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HANNAH TOINTON ANOUNCED TO JOIN THE WEST END CAST OF

• HANNAH TOINTON, WELL KNOWN AS TARA IN THE INBETWEENERS, VIOLETTE IN MR. SELFRIDGE AND KATY FOX IN HOLLYOAKS, WILL TAKE OVER THE ROLE OF DAWN THIS DECEMBER
   
• LUCIE JONES ANNOUNCED TO EXTEND LEADING ROLE AS JENNA UNTIL 25 JANUARY 2020

Waitress today announces television star Hannah Tointon, as seen in The Inbetweeners, Mr Selfridge and Hollyoaks, will be joining the West End company from 2 December in the role of Dawn. She will take over from Laura Baldwin who will mark her final performance on 30 November. Waitress is also delighted to announce that Lucie Jones, who has been wowing audiences in the lead role of Jenna since taking over earlier this summer, will extend performances in the smash hit musical through to 25 January 2020.

Waitress tells the story of Jenna, a waitress and expert pie-maker who dreams her way out of a loveless marriage. When a hot new doctor arrives in town, life gets complicated. With the support of her workmates Becky and Dawn, Jenna overcomes the challenges she faces and finds that laughter, love and friendship can provide the perfect recipe for happiness.

Hannah Tointon (Dawn) is best known for her role as Tara in the award-winning comedy The Inbetweeners and as Violette in the highly acclaimed British period drama Mr Selfridge. Hannah most recently starred as Zelda in The Jazz Age at the Playground Theatre. Other credits in recent years include, The Festival, Penny Dreadful, Call the Midwife, and Hollyoaks.

Lucie Jones (Jenna) has played some of the most iconic roles in musical theatre, with previous theatre credits that include Cosette in Les Misérables (Queens Theatre), Maureen Johnson in RENT (The Other Palace and national tour), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (national tour), Holly in The Wedding Singer (national tour), Victoria in American Psycho The Musical (Almeida), Molly Jensen in Ghost: The Musical (Asian tour) and Meat in We Will Rock You (world arena tour). Lucie was a finalist in the 2009 series of The X Factor and toured the UK playing to sell out arena crowds on The X Factor Tour in 2010. In January 2017, she won the public vote on the BBC2 show Eurovision – You Decide with her original song ‘Never Give Up On You’. She competed at the Eurovision World Final in Ukraine. Other television work includes roles in Midsomer Murders (ITV) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (BBC).

Waitress celebrated its official opening night at the Adelphi Theatre on 7 March 2019 and the Tony-nominated musical is now booking until 28 March 2020.  

Brought to life by a ground breaking, female-led creative team, Waitress features an original score by 7-time Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles (Love Song, Brave), a book by acclaimed screenwriter Jessie Nelson (I Am Sam) and direction by Tony Award® winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland) and choreography by Lorin Latarro. The production is also currently touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

Alongside Hannah Tointon as Dawn and Lucie Jones as Jenna, Waitress will star Sandra Marvin as Becky, David Hunter as Dr. Pomatter, Tamlyn Henderson as Earl and Andrew Boyer as Old Joe. Joe Sugg will mark his final performance as Ogie on 30 November, with further casting to be announced in due course.

Waitress premiered on Broadway in March 2016 and has since become the longest running show in the history of the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The production is also currently touring the US and Canada and has announced an Australian premiere in 2020 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre with further productions to open in Holland next year and Japan in 2021.

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

AWARD-WINNING COMEDIAN TAKES NEW SHOW ON UK TOUR

Opening Performance in Colchester on 26 February 2020

Award winning comedian Rob Brydon and his eight-piece band will take to the road next year with a brand new show, Rob Brydon – Songs and Stories.  This is the first time that Brydon has created a show that includes songs and music as well as his acclaimed wit and comedy.

Tickets across the tour are on general sale from today, Wednesday 23 October; please see www.robbrydon.live

This extensive new tour begins in February 2020 and will travel to almost 30 venues across the country beginning in Colchester on 26 February 2020 and going on to Bexhill-on-Sea, the Alexandra Palace in London, High Wycombe, Weymouth, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Folkestone, Salisbury, Stevenage, Guildford, Warrington, Hull, Huddersfield, Aylesbury, Woking, Watford, Cheltenham, St Albans, Worthing, Buxton, Rhyl, Inverness, Perth, and finishing in Aberdeen on 30 April.

