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Aria Entertainment has today announced the full programme of work for the annual season. Nine shows have been announced as part of the third From Page To Stage season of new musicals. Readings include a new musical by Loserville writing duo Elliot Davies and James Bourne and also a new piece from Tim Sanders and Charles Miller, whose Return Of The Soldier received a full production last year at Jermyn Street Theatre after a reading in the season.

The Stationmaster, a brand new British musical with Music and Lyrics by Tim Connor and Book by Susannah Pearse, is to get a two-week run as part of the third annual From Page To Stage season, a season of new musical theatre at the Tristan Bates Theatre from Monday 26 October to Saturday 21 November.

Producer Katy Lipson of Aria Entertainment said: “We are delighted to confirm this year’s chosen work of 1 full scale musical, 3 readings and 4 showcases amongst others. The 2015 season has been selected from an open application process which saw 80 musicals submitted and presents a mixed programme of work at various stages of development. From Page To Stage serves as a platform for new writing with a focus on new British musicals and supports not only the writers, but our audiences too. We hope the season will continue to act as a strong vehicle for the development of new musicals here in the UK and help secure partners for the future of some of the works included.”

She added: “The Stationmaster is a wonderfully, dark, chamber piece with an interesting book to explore in the form of a musical. The musical language is unique and has a blend of tuneful melody and interesting harmony. The story of the piece instantly grabbed my attention when we were reading through our submissions, and I feel it is a great example of what a British writing team has to offer. I think it will represent the From Page To Stage brand well as our headline musical this year.”

Producer Kim Sheard joins the team this year as Associate Producer.

For more details about the full season of work visit:
www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk
@frompage2stage

FROM PAGE TO STAGE – LISTINGS
THE STATIONMASTER
Tuesday 3rd – Sunday 15th November
Tuesday – Friday at 7.30pm, Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Sunday at 2.30pm
Tickets – £18.00 / £16.00
The Stationmaster is a brand new British musical with Music and Lyrics by Tim Connor and Book by Susannah Pearse. Inspired by Horvath’s Judgment Day, translated by Christopher Hampton

It’s 1958 and we’re in the town of Kirby in the Lake District. Railway stationmaster Thomas Price is the pillar of the local community. Until a young woman arrives on the platform and distracts him from his duties. Thomas forgets to set a crucial signal and a tragic train crash occurs. The guilty pair decide to cover up their mistake. But as ghosts start to appear to them in the town, things begin to unravel…

Three musicals will be presented in the form of fully-staged, rehearsed readings

OUT THERE
Tuesday 27 to Thursday 29 October at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical from Elliot Davis and James Bourne, the writing team that brought you Loserville.  Newman Carter, a world famous astronaut, mysteriously disappears in 1969. Forty years later, a troubled young man, turns up on his doorstep with a letter, which changes everything, for everyone… Out There is an original tale about fathers, grandfathers, families, love, loss, hope, learning to be a child, learning to be a parent and never, ever, giving up on your dreams. This show gives cast and audience alike the chance to go where no one has gone before, on the journey of a lifetime. The show is set in the deep south of the USA and follows the fortunes of runaway Logan Carter, how he saves the town of Hope, Texas, and rediscovers his family at the same time.

FIVE CHILDREN & IT
Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical with Book by Helen Watts, Music and Lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer.
Based on the original story by E. Nesbit. When exploring the land around their new country house, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and ‘The Lamb’ come across a rare and extremely grumpy Psammead. This magical ‘sand-fairy’ is able to grant any wish the children ask for, with the rule that at sunset their wish will turn to stone or disappear. The children are initially excited at having their wildest dreams come true but soon discover that making these wishes isn’t quite as easy as they thought. A summer of mayhem ensues, and the children find that they must pay the price and grant the Psammead a wish of his own…

PRINCESS PHYLLIDA’S FORTNIGHT
Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 November at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12.00
A new musical with Book and Lyrics by Tim Sanders and Music by Charles Miller. Everyone thinks Phyllida lives inside a fairytale…except Phyllida. The pampered Bavarian princess is planning to escape the turrets and tiaras for a more simple life. Spurning a distinctly handsome prince, Phyllida absconds with her long-suffering tutor, Fritzing, under the name of Ethel Shultz. But the unlikely exiles settle in a God-fearing Somerset village, where the locals are ill-prepared for a German princess who can’t help acting like one! As Phyllida wreaks havoc, a certain jilted prince catches up with her. The runaway princess must now make a choice… Princess Phyllida’s Fortnight is a quirky delight – a ripping yarn of derring-do, heady romance and Latin grammar!

