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Ten new productions added to the National Theatre Collection for schools, colleges, universities and libraries to access worldwide

Available for FREE to state schools and colleges across the UK

With 75% of UK state secondary schools signed up to the National Theatre Collection, ten additional productions will now be available to schools, colleges and educational establishments from today in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing and ProQuest, part of Clarivate. These ten new productions will complete the second Collection, making 50 titles available to the education sector worldwide.  

 The new titles include:

• The multi-award-winning new staging of Tony Kushner’s two-part play Angels in America (Parts 1 and 2) starring Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Denise Gough, Russell Tovey and James McArdle
• Award-winning one-woman play Chewing Gum Dreams written and performed by Michaela Coel
• Award-winning original film Romeo & Juliet directed by National Theatre Associate Simon Godwin and starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor
• Jack Thorne’s adaptation of Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s award-winning film, After Life in a new co-production with Headlong, a surreal and powerfully human look at the way we view our lives
• Nadia Fall’s verbatim play Home about people living on the margins of society featuring performances from Michaela Coel, Antonia Thomas and Kadiff Kirwan
• Kae Tempest‘s epic new take on Greek legend Paradise directed by Ian Rickson and performed by an all-female company
•  Fiercely political play Rockets and Blue Lights directed by Miranda Cromwell in a co-production with Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre
• Landmark twentieth-century musical The Threepenny Opera adapted by playwright Simon Stephens, starring Rory Kinnear  
• Caryl Churchill’s wildly innovative play Top Girls about a country divided by its own ambitions, directed by Lyndsey Turner

Free for UK state-funded schools and FE colleges, the NT Collection celebrates the best of British theatre and provides access to high-quality recordings of world-class productions from the NT and other leading UK theatres, alongside learning resources.  Available productions range from Greek classics to literary adaptations and since the digital resource was launched in September 2019, these have been streamed over 2.4 million times reaching educational institutions in 57 countries including Sweden, USA, Peru and Indonesia.  

 Accompanying written and filmed learning resources complement the school curriculum and include rehearsal diaries, archive materials and interviews with cast and creative team members to explore the craft behind the stage.  A new video series now available on the platform and on the NT’s YouTube channel, In Search of Greek Theatre, in association with Durham University, explores how classic Greek plays were communicated and interpreted through performance in a virtual visit to the NT’s Archive.

Alice King-Farlow, Director of NT Learning said, “So many teachers and students in the UK and across the globe are using the National Theatre Collection to enrich their learning and bring these plays to life in the classroom and so we’re delighted to expand this rich collection of resources in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing and ProQuest. By sharing these world-class productions and vast array of learning materials, we hope to open up access to the arts and inspire students to explore the world of theatre in new ways”.

A teacher at Hollingworth Academy in Rochdale said, “For many of our students, the National Theatre can feel a long way away. But, by being able to watch these productions here, now, in their classroom, they feel it is their National Theatre.”

To sign up and for more information visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntcollection 

The National Theatre Collection is available both via Bloomsbury Publishing’s award-winning platform Drama Online and the Alexander Street platform from renowned EdTech leader ProQuest, part of Clarivate.

Supporters

The National Theatre Collection has lead philanthropic support from Richard and Kara Gnodde.

Additional philanthropic support is from Sidney E Frank Foundation, Attwood Education Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), The Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and The Oakley Charitable Trust.

New York City Public Schools access is generously supported by The Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

RAYMOND GUBBAY LIMITED PRESENTS

THE RETURN TO LIVE PERFORMANCE FROM

SIR KARL JENKINS

LIVE IN CONCERT

VISITING LONDON, MANCHESTER, CARDIFF, NOTTINGHAM, AND BIRMINGHAM THIS SPRING

Raymond Gubbay Limited is pleased to present Sir Karl Jenkins OBE in Concert, as he returns to live performance this spring.

Sir Karl will launch his tour at St David’s Hall, Cardiff at 3pm on Sunday 13 March, conducting a selection of his most popular works including THE ARMED MAN: A MASS FOR PEACE, and excerpts from SYMPHONIC ADIEMUS and PALLADIO.

He will then play at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Friday 18 March at 7.30pm, accompanied by the London Concert Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus; at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on Sunday 20 March at 2.30pm; at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Saturday 16 April at 7.30pm, accompanied by the Manchester Concert Orchestra and Manchester Chorale; and finally at the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Tuesday 26 April at 7.30pm.

A global survey in 2011 showed Karl Jenkins to be among the most performed living composers. Raised in Penclawdd on the Gower Peninsula, and educated at Gowerton Grammar School, he read music at Cardiff University (B.Mus) and the Royal Academy of Music, London (LRAM).

Together with the global ‘cross-genre’ phenomenon Adiemus, The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is perhaps his best-known work, approaching 3000 performances since its millennium premiere, while his recording of the piece has the unique status of having been in the UK Classical charts for 18 years. Personal highlights include his commemorative performances in New York on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the 2000th performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016.