With songs from Sondheim to Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Paul Simon to Tom Waits and almost everything in between, audiences can expect Rob’s usual warmth and humour as well as some of his famed gallery of voices. 

Rob is aware that some people might be taken aback by what they might perceive as a change of tack with “Songs & Stories”. He said of his new show: “It will take some people by surprise. There are so many media outlets nowadays that some people might only know me from Gavin and Stacey or Would I Lie To You?. Those people often say to me, ‘I didn’t know you could sing’, and yet I have sung a lot. I hope this show is a very pleasant surprise for audiences.”

Before the show begins its Spring tour, Rob Brydon – Songs & Stories will be performed in December 2019 with pianist and musical director Paul Herbert in the intimate surroundings of Crazy Coqs in London (2-4 & 7 December at 7pm and 5 & 6 December at 9.15pm).

Rob Brydon’s varied career began with the TV comedy shows Marion and Geoff and Human Remains in 2000, for which he won British Comedy Awards.  Since then his comedy credits have included A Small Summer Party, The Keith Barret Show, Directors Commentary, Supernova, Cruise Of The Gods, Black Books, I’m Alan Partridge, Little Britain, Live At The Apollo, Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive, QI, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, Have I Got News For You, Gavin and Stacey, Rob Brydon’s Identity Crisis, Would I Lie To You and The Trip with Steve Coogan.

He has also appeared in the dramas Oliver Twist, Heroes and Villains: Napoleon, The Way We Live Now, Murder In Mind, Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore, Marple and the films 24 Hour Party People, MirrorMask, A Cock and Bull Story and the film Swimming with Men.

In 2009 alongside Ruth Jones, Robin Gibb and Sir Tom Jones, Rob reached number one in the UK charts with the single Islands in The Stream, in aid of Comic Relief. He also embarked on an 87 date tour of the UK with his stand up show, Rob Brydon Live which included a three week run in London’s West End.  He is currently on a sold-out tour with Lee Mack and David Mitchell.

York Theatre Royal – Friday 18 October 2019

Reviewed by Michelle Richardson

3***

After last year’s successful, award winning Windrush, Phoenix Dance Theatre once again visited York Theatre Royal with an energetic double bill. The order was reversed from the programme, so opening the show was Left Unseen, choreographed by Amaury Lebrun.

Left Unseen is an exploration of inclusion and isolation, and how we rely on our senses to make our way through life. The stage is dark and barely gets brighter, just altering the shading on the stage for the duration, totally mirroring the accompanying music, and silence. Dressed all the same in grey shirts and beige trousers, the company of eight dancers, who all performed in both shows, often working in pairs, showed strength, power and fluidity in all their movements, at times it was mesmerising.

After a short interval, barely time for the dancers to recover, the second piece, The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Jeanguy Saintus and in collaboration with Opera North, was performed. This piece has been re-imagined to encompass Haitian rituals and voodoo sacrifice. This piece was a lot more energetic with Stravinsky’s exhilarating score.

The dancers, all dressed in white, with the back of their garments the same colour as their skin tone, black lips, pulsated in their movements. As the story unfolds, we seen them donning red gloves to depict, what I can only imagine, to be blood. The energy intensifies with bodies twisting and contorting, before the frenzy of the final ceremony. This story was easier to understand, but it was unclear when I was watching it, that we were following three central figures from Haitian folklore, that was until I read the programme.

The dancing in both shows was quite intoxicating. I was in awe of the dexterity, flexibility and sheer effortlessness of their dancing, though I was unsure about the stories they were telling. Overall, this is a show of power and intensity, from the very talented Phoenix Dance Theatre.

A Fond Farewell for Richard Alston Dance Company

Richard Alston Dance Company visits Woking’s New Victoria Theatre for a final performance on Tuesday 5 November. With this autumn tour called Final Edition the company will embark on its farewell tour across the UK, giving its loyal audiences a last chance to see a live performance by what is undoubtedly one of the world’s best dance ensembles. The Richard Alston Dance Company will sadly cease to operate in April 2020.

Sir Richard Alston said, “This tour is the last for my Dance Company and it’s a chance for me to say a huge thank you to the marvellously loyal audiences who have come to see us year after year. We are so so lucky to have had such terrific support and I personally cannot thank you enough.”

Over the past 50 years, Sir Richard Alston has played a major role in the world of contemporary dance, developing a unique and distinct dance language and shaping the art form in this country. Determined to go out with colours flying, Richard Alston has put together a celebration of this company’s unflagging creativity, a richly diverse mix of dance and music bringing some brand-new dances along with key works revived from the company’s history.

