Private Alison Cormack), Dylan Wood (Lance Corporal Brian Armstrong), Sophie Melville (Private Clare Davies) and Kathryn O’Reilly (Captain Anna Sands). The production opens on 29 October, with previews from 25 October, and runs until 10 November.

“You were the only folk out of five thousand who got through – you’re legit badass.”

Cormack, Findlay and Davies are the elite. They are the first generation of female soldiers to serve in the British infantry in close combat roles, ever. They’ve aced physical tests only 5% of female soldiers can pass; they’ve been trained to shoot, fight and kill. They’ve proven their exceptional skill and discipline – while everyone around them questions whether they should even be allowed to serve. And now they’re about to join the action.

Kate Bowen’s taut, funny and powerful play follows three very different, pioneering young women in the world’s most dangerous workplace.

Kate Bowen’s debut play Shutter Speed was developed and workshopped by the National Theatre of Scotland/Dundee Rep company in 2011. Her other writing includes Super Sunday, a Five Minute Theatre piece for National Theatre Scotland, the audio play The Prize Fighter (part of the Traverse 50 programme at the Traverse Theatre), and The Lawyers for Play, Pie and a Pint’s Three Minute Theatre project in Glasgow. Bowen was winner of the Playwright’s Studio Scotland New Writer’s Award in 2012, awarded a place on the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme Bursary to work with Out of Joint throughout 2017, and last year given a place on the National Theatre of Scotland’s Starter for Ten scheme to develop a new project, Stunt.

Ruby Barker plays Private Sarah Findlay. Her theatre work includes York Mystery Plays (York Minster) and Mankind (Hidden Theatre Company). For television, her work includes Wolfblood; and for film, The Banana Dream.

Bradley Banton plays Sergent Adeyemi. His theatre work includes The Island (Linbury Studio). His television work includes Vera; and for film, His House and Judy.

Chloe-Ann Tylor plays Private Alison Cormack. For theatre, her work includes Hansel and Gretel, Trainspotting(Citizens Theatre), The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), The Merchant of Venice (Bard in the Botanics) and Titus Andronicus (Dundee Rep).

Dylan Wood plays Lance Corporal Brian Armstrong. For theatre, his work includes Teddy (The Watermill Theatre and UK tour), Electric Eden (Shanghai Arts Festival/Not Too Tame Theatre Company) and Julius Caesar(Edinburgh Festival); and a short film, In the Night.

Sophie Melville plays Private Clare Davies. For theatre her work includes Iphigenia in Splott (Sherman Theatre, National Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), Romeo and Juliet (Sherman Theatre), Under Milk Wood (Theatr Clwyd), The Shape of Things, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, See How They Run (Theatre by the Lake) and Romeo and Juliet (Sam Wanamaker Festival).

Kathryn O’Reilly plays Captain Anna Sands. Her theatre work includes Arms and the Man (Watford Palace Theatre), Caught, hamlet is dead. no gravity (Arcola Theatre), Rift (Brewhouse Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Trafalgar Studios), Lover on the Tracks (Soho Theatre), Oedipus (national tour), Don Juan (Rose Theatre), and A View from Islington North and Our Country’s Good (Out of Joint). Her television work includes Random, Call the Midwife, Rough Justice and The Watcher; and for film, The Little Stranger, Zebra Crossing and Halal Harry.

Kate Wasserberg is Artistic Director of Out of Joint for whom she has directed Rita, Sue and Bob, Too (Bolton Octagon, Royal Court Theatre and tour). She was the founding Artistic Director of The Other Room in Cardiff, where her directing credits included The Dying of Today, Play/Silence, Sand and Seanmhair. Her other directing credits include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Glengarry Glen Ross, Roots, Gaslight, The Glass Menagerie and A History of Falling Things (as Associate Director for Theatre Clwyd), All My Sons and Insignificance (Theatre Clwyd), The Barnbow Canaries (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Ten Weeks (Paines Plough), The Knowledge (Dirty Protest at the Royal Court Theatre) and Saturday Night Forever (Aberystwyth Arts Centre/Edinburgh).

www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Twitter: @crucibletheatre @SheffieldLyceum

TICKETS FOR THE HIT BROADWAY MUSICAL GO ON GENERAL SALE TOMORROW

Book by Jessie Nelson
Music and lyrics by six-time Grammy Award-nominee Sara Bareilles
Based upon the motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly
Directed by Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus

• Playing at London’s Adelphi Theatre from 8 February 2018
• Waitress serves up the first all-female lead creative team on a West End musical
• Tickets on general sale from 10:00am on Tuesday 25 September via waitressthemusical.co.uk

Tickets will go on general sale for the UK premiere of the Tony Award-nominated Waitress tomorrow, Tuesday 25 September at 10:00am. The smash hit Broadway musical will begin preview performances on 8 February ahead of its official opening night on 7 March at London’s Adelphi Theatre. Currently playing its third year on Broadway, Waitress will bring with it an all-female lead creative team – a West End musical first.