Resisting categorization, his style and integrity has transcended musical boundaries over the years: recording sessions with Elton John, George Harrison & Andrew Lloyd Webber; jazz at Ronnie Scott’s Club; jazz-rock-fusion with Soft Machine; award-winning ad soundtracks (Levis, Boots No7, Audi.); scoring a Kiefer Sutherland movie; ‘cast-away’ on the iconic BBC “Desert Island Discs”; featured by Melvyn Bragg on the seminal ITV South Bank Show; awarded the Freedom of the Cities of London and Swansea.

Adiemus (1995) and The Armed Man (2000) were pivotal to his future oeuvre in that he continued to progress ideas seen in these works; peace, multiculturism and the use of indigenous or ethnic text and instrumentation, alongside the traditional sacred Latin text and western orchestra: Requiem, Stabat Mater, Gloria, Te Deum, Miserere, The Peacemakers.

Other works include the popular piece for strings orchestra, Palladio, Quirk, Cantata Memoria (for the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster) and Miserere. All the works above, now available on Decca, attained number one status in the UK Classical chart. He has 17 ‘gold and platinum’ discs for his output overall.

He has been invited to compose music for HRH The Prince of Wales, Sir Bryn Terfel, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Lesley Garrett CBE, Rolando Villazon, Milos and the London Symphony Orchestra.

He has released albums on all major classical labels and is currently a Decca Records artist, while he has performed regularly with major UK orchestras (LSO, LPO, RPO, Philharmonia) and The World Orchestra For Peace. His music has taken him to such far flung venues as: The Royal Albert Hall, London; Zaryadye Concert Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall, New York; The Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing; The National Centre of Performing Arts; Mumbai; Buckingham Palace.

A Doctor of Music (D.Mus), he has held Fellowships, Honorary Doctorates and Professorships at five universities or conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM), where a room has been named after him.

Among the many honours he has received, in the UK and internationally, are: OBE 2005, CBE 2010, two BAFTA Cymru awards. The Hopkins Medal (St. David’s Society of the State of New York), Cymru For the World, and he has been personally decorated by the Presidents of Hungary and Kosovo. He received a knighthood in The Queen’s 2015 Birthday Honours List.

In 2004 he entered Classic FM’s ‘Hall of Fame” at No8, the highest position for a living composer, as well as in 2006 ranking No4 amongst all time British composers. In 2015, he was confirmed as the most popular living composer in Classic FM’s ‘Ultimate Hall of Fame’.

“As a composer he recognises no boundaries – musical, commercial, geographical, or cultural. His is a way of thinking and composing that is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times” – citation on receiving CFM’s ‘Red f ‘award for ‘outstanding service to classical music’

2014 saw the inaugural ‘The Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award in association with Classic FM’, established to help young musicians entering the profession.

In 2019 he was sculpted live by the Royal Sculptor, Frances Segelman, as a charity event for the RAM.

His memoir, “Still with the music”, is published by Elliott & Thompson and his music is exclusively published by Boosey and Hawkes.

Karl is married to composer/educationalist Carol Barratt (author of the Chester Piano Books) who has also written text for her husband (www.carolbarratt.co.uk), while their son is a film and media composer (www.jodyjenkinsmusic.com) whose wife, Rosie plays oboe in the LSO.

Karl has recently completed a saxophone concerto for Jess Gillam (yet to be premiered due to COVID) and during the pandemic, highlights from The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and Adiemus were performed by the virtual ‘Stay At Home Choir’ with over seven thousand singers drawn from 73 countries.

www.raymondgubbay.co.uk

Empire Theatre, Liverpool – until Saturday 26th February 2022

Reviewed by Mia Bowen

5*****

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is flying into Liverpool for a short but sweet visit. This classic Disney movie has been adapted for the stage, taking the audience on a magical journey, on a flying bed! This brand new production, which I had the great delight of seeing alongside many small children, knew exactly how to grab and keep the attention of the audience.

The story is based on the two novels by Mary Norton, The Magic Bedknob (1943) and Bonfires and Broomsticks (1947), which in 1971 the Disney musical film took over. In short the plot sees three young siblings Charlie (Conor O’Hara), Carrie (Poppy Houghton) and Paul Rawlins (Jasper Hawes), evacuated during the Blitz and placed in the care of Miss Eglantine Price (Dianne Pilkington). As the plot plays out, the audience learns that Miss Price is an apprentice witch, learning witchcraft through a correspondence college, which Professor Emelius Browne (Charles Brunton) is the Headmaster of. It transpires that Miss Price hopes that she can use the spells in the British war effort against the Nazi’s. The story then follows their adventures to find the spell which makes it all happens.

