Category: Uncategorized

Grand Opera House York – Wednesday 25 September 2019

Reviewed by Michelle Richardson

3***

Back in the sixties Billy Fury enjoyed success, with several hits in the charts. With some two dozen hit singles he was frequently referred to as “Britain’s Elvis”. Though painfully shy off stage, he had a magnetic on stage presence, blessed with good looks, a great voice and a mix of sexual rebel and a vulnerable little boy, a killer combination. Unfortunately, with this winning formula he was plagued with ill health, due to contracting rheumatic fever, which curtailed his career. Ultimately this saw his premature death in 1983, at the age of 42, just as he was about to release some new music.

For Halfway to Paradise, a celebration of his music, his backing band from the 1970’s, Fury’s Tornados, wanting to keep his music alive, has teamed up with Colin Gold. Gold appeared in Stars in Their Eyes 23 years ago as Fury, and has been touring with this show ever since. Playing most of his songs, it was a couple of hours of a song packed show.

Though older than Fury was, Gold takes on his persona, strolling onto stage with his gold jacket, collar up and hair quiff. Each of the band Charlie Eston, Chris Raynor, John Raynor and Graham Wyvill provide solid support for Gold, each member having their own spotlight moment. What made the show more interesting were the stories told by the band of Fury, and their experiences with him. Another plus was the big screen behind with photos, and tales of the time.

I’m not sure why I chose to see this particular show, I suppose I thought I knew Billy Fury’s music, but I didn’t. I only really knew one song, the title piece, and I suppose as a result I did find it quite hard to get fully immersed into the show. Even though I did not know the tunes, they were quite easy to pick up and I was jigging along in my seat and “silently” singing along to the songs, luckily for those sat near me.

The audience seemed happy enough with the cheer at the end. An evening of celebration and nostalgia, but probably suited to certain generation, who certainly remember a talent who could have been so much more, if only his health had held out. Today, the day after the show I was speaking to a friend, who is the next generation up from me, and she had actually been to see the real Billy Fury in his heyday. She was full of praise and talked about his stage presence and what a looker he was, so I suppose it is only right that we are still celebrating his contribution today.

King’s Head Theatre announces casting for

Robert Chesley’s Jerker:

A pornographic elegy, returning to London for the first time in 29 years

King’s Head Theatre and Making Productions are pleased to announce casting for Robert Chesley’splay Jerker, which returns to London for the first time in 29 years. Tibu Fortes will play Bert and Tom Joyner will play J R, directed by Ben Anderson. Jerker runs at the Kings Head Theatre between 30 October and 23 November 2019.

Jerker has been described as “one of the most important pieces of gay theatre ever created” (Los Angeles Times). It also has the dubious reputation of triggering stricter broadcast indecency guidelines in the US, after excerpts of the play were aired on KPFK Pacific Radio in Los Angeles in 1986. The one and only previous staging of Jerker in London, was directed by Stephen Daldry at the Gate Theatre in 1990.

As the AIDS epidemic intensifies in the early 80’s, Bert and J.R. begin having phone sex. They’ve never met, never seen each other and never touched, but together, they explore their wildest fantasies and the contours of their lonely souls. Both erotic and tender, this intimate two-hander will leave you breathless before breaking your heart. 

In addition to its erotic nature, Jerker embodies a deeper social importance. It reflects one of the worst periods in gay history, where the stigma of AIDS hung over the gay community, heightening public prejudice. The fear and silence around this subject was broken by a new wave of plays that began to emerge on the topic, acknowledging the crisis, humanising lives and encouraging the need for a personal response.

In Robert Chesley’s script notes, he says: “I can only hope that Jerker has done and will continue to do some good, with its message of pride in gay identity and honesty about sex.”

Tibu Fortes plays Bert

Tibu trained at the Drama Centre London. Recent theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Passage to India (Park Theatre); Coconut (Ovalhouse); The Point of It(RADA Fest); Henry V (New Generation Festival); Satyagraha (Improbable) and L.O.V.E. (Volcano Theatre). Recent TV and Film credits include: The Capture (BBC); Johnny English Strikes Again,Eastenders, The Reluctant Landlord (Sky Comedy); People Just Do Nothing (BBC) and Requiem (Netflix).

