Aliya Al-Hassan - Page 8

Marking the start of Drew McOnie’s inaugural season, the award-winning corny musical Shucked has now opened at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. In a small town where the cherished corn crop is fading, Shucked follows farmgirl Maizy as she seeks help by going to the big city, shaking up the town's routine and igniting a spark of change. 

After many years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James agrees to become the sponsor of newcomer Luka. On the cusp of Step 5, their conversations must turn to confessionals, with progress hinging on Luka revealing secrets that could lead back to alcohol. But it’s clear that James also has dangerous truths in his past, truths that threaten the trust on which both their recoveries depend.

Opera buffa is an ever-popular genre of the art, and more than two centuries after its composition, Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia remains one this genre's most often staged operas. The music and lyrics are pure genius, but the success of this particular opera comes from an inherent understanding of the comedy within. Annabel Arden's production makes a triumphant return to Glyndebourne because it does just that.

Mischief’s new action-packed thriller The Comedy About Spies is gripping audiences with laughter at the Noël Coward Theatre. The multi award-winning team behind The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery step into 1960s London in this hilarious spy caper full of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and mistaken identity.

Beverley Knight starsBefore Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jimi Hendrix came Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the so-called 'godmother of rock ‘n’ roll’ who you have probably never heard of. Controversially Tharpe took her conservative gospel roots into the nightclubs, playing with Duke Ellington and selling millions of records in the USA and the UK during the 1930s and 40s, yet she ended her life in an unmarked grave. 

Stephen Sondheim’s final work, Here We Are, is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello with book by Tony Award-nominee David Ives. It is now open at the National Theatre with an all-star cast including Jane Krakowski and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. So what did the critics think?

Following a sell-out run at the Royal Court, the play everyone is talking about is transferring to the West End. John Lithgow reprises his role as Roald Dahl in the West End transfer of Mark Rosenblatt's critically acclaimed play. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, The Royal Court's production of Giant is now open at the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre.

On the eve of July 4th in the Hamptons, Elena Solness, a publishing magnate, is preparing to throw a party to celebrate her architect husband, Henry Solness, as he unveils his latest masterpiece. Their already vulnerable union is shattered by the unexpected arrival of Mathilde, a former student of Henry’s, with whom he previously shared an intimate connection. As the evening unfolds, each find themselves face to face with a reckoning that indelibly tilts the axis of their lives.

Michael Grandage's My Master Builder is billed as a reinvention of Ibsen's play of almost the same name through a modern, female lens. A rich story with themes of control, power, and the search for validation, featuring a host of stars of stage and screen. What could go wrong? Quite a lot as it happens.

It is now a rather incredible twenty five years since Ridley Scott's Gladiator came to our cinema screens, making a star of Russell Crowe and cementing the soundtrack's reputation as one of most captivating of its time. As such, it seems fitting that the Royal Albert Hall has included it in its wonderful Films in Concert series and what a treat it is to hear that remarkable soundtrack live.

After running at the RSC's Swan Theatre last year, Erica Whyman's quietly captivating production of Mark Ravenhill's play Ben and Imo now makes its way south to the Orange Tree Theatre.

There's a party going on at the London Coliseum this summer. Unfortunately, it's one of those parties that you eagerly look forward to, only to wish you had stayed at home and read an improving book instead.

Gary Owen’s new play, a contemporary reimagining of Ibsen’s classic, is directed by Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan, reuniting the team behind the critically acclaimed Iphigenia in Splott, Romeo and Julie and Killology.

With so much potential material to explore, it is incredible that until now, a play has not been written about speed awareness courses. Following the success of the Olivier-nominated Blue Mist, writer Mohamed-Zain Dada and director Milli Bhatia come to the Bush Theatre with their darkly amusing new production Speed.

It is said that we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. In April De Angelis's Playhouse Creatures, she celebrates five women who were clever innovators and brave pioneers of the stage at a time when female actors were openly objectified, judged and derided.

Rosie Day is a playwright and actor, starring in the world premiere of (This is not a) Happy Room opening at the King's Head Theatre later this month. In this Guest Blog for BroadwayWorld, Rosie talks about the ever-increasing challenges to those working in the entertainment industry, isolation and the need for connection among young actors.