Without giving away too much, there are a few changes between the original storyline and this new production. There are musical numbers aplenty with new material from Neil Bartram blended with the originals by the famed Sherman Brothers. Also brace yourselves for a heartbreaking twist of an ending, I had tears running down my face. I now know why the set stayed on stage the entire time, its purpose was given a greater meaning.

The cast worked the spectacular set, moving around the pieces to make it all work in perfect timing and relying on good old puppetry and talent to transport you into a world of fantasy. The most memorable part of the musical was of course the flying bed, followed closely by the flying broomstick.

By the end of the evening, I was chanting along to ‘Treguna Makoidees, Trecorum, Sadis Dee!’ at the back of my head, even doing a little air kick on my way to the train station. This production clearly worked their Disney magic on me!

Cambridge Arts Theatre, Cambridge – until 26th February 2022

Reviewed by Steph Lott

2**

Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise have been described as “the most illustrious, and the best-loved, double-act that Britain has ever produced”. They were one of the UK’s all-time favourite comedy acts and certainly as a child I adored their shows. I remember watching them as a family and was looking forward to a nostalgic visit back to that time and hearing the well-worn catch phrases once more that recurred again and again in their shows throughout their careers, and had us laughing again and again.

It’s nearly twenty years since the collaboration between Eric Morecambe’s son, Gary, Hamish McColl and Sean Foley resulted in The Play What I Wrote, directed at that time by Kenneth Branagh.

This show is a celebration of Morecambe and Wise’s comedy, and is this time directed by Sean Foley. It is named after Ernie’s “play wot I wrote”; these were a series of terrible plays, featuring a celebrity guest, which made up the finale to each Morecambe and Wise show.

While the show alludes to Eric and Ernie and a few of their catchphrases slip in, this is most definitely not a tribute act, at least in the first act. The story is about a failing comic double duo, played by Dennis Herdman and Thom Tuck. Thom wants to see his latest play staged and Dennis wants Thom back working with him on their double act. David Pugh, a “leading theatre impresario” wants to pay them £5,000 to do a Morecambe and Wise double act. And Arthur, the stage electrician, played by MItesh Soni, wants to play his harmonica solo, because he promised his mother.

I have to confess that, despite the rave reviews and the thunderous applause from my fellow audience members, I did not enjoy this show. Although it’s clear that everything in this production is done with love for the great men, to me it just didn’t hang together and flow as a show. The choreography from Ian West ensures that the physical comedy is fast-moving and fluid. The jokes fly thick and fast at startling speed; there are gags and slapstick a-plenty. But it just seemed like a stream of jokes one after the other, which were funny in isolation (and indeed I remembered some of them from Eric and Ernie’s shows) but it felt manic and pointless, like nothing was stringing them together. I also found some aspects of the show rather tasteless – a bloke in a dress and simulated sex on a chaise longue – we really can’t do better than that?

The show did pick up for me in the second half though when “the play what Ernie wrote” was actually performed. I found this part much funnier and really enjoyed what was clearly an affectionate homage to the two great comic geniuses. In addition, Sue Holderness of Only Fools and Horses and EastEnders fame took the guest star spot as the hapless actor duped into taking a role in Ernie’s play and she did an excellent job.

At the interval, my godson (who is twenty) and I were overheard discussing the play and trying to make sense of it, by a lady who commented, “This is nothing like their shows. Morecambe and Wise would be turning in their graves!” I’m afraid I have to agree with her.

Nottingham Theatre Royal – until 27th February 2022

Reviewed by Louise Ford

4****

Be yourself….

 The show opens at school, the usual chaos in the class room, all the pupils are self absorbed and full of attitude. The well groomed careers teacher (Lara Denning) handing out careers advice which puts the dampers on some of the pupils’ aspirations. Whilst reminding them that their exams are not that far away, unfortunately they are all preoccupied with the end of term prom. And that’s where the real story starts, about a boy whose ambition is to wear a dress to his school prom, not to be a forklift truck driver.

The story is set in Sheffield and is written by Tom Macrae (book and lyrics) and music by Dan Gillespie Sells. It is based on the real life story/documentary of the 16 year old Jamie Campbell.

Jamie New (Adam Taylor), lives with his mother, Margaret (Amy Ellen  Richardson), his father having left them many years ago. Jamie is his mother’s ray of sunshine. She is proud of him, for being who he is and for who he can become. Jamie is gay and proud. Unfortunately he is tormented by the bullies at school (big fish in a small pond) and by his father who doesn’t want to know. His best friend Pritti (Sharan Phull) is also bullied at school for being clever. She wants to be a doctor and is determined to work hard and pass her exams. The rapport between Pritti and Jamie is lovely but the spotlight is always on Jamie. He is tall and gazelle like, with long, long legs, emphasised  by the killer ruby stilettos his mum bought him for his birthday.