Tom Joyner plays J R

Tom Joyner graduated from Drama Centre London in 2018. He made his professional debut in Maurice(Above The Stag). His TV credits include: The Trial of Christine Keeler (BBC); Bounty Hunters (Sky One),Alex Rider (Sony TV); Waiting (Comedy Central). Credits while training include: The Mercy Seat; Lungs;The Effect.

Directed by Ben Anderson

Ben is a Junior Associate of the King’s Head Theatre. Directing credits include: Keys (Lion and Unicorn Theatre), Steep Themselves in Night (The Other Palace), A Bench at the Edge (Hen & Chickens Theatre, The King’s Arms Theatre). Associate credits include: Trainspotting Live (The Vaults and Edinburgh Fringe). Assisting credits include: Creep (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Le Nozze di Figaro (Britten Theatre), (sorry) (Assembly, The Box); In The Locked Room/ The Lighthouse (Britten Theatre); Sex With Robots and Other Devices, King Tut: A Pyramid Panto, Tosca and Outlaws to In-Laws (all at The King’s Head Theatre).

Written by Robert Chesley

Robert Chesley was born March 22, 1943 in Jersey City, New Jersey and was raised in Pasadena, California. After receiving his B.A. in Music from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1965, he spent ten years teaching at a private school in upstate New York. During this period, he also composed prolifically.  From 1965 to 1975 Chesley composed the music to over five dozen songs and choral works, chiefly to texts by poets such as Emily Dickinson, Willa Cather, James Agee, Walter de la Mare, Gertrude Stein and Walt Whitman.  His instrumental works include the score to a 1972 film by Erich Kollmar.

In 1976, he came out as a gay teacher and moved to New York City. During the next few years, his essays and theatre criticism appeared in Gay Community News, The Advocate, Gaysweek, The San Francisco Review of Books, The Bay Guardian and The New York Native.

Chesley began writing for gay theatre in 1980. In that year his first play, a one-act titled Hell, I Love You was produced by Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco. Productions of his subsequent plays followed in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles, as well as in cities throughout the United States and in Toronto and London. Night Sweat became the first produced full-length play to deal with the AIDS crisis, when staged by Meridian Gay Theatre, New York City in 1984. Jerker or the Helping Hand had its premiere at the Celebration Theatre, Los Angeles in 1986. A subsequent radio broadcast by KPFK-Los Angeles of excerpts from the play prompted the Federal Communications Commission to attempt broadcast censorship for the first time since 1975. Jerker has since become Chesley’s most performed play.

Chesley moved to San Francisco in the early 1980s. He resided there for most of the remainder of his life and there, on December 5, 1990 he succumbed to an AIDS-related illness after a battle of almost three years. Dog Plays (a trilogy of one-acts) and Private Theatricals: Morning, Noon and Night, written during these final years, have both been performed posthumously.

Robert Chesley leaves a literary legacy of 10 full-length plays and 21 one-acts, as well as short stories, novels, an opera libretto, and the text for a dance-theatre piece. The catalogue of his music lists more than 60 works composed between 1964 and 1976, and includes songs for solo voice, choral pieces and instrumental works. Major plays produced during his lifetime have all been published: Stray Dog Story by JH Press, Jerker in both the Grove Press anthology Out Front and in the Alamo Square Press collection Hard Plays/Stiff Parts: The Homoerotic Plays of Robert Chesley (with Night Sweat and Dog Plays). In 2005 Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. published a collection of his plays which includes Stray Dog Story, Jerker, and Dog Plays.

Robert Chesley was a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers.

Casting announced for spellbinding new adaptation of The Prince and The Pauper at New Vic Theatre

Casting has been announced for the premiere of the New Vic Theatre’s spectacular new Christmas adaptation of Mark Twain’s enchanting tale The Prince and The Pauper.

