Marianka Swain - Page 50

Following rave reviews for both the show and its leading man Charlie Stemp, Cameron Mackintosh announced today that booking for the Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre production of HALF A SIXPENCE at the Noel Coward Theatre has been extended to 22 April 2017. Tickets are priced from £12.50 to £77.50. A limited number of £20 seats are released each day from 10am in person at the box office.

Imelda Staunton has revealed plans for the London production of GYPSY to hit Broadway in 2018, according to The Stage. The show, already tipped for a New York transfer, began at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2014, and subsequently had an acclaimed West End run at the Savoy Theatre. It picked up four Olivier Awards, including Best Musical Revival and Best Actress in a Musical for Staunton.

Following a critically acclaimed world tour, the UK's leading circus company NoFit State bring their ground-breaking promenade show BIANCO to London's Southbank Centre for the first time, running from 23 November 2016 to 22 January 2017.

Globe Education's production for the 2017 Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank will be THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, opening at Shakespeare's Globe on 28 February and running until 25 March. Over 20,000 free tickets are available for state secondary schools in London and Birmingham.

New family musical MR POPPER'S PENGUINS will open at the Criterion Theatre for a magical Christmas season from 15 December to 31 December. Mr and Mrs Popper and their remarkable family of performing penguin puppets come to London direct from a UK tour and US premiere at New York's renowned New Victory Theatre.

'Inmates, coming through.' That's our introduction to Phyllida Lloyd's landmark trilogy, as the homogenised prisoners are steered through the audience by prison officers. But this extraordinarily empathetic project, developed with Clean Break, gives those inmates individual voices and means of expression, while the all-female cast that inhabit them gives new voice to three familiar plays.

Following sold-out seasons at the Royal Albert Hall and several world tours, The Imperial Ice Stars have brought their dazzling production of THE NUTCRACKER ON ICE to London's Hyde Park. The show runs every day until 2 January, 2017 at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Cabaret sensation LA SOIREE has returned to London for its seventh season in the capital this Christmas, running until 8 January, 2017 - read our review here. The spectacular line-up includes cirQle master David Girard, physical comedians Daredevil Chicken, quirky trickster Olivia Porter, and hula hoop artist Satya Bella. See them in action photographed below by Ana Maria Wiggins for BroadwayWorld

The world premiere of Matthew Bourne's production of THE RED SHOES has its world premiere at the Theatre Royal Plymouth tonight, with an eight-week Christmas season at Sadler's Wells from Tuesday 6 December 2016 to Sunday 29 January 2017. 

Photographs from the opening of HALF A SIXPENCE

Anna-Jane Casey made her West End debut in Cats, and has since starred in Chicago, West Side Story, Sunday in the Park with George and Billy Elliot, among others. She's currently in rehearsals for Sheffield Crucible's Christmas show, Annie Get Your Gun, in which she plays gun-totin' Annie Oakley. Previews begin on 9 December.

This Sixties Tommy Steele vehicle is joyfully reborn in another Chichester Festival Theatre musical triumph, now comfortably ensconced in the West End. The unstoppable George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have seamlessly renewed and added to David Heneker's original score, and Julian Fellowes has done the same for Beverley Cross's book, giving this gently passe show a smart new suit of clothes.

Renowned choreographer Arlene Phillips is making her pantomime debut in as Fairy Bowbells in New Wimbledon Theatre's Christmas Pantomime, DICK WHITTINGTON, from Friday 9 December 2016 to Sunday 15 January 2017. Joining her are award-winning actor Matthew Kelly, who returns to New Wimbledon Theatre to play Sarah the Cook and comedian Tim Vine as Idle Jack.

Andrew Lloyd Webber may seem an unlikely rock god, but he's harnessed anarchic musical liberation for this big-hearted, irresistibly entertaining new show, adapted from the popular Jack Black film. Its success on Broadway looks likely to be replicated here, given its broad appeal, hummable hits and giddy, live-action cartoon hijinks framing the seriously impressive talent of its young rockers.

Watch videos of the West End cast of DEAD FUNNY at Vaudeville Theatre

Mark Umbers' diverse work includes Home Fires and Mistresses on screen and, on stage, The Glass Menagerie at the Apollo Theatre and the acclaimed revival of Merrily We Roll Along at Menier Chocolate Factory. He's returned to the Menier for She Loves Me, whose plot - two feuding employees in a Budapest shop are also, unbeknownst to them, one another's romantic pen pals - also formed the basis for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film You've Got Mail. Umbers stars opposite Scarlett Strallen, and the show begins previews on 25 November.

Singer and actor Jack Shalloo's theatre credits include Madness musical Our House, Departure Lounge and Hamlet the Musical, and he released an album, London Soul, in 2011. He's currently appearing in The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales at Shakespeare's Globe, which begins previews on 24 November.

Actor Jeremy Irvine got his big break as the lead in Steven Spielberg's film version of War Horse. His other screen credits include Great Expectations, The Railway Man and Stonewall, but he's now back on stage alongside Ed Harris, Amy Madigan and Charlotte Hope in Sam Shepard's Buried Child, currently in previews at Trafalgar Studios.

Composer Howard Goodall's remarkable career ranges from lauded choral works to West End musical Bend It Like Beckham, the Emmy Award-winning score for HBO film Into the Storm, and themes for beloved British TV shows like Mr Bean, Blackadder, Red Dwarf and QI. On 20 November, Goodall's Eternal Light: A Requiem makes its New York debut at Carnegie Hall, presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York and performed by ensembles from both America and the UK.

New musical SCHOOL OF ROCK opened at the West End's New London Theatre tonight. Based on the smash hit 2003 film of the same title, the show features music from the movie, as well as new music written byAndrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes. Comedy star David Fynn stars as substitute teacher Dewey Finn, the role made famous by Jack Black in the film, and a nationwide search to find the three teams of 13 young performers took place earlier this year.