Jamie is helped on his journey to find his inner drag Queen by Hugo ( Shane Ritchie) with his alter ego Loco Chanelle. Loco has more than a nod to the fiery redhead Lucille Ball and is suitably over the top. She is aided and supported by the girls from Legs Eleven – Sandra Bollock (Gary Lee), Laika Virgin (John Paul McCue) and Tray Sophisticay (Rhys Taylor), all fabulously turned out!

The music and songs range from soulful ballads to pop, with plenty of dance moves. The two stand out numbers for me were It Means Beautiful, sung by Pritti and the heart rendering He’s My Boy sung by Margaret. The later really hit home with the audience with a standing ovation.

The show ends on a upbeat finale of costume changes and glitter and of course everyone is talking about Jamie!

Alphabetical Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne – until 12 March 2022

Reviewed by Sandra Little

3***

Dragon is described as, “An epic tale of a child coming to grips with authority, responsibility and the nature of their world.” The performance, which is recommended for adults and children aged 5+, lasts for just over an hour and uses a blend of puppetry, digital animation and music to tell the story of a young child growing up with his parents in an idyllic valley. The narrative to this performance is non verbal and is therefore accessible to anyone without fluency in English. Thought bubbles containing symbols are used from time to time to provide clarity and convey important information.

This tale is set in an idyllic valley where the audience is introduced to three characters (puppets) who are a mother, a father and a small child. The story begins with the father teaching his child to hunt using a crossbow, but as the narrative unfolds the child make a crucial mistake whilst hunting and this mistake has significant consequences for the family. It later emerges that the father takes the blame to spare the child.

I felt that that much of this performance is open to interpretation which gives a very thought provoking feel to the narrative and an opportunity for discussion. The dragon, for example, seemed to be part of a dream sequence in one part of the story and in another part it appeared to me to be a character in the underworld. At this point in the narrative a gentle side to the dragon becomes apparent and I wondered if the dragon had become the child’s father.

I feel sure that this production would appeal to the imagination of the children in the audience and a discussion with them of their interpretations would be fascinating.

Whilst computer graphics are used in this presentation, I felt it had the charm and simplicity of an early television animation. The original music was used to great effect and clearly portrayed the emotions of the characters and contributed to the mood of the story. It is also testament to the skill of the puppeteers that such small puppets were able to convey emotions so clearly primarily by their body language.

Alphabetti Theatre describe this production as “An unforgettable experience that asks the question, “What would you do if you were in their shoes?” I would agree with this comment but would also suggest that Dragon raises a host of other questions alongside this one.

New Victoria Theatre, Woking – until 26th February 2021

Reviewed by Becky Doyle

4****

Was it Professor Plum, in the study with a pistol…? You’ll have to watch to find out “whodunnit”!

Cluedo was a real nail-biting thriller to follow. My first mention must be Jean-Luke Worrell (Wadsworth) who from start to finish was able to captivate the audience just from being present, he commanded the stage, and he brought both seriousness, suspense and humour to the story and stage. Tom Babbage is another who is essential to mention, having previously seen Tom in “The Play that goes Wrong” he brought the same enthusiasm and comedy to his performance. Although all characters and story line were funny, it was Tom who had the slapstick character that brought the most laughs. The other actors were just as impressive, but Tom and Jean-Luke were stand out.

The stage and set were so cleverly thought through creating the illusion of multiple rooms, trap doors and dark corners to commit the grisly murders behind. I really was at a loss as to who it could have been and was kept guessing right up to the end when the curveball was delivered.

Is the story what I expected? Probably not. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Would I recommend it – 100%.

Aylesbury Waterside Theatre – until 26 February 2022

Reviewed by Susan Portman

3***

Back with their biggest comedy catastrophe to date, multi award-winning Mischief (The Play That Goes Wrong, BBC One’s The Goes Wrong Show) return to the stage at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, with their hilarious new show created with magic legends, Penn & Teller. Raising the bar with their dare-devil stunts, jaw-dropping feats and irresistible comedy genius, Mischief’s Magic Goes Wrong comes directly from the West End. It should be noted that the Co-creators Penn and Teller do not appear onstage.

I was not at all sure what to expect from this show which is in essence a comedy play. In one sense, I am suspicious of people who seek to trick, confuse and confound their audience with illusions and magic – but then that’s the very nature of the show. Therefore I kept an open mind having never attended a ‘magic show’ before.

Well, what is the story here? A hapless gang of magicians are staging an evening of grand illusion to raise cash for charity (The Disasters in Magic charity fundraiser) but as the magic turns to mayhem, accidents spiral out of control and so does their fundraising target which vacillates into the black and the red depending upon how the tricks and illusions go.

A cast relatively small in number delivered the performance, playing more than one part when necessary. There was plenty of song, dance, magic and humour, and therefore something for everyone. There was a significant emphasis on card tricks, and lots of audience interaction although I felt that the people involved were ‘audience plants’ but that’s not a crime – the show has to run smoothly.