Directed and adapted by the New Vic Theatre’s Artistic Director Theresa Heskins (The Worst Witch, West End), the title roles of the Prince and the Pauper will be played by real-life twin sisters Danielle and Nichole Bird. Danielle Bird’s theatre credits include the role of Mildred in The Worst Witch (Vaudeville Theatre), as well as roles in Richard Bean’s The Hypocrite (Hull Truck/Royal Shakespeare); Alice’s Adventures Underground (Les Enfants Terribles); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre) and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Birmingham REP). Nichole Bird’s theatre credits include The Wits (Shakespeare’s’ Globe / Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); The Rakes Progress (Theatre de Complicité / DNO); You Me Bum Train (You Me Bum Train); The Woman Before (SOHO Theatre).

Joining the sisters will be David Ahmad (The Kite Runner, Playhouse Theatre, West End; Potted Potter, Little Shubert Theater, New York/Melbourne International Comedy Festival); Kieran Buckeridge (The Secret Adversary and Pinafore Swing, Watermill Theatre); Gareth Cassidy (Treasure Island, The 39 Steps, both at the New Vic Theatre and We Are Three Sisters, Northern Broadsides); Matthew Ganley (Around The World In 80 Days, New Vic Theatre; Once – the Musical,Phoenix Theatre, London and The Duchess of Malfi, Shakespeare’s Globe/Sam Wanamaker Festival); Elliot Gooch (Once on This Island, Southwark Playhouse); Jasmin Hinds (Summer and Smoke, Duke of Yorks); Sufia Manya (Miss Littlewood, Royal Shakespeare Company and 101 Dalmatians, Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Faz Shah (Astley’s Astounding Adventures, New Vic Theatre);Tom Richardson (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Storyhouse, Chester and Elton John’s Glasses ,Watford Palace Theatre); Margit van der Zwan (The Bacchae, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and High Tea in Wonderland, Manchester International Festival) and Joss Wyre (Vassa Zheleznov, Southwark Playhouse).

Prepare for a tale full of heart, filled with imaginative storytelling, music, humour, swashbuckling derring-do and festive magic as the award-winning New Vic Theatre stage a brand-new adaptation of Twain’s tale about a chance meeting between two boys that will change their lives forever.

Bringing together the same creative team who brought to life the theatre’s adaptations of The Borrowers, Treasure Island and the UK Theatre award-winning The Snow Queen, this year the New Vic Theatre will bring to life another classic adventure story in their stunning trademark style.

The Prince and the Pauper will run at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lymefrom Saturday 16 November 2019 to Saturday 25 January 2020.         

For further information and tickets for The Prince and The Paupercall the New Vic Theatre Box Office on 01782 717962 or visit newvictheatre.org.uk.

Smash hit musical SIX extends its run at The Lowry this Christmas

The international smash hit musical SIX has extended its run at The Lowry until Saturday 11th January. Beginning in The Lowry’s Quays theatre on 3rd December the hugely popular pop musical will head to the Lyric stage on 7th January for a week long run to end its Christmas Season.

The Lowry will also host a Sing-A-Long performance on Friday 10th January at 8.30pm, where audience members are invited to sing-a-long with the show’s immensely popular soundtrack. Racking up over 50 million streams and adding 300,000 daily, the musical’s songs have already proved to be chart storming sensations. Ann Boleyn’s song ‘Don’t Lose Ur Head’ alone has been shared over half a billion times on the TIK TOK app.

From Tudor queens to pop princesses, SIX sees the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their own personal tales, remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power.

Two years to the day since the show premiered as a student production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, SIX announced its Broadway transfer to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York following sold out runs in Chicago and Boston. Back in London where SIX continues to sell every seat for every performance at the Arts Theatre, the show was nominated for five 2019 OIivier Awards, including Best New Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design. The show will open at the Sydney Opera House in January and is due to reopen in Chicago next summer. Productions are being planned for China, Japan, South Korea and Canada. 

New pop princesses will take on the famous roles at The Lowry featuring, Lauren Drew (Catherine of Aragon), Maddison Bulleyment (Anne Boleyn), Lauren Byrne (Jane Seymour), Shekinah McFarlane (Anna of Cleves), Jodie Steele (Katherine Howard) and Athena Collins (Catherine Parr), with Alternates Jennifer Caldwell, Cassandra Lee and Harriet Watson. The cast are backed by the show’s all-female band, The Ladies in Waiting. 