Waitress opened on 24 April 2016 at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theater. Based on the 2007 motion picture written by Adrienne Shelly, Waitress was the first Broadway musical in history to have four women in the four top creative team spots, with a book by Jessie Nelson, a score by six-time Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, choreography by Lorin Latarro and direction by Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus. The production is currently touring the US and has also recently announced it will have its Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Waitress tells the story of Jenna, an expert pie maker in a small town, who dreams of a way out of her loveless marriage. A baking contest in a nearby county and the town’s new doctor may offer her a chance at a new life, while her fellow waitresses offer their own recipes to happiness. But Jenna must find the courage and strength within herself to rebuild her life. This American musical celebrates friendship, motherhood, and the magic of a well-made pie.

On its Broadway opening, Waitress was nominated for four Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical; two Drama League Award Nominations, including Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical; six Drama Desk Nominations, including Outstanding Musical; and four Tony Award Nominations, including Best Musical.

Waitress is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler and Norton and Elayne Herrick.

LISTINGS

WAITRESS
The Adelphi Theatre
The Strand,
London WC2R 0NS

Performances from Friday 8 February
Opening night: Friday 7 March

Monday – Saturday evenings at 7.30pm
Wednesday & Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

24 Hour Telephone Booking line:
020 7087 7753

waitressthemusical.co.uk

Twitter: @WaitressLondon
Facebook: Waitress the Musical – London
Instagram: @WaitressLondon

www.carolineorchange.co.uk | @carolinewestend

FULL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR THE WEST END PRODUCTION
STARRING OLIVIER AWARD-WINNER SHARON D. CLARKE

NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE RELEASED HERE

Ambassador Theatre Group, Gavin Kalin Productions, Glass Half Full Productions and Rupert Gavin
In association with Hampstead Theatre 
Present
The Chichester Festival Theatre Production of

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
Book and lyrics by TONY KUSHNER
Music by JEANINE TESORI
Directed by MICHAEL LONGHURST

Playhouse Theatre, London from 20 November 2018 to 9 February 2019 following sold out engagements at Chichester Festival Theatre and Hampstead Theatre.

Full casting has been announced for Caroline, Or Change, the celebrated musical written by Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America, with a soaring score from Tony Award-winning Jeanine Tesori, which will run at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre from 20 November 2018 to 9 February 2019.

As previously announced, the cast will be led by Olivier Award-winning actress Sharon D. Clarke in a critically acclaimed virtuoso performance as Caroline Thibodeaux. She will be joined by Naana Agyei-Ampadu, Keisha Amponsa Banson, Alastair Brookshaw, Me’sha Bryan, Angela Caesar, Dujonna Gift-Simms, Sue Kelvin, Teddy Kempner, Ako Mitchell, Abiona Omonua, Vincent Pirillo, Tanisha Spring and Lauren Ward with Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, Zalika Henry, Laura Medforth, Timothy Quinlan and Teddy Wills.

Nine young performers have been cast in the roles of Noah, Jackie and Joe. Isaac Forward, Aaron Gelkoff and Jack Meredith will alternate the role of Noah, Mark Mwangi, Kenya Sandy and Jeremiah Waysome will alternate the role of Jackie and the role of Joe will be alternated by Josiah Choto, David Dube and Raphael Higgins-Hume.

Directed by Michael Longhurst, this five-star production received phenomenal critical praise when it opened with sold out engagements at Chichester Festival Theatre and again at the Hampstead Theatre.

Louisiana, 1963. Revolution is in the air, though not so much for Caroline, the poorly paid maid toiling endlessly in the sweltering basement of the Gellman household. It’s a fantastical, magical place amidst the piles of laundry and singing washing machines, especially for eight-year-old Noah Gellman who sneaks downstairs to see her whenever he can. Yet a simple gesture to leave more money in Caroline’s pocket is about to test who and how far the winds of change can ever really reach…

Winner of the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Musical, Caroline, Or Change is a playful, funny, and deeply moving portrait of America at a time of momentous social upheaval, set to an uplifting and profound score of soul, blues, classical and traditional Jewish folk music.

Olivier Award-winner Sharon D. Clarke is to reprise her critically-hailed performance in the role of Caroline Thibodeaux. Clarke has enjoyed a long established stage career with credits including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Amen Corner (National Theatre), Ghost The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre), The Life (Southwark Playhouse), Porgy and Bess (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre),Hairspray (Shaftesbury Theatre) and We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre). On TV, Clarke is known for playing Lola Griffin in BBC’s Holby City and from 7 October 2018 will guest star in the brand new series of Doctor Who.

Naana Agyei-Ampadu’s theatre credits include Avenue Q (Noël Coward Theatre), Che Walker’s The Frontline and Measure for Measure (Shakespeare’s Globe), Been So Long (Young Vic: Evening Standard Award nomination) and Feast (Young Vic).