Sam Hill played ‘Sophisticato’ our compère and guide throughout the evening, and he also performed magic for our delectation. Never trust the man with doves is all I will say. He delivered in a deliberately lugubrious manner and I never quite knew where he was going next, but he gave a professional and polished performance, especially in a scene
where the character ‘Blade’ was drowning and he had to work with audience members (surely they were plants) to extricate him from a possible watery tomb. The timing and interaction between him, the onstage characters and the audience was first-class. There was something of the Laurel and Hardy crossed with Basil Fawlty about the scene, but I like slapstick, so it worked for me.

There were curious characters such as Spitzmaus (Jocelyn Prah) and Bar (Chloe Tannenbaum) a couple of excitable, flamboyant wannabe magicians, trying to perform their own tricks – often ‘badly’ (deliberately so of course). They were German, for some reason and this included a German joke which was completely lost on the audience and also my husband who lived there for several years! They performed a quick change sketch which I was most impressed with. Bar was at one point fired from a cannon but managed to survive thankfully, as she played a lesser speaking with skill and vigour with her ‘Ja Ja’s and her penchant for causing pain to others, including the unfortunate Blade. Spitzmaus was equal to the task and as a duo they worked very well, and again I had no idea what they were ‘going to do next.’

As for Blade, played by Keifer Moriarty, this character was a bundle of testosterone filled energy with an ego to match. Personally, I found his build-up to the tricks to be more impressive that the tricks themselves, trash talking and constantly ripping his clothes off! His tricks demanded perfect timing and credit is given to his skill here – especially with
mouse-traps, you have been warned. I was though not so fond of the character. I should note that there was nothing under-par about the way he delivered his part.

Then we had the hapless ‘Mind Mangler’ played with gusto I thought by Rory Fairburn. His sidekick was ‘Mickey’ played by Daniel Anthony and these two worked together very well – they were the stars of the evening for me. One scene where the Mangler tries to contact the dead was hilarious – and easily the funniest of the evening in my book. Valerie Cutko played ‘Eugenia’, a character who I could not get to grips at all. She was the matriarch if you will, overseeing the charity fundraising – making a substantial donation herself and to be honest it was with no little sadness when her character disappeared under egregious circumstances just before the interval. Again this was not a reflection on the actor, but the character itself.

I welcomed the interval, feeling a little disappointed by it all. I have no idea what the rest of the audience thought, but no-one seemed to be talking about it in the bar as people normally would. In footballing terms, they needed to bring on a substitute to lift the crowd for the second half. After a swift libation I returned to my seat and I should say that the
second half was indeed more enjoyable.

One or two people (were they understudies?) played ‘bit parts’ if you will – supporting the main cast with crowd interactions, and shooting live video onstage which could be seen on a big screen which dropped down from the ceiling occasionally.

The lighting, music and stage set were very clever, and credit must be given to the supporting team for this. The show revealed how one or two tricks were done but others remained a mystery. That was part of the fun and worked very well.

I was surprised by some of the language in the show. Not that I am a prude (far from it) but certain words and phrases I thought might not be appropriate for a youngster but the guidance for the show said 10+ in age, so it is up to the parent/guardian.

To conclude, I thought it was a good show overall. If you like magic you will undoubtedly enjoy it. It takes a certain skill (comic timing) to make things go wrong – as Tommy Cooper knew, but I felt that some of it was too contrived for my liking. It was hard work trying to figure out what was going on (and I don’t just mean the magic) as we jumped from a
seemingly poignant moment reading from a dead man’s wand to watching Derren Brown being attacked by a bear in a Market Square. Some of the scenes seemed almost superfluous, not to say bizarre to me, whilst others were the good, solid stock of comedy magic that we might all come to expect, such as being sawn in half and making people
disappear. I found it to be a bit slow going and it might have benefitted by being reduced by half an hour, with an injection of more fizz and pace about it.

I stepped out into the chilly inky-black night just a little underwhelmed. I felt strangely incomplete. Was I flummoxed or bamboozled? Did I come away saying ‘Wow, that was magic?’ No, I did not. The magic didn’t go wrong, nor did the cast or crew, all of whom were excellent in their roles and I appreciated their collective skill and expertise. However, the actual format of the show itself was the issue for me. It was a bit too long and disjointed.
It is a curious one, this. I like to write my review in such an honest and uncomplicated way that anyone who attends a show as a result of reading it might say ‘Yes, I can relate to that review in terms of what I just experienced.’ Yet, this is such a weird one to write, based on what I saw. Thus, I would urge the reader to go and see the show with an open mind and a lively imagination. If you do that, then the magic might just work for you.