SIX
Tue 3 December – Sat 11 January
Singalong – Friday 10 January 8.30pm
Tickets: £23.50 – £43.50
https://thelowry.com/six-returns-to-the-lowry/

Lowry Theatre, Salford – until 5 October 2019

Reviewed by Niamh Holleran

5*****

When I went in to the theatre to see As You Like It, I began frantically reading the program to try and gain some understanding about what I was seeing, being unfamiliar with the play. I panicked when I didn’t understand the summary and wondered whether I would be lost and confused for the next few hours. However, by ten minutes in, I was fully engaged with the story.

The set was fantastic and made great use of lighting and music to set the scene so the audience felt fully engaged. Lucy Phelps as Rosalind, the principal character who later disguises herself as a man was fantastic, her many asides to the audience hilarious and authentic. The night I attended, the role of Orlando was played by the understudy, Aaron Thiara and his performance was outstanding – he had a natural charm that drew the audience to him, meaning when he invited spectators up on stage with him to reveal a secret, it felt surprising yet comfortable. The audience felt involved throughout, especially when the lights were turned on for the forest scenes as though we were in there with them.

Finally, I must mention the inclusion of British Sign Language actress Charlotte Arrowsmith as Audrey, which was phenomenal. The use of sign language was excellent and seamless – it was hard to imagine the character not being deaf and added to the allure of the endearing relationship between her and the Fool.

All in all, an excellent way to spend an evening.

LOCKWOOD PRODUCTIONS AND FOOLS & KINGS ANNOUNCE THE FULL CAST OF THE GREEN FAIRY

STARRING JULIE ATHERTON

Lockwood Productions and Fools & Kings present

The UK première of

THE GREEN FAIRY

by Jack Sain and Stephen Libby

Director: Jack Sain;Musical Director: William Bullivant

Dramaturg & Associate Writer: Hannah Hauer-King; Set and costume designer: Katharine Heath

Wednesday 30 October – Saturday 23 November

Lockwood Productions and Fools & Kings today announce the full company of The Green Fairy.Jack Sain directs Julie Atherton (Jo), Harry F Brown (Toby), Georgina Hellier (The Green Fairy), Emma Kinney (Wendy), David Perkins (Daniel) and Emma Whittaker (Young Jo). The Green Fairy opens at the Union Theatre on 4 November, with previews from 30 October, and runs until 23 November.

“Come into my world, for just a minute, and cast all your doubts aside…”

Tonight, Jo saw her daughter Wendy sing for the first time in the pub where she used to work – they don’t seem to have a relationship. Jo doesn’t seem to have a relationship with anyone really, and the Green Fairy wants to know where it all went wrong…

Memories start to surface of Jo’s adolescence and early adulthood in 1990s London. Together, they explore Jo’s relationship with her ex-girlfriend, ex-husband and eventually her daughter.

An ode to queer parenting and overcoming anxiety, The Green Fairy is an pub musical following one woman’s struggle to take back control of her own life before it’s too late. 

Julie Atherton plays Jo. Her previous theatre credits include Mamma Mia! (Prince Edward Theatre), Pure Imagination (St James Theatre), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith), Sister Act (UK tour), Avenue Q (Noël Coward Theatre), Tick, Tick… BOOM!, The Last 5 Years (Duchess Theatre), Fame (Aldwych Theatre/UK Tour), Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Little by Little; Mrs Gucci (Arts Theatre), Tempting Fate (The Other Palace), Christmas in New York (Palace Theatre), The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios), West End Recast 2 (Phoenix Theatre), The Hired Man (Curve, Leicester), Thérèse Raquin (Finborough Theatre/Park Theatre), Lift (Soho Theatre), Ordinary Days (Finborough Theatre/Trafalgar Studios), The Opinion Makers (Derby Theatre), You’ll Never Walk Alone (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch), Just So, Out of this World (Chichester Festival Theatre), Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi (Liverpool Everyman) and Charlotte’s Web (Polka Theatre). Television credits include Monty & Co, Pirates, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Sound of Music Live, Otherworld, Barbara and Brainiacs.

Harry F Brown plays Toby. His previous theatre credits include The Band (UK tour) and Dogfight (Southwark).

Georgina Hellier plays The Green Fairy. Her previous theatre credits Dorothy (Bunker Theatre), Something to Tell You (Arcola Theatre) and The Buried Moon (Theatre Royal Winchester).