Keisha Amponsa Banson’s previous West End credits include Motown: The Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Pajama Game (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Old Vic/ Shaftesbury Theatre), From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre) and The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre).

Alastair Brookshaw’s previous theatre credits include A Little Night Music (The Watermill), She Loves Me (Menier Chocolate Theatre), The Grand Tour (Finborough Theatre) and De Profundis (Leicester Square Theatre).

Me’sha Bryan is a singer, songwriter and actor whose recent theatre credits include As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Desire Under The Elms (Sheffield Crucible), The Lion King (UK tour), The Little Shop of Horrors (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Ragtime (Piccadilly Theatre).

Angela Caesar’s theatre credits include Orlando and the Three Graces, Clown, and Into the Forest, (Theatre Peckham), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Porgy and Bess (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Phantom of the Opera (UK tour) Carmen Jones (Royal Festival Hall), An African Cargo (Nitro Theatre Company). Opera credits include Heart of Darkness (ROH), Knight Crew (Glyndebourne), Varjak Paw (The Old Vic) and The Silent Twins (Almeida Theatre).

Dujonna Gift-Simms made her West End debut in Motown: The Musical.

Sue Kelvin’s theatre credits include Wicked (Apollo Victoria), Private Lives (Gielgud Theatre), Travelling Light and A Streetcar Names Desire (National Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy Theatre), Chicago (Cambridge Theatre and Adelphi Theatre),  Beau Jest (Hackney Empire), Oliver! (London Palladium), Assassins (Donmar Warehouse) and Les Misérables (Palace Theatre).

Teddy Kempner’s theatre credits include Driving Miss Daisy (Theatre Royal Bath/ UK Tour), The Trial and The Bourgeois Gentilhomme (National Theatre),  A Month in the Country, How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying, and Six Pictures of Lee Miller (Chichester Festival Theatre), Pacific Overtures (Donmar Warehouse),  Measure for Measure and Habeas Corpus (Peter Hall Company), Nicholas Nickleby (RSC, London and New York), The Three Sisters, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, The Suicide (all RSC), and Snoopy in Snoopy (Duchess Theatre: Olivier Award nomination).

Ako Mitchell is an actor and filmmaker whose theatre credits include Guys and Dolls and Little Shop of Horrors (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Wild Party (The Other Palace), Ragtime(Charing Cross Theatre), Fences (Duchess Theatre) and the role of Mufasa in The Lion King(Lyceum Theatre).

Abiona Omonua’s theatre credits include Guys and Dolls (Manchester Royal Exchange),Hamlet (Tara Arts), Soul (Royal & Derngate and Hackney Empire), Dessa Rose (Trafalgar Studios), The Color Purple (Menier Chocolate Factory), Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre), Parade (Southwark Playhouse), Hairspray (original UK tour), and Hot Mikado (The Watermill).

Vincent Pirillo is an actor and Opera singer whose theatre credits include She Loves Me (Menier Chocolate Factory), The Phantom of the Opera (UK Tour), Sweeney Todd (Chichester Festival Theatre), Inherit the Wind (The Old Vic) and Fiddler on the Roof (Sheffield Crucible/ Savoy Theatre).

Tanisha Spring‘s theatre credits include Tina (Aldwych Theatre), Big Fish (The Other Palace),One Love: The Bob Marley Musical (Birmingham Rep) and Beautiful (Aldwych Theatre).

Lauren Ward’s theatre credits include Matilda (Cambridge Theatre and RSC/Courtyard Theatre), The Sound of Music (London Palladium), The Philadelphia Story (The Old Vic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Camelot (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Winter’s Tale and Pericles (RSC). Broadway credits include Matilda (Shubert Theatre: Tony Award nomination), Follies (Balasco Theatre) and 1776 (Gershwin Theatre: Drama League Award winner, Drama Desk Award nomination).

Ambassador Theatre Group, Gavin Kalin Productions, Glass Half Full Productionsand Rupert Gavin, in association with Hampstead Theatre, present the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Caroline, Or Change. Book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music byJeanine Tesori and is directed by Michael Longhurst, with designs by Fly Davis, choreography by Ann Yee, musical direction by Nigel Lilley, lighting by Jack Knowles, sound by Paul Arditti, casting by Charlotte Sutton CDG and children’s casting by Debbie O’Brien.

LISTINGS

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
Book and lyrics by TONY KUSHNER
Music by JEANINE TESORI
Directed by MICHAEL LONGHURST
Starring SHARON D. CLARKE 

Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5DE

www.carolineorchange.co.uk | @carolinewestend

Performance schedule:

First performance: 20 November 2018
Final performance: 9 February 2019

Monday to Saturday performances at 7.30pm
Thursday and Saturday matinee performances at 2.30pm
Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes including one interval

Box office details:

Website: www.carolineorchange.co.uk
Telephone: 0844 871 7631
Prices from £20