DAN LOONEY, ADAM PAULDEN AND JASON HAIGH-ELLERY FOR DLAP GROUP,

DAVID TREATMAN CREATIVE, SCOTT PRISAND, BARRY HABIB, ROSA FORTINO 

AND FOURTH WALL LIVE 

PRESENT

THE FULL COMPANY OF

BONNIE AND CLYDE

THE MUSICAL

AND ANNOUNCE

FRANCES MAYLI MCCANN AND JORDAN LUKE GAGE

TO STAR AS

BONNIE AND CLYDE

AT THE ARTS THEATRE

FROM 9 APRIL 2022

DLAP Group are thrilled to announce that Frances Mayli McCann and Jordan Luke Gage will star as the titular Bonnie and Clyde in the West End premiere of the cult-sensation BONNIE AND CLYDE THE MUSICAL, opening at the Arts Theatre from Saturday 9 April 2022. www.bonnieandclydemusical.com

Following the extraordinary reaction to her performance as ‘Bonnie’ in Bonnie and Clyde In Concert in January 2022, Olivier-Award nominated Frances Mayli McCann reprises the role in this full production at The Arts Theatre, performing alongside West End star Jordan Luke Gage as ‘Clyde’.

They join the previously announced Natalie McQueen as ‘Blanche Barrow’ and George Maguire as ‘Buck Barrow’. The full company includes Cleve September as ‘Ted’ and Ako Mitchell as ‘Preacher’, Pippa Winslow as ‘Cumie Barrow/Governor Miriam Ferguson/Eleanore’, Gracie Lai as ‘Emma Parker/Stella’, Alistair So as ‘Sheriff Schmid’, Alexander Evans as ‘Henry Barrow/Deputy Johnson’, Ross Dawes as ‘Captain Frank Hamer’, Barney Wilkinson as ‘Bud/Archie’ and swings Charlie McCullagh and Annie Guy. Casting for the roles of ‘Trish’ and Young ‘Bonnie’ and ‘Clyde’ to be announced.

Frances Mayli McCann is an Olivier Award nominated actress, who originated the role of ‘Kylah’ in “Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour”. Her other West End credits include ‘Heather McNamara’ in “Heathers” at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, ‘The Mistress’ in “Evita” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and ‘Eponine’ in the UK and International Tour of “Les Misérables”.

Jordan Luke Gage is best known for his portrayal of ‘Romeo’ in the Olivier Award winning “&Juliet” at The Shaftesbury Theatre. His other West End credits include ‘Strat’ in “Bat Out Of Hell” at The Dominion Theatre and ‘JD’ in “Heathers” at Theatre Royal Haymarket. His television credits include playing ‘Adrian Barber’ in ITV’s Cilla, and ‘Luc’ in Cucumber on Channel 4.

Natalie McQueen’s West End credits include playing ‘Doralee Rhodes’ in “9 to 5 The Musical” at the Savoy Theatre, “Wicked” at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and “Kinky Boots” at the Adelphi Theatre. Her other theatre credits include the UK tour of “Wonderland”, “Murder Ballad” at the Arts Theatre and “Starlight Express” at The Other Palace.

George Maguire is the winner for the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his performance as ‘Dave Davies’ in “Sunny Afternoon”. His other theatre credits include “35mm: A Musical Exhibition” at The Other Palace Studio, “Oliver!” at the London Palladium and the European tour of “Rent”.

Cleve September is perhaps best known for his Olivier Nominated performance as ‘Philip Hamilton/John Laurens’ in the original West End cast of “Hamilton” at the Victoria Palace Theatre. His other theatre credits include “Jesus Chris Superstar” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Crucible Theatre, “In The Heights” at Kings Cross Theatre and “The Last Days of Troy” at The Globe Theatre.

Ako Mitchell is an actor and filmmaker whose recent theatre credits include playing ‘Larry’ in “Indecent Proposal” at the Southwark Playhouse, ‘Bob Baker’ in “Wonderful Town” at Opera Holland Park, ‘Mister’ in “The Color Purple” at Curve and the Birmingham Rep and ‘The Moon/The Bus’ in “Caroline, Or Change” at the Chichester Festival Theatre and The Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End.

At the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America’s most renowned folk heroes and the Texas law enforcement’s worst nightmares. Fearless, shameless, and alluring, Bonnie & Clyde is the electrifying story of love, adventure and crime that captured the attention of an entire country. The show features the songs “Raise A Little Hell”, “This World Will Remember Me” and “Made In America”.

When Bonnie and Clyde meet, their mutual cravings for excitement and fame, combined with a desperate need to lift themselves out of the endless banality and poverty of West Dallas, set them on a mission to chase their dreams. Their bold and reckless behaviour turns the young lovers’ thrilling adventure into a downward spiral, putting themselves and their loved ones in trouble with the law. Forced to stay on the run, the lovers resort to robbery and murder to survive. As the infamous duo’s fame grows bigger, their inevitable end draws nearer.