Emma Kinney plays Wendy. The Green Fairy marks her professional stage debut.

David Perkins plays Daniel. His previous theatre credits include The Bridges of Madison County (Menier Chocolate Factory), Spring Awakening (Transfer Productions), The Rose Tattoo, The Life of Galileo, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Coast of Utopia and The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre). For film his credits include Laura’s Star.

Emma Whittaker plays Young Jo. Her previous theatre credits include Chaplin – The Charlie Chaplin Story, The Snow Spider (UK tours) and Merlin’s Apprentice (The Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton). For film her credits include How to Not Disappear Completely and Love Lost.

Jack Sain directs. His previous theatre credits include Beatrice di Tenda (Bel Canto Opera Festival), How I Learned to Drive (Southwark Playhouse), Four Play (The Old Vic) and Crossing Over (The Other Palace). He was the resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse in 2016, where his credits include Welcome Home, Captain Fox!, Elegy, Saint Joan, One Night In Miami, Limehouse and Faith Healer. Other assistant director credits include Killer Joe (Trafalgar Studios), Jonah and Otto (Park Theatre) and Present Laughter (Gate Theatre Dublin).

The Green Fairy                                                                                                                               Listings    

Union Theatre

OLD UNION ARCHES, 229 UNION STREET, LONDON, SE1 0LR

Box Office:

http://uniontheatre.biz/the-green-fairy.html

Friday 30 October – 23 November

Performance Schedule

Tuesday- Saturday: 7.30pm

Saturday & Sunday matinees:                     

2:30pm

Tickets: from £15

Concessions available via Box Office

Nuclear Future
UK Tour: October 2019

From the award-winning Gameshow, Nuclear Future is a shattering new play about the dangerous potential which sits quietly in bunkers across the globe. As the apocalyptic impact of a nuclear disaster regains a foothold in public conversation, this show presents this threat on a more human scale. How do we explain to our children that we use the same energy that created the universe, to rip it apart?

Astrid’s life is like many others. She dresses her child, she spills her coffee, she catches the bus to work. But her work and her PowerPoint slides bring Astrid and the audience into contact with the world’s most dangerous weapons as she assesses the risks and their consequences. In one moment, life can be changed forever.

Gameshow has created this show guided by the belief that we must understand nuclear weapons in this human context, as opposed to the current public conversation which holds them as theoretical and distant, a problem on the other side of the globe. As citizens of a nuclear nation, we are responsible for weapons that could change the world more fundamentally than the worst effects of climate change or natural disaster. What happens the next time we launch a nuclear attack? Can
we afford to pretend these weapons don’t exist?

Gameshow directors Matt Ryan and Matthew Evans comment, There is a horrific beauty to nuclear weapons because their workings are infinitesimally small but their impact is inconceivably big. We wanted to find a way to explore the everyday human impact of something so enormous we can’t bear to think about it. How can we respond to increasingly regular nuclear threats around the world? The show uses an immersive soundscape designed by Dominic Kennedy and Joshua Pharo’s experimental video-lighting technique to plunge the audience into the world of our story, using the audience’s imagination to create the unimaginable.

Performance Dates
18th – 19th Oct Camden People’s Theatre, 9pm
58-60 Hampstead Road, NW1 2PY
https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/

23rd Oct The North Wall, 8pm
South Parade, OX2 7JN
https://www.thenorthwall.com/

24th Oct The Lowry, 8pm
Pier 8, The Quays, M50 3AZ
https://thelowry.com/

25th Oct Live Theatre 8pm
Broad Chare, NE1 3DQ
https://www.live.org.uk/

29th Oct Cast, 7.15pm
Waterdale, DN1 3BU
https://www.castindoncaster.com/

The Space – until 12th October 2019

Reviewed by Heather Chalkley

3***

An off the wall take on the impact of present day politics, The Open has a definite Orwell feel to it. Bell’s dark humour has to be a bit out there to ‘trump’ this unprecedented period of our history. You can be forgiven for feeling a slight sense of fear that the Utopian state created by the rich and powerful, at the expense of the rest of the population, is not that far from reality, particularly in the minds of some of our present day world leaders. Although I think even the most brainwashed westerner might bulk at The GBGC – Great British Golf Course!