The season will open with a one-off performance and is completed by a set of showcase evenings that will present four pieces in development in one performance

MAP OF THE PAST
Monday 25 October at 7.30pm
Tickets: £16.00
Music and Lyrics by John Mitchell & John Beck, Book by Guy James.
Map of the Past tells the story of a small boy that finds a box of photographs in his grandparents’ loft. As he searches through the faded, sepia pictures he yearns to know more about the people and the stories behind the photographs. Based on the classic rock album by It Bites, Map Of The Past is a sung-through musical that promises a journey through love, loss and truth’s perhaps best left in the past…

FROM PAGE TO STAGE SHOWCASES
Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November at 7.30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm
Tickets: £15.00
These showcases will present 25-minute excerpts of four new musicals in development, performed by a repertory company of actors. Shows included are:
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
By Kirby and Beverly Ward
Based on the story by Oscar Wilde
With only a fortnight remaining before he is to wed his beloved Sybil, Lord Arthur Savile attends a party where a palm reader foretells a horrifying event in his future: he will commit murder. A stunned Arthur realizes a happy marriage is now impossible. Frightening mishaps the following morning make it clear that Arthur may, in fact, murder his darling Sybil if he doesn’t act quickly. With the help of his trusted manservant, Saunders, Arthur embarks upon the only conscientious course of action a devoted fiancé would take – to kill someone right away.

Cousins Grimm
By Michael Biello, Dan Martin, and Ted Sod
Jackie and Leon, The Cousins Grimm, are adapting some of their ancestors’ lesser known stories into a musical adding a queer sensibility to them. Their contemporary twists on the stories represent their combined subconscious and reflect their own personal lives. When the characters they are inventing decide they are not happy with the direction the musical is taking, they express themselves to the authors. Leon is disturbed by this phenomenon, but Jackie encourages Leon to accept it and go forward. Then Jacob Grimm appears to advise the writing team, when something very odd happens…

This is Also England
By Joseph Finlay and Raphael Smith
1957, West London. In a deeply conformist post-war society, immigrants from the West Indies, Eastern Europe, and Ireland struggle to fit in. Lloyd George Gambles, recently arrived from Antigua, urges his family to assimilate into all things English, but his younger daughter Miriam has other ideas. In the run down, overcrowded house they live in she meets Lazar, a reclusive and eccentric Hungarian Jew, who tries to hide away from the world. With Lazar’s help, Miriam confronts her father and their corrupt landlord, and in doing so learns that if you want a home you have to make it yourself.

Just a Man
By Johnny Whetstone, Mick Bass, and Guy James
The true-life story of Walter Tull, the first mixed-race British footballer in the top English division and the first mixed-race combat officer in the British Army. Battling racial discrimination that threatens to stop his career and chooses to play the ‘greater game’ when he joins the army at the outbreak of World War 1, rising to Second
Lieutenant, despite Military Law excluding ‘Mulattos’ from exercising command as officers.

Following sell-out runs at the Almeida theatre and in the West End, the multi-award-winning new play King Charles III embarks on a UK tour this autumn, coming to Newcastle Theatre Royal from 28 Sept – 3 Oct 2015.

King Charles III takes us to a time in the future when the Queen is dead and after a lifetime of waiting, Prince Charles ascends the throne. A future of power. But how to rule? Mike Bartlett’s play explores the people underneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of our democracy, and the conscience of Britain’s most famous family. The show has this year been awarded the Olivier Award, Critics Choice and South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best New Play.

Taking the lead role of King Charles is Robert Powell, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth (which won him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor) and as series regular Mark Williams in Holby City. Powell’s theatre credits includeSingin’ in the Rain (Palace Theatre), Ubu Roi and Pirates (both Royal Court), Travesties (RSC), Tovarich (Chichester Festival Theatre), and more recently a touring production of Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell.

Written by Mike Bartlett, who previously collaborated with Rupert Goold on Earthquakes in London and Decade. His other plays include An Intervention, Artefacts (for which he won the Old Vic New Voices Award), Cock (which was awarded an Olivier Award in 2010 for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre at the Royal Court), Love, Love, Love (which won Best New Play at the 2011 Theatre Awards UK) and most recently Game.

King Charles III is directed by the Almeida Theatre’s artistic director Rupert Goold with Whitney Mosery and designed by Tom Scutt, with music composed by Jocelyn Pook, lighting by Jon Clark and sound by Paul Arditti.

Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold has most recently directed The Merchant of Venice (originally produced for the Royal Shakespeare Company), American Psycho: A new musical thriller and King Charles III for the Almeida Theatre, and will directMedea this Autumn. King Charles III transferred to the West End at the Wyndham’s Theatre and won an Olivier Award for Best New Play, and will this year transfer to Broadway and embark on a UK tour.

Elsewhere Goold’s work includes Made in Dagenham in the West End. He was Artistic Director of Headlong from 2005 until 2013 where his work included The Effect, ENRON, Earthquakes in London and Decade. Other theatre credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida, Macbeth at Chichester Festival Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway and No Man’s Land at The Gate and in the West End. He was Associate Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2009 to 2012 and was Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres from 2002 to 2005. He has twice been the recipient of the Laurence Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Director. For television he has directed Macbeth and Richard II for the BBC and Neal Street Productions, the latter of which was nominated for a BAFTA. His first feature film, True Story, which stars James Franco and Jonah Hill for Plan B and Fox Searchlight has just been released in the UK.

The King Charles III tour is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Stuart Thompson Productions, Tulchin Bartner Productions, Charles Diamond and the Almeida Theatre in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre and by arrangement with Lee Dean.

King Charles III appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Mon 28 Sept – Sat 3 Oct 2015. Tickets from £14.50 (pay 50p less per ticket when you book online). Tickets can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21, (calls cost 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge) or select your own seat and book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk

Our contributor Claire Roderick gives her 5 rules to West End theatre etiquette
I’ve been trying to write a review of Wicked. Should be easy – after first number (dear lord it’s like nails on a blackboard) it’s all fantastic magical blah blah blah…
But all I can think about are the wonderful audience members who made the experience so memorable.
Patti Lupone has just announced her 5 rules of theatre etiquette. Well here in London it would seem we have our own 5 rules:

1. Lean forward in your seat – in sloping sections of the theatre this transforms you from a 6 foot man into an 8 foot pillar with sticky out ears that makes people behind you wonder why their ticket hasn’t got “restricted view” printed on it.

2. Feel free to use your mobile phone throughout the performance – the person next to you may be afraid of the dark, and the theatre staff need the exercise. All that running up and down the aisles saves them the cost of gym membership. It would be rude of them not to thank you.

3. If you are munching on popcorn or Maltesers, do so as loudly as possible, and completely out of beat with the music – your syncopation skills enhance the experience for everyone in the surrounding 10 rows.

4. Bring your snacks along in a plastic bag (or better still, why not wrap your sandwiches in tinfoil) and rummage deeply at every opportunity, preferably during a quiet and emotional scene – the people around you may have purchased discounted tickets. The cheapskates obviously don’t deserve to hear ALL of the show.

5. Repeat puns and/or discuss plot revelations at length and as loudly as possible during the show – your fellow audience members may have medical conditions that impair their cognitive abilities and will be eternally grateful. Hey, why not give a running commentary throughout the whole show at the top of your voice?

Greenwich Theatre, London –  29th July – 23rd August.  Reviewed By Claire Roderick

Trust me. If you see this show you will leave euphoric – no drugs required.

Under Michael Strassen’s direction, this show is all about the music and the performers. The band, led by Kevin Oliver Jones, is on stage and play phenomenally well. A practically bare stage, deceptively simple costume and lighting design all enhance the performance and are never distracting. There are no pinball machines to be seen! Instead Mark Smith’s choreography and wonderful use of a single prop transport you to the arcade.

Miranda Wilford and James Sinclair are fantastic as Tommy’s parents. Wilford captures Mrs Walker’s helpless love and frustration and Sinclair is suitably stiff and remote as a 1950’s father, making you want to both slap them and give them a hug as they struggle to cope with Tommy’s condition.

DIRECT FROM BROADWAY, TOM McGOWAN JOINS WEST END HIT WICKED
U.S. STAR TO MAKE WEST END DEBUT AS THE WIZARD FROM 21 SEPTEMBER 2015

WICKED, the award-winning classic musical that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, is to welcome the American stage, television and film actor Tom McGowan to the role of The Wizard from Monday 21st September for a limited season until Saturday 12th March 2016. He will be making his West End debut.