BONNIE AND CLYDE THE MUSICAL has a book by Ivan Menchell (Blended [movie], The Cemetery Club, Death Note The Musical), a Tony Award nominated score by Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernel), lyrics by Don Black (Tell Me On a Sunday, Sunset Boulevard, Mrs Henderson Presents). The production will be directed by Nick Winston (Director of the feature film Tomorrow Morning, MAME, The Royal Variety Performance) with Set and Costume Design by Philip Witcomb (Atlantis, Stones In His Pockets, MAME), Musical Supervision from Katy Richardson (SIX, Rent, Jersey Boys), Lighting Design by Zoe Spurr (Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World, Hamlet at Theatre Royal Windsor), Sound Design by Tom Marshall (The Drifter’s Girl, Nativity The Musical, Curtains), Video Design by Nina Dunn (The Shark Is Broken, Lazuli Sky), Casting Director Jim Arnold CDG (Wicked, The Prince of Egypt), Musical Director Nick Barstow (The Last 5 Years, Zorro), Keys 2/ Assistant Musical Director Debbi Clarke Associate Director/Choreographer Megan Louch (The Bodyguard, Annie), Wigs Designer Darren Ware (The Rocky Horror Show, Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell), Fight Director Kate Waters (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Constellations), Production Manager Phil McCandlish (Curtains, Rock of Ages), Orchestra Fixer Rich Morris (American Idiot, Jesus Christ Superstar), Costumer Supervisor Jemima Penny (Machinal, Richard III), Props Supervisor Lizzie Frankl for Propworks (2:22 A Ghost Story, Pretty Woman), Company Stage Manager Paul Deavin (Rock of Ages), Drums Zach Okonkwo, Violin Clodagh Kennedy, Bass Guitar Annie Blake. Further crew and band to be announced. 

DLAP Group is an Olivier-Award winning production company with West End and UK Touring works including “Bonnie and Clyde in Concert”, “Rock of Ages,” “Company,” “Fame,” “Curtains,” and “The Wedding Singer.”

f  r  a  g  m  e  n  t  s   

The Waste Land 2022  

a celebration

Commissioned by T S Eliot Estate

Curated by DoranBrowne Arts Imagineers

In 22 Churches

City of London

April 7 – 12 2022

• Six day celebration of the 100th anniversary of T S Eliot’s The Waste Land
  
   
• Walk where Eliot walked, seeing the churches and streets that map The Waste Land

• The streets and churches of the City of London feature throughout the poem and inspired Eliot’s writing while he worked there
  
   
• A multi-arts programme featuring a plurality of experience: fado & flamenco, Finnish Kaustinen & English folk music, Gospel music & spirituals, classical chamber & contemporary minimalist music, Orkney song & sea shanties, poetry readings & literary in-conversations, Indian Raga & American ragtime, Anatolian sufi & western sacred music, Arabic hip-hop & ancient qunan playing, opera & spiritual rock along with specially commissioned film, video and sound installations.
  
   
• A spiritual and up-lifting celebration that encourages audiences to journey through the old heart of London connecting with performances in unique and transformative spaces. This will be the largest curated event to celebrate the poem’s centenary
  
   
• In tribute to Eliot’s masterpiece these 22 churches within the City of London will join together for the first time to allow audiences to curate their own Festival experience
  
   
• Featuring a one-off combination of professional and amateur artists
  
   
• 22 locations marking the 100th anniversary in 2022
  
   
• Tickets are on sale from 1 March from www.thewasteland2022.com

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of TS Eliot’s masterpiece The Waste Land, the Eliot Estate has commissioned DoranBrowne Arts Imagineers to curate f r a g m e n t s,a six day festival featuring multiple diverse performances in 22  unique and extraordinarily intimate late-medieval churches many just a short walk from each other across the City of London inspired by themes and images from the poem. All connecting performance, poetry and place.

‘The Waste Land is perhaps the great London poem and the T S Eliot estate is delighted to commemorate its centenary in the City that inspired Eliot’s haunting vision of a collapsing European culture. We hope you will join us at this ‘fragments’ Festival celebrating a masterpiece’s 100^th birthday’  Clare Reihill, Trustee, T S Eliot estate

“T S Eliot’s poem is a rich cultural vision of high and popular art, western and eastern, and as a public celebration we want our audience to feel a similar exhilaration as they experience the f r a g m e n t s festival.   We hope it will be a unique shared experience as the audience move through five or more different genres within the space of one event whilst also taking in the breath-taking beauty of these late medieval churches, 15 of which were originally created by the architect Sir Christopher Wren.  Any centenary of a great work of art such as Eliot’s The Waste Land is a moment in which to pause and reflect. To do so in the actual geography cited in much of the poem is a one-off opportunity not to be missed”. Seán Doran and Liam Browne of DoranBrowne. 

