Pamela Raith News

Get a peek inside rehearsals for BRIEF ENCOUNTER, a new production of Emma Rice’s stage adaptation of Noël Coward’s epic love story, based on the critically acclaimed 1945 film, that will play at The Watermill from Thursday 14 October – Saturday 13 November, with opening night on Monday 18 October.

​Are we really that different from who we were at school? Mischief Theatre’s Groan Ups takes a light-hearted look at this question. This comedy, a diversion from Mischief’s usual “goes wrong” flavour of plays, tugs at the heartstrings but still leaves you in stitches.

Thousands of theatre fans flocked to Trafalgar Square in central London today, which has been transformed into an open air theatre like no other for West End LIVE 2021 – Europe’s biggest free theatre festival – marking the emotional return of London’s world-leading theatreland after 18 months of shutdown.

Go inside rehearsal for the upcoming UK première of Antigone by Merlynn Tong (after Sophocles). See photos from inside the process below!

Heathers the Musical launches its Number 1. touring production from 5 August 2021, opening at Leeds Grand Theatre, before spreading corn nuts throughout the UK and Ireland. 

The whodunnit for all ages will tour to Cambridge Arts Theatre (16-18 Sept),Theatr Clwyd (21-25 Sept), Exeter Northcott Theatre (28 Sept-2 Oct), Malvern Theatres (5-9 Oct), York Theatre Royal (19-23 Oct), Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne (26-30 Oct), Richmond Theatre (2-6 November), The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich (9-13 Nov), Salisbury Playhouse (15-20 Nov), Theatre Royal Bath (24-28 Jan), The Lowry (31 Jan – 5 Feb) and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (8-12 February).

All new production images have been released for the spine-chilling ghost story, WHEN DARKNESS FALLS, which began previews on 18 August at Park Theatre, London and officially opens on Monday 23 August. It is playing at the Park Theatre until 4 September, before going on tour.

Today the full cast and creative team has been announced for the highly anticipated, brand new musical, What’s New Pussycat? An exclusive first look video and images of the cast in rehearsals have also been released today.

Wonderville's varied cast of magicians and illusionists keep the pace high in a rip-roaring family show that provokes delight and, yes, wonder.

The third and final production of the Newbury’s The Watermill Theatre 2021 outdoor summer season, a semi-staged concert of Stiles & Drewe’s family musical JUST SO, inspired by the stories of Rudyard Kipling, opened on the main lawn Friday 30 July, and will play until Saturday 4 September.

Before Clueless or Mean Girls came Heathers, a cult 1988 film satirising the explosive consequences of painful social pressures in an American high school. Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s award-winning musical version now bounces back into the West End for a 12-week run with a brand new vigour.

On the murky moors of Devonshire, heirs to the Baskerville name are being killed, one by one. Some say it’s a family curse. Some say it’s a murderous hellhound. Some say it’s a load of old nonsense. A case like this can be solved by only one man…or…actually...two – so don your deerstalkers because Holmes and Watson are on the case!

Greetings, salutations and welcome to the West End 2021 class of Westerberg High. Leading the cast in the highly celebrated return of Heathers the Musical in the West End is Christina Bennington (Bat Out Of Hell) in the role of high school geek Veronica Sawyer and Jordan Luke Gage (& Juliet) as the dark and moody teen, Jason “J.D.” Dean. 

Leading the cast in the highly celebrated return of Heathers the Musical in the West End is Christina Bennington (Bat Out Of Hell) in the role of high school geek Veronica Sawyer and Jordan Luke Gage (& Juliet) as the dark and moody teen, Jason “J.D.” Dean. 

Twenty years ago, the world fell in love with a quirky young woman by the name of Amélie Poulain. The French waitress stuck in her own little universe slowly starts to help people find their happiness, finally reaching hers. The stone-skipping and crème brûlée-cracking character played by Audrey Tautou immediately charmed her way into popular culture and by 2015 Daniel Messé, Nathan Tysen, and Craig Lucas had adapted Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s beloved film into a stage musical with Samantha Barks and Phillippa Soo both taking the titular role at separate times in the US.

Written and performed by Jack Holden (War Horse, West End; Ink, Almeida Theatre), CRUISE  is an urgent, moving and inspirational new play with live music and spoken word. Bringing to life 1980’s Soho, this one-man show is a celebration of queer culture; a kaleidoscopic musical and spoken word tribute to the veterans of the AIDs crisis.

To celebrate the return to live theatre, the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) has launched an outdoor advertising campaign, #BackOnStage.

The electrifying West End musical phenomenon SIX will reopen at the Lyric Theatre on Friday 21 May, 2021. SIX, by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss is now booking at the Lyric theatre to Sunday 29 August, 2021.

May 17 has long held near-sacrosanct status in and around London theatreland. That's the date earmarked for a return to live performance, albeit to limited audiences, with a further diary entry worth marking of June 21 (the summer solstice no less) when all restrictions on social contacts will be removed and playhouses may - one stresses the word may - be allowed to return to something resembling pre-pandemic capacity.

Reviewing the Curve Theatre’s gorgeous concert revival of The Color Purple feels timely in more ways than one: not only is it an apt choice of programming during Black History Month, but tonight’s press night is the same day as the conclusion of a long and drawn-out employment tribunal linked to a previous member of the cast, dismissed for their homophobic views.