Tom McGowan has been playing The Wizard in various North American productions of Wicked to great acclaim since 2009, including three separate engagements at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include ‘Bessie’ in Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina, directed by Joe Mantello; ‘Amos Hart’ in Chicago; Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov, adapted by David Hare and the original production of David Hirson’s La Bête (Tony® and Drama Desk Award nominations, Best Actor in a Play). Off-Broadway, he won an OBIE Award for his performance as ‘Otto’ in Nicky Silver’s The Food Chain. His many television appearances include recurring roles as KACL Station Manager ‘Kenny Daly’ in Frasier; ‘Bernie’ in Everybody Loves Raymond and ‘Joe’ in The War at Home; and guest starring roles in Veep; Modern Family; Desperate Housewives; Brothers & Sisters; CSI; Hot in Cleveland; ER and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Films include The Birdcage; Heavyweights; Ghost World; Bad Santa; As Good As It Gets; Bean; The Family Man; Twelve and Holding and Sleepless in Seattle.

Tom McGowan said: “I am thrilled to be invited to make my West End stage debut in Wicked playing the role that has been such a huge and fulfilling part of my career on Broadway and across North America at various times since 2009. I look forward to meeting and working with the amazing London cast.”

Executive Producer (UK) Michael McCabe said: “We are absolutely delighted that the wonderful Tom McGowan will be recreating his acclaimed Broadway performance as The Wizard in the West End production of Wicked, and we very much look forward to welcoming him to the Apollo Victoria Theatre in September.”

From Monday 21 September 2015, Wicked will star: Emma Hatton (Elphaba), Savannah Stevenson (Glinda), Oliver Savile (Fiyero), Liza Sadovy (Madame Morrible), Tom McGowan (The Wizard), Sean Kearns (Doctor Dillamond), Daniel Hope (Boq), Katie Rowley Jones (Nessarose), Natalie Andreou (Standby for Elphaba), Carina Gillespie (Standby for Glinda), Chloe Ames, Nicholas Collier, Laura Emmitt, Kerry Enright, Oliver Evans, Freya Field, Joseph Fletcher, Rosie Fletcher, David Gale, Sergio Giacomelli, Sheila Grant, Chester Hayes, Lauren James Ray, Aaron Jenkins, Jasmine Kerr, Natalie McQueen, Billy Mitchell, Scott Monello, Kane Oliver Parry, Steph Parry, Julienne Schembri, Paulo Teixeira, Joe Toland, Hannah Toy, Russell Walker and Helen Woolf.

Wicked Musical London
Apollo Victoria Theatre
17 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1LG
Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Age Restrictions: Recommended for ages 7 and over (children under 4 not admitted).
Show Opened: 27th September 2006
Evenings: Monday to Saturday 7.30pm
Matinees: Wednesday and Saturday 2.30pm
Friday 31st July 2015

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S ACCLAIMED NEW PRODUCTION OF CATS STARRING BEVERLEY KNIGHT FIRST LOOK VIDEO
As previously announced, Beverley Knight is to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats to play the role of Grizabella. Returning to the London Palladium from 23 October 2015, Lloyd Webber’s acclaimed new production of Cats will run for a strictly limited 11 week season until 2 January 2016.

Based on T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Cats returned to the West End in December last year in a sell-out season reuniting the original creative team – Director Trevor Nunn, Associate Director and Choreographer Gillian Lynne, Designer John Napier and Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Previously Nicole Scherzinger and then Kerry Ellis played the role of Grizabella at the Palladium. Jane McDonald is currently playing the role of Grizabella in an 8 week season at Blackpool Opera House.

On just one special night of the year, all Jellicle cats meet at the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, makes the Jellicle choice and announces which of them will go up to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

On 22nd July 2015 Andrew Lloyd Webber met with his new leading lady.

Cats, one of the longest running shows on the West End and on Broadway, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The production was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for eighteen years. Since its world premiere, Cats has been presented in over 30 countries, has been translated into 10 languages and has been seen by over 50 million people world-wide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album. The classic Lloyd Webber score includes Memory which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.
Cats was originally produced by Cameron Mackintosh and The Really Useful Group Limited.

LISTINGS
CATS
Running Time: 2 hours and 16 minutes
Age Restrictions: Suitable for ages 5 years+
Evenings: Monday to Saturday 7.30pm
Matinees: Wednesday and Saturday 2.30pm

Booking From: 23rd October 2014
Booking Until: 2nd January 2016

Nadia Fall will direct Timberlake Wertenbaker’s OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD, opening in the Olivier Theatre on 26 August as part of the Travelex £15 Tickets season. The cast will include: Jonathan Coote, Matthew Cottle, Jonathan Dryden Taylor, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Peter Forbes, Jason Hughes (as Ralph Clark), Ellie James, Shalisha James-Davis, Paul Kaye, Ashley McGuire, Graeme McKnight, Jodie McNee, David Mara, Tadhg Murphy, Cyril Nri, Debra Penny and Lee Ross. The production will be designed by Peter McKintosh, with lighting by Neil Austin, music composed by Cerys Matthews, choreography by Arthur Pita and sound by Carolyn Downing and fight direction by Kate Waters.

