Fiona Scott - Page 11

The cast of A Christmas Carol chat to Tom Hayden Millward (@WestEndReporter) about their upcoming West End run at the Dominion Theatre.

For Hope Mill Theatre, their highly anticipated revival of Jonathan Larson’s seminal rock musical of the nineties was disrupted not once, but twice due to COVID. Rent originally ran for 12 years on Broadway and, famously, its composer tragically died hours before its first readthrough.  

Marry Me A Little, starring Celinde Schoenmaker and Rob Houchen, opened at The Barn Theatre in Cirencester on 16 October during that golden window of opportunity for socially-distanced indoor theatre performances. Unfortunately, their run was cut short by a few days due to a second national lockdown in England. Fortunately, a filmed version has now been released online.

The cast of Death Drop chatted to Tom Hayden Millward about their upcoming West End debut at the Garrick Theatre. Starring RuPaul’s Drag Race superstars Courtney Act and Monét X Change, Death Drop is a Dragatha Christie murder-mystery play. The show brings together a full cast of leading drag performers, in a hilarious murder mystery like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm penned the now three-time Olivier Award-winning play, Emilia, which tells her story. It premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2018 under the direction of Nicole Charles. The production then transferred to the West End and played the Vaudeville Theatre in 2019. An archive recording of the West End run is currently available to stream on a pay-what-you-can basis until 24 November.

The release of Dom O’Hanlon’s Theatre in Times of Crisis: 20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times is certainly timely, even without COVID. Written in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the collection of twenty play excerpts compiled by the Senior Commissioning Editor of Methuen Drama explores the theme of crisis in plays previously staged.

Ita??s unsurprising why Amazon has decided now is the time to release a recorded performance of Heidi Schrecka??s electric political play, What the Constitution Means to Me, on its Prime Video streaming platform. Playing herself, Schreck takes us back to her childhood of speaking at oratory competitions on the subject of the piecea??s title.

Earl Carpenter is known for his leading roles in The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and most recently appeared in The Pirate Queen at the London Coliseum. e is now preparing to tour England with John Owen-Jones, Kerry Ellis and Katie Hall in Voices of the West End. We spoke to Earl about the challenges of producing shows in these uncertain times.

Racing against pending lockdown, the cast and creatives behind Mascherato: The Musical were able to finish the concept album for this new show set in 18th century Venice. With a book by James Willett and a score by Michael Elderkin, the show follows the story of Elena (Katy Treharne) and Luca (Rob Houchen) against the backdrop of overprotective fathers and the threat of the Ottoman Empire.

The current UK Government guidelines recommend that as theatres reopen, audience members should not be encouraged to hang around the stage door. In the run-up to lockdown, West End shows like Dear Evan Hansen suspended stage door practices.

Award-winning comedy performer Vikki Stone and West End leading lady Natasha J Barnes teamed up during lockdown. They crafted a revue of the funniest comedy songs in musical theatre for female performers. The show, Funny Gals, will make its debut at the BarnFest, the Barn Theatre's premiere outdoor festival in Cirencester. We spoke to them about the show, wild swimming and returning to performing for live audiences.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is the Artistic Director of the Young Vic, which is marking its 50th anniversary this  year. As part of the celebrations, Kwei-Armah is the subject of an episode of the latest BBC imagine... series. We spoke to him about lockdown and going back over his childhood as part of the project.

While I've enjoyed live-tweeting and reviewing some of the online theatre we've been granted in recent months, it would be nice to get back into a theatre one day. This could be as early as next month from what the UK Government is currently advising. Below are a few of the things I had been looking forward to seeing this year a?" and maybe I'll get to see them in 2021!

During Covid-19 lockdown, theatre fans like myself are incredibly thankful to the many theatres making filmed performances available online. We asked our twitter followers if they had noticed any changes in how they consume theatre amid the pandemic.

Joe Stilgoe is a well-known pianist, singer and songwriter. Over the past few years, he's turned his hand to composing musicals such as The Jungle Book and The Midnight Gang. The Midnight Gang, based on David Walliams' novel of the same name is currently available online as part of the Chichester Festival Theatre at Home series. We spoke to Joe about his career and how he is spending lockdown.

Following on from last weekend's streaming of the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies has been released worldwide via YouTube as part of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Shows Must Go On lockdown series. Lloyd Webber has described the show as a a?oestand-alone piecea?? over simply a sequel to Phantom. It takes audiences on a second adventure with the characters on the other side of the Atlantic.

The overworked and underfunded NHS is on our minds more than ever before. As part of its free digital streaming series in partnership with The Guardian, Hampstead Theatre has made available Nina Raine's stirring medical drama Tiger Country on its website. It is available to stream until Sunday 26 April.

Andrew Lloyd Webber continues to indulge theatre lovers in lockdown with his generous weekly stream of one his works on the dedicated The Shows Must Go On YouTube channel to raise money for charity. This week's offering is the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and live-streamed in cinemas in 2011. 

They say laughter is the best medicine. We may not be able to see live theatre at the moment, but that isn't stopping people from getting creative from the isolation of their own homes. Here are some of our favourite pandemic parodies that have made us giggle, based on beloved songs from stage and screen!

What happens after the honeymoon? Do opposites really attract? Neil Simon's hit play, Barefoot in the Park, has been revived and is currently running at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, in collaboration with the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.