Carrie Dunn - Page 74

DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions are delighted to confirm full casting for SHREK THE MUSICAL® in 2012, with 11 new performers set to join the company.

Northern Stage and Live Theatre in Newcastle Upon Tyne are thrilled to announce that they are joining forces to revive Alan Plater's play CLOSE THE COALHOUSE DOOR as a memorial production following his death in 2010. Directed by Samuel West, the production will open at Northern Stage on Wednesday 18 April, with previews from 13 April and will then tour the UK until June. CLOSE THE COALHOUSE DOOR will tour the country whilst THE PITMEN PAINTERS, another Live Theatre production set in the mining community, continues to enjoy huge success in the West End. Writer Lee Hall, (best-known for his global smash hit musical Billy Elliot) has been commissioned to revisit the piece with a new ending and a new song to bring it up to date, especially as the play was written before the critical 1984 - 5 miners' strike.

With London busily preparing to welcome millions of tourists for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, its world-beating theatre industry has come together to promote its unrivalled line-up of productions and fantastic special offers, to visitors as well as the capital's residents, through a new campaign: 'Don't Miss The Real Show in 2012'

Second Skin Theatre is proud to announce the return of the UK Premiere of LA CHUNGA, by Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. This dark and disturbing drama set in 1950s Peru runs from January 24th to February 19th 2012 at the Phoenix Artist Club in the West End.

This week on BWW:UK, we've been looking back at 2011 - and looking ahead to a very exciting 2012 in the West End and UK theatre!

Thanks to a successful bid in Stage One's 'West End Lots' charity auction, 20-year-old Lauren Paine from Kent experienced the once in a lifetime thrill of performing alongside Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook in the smash-hit play Jerusalem.

Some of our writers and reviewers give their thoughts about UK theatre this year!

We asked some of our favourite West End folk what they're looking forward to seeing on stage in 2012...

With the musical audacity of early Elton John, the acerbic humour of Chelsea Handler and the narrative grit of Gus Van Sant, American recording artist Ezra Axelrod will launch his debut album, Songs from the American Motel, with a month-long West End residency at Leicester Square Theatre.

Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Sean Holmes presents a new collaboration with Filter; exposing the heart of Shakespeare's most magical play in a production which will be designed by the 2011 Linbury Prize winner Hyemi Shin.

The heart's desire of stars...

Jennifer Ellison, once Roxie Hart in Chicago and Meg Giry in the film version of The Phantom of the Opera, leads the line-up of contestants for this year's Dancing on Ice reality TV competition.

It's 2012! Happy New Year to you all. What are your resolutions for the 12 months ahead? We asked some of our favourite theatrical types what they'll be trying to do - or not - this year...

Russell will appear alongside Gareth Gates, Kerry Ellis, Oliver Thornton and Brenda Edwards in the Biblical-inspired musical Children of Eden, by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz and John?Caird, which is being revived in the West End for one night only in a spectacular star-studded charity gala at the Prince of Wales?Theatre on Sunday 29 January.

What we're looking forward to in 2012

It's that time of year again - when critics and bloggers alike put forward their highlights and low points of the year's theatre. As I can't pass a bandwagon without jumping on it, here is my best - and worst - of 2011.

My 2011 theatrical exploits, while not as numerous as I'd like, have been enjoyable on the whole and happily have involved the West End, the London and Edinburgh Fringes and Broadway. In an attempt to summarise I have come up with a few arbitrary and inconsistent categories into which to put some of the shows I've seen.

One of BBC TV's most popular and fondly remembered sitcoms, BIRDS OF A FEATHER ran for almost 10 years until 1998. Set in Chigwell, it chronicled the misadventures of Sharon Theodopolopoudos and Tracy Stubbs (Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson) and their man-eating neighbour, Dorien Green (Lesley Joseph).

Catch Adam Cooper and the cast of West End-bound SINGIN' IN THE RAIN perform on tonight's ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE - Wednesday 14 December, 7.30pm on ITV1.

Digital Theatre announces William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as its latest release available to watch online or download to the desktop, available from today (13 December 2011) at www.digitaltheatre.com.