Observed by a lone, mystified Aboriginal Australian, the first convict ship arrives in Botany Bay in 1788, crammed with England’s outcasts. Colony discipline in this vast and alien land is brutal. Three proposed public hangings incite an argument: how best to keep the criminals in line, the noose or a more civilised form of entertainment?

The ambitious Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark steps forward with a play. But as the mostly illiterate cast rehearses, and a sense of common purpose begins to take hold, the young officer’s own transformation is as marked and poignant as that of his prisoners.

A profoundly humane piece of theatre, steeped in suffering yet charged with hope, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Olivier Award-winning OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD celebrates the redemptive power of art.

Timberlake Wertenbaker is the writer and translator of over 40 plays, including The Grace of Mary Traverse, The Love of the Nightingale, Three Birds Alighting on a Field, The Break of Day, After Darwin and The Ant and the Cicada.

Nadia Fall’s productions for the NT include Dara, Home, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Chewing Gum Dreams and Hymn; her other work includes Hobson’s Choice (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Disgraced (Bush Theatre), and Alan Ayckbourn’s Way Upstream at Chichester.

Cerys Matthews make her debut as a composer for the stage; she is a singer, songwriter, author and broadcaster. Her Sunday morning BBC 6 Music radio show, which she programmes and hosts, has the largest listenership of any single digital radio show in the UK. She is The One Show’s cultural reporter and writes and presents radio and television documentaries on subjects as diverse as Cuba, early classical composers, shark fishing and early female blues players. A collector of songs for over thirty years, Cerys has a weekly column in the The Guardian newspaper, and her sing-along book, ‘Hook, Line and Singer’, published by Penguin, became a Sunday Times bestseller. She is the author of two children’s books, ‘Tales from the Deep’ and ‘Gelert, A Man’s Best Friend’. Her ballet “Tir “, a collaboration with Ballet Cymru , is currently touring the UK.

Thanks to its partnership with Travelex, this year the National Theatre is once again offering over 100,000 tickets at just £15 for four productions (Everyman, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, The Beaux’ Stratagem and Our Country’s Good), with the rest at £25 and £35.

OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD Travelex £15 Tickets, Olivier Theatre
Previews from 19 August, press night 26 August, in repertoire until 17 October 2015.
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

LOCAL ACTOR STEPS INTO BERWICK’S SHOES AS THE RAILWAY CHILDREN IS DUE TO DEPART

There’s been a replacement to the advertised service at York Theatre Royal’s production of The Railway Children this week as panto legend Berwick Kaler has been taken ill ahead of opening night. Berwick is playing the part of The Old Gentleman in York Theatre Royal’s The Railway Children which opens at The Signal Box Theatre, National Railway Museum tonight. The part will temporarily be played by local actor Michael Lambourne who has stepped in at the last minute.

On Wednesday Berwick was taken ill with a suspected back injury and is currently awaiting further advice from doctors. Whilst he was very keen to make the opening night’s performance, director Damian Cruden has suggested he stays at home to recover and to ensure Berwick’s condition is not further aggravated in what is a strenuous production.

Most people will know Berwick from his starring role in the annual York Theatre Royal pantomime, which he has performed as Dame in for the last 36 years. The theatre announced the panto would be moving to The Signal Box Theatre back in May when a post-medieval hospital was found in the auditorium during major development work. This prompted Berwick to take the role of The Old Gentleman to allow him to get used to the venue as he began writing the panto for the brand-new space.

Artistic Director Damian Cruden said

Berwick desperately wants to be back as soon as he can be. He was really looking forward to opening night and is very upset not to be with the rest of the company on this special night. I’ve passed on his good luck messages and well wishes to the cast and crew.

York based actor Michael Lambourne has bravely stepped into Berwick’s shoes while he recovers. Michael recently won critical acclaim for his role as Weasel in York Theatre Royal’s 2014 summer show The Wind in the Willows. This role will be his seventh for York Theatre Royal including roles inThe Legend of King Arthur and Two Planks and a Passion. He has also starred in Hull Truck Theatre’s last two Christmas shows and runs York Theatre Royal’s Adult Acting Course.

We all wish Berwick a speedy recovery and hope he’ll be back playing The Old Gentleman in The Railway Children very soon.