Voices and Light Footsteps is the UK premiere of Alston’s latest creation. The dance was inspired by the sensuously expressive vocal madrigals and instrumental sinfonias of Claudio Monteverdi, genius of the Italian Baroque.

Red Run is a signature work created in 1998 and revived for the company’s last season. Alston uses Heiner Goebbel’s powerful music to evoke a terrain of shadows across which the dancers travel with a nervous edgy energy.

Brahms Hungarian, set to the hugely popular Brahms pieces played live by solo pianist Jason Ridgway, will culminate the evening. Created last year, this new dance proved a favourite with audiences and returns to be enjoyed one last time.

“The moment it ended I longed to see it again – immediately.” ***** Culture Whisper

The Final Edition tour covers nine venues across the UK as well as a visit to the Dampfzentrale Bern in Switzerland, followed by an At Home Season at the company’s London base The Place. Richard Alston’s last work for his company, Shine On, co-commissioned by DanceEast and Snape Maltings and generously supported by the Tezmae Charitable Trust, will have its world premiere in Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh.

The evening of dance will be a celebratory one: there will be a pre-show talk with Richard Alston at 6.30pm, free to all ticket holders (limited availability so must be booked for at the Box Office), and a short curtain-raiser by Rambert Pre-vocational school will open the special performance – choreographed by Hannah Kidd. As the young group make their debut in Woking, Richard Alston Dance Company will take their last steps on the stage in a triumphant end to a successful 25 years.

This really is the last chance to see one of Britain’s most celebrated companies perform in Woking.

Listings

Tuesday 5 November, 7.30pm

Pre-show talk: 6.30pm

Tickets from £13 fees apply

You can book tickets by calling the Box Office on 0844 871 7645 (Fees apply. Calls cost up to 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge), Groups Booking Line 0333 009 5386 or online at www.atgtickets/woking (fees apply).

New Victoria Theatre, Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6GQ

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh – until 26 October 2019

Reviewed by James Knight

3***

Frankenstein is a difficult beast – writer Rona Munro has admitted as much. It’s been performed through the ages, being re-invented and adapted countless times. Indeed, at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, I saw two very different versions: one a live silent film with shadow puppets and actors, another a beatbox concept album.

Another difficulty is how is the story relevant to todays audiences? This is perhaps an easier obstacle – the story of a brilliant scientist creating life from death and his creation ruining and destroying him is one that has resonated for decades, in moral essays, debates about genetic manipulation, artificial intelligence, and many other issues.

In this production, Rona Munro has placed a major emphasis on Mary Shelley (Eilidh Loan). Some productions would draw attention to the reason she wrote the book (a competition between writers to create the most frightening horror story), or the tragic losses she suffered throughout her life. Instead, Munro focuses on Mary’s choices as a writer. The show opens with Mary editing her writing – unhappy with that although she may have stumbled across some horror, the purpose behind it is not clear. Throughout the play, Mary questions her characters, delights in wicked glee at an upcoming death she is about to spring upon her readers and the audience (“It’s been a long time since somebody died…”) and unlike her title character, encourages the creature to wreak havoc.

At the opening of the second act it is unclear if Mary is writing the book, or if it is writing her, a concept that, if expanded upon would be interesting for audiences to unpack. But it is here that the production suffers – there’s a lack of clarity in what it wants to be. Is it the story of Frankenstein that everybody knows? Is it the story of the creative process? Is it a development of how the creation affects the creator?

Add to this multiple knowing asides that reduce the fear factor, the two hundred year old story is rendered rather toothless. Mary’s rage at powerful men who neglect the consequences of their actions couldn’t be more timely, yet there is little space for this as we are whisked along a pace with very little time to let scenes settle and relationships to properly develop. We’re expected to know the story back to front already, and this means that characters are thin.

It’s a shame, because the icy set with lightning trees by Becky Minto, and chilling sound design and music by Simon Slater sets up a tension-filled production, but with such a lack of focus, this particular creation is left stumbling around.

FAME – THE MUSICAL 30^TH ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION

TO EXTEND FOR CHRISTMAS RUN AT Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre

Due to huge demand at the Peacock Theatre, West End the critically acclaimed 30^th Anniversary production of Fame the Musical will extend its current run will play for a strictly limited season at the newly opened Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, located in the heart of North West London’s new cultural neighbourhood from 21 Dec – 26 Jan.