The characters of each player are familiar in our every day lives: the laid back dreamer; the conformist; the privileged and the activist. This is an interesting exercise putting them under the microscope in this extreme situation. I think most of us found a little bit of ourselves in their characters somewhere.

Jana (Heidi Niemi) is someone you want to believe in. You hope that you have her strength and foresight in this dystopian state. Patrick (Tom Blake) is the nature boy that believes in love and lives in a dream world. Bell has sensitively written him with a realistically broken mental well-being, commentating on one of today’s big issues – it’s not going away. Arthur (Priyank Morjaria) is the conformist that so wants to believe in this new land of ‘live, work, thrive’, along with the loyalty scheme that looks after all their wages! It is not until he has to inflict real pain and treat people as prisoners, that Arthur allows himself to admit it has become a dystopia. Bella (Emma Austin) reminds me of an 80’s yuppie, with all guff and no substance. She portrays the belief in her right to have anything she wants and how dangerous that is, especially when given power and authority.

The creatives do a good job in creating the atmosphere, using artificial grass, spot lighting and a good sound track. The only weak point for me is the detention centre electrical power source being under the table – it feels like the writer must have gone for a cup of tea at that point! I am sure the creatives can do better.

On the whole this play certainly makes you think, particularly when it is a little too near reality for comfort.

Theatre Royal, York – until 12th October 2019

Reviewed by Katie Goldsbrough

4****

Going in to this play I knew very little about the story, but knowing it was written by Arthur Miller I could guarantee it was going to be a good and this version did not disappoint.

This production sees Nicholas Karimi take on the role of Eddie, a hardworking man who would do anything for his family and just wants to help out Marco (Reuben Johnson) and his brother Rodolpho (Pedro Leandro) when they come over from Sicily looking for jobs to send money home to their suffering family. Things begin to take a turn for the worse as Rodolpho grows closer to Eddie’s niece Catherine (Lili Miller), Eddie does not approve. Eddie’s family life with his wife Beatrice (Laura Pyper) and Catherine begins to fall apart and disaster befalls them.

There is some brilliant acting throughout the play, you really believe Karimi could be someone his family could be afraid of, his character develops throughout, with things escalating quickly in the second act to the climax, Karimi does a great job of making you both despise Eddie for his actions but somehow still empathise with him until the end as deep down he is trying to do the best thing for his family.

We are regularly updated by Eddie’s lawyer, taking on a narrator type role, played by Robert Pickavance. This helps to introduce the characters and keep the audience updated throughout the production on things we may not otherwise have known, this only adds to the story so is a nice addition and a good way to open the play.

Another standout performance comes from Laura Pyper, often more a background character she captures the audience and stands out from the rest. The set was cleverly done, almost entirely set in the main characters small apartment, it was all very basic but worked very well. Nothing more was needed for the story. There were smoke machines for the duration of the play really adding to the smoky 1950’s Brooklyn atmosphere.

This is a play that will keep you on the edge of your seat, at the interval you will speculating as to what will happen next, you might not be far off, but the ending will still be a surprise.

Whether a fan of Arthur Miller’s previous work or a first time viewer, this would be a fantastic play to see with lots of twists and turns and an action packed shocking final scene.

FULL CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR 
OI FROG & FRIENDS! 
UK TOUR AND WEST END SEASON

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment is delighted to announce the full cast and creative team of its new family stage show Oi Frog & Friends!. As previously announced, the musical production will make its West End premiere at theLyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue for a strictly limited season from 29 November 2019 to 5 January 2020, as part of a national UK Tour.  

Oi Frog & Friends! will bring together Kes Grayand Jim Field’s bestselling and award-winning picture books Oi Frog!,Oi Dog!, Oi Cat! and Oi Duck-billed Platypus!, published by Hachette Children’s Group. It is created for the stage by Director Emma Earle, Designer Zoe Squire (Co-Artistic Directors of Pins and Needles Productions), Composer Luke Bateman and Lyricist Richy Hughes. Puppet Design is by Yvonne Stonewith Lighting Design by Ric Mountjoy.

