Marianka Swain - Page 11

As theatre comes roaring back, this autumn and winter see plenty of exciting new productions, including big West End musicals and intriguing plays. Here are the shows that we’re most looking forward to seeing.

The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and The Australian Ballet are delighted to announce that #WorldBalletDay 2021 will take place on 19 October. The global celebration returns for its eighth year, bringing together a host of the world’s leading companies for a packed day of dance.

Wicked, the West End and Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, is pleased to confirm the returning cast that will lead the award-winning production back into London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre where it resumes performances on Wednesday 15 September 2021.

Alice Hamilton's directing work includes the Olivier-nominated Every Day I Make Greatness Happen at the Hampstead Theatre,The Weatherman at Park Theatre and While We’re Here at the Bush Theatre. She's now back at the Hampstead to helm Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, which premiered here 60 years ago.

Hurrah for the green shoots in our beleaguered industry. Lots of venues are mounting new shows and bringing back our favourites over the next few weeks and months - albeit with social distancing and safety measures in place. Here are some of the live theatrical goodies on offer.

Opera Holland Park unfortunately couldn't proceed with its planned 2020 summer season, but this very special venue was among the first to leap into action with a series of open-air concerts instead - from all-star operatic galas to a dash of musical theatre with Sondheim's A Little Night Music (read our review here). James Clutton, Director of Opera at OHP, tells BroadwayWorld about how they made the shows work with Covid-19 safety measures, why opera is for all, and his hopes for returning at full strength in 2021.

SLEEPLESS: A MUSICAL ROMANCE began socially distanced indoor performances at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre on 25 August, and the show opened officially last night. Let's see what critics had to say!

The show must go on: it's been the rallying cry of our beleaguered industry, the message emblazoned on Theatre Support Fund+'s T-shirts and mugs. On Saturday night, we saw that fighting spirit in person, as Janie Dee, co-producer and star of this concert version of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's A Little Night Music, marched into a pitiless downpour and cried to the heavens, 'Don't you love farce?!'. As far as spine-tinglingly theatrical moments go, that one will be hard to top.

Among the hopeful shoots of returning theatre is a new concert version of Stephen Sondheima??s A Little Night Music, coming to Opera Holland Park on 15 August. West End leading lady Janie Dee is wearing two hats for this project: shea??s both starring as Desiree, and co-producing with Alex Parker. She talked to us about her lockdown experience and the pleasure of reprising a great role.

Why not use the lockdown period to catch up on your musical theatre history? From the making of iconic shows to fascinating backstage tales and industry insight, these documentaries help to fill the stagey void.

Chrystal Genesis is the executive producer of Southbank Centre's Violet Nights initiative and podcast - providing a space for young people to socialise and express their views on, and explore, topical issues with music, performance and discussion.

During the shutdown, we're taking the opportunity to look back at some memorable productions. Here, Dick Bird discusses his career with BroadwayWorld, and gives us some fantastic insights into designing the Royal Danish Theatre, Teatro Real Madrid and Scottish Opera's co-production of a modern classic: John Adams' Nixon in China.

Anthony Alderson has been Artistic Director of the Pleasance - which has a permanent venue in Islington, London, and multiple spaces at the heart of the Edinburgh Fringe - since 2005. He talks to BroadwayWorld about his time at the helm, dealing with the cancellation of this year's Festival, and what he shutdown means for theatre.

Natalya Romaniw has been called 'the outstanding soprano her generation'. Recent work includes the lead roles in Scottish Opera's Tosca and English National Opera's Madame Butterfly, plus making her BBC Proms debut singing Rachmaninov's The Bells with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She talks to BroadwayWorld about her remarkable career, upcoming album Arion, and keeping the music going during the shutdown.

Chloé Nelkin is the founder of Chloé Nelkin Consulting (CNC), a PR and marketing firm specialising in the arts. Their work ranges from West End shows to the VAULT and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, as well as heritage clients like the National Trust, circus stars, and classical music venues like Opera Holland Park. Nelkin talks to BroadwayWorld about her route into the arts and shares advice for surviving the shutdown.

In 1995, Yellow Earth Theatre was formed by five British East Asian (BEA) actors: Kwong Loke, Kumiko Mendl, Veronica Needa, David KS Tse and Tom Wu - aiming to develop work that would give BEA actors more choice of roles, and to bring together Western drama school training with exploration of East Asian cultural heritage. Mendl became Artistic Director in 2011, and the company is now celebrating 25 years.

The 2020 Olivier Awards ceremony sadly won't be going ahead as planned due to the shutdown, although ITV will broadcast a special highlights programme this Sunday night instead. That got us thinking about some of our favourite Oliviers moments - which we'll be sharing later in the week! - and also looking back to last year's amazing ceremony.

It may feel like a strange time to celebrate World Theatre Day, but while we can't gather together in person right now, we can still appreciate the incredible performances that have inspired us - and look forward to when theatres reopen and the shows can go on!

It's a mark of a great show that it seems to speak directly to the present moment, even if that moment is years after its original creation. Come From Away passes that test with flying colours; in its depiction of an international community dealing with a crisis – including, raising a wry audience laugh, stockpiling loo paper – this 9/11 musical has plenty of resonance with our coronavirus times. Except that the world would be a much better place if we all behaved a bit more like the people of Gander.

This is perhaps an odd time for Nöel Coward's comedy about death and supernatural apparitions to land in the West End – Richard Eyre's revival transferring from Theatre Royal Bath. On the other hand, there's something comforting about Coward's portrait of the afterlife as essentially a continuation, with our personalities, desires and enmities very much intact. Plus the opportunity to socialise with Joan of Arc.