Marianka Swain - Page 12

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.

Aimie Atkinson and Danny Mac star as 'Vivian Ward' and 'Edward Lewis' in the West End production of PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL. The show began performances at London's Piccadilly Theatre on 13 February, and it had its official opening tonight (2 March).

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a musical with old Hollywood glamour to starry Chekhov and Coward, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!

Read all the reviews for the brand-new musical The Prince of Egypt opened at London's Dominion Theatre. Featuring a cast and orchestra of almost 60 artists, the show has music and lyrics by GRAMMY® and Academy Award®-winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell) and a book by Philip LaZebnik (Mulan, Pocahontas).

Be More Chill opened in London last night at The Other Palace! It's based on the groundbreaking novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini, with original music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz. Let's see what the critics think!

Tom Stoppard's latest - and possibly final - play has few of the dramatic hallmarks you might expect from him: the dazzling linguistic flourishes, the formal trickery, the knotty metaphors and giddy metatheatricality. Instead, we have a relatively straightforward, linear piece, initially overburdened by information, but with an immense accumulative power that leaves audiences awed and tearful.

Three years after the National's enthralling revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, the playwright returns with his new adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's tragicomic 1956 parable a?' which has also been turned into an Ingrid Bergman-starring film and a Kander and Ebb musical.

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a new Tony Kushner adaptation to an epic musical and Shakespeare sitcom, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews, interviews and features!

Ammar Duffus's past work includes Twelfth Night at the National Theatre, Holes at Nottingham Playhouse, and Sally Cookson's take on Peter Pan at the Troubadour. Duffus now reunites with Cookson for the UK tour of A Monster Calls - her critically acclaimed stage version of Patrick Ness's novel, a hit at the Old Vic in 2018.

How can we know more about a comet in outer space than we do a woman's body? So queries Lucy Kirkwood's superb new history play a?' a feminist courtroom drama that's equal parts Twelve Angry Men, The Crucible and The Vagina Monologues, plus a dash of searing, up-to-the-minute political and social commentary.

Be More Chill, a musical about a teenage boy who uses a supercomputer brain implant to help him fit in at school and get the girl, became a surprise Broadway hit thanks to its hugely dedicated fandom. Now, the show is coming to London's The Other Palace - the first venue outside of the States. Creator Joe Iconis discusses the show's development, fan support, and why it's struck such a chord with young audiences in particular.