The cast line-up for the West End and 2019/20 UK Tour is Darren Seed as DOG,Lucy Tuck as CAT, John Winchester as FROG (Autumn 2019 & WEST END), Robin Hemmings as FROG (Spring / Summer 2020), and Simon Yadoo as CHEETAH, with Rebecca Ayres as Understudy/ASM.

Oi Frog & Friends! is an action-packed play with songs, puppets, laughs and, of course, rhymes! It’s a new day at Sittingbottom school and FROG is looking for a place to sit, but CAT has other ideas and DOG is doing as he’s told. Little do any of them know that chaos is coming… ‘Cats sit on mats, hares sit on chairs, mules sit on stools, gophers sit on sofas and frogs sit on logs’ – who knew there were so many rhyming rules, and what will happen when FROG is in charge? The production is an ideal introduction to theatre and the perfect entertainment for families with children aged 3+.

Prior to its West End Winter season, Oi Frog & Friends! previews at Frensham Heights, Farnham (12-13 October) and plays Norwich Playhouse (15-20 October) before heading to the Forum Theatre, Billingham (22-23 October), New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (24-25 October), Hertford Theatre (26-27 October) and The Rose Theatre, Kingston (29 October – 3 November) for half term fun. 

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment is also delighted to announce the 2020 spring leg of the UK tour with Oi Frog & Friends! heading to Chichester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Salford among others. More dates to be announced.

For the full Oi Frog & Friends! West End and 2019/20 UK tour schedule and to book visit: https://oifrogandfriendslive.com. 

LISTINGS

London – West End

Show: Oi Frog & Friends!

Adapted from the bestselling books by Kes Gray and Jim Field

Dates: 29 November 2019 – 5 January 2020

Venue: Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Avenue, Soho, London W1D 7ES

Press Performances: Thursday 5 December 11am & Saturday 7 December 12pm

Flexible press dates available

Times: Daytime performances at 10am, 11am, 12pm, 2pm

Playing under ‘Thriller’

Tickets: From £15.50

Schools & Groups: 10+ £10 plus 11th ticket free.  Family Ticket (Admits 4): £66 

ACCESS: Thursday 12th December 11am BSL & Relaxed Performance 

For the full performance schedule and prices visit https://oifrogandfriendslive.com 

Box office: 0330 333 4812 / https://oifrogandfriendslive.com 

Category: Theatre / Family Shows / Children / West End / Play with Music

Suitability: Families with children 3+, Early Years, Reception and Key Stage 1

Running time: Approximately 55 minutes (no interval)

UK TOUR 

See your local Box Office for full tour details or visit https://oifrogandfriendslive.com. 

2019

Farnham, Frensham Heights                 12 – 13 October                       

Norwich Playhouse                               15 – 20 October           

Billingham, Forum Theatre                   22 – 23 October           

Ipswich, New Wolsey                            24 – 25 October

Hertford Theatre                                  26 – 27 October                        

Kingston, Rose Theatre                         29 October – 3 November 

2020

Hayes, Beck Theatre                             11 – 12 February

Aylesbury, Waterside                           13 – 15 February

Chichester, Minerva Theatre                17 – 20 February

Nottingham, Theatre Royal                   21 – 23 February

Liverpool, Playhouse                            26 – 29 February          ON SALE SOON 

Aberdeen, His Majesty’s Theatre          18 – 21 March

Bromley, Churchill Theatre                   1 – 4 April                     ON SALE SOON

Newbury, Corn Exchange                      6 – 7 April                     ON SALE SOON 

Birmingham Town Hall                         10 – 13 April

Leicester Curve                                    15 – 19 April                 ON SALE SOON 

Cardiff, Wales Millennium Centre         1 – 3 May

Mold, Theatr Clwyd                              4 – 6 May                      ON SALE SOON 

Newcastle, Theatre Royal                     8 – 9 May

Canterbury, Marlowe Theatre               22 – 24 May                  ON SALE SOON 

Salford, Lowry Quays                            26 – 31 May

Radlett Centre                                     8 – 11 June                   ON SALE SOON 

Lichfield Garrick                                   13 – 14 June                 ON SALE SOON 

Leeds, Grand Theatre                           18 – 20 June

More dates to be added…