Marianka Swain - Page 26

Classic Spring's year-long season ends with Wilde gone wild: a free love riot that yanks the homosexual subtext into text, with everyone from masters and servants to, er, the long-lost brothers sharing snogs and cigarettes. The famous passive aggressive tea party turns into a food fight, and even Lady Bracknell is at the sherry.

Jeremy Swift is well known to TV audiences as Septimus Spratt on Downton Abbey. On the big screen, he's appeared in Polanski's Oliver Twist and Altman's Gosford Park, and will shortly be seen in Mary Poppins Returns. He's currently playing Reverend Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Vaudeville Theatre, which opens tonight.

The first thing we see is Anna Fleischle's Fifties-tastic giant doll's-house set: each period-perfect room bathed in a different twinkling hue, flowers painted onto the brick wall, and jaunty music setting the tone. But Katherine Parkinson's Judy is able to open the front wall like a folding door - clearly establishing that this life, and this contentment, is just a facade.

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

Gerard Alessandrini is not throwing away his shot. The creator of satirical revue Forbidden Broadway realised that the unprecedented success of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical warranted a standalone show, and thus Spamilton was born. A 2016 Off-Broadway hit, the affectionate spoof now follows Hamilton over the pond.

This highly anticipated new play from 84-year-old Alan Bennett premieres at the Bridge, continuing his long-standing relationship with Nicholas Hytner. It's an exciting get, and there are wonderful flashes of Bennett wit, wisdom and stirring empathy, but also polemical outbursts and baggy plotting that leads to a ponderous and not entirely justified run time.

Australian actor Damian Humbley's past work includes Merrily We Roll Along, The Woman in White and The Last 5 Years. He's currently starring in Spamilton, an affectionate spoof of the all-conquering Hamilton, at Menier Chocolate Factory.

Through one family and one company, Italian playwright Stefano Massini tackles big topics: the development of Western capitalism, the immigrant experience, the American Dream. But this isn't just any family – it's the Lehman Brothers, the collapse of whose banking firm precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.

A new video has been released, filmed during the cast's sitzprobe, of Vivo D'Arte's immersive promenade production of Jonathan Larson's cult classic musical RENT. Staged at the world's oldest working paper mill, the production opens tonight. Watch the video below!

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

This August, a company of over 200 people from across London joins forces at the National Theatre to perform a new musical version of Shakespeare's Pericles.

Cole Porter's 1948 love letter to showbiCole Porter's 1948 love letter to showbiz is brilliantly served by Opera North's big, bold and bawdy production - both soaringly romantic and packed with meta winks. A touring staple, Jo Davies' detailed take (the revival helmed by Ed Goggin) beds down very comfortably in the London Coliseum.

The bells, the bells! They're ringing out at the Donmar - ushering girls into class, and nuns into cloister. It's one of the creative ways in which director Polly Findlay reframes this beloved classic, although a new adaptation from David Harrower also rings the changes.

A packed schedule of productions will be performing at this year's West End Live, including Disney's The Lion King, Wicked, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom Of The Opera, Disney's Aladdin, Dreamgirls, Bat Out Of Hell The Musical, Kinky Boots, Matilda The Musical, Motown The Musical, Everybody's Talking about Jamie and Thriller Live.

Polly Stenham's updating of Strindberg's Miss Julie moves the action to contemporary London, and finds both contempt and sympathy for this new version of the idle rich. But, shorn of its 19th-century context, the play struggles to make the class transgression feel dangerous, nor does this 85-minute piece dwell long enough on subjects like racism or sexism.

It begins with deep breathing, in order to access words that hold unimaginable power. And Ian Rickson's exquisite production of Brian Friel's masterpiece maintains that space throughout: for words to breathe and simmer, to hang in the air, and for us to understand how vital language is not just as a means of communication, but identity, nationality, and a rich heritage at risk of extinction.

Today, on the 150th anniversary of Memorial Day, PBS' multi award-winning NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT returned live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol hosted by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna and Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise.  Broadway leading ladies Megan Hilty and Cynthia Erivo were among the all-star line-up. Watch them perform in the video below!

London is never short of temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a ground-breaking musical to a mighty modern classic, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld reviews, interviews and features!

Michelle Terry's first season as Artistic Director of the Globe will be carefully scrutinised. Emma Rice's contentious exit raised important questions about the venue's purpose, its balancing of tradition and innovation, new and returning audiences, and about how we engage with Shakespeare in the 21st century.

Students from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama recently organised a walkout 'for equity, diversity and inclusion', protesting the institution's inequalities and comments made by Principal Gavin Henderson at a Dear White Central event - read more here. The Governing Body of Central has today released the following statement in response