Based on the 1980 phenomenal pop culture film, Fame – The Musical is the international smash-hit sensation following the lives of students at New York’s High School For The Performing Arts as they navigate their way through the highs and lows, the romances and the heartbreaks and the ultimate elation of life. This bittersweet but uplifting triumph of a show explores the issues that confront many young people today: prejudice, identity, pride, literacy, sexuality, substance abuse and perseverance.

David Da Silva – the conceiver of Fame who is known as ‘Father Fame’ – said of this anniversary production, “What makes a musical ‘a classic’ or ‘a masterpiece’?  It takes time. It passes from one generation to the next. It translates from one language to many.  It entertains an audience with both laughter and tears. It inspires youth with passion and parents with nostalgia. The brilliantly directed and choreographed 30th anniversary Fame UK production of the show by Nick Winston is the best I’ve ever seen.”

With full cast to be announced Fame the Musical is  presented by Selladoor Productions (Footloose, Avenue Q, Little Shop of Horrors and Flashdance –  The Musical) with Gavin Kalin Productions, Dan Looney & Adam Paulden, Stephen McGill Productions and Jason Haigh-Ellery in association with BrightLights Productions and Big Dreamer Productions.

Fame is Directed and Choregraphed by Nick Winston with Design by Morgan Large, Lighting design by Prema Mehta and Sound Design by Ben Harrison. Mark Crossland is Musical Supervisor.

Featuring the Oscar-winning title song and a cast of outstanding dancers, singers, musicians and rappers as they transform from star struck pupils to superstars. Fame – The Musical will indeed live forever.

Tickets are on sale now at www.troubadourtheatres.com. – 0844 815 4865 or visit www.fameuktour.co.uk  for more information. 

Harts Theatre Company and The Bunker
Little Miss Burden
The Bunker, 53A Southwark Street, London, SE1 1RU
Tuesday 3rd – Saturday 21st December 2019, 7.30pm

Little Miss Burden, coming to The Bunker this December, is a vital tale of growing up with a wheelchair in the ‘90s – a poignant new coming-of-age story from award-winning playwright and screenwriter Matilda Ibini.

Mashing together some serious ‘90s nostalgia, a Nigerian family in East London and Sailor Moon, Ibini’s new play draws on her own experiences as a teenager to tell the tricky, but often funny, truth about growing up with a physical impairment.

De-mystifying the stereotypes and tropes of disabilities, Little Miss Burden provides a crucial platform for disabled people’s voices, lives and stories to be heard. This is not a triumphant tale about overcoming a disability, but rather a meaningful and refreshing story of acceptance and understanding, of love and survival.

When thirteen-year-old Little Miss receives a gift, she must learn not just to live with it, but use and get on with it: they can’t both be Player One, and Little Miss needs to keep up with Big Sis and Little Sis. A story of self-love and sisterly love, Little Miss Burden follows the trio of sisters as Little Miss learns to understand her disability and how to live with it as part of her.

Matilda Ibini comments, The story of Little Miss Burden has been a long time coming. It felt apt to tell the story of a black disabled woman growing up in the UK at a time when a) the government is actively decimating disabled lives via stringent cuts to benefits and welfare and b) at a time when the country is calling into question its identity and in its crisis is scapegoating immigrants. I think the story of someone rejecting the labels and assumptions put on them is needed. If I was ever going to write about the disabled experience it was always going to be on my own terms i.e. magical realist as fuck, brutally honest and funny, because there is always light to be found in the darkest of worlds. And how existing at all these intersections isn’t a life
sentence or a tragedy but a key to freedom.

A THEATRICAL TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

A two-part theatre production that opens with a celebration of the history of Leeds theatres will take to the stage of the country’s longest running music hall next month.

Twice Nightly is at Leeds own City Varieties Music Hall on Saturday November 9th at 7pm

It sees two women, Gladys and Ethel, narrate the stories of a Leeds passed using the theatres and cinemas that once graced many of the city’s streets.

Its writer Liz Coggins, who also takes the role of Ethel said “If you walk from Briggate to the central bus station you’ll have passed the sites of where three theatres and four cinemas once stood.”

“Today they are department stores, office blocks and car parks but to the citizens of yesteryear Leeds they were places of dreams.”

Dialogue is mixed with music to tell the tales of the late great houses of entertainment and the people that graced their screens and stages.

“Magnificently built theatres and music halls were on almost every street corner – Leeds has a great history of entertainment and I want to share those stories with audiences young and old; I’m delighted to be able to do so at such a historic venue.” says Liz.