Eliot wrote The Waste Land while working as a banker in the City of London, he created his masterpiece immersed in the world of finance while surrounded by places of deep faith and spirituality represented by the myriad churches sitting side by side with the worship and pursuit of mammon, now represented by The Cheesegrater, The Gherkin and the Walkie-Talkie. This celebration – f r a g m e n t s – takes audiences physically to places named in the poem offering a chance to explore this fascinating and intact part of London and to imagine what it might have been like in the early part of the 20^th century as Eliot worked in his below ground office in the foreign transactions department at Lloyd’s Bank. Each fragment is performed in a location that creates an intimate connection between the poem and the place. A unique opportunity to engage with works of art in these spaces, the festival will hope to deliver a spiritual and uplifting experience that is an appropriate celebration of Eliot’s great work as it marks its 100th anniversary.

“I should love to write a book on Wren, or at least on the églises assassinées of London” 

T S Eliot (Oct 1921)

Following the methodology of Eliot’s writing, f r a g m e n t s has been devised to combine a plurality of different voices, different spiritual cultures, popular culture as well as high art. Just as Eliot brought a diversity of styles, influences and tastes into his writing so the curators have done the same to reflect the defining elements of The Waste Land.

Creating an individual ‘shuffle festival’, audiences are invited to design their own route through the events, which will include music, film, poetry and installation. Moving from church to church, all of which are situated within one square mile of each other, they will experience the different performances in fragments reflecting the structure of the poem itself. Audiences will select one of the 5 Celebrations and move between the events programmed in that time slot.

A highly spiritual and humanist poem, The Waste Land grew out of a reaction to recent global catastrophes of that period: The Great War and its impact (changes and tensions between the sexes, poverty, a housing crisis, the state of the Empire and Britain’s role internationally), the Spanish Flu pandemic, the rise of the Suffragette movement.  All of this led to a period of major transition and trauma. Set in the City of London where Eliot worked while he was writing it, the poem is multicultural and multilingual, and in it changed poetry forever.

DoranBrowne Arts Imagineers has brought together a diverse multi-arts programme featuring a wide range of artists presenting work that either makes direct reference to the poem, or draws upon the themes, settings and past culture that initially inspired Eliot to write the work. At the centre of the festival programme is a specially commissioned sound installation by Pierre-Yves Macé made up of 10 different voices. It all comes together to create an artistic celebration and tribute to the legacy of The Waste Land as it marks its 100th anniversary. The music line-up spanning classical, folk and spiritual music from across the globe includes Gavin Bryars, Sam Lee, Erland Cooper and the Shards Choir, The Secret Ensemble, Amies Freedom Choir, Maya Youssef, Voces8, the Incognito Gospel Choir, the Navarra Quartet and repertoire by Messiaen, Wagner, Stravinsky, Ravel, Pärt and Poulenc among others. Philip Glass’ iconic film Koyaanisqatsi will be screened on a loop alongside live readings of influential poems from the last 100 years selected by previous winners of the T S Eliot Prize performed by Tamsin Greig, Imogen Stubbs and Toby Jones. 

A secular sermon by Jeanette Winterson at Southwark Cathedral and a set of songs by Liam Ó’Maonlaí at St Mary Woolnoth forming the double opening event on Thursday 7 April. Eliot described the sermon as ‘a form of literary art’. Winterson’s sermon in Southwark Cathedral is written to inspire us in these difficult times. In the atmospheric surroundings of the small intimate St Mary Woolnoth church, now known as the Amazing Grace church, the Irish singer-songwriter, Liam Ó’Maonlaí (of the Hothouse Flowers) will deliver a soulful set of songs in harmony with the church’s ethos. Macé’s sound installation entitled Spread from Ear to Ear begins on Friday 8 April at 1pm and continues throughout the weekend alongside filmed readings of The Waste Land at All Hallows Crypt. The Festival will then roll out over five three-hour long sessions between Friday evening 8 April and Sunday Afternoon 10 April. Each of the sessions will feature unique performances from a range of performers alongside installations that will happen throughout the weekend. The festival concludes on 11 and 12 April with a tribute to Marie Lloyd, Eliot’s favourite music hall performer, starring Jenna Russell at Wilton’s Music Hall Marie, Marie, Hold on Tight! is a sort-of-musical that marks the centenary of Marie Lloyd’s death and The Waste Land’s birth and which could really only be staged at Wilton’s. It tells the very funny and moving story of the unlikely relationship between the work of two unhappy people and great artists..

Performances take place in 22 churches throughout the City of London. All within easy walking distance of each other. Two of the churches – St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Magnus the Martyr – feature in the poem and all have been chosen because of their connection to a theme or line or image from The Waste Land.

Full programme information can be found by visiting www.thewasteland2022.com