In the second act the production stays in the past but moves further east to Scarborough. Three Ships Came Sailing is a moving new work by Liz and was first performed at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in August this year.

It tells the story of the Scarborough bombardment, the first attack on civilian soil in the early months of World War One.

“Scarborough is a place close to my heart,” says Liz. “I have worked on its newspapers and grew up with my Grandmother telling me about the raid in December 1914. It resulted in 17 deaths and hundreds of casualties which had a huge effect on the sleepy seaside town and indeed on the country as a whole.”

Three Ships Came Sailing will tell the real stories of the people who lived through the raid.

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Twice Nightly and Three Ships Came Sailing

City Varieties Music Hall, Swan Street, Leeds

Saturday November 9th at 7pm

Tickets are priced from £21.60 to £24.60

Book online at cityvarieties.co.uk or call 0113 243 08 08

Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield – until 26 October 2019

Reviewed by Ian K Johnson

3***

This classic Alan Ayckbourn comedy Ten Times Table written in 1977 is the inaugural production of The Classic Comedy theatre company produced by Bill Kenwright and his team.

This production has a cast which includes an array of television celebrities includes Ray (Robert Daws – The Royal, Outside Edge), Donald (Mark Curry – Blue Peter, Junior Showtime), Mrs Evans (Elizabeth Power – Eastenders), Helen (Deborah Grant – Bread, Not Going Out, Bergerac), Sophie (Gemma Oaten – Emmerdale), Eric (Craig Gazey – Coronation St), Laurence (Robert Duncan – Drop the Dead Donkey) with Tim (Harry Gostelow) and Philippa (Rhiannon Handy) completing the cast.

Committees come and go but committees like the one formed for the Pendon Folk Festival are seen far and wide. The organiser Ray, willing to become the chairman, his dogmatic wife Helen with her own bone to contend with. The quiet school teacher Eric, who becomes such a Marxist fighting for his cause, the local business woman Sophie, who’s had her share of difficulties with men but still willing to please. Involve a local councillor, Donald and his ageing mother Mrs Evans, he’s a professional committee member and shes a retired teacher of piano but still tries to keep her hand in.

Sheffield Lyceum theatre is suitably transformed into the faded 3 star ballroom of the Swan hotel. In its heyday it was the place to be seen, not any more but still an ideal place to hold committee meetings of this sort. All banded together around a large table and various chairs to arrange the forthcoming Pendon Festival/pageant for local celebrant ‘John Cockle’.

This is an excellent production which certainly shows its audience that the Olivier Award winning playwright has once again captured such dark humour which shares and resonates with today’s current political climate.

Ayckbourn has always been a pure genius at seeing ordinary people in everyday/ordinary situations. This is no exception and the cast capture Ayckbourn’s satire with every line spoken.

Special mention has to be given to Mrs Evans (Elizabeth Power) who hasn’t many lines but steals the scenes in which she delivers with perfection.

Eric (Craig Gazey), Helen (Deborah Grant) and Donald (Mark Curry) all shine in the build up to the pageant and come the second half Tim (Harry Gostelow) certainly comes into his own as the robust army officer.

Any slight niggle with the piece would be that the meek and mild Philippa (Rhiannon Handy) was too meek, so much so I couldn’t hear a word she said.

Also at over 90 minutes long I felt the first half was a little too long.

This production is on tour until December.

Host, presenters and further details announced for 2019 UK Theatre Awards

Jodie Prenger will host this year’s UK Theatre Awards, which take place on Sunday 27 October at London’s Guildhall. The Blackpool-born actor has spent 2019 touring the UK in a succession of hit productions including Abigail’s Party and Annie, and is currently starring in the tour of the National Theatre’s production of A Taste Of Honey, which transfers to the West End in December.

Awards will be presented by performers Denise Black, Lesley Joseph, Gary Wilmot and Ashley Zhangazha, with Emma Rice being presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre by her regular collaborator, the designer Vicki Mortimer.

This year’s recipient of the Gielgud Award for Excellence in the Dramatic Arts is the theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. The award will be formally presented at a separate event at the Gielgud Theatre on 28 October, marking the 25th anniversary of the theatre’s renaming.

The Gielgud Award was established by The Shakespeare Guild in 1994. Previous recipients include Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Christopher Plummer, Patrick Stewart, Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Eyre.

The full list of nominations for this year’s UK Theatre Awards is available on the UK Theatre website.

@UK_Theatre #UKTawards