Pamela Raith News

Yesterday UK Theatre gave out awards to leading talents in performing, producing and theatre management throughout the United Kingdom. Sheffield Theatres' SHOW BOAT and FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS together took Best Musical Production, while Clare Burt picked up a performance award for the former and Rebecca Trehearn for the latter. Charlene James won Best New Play for CUTTIN' IT, and Paapa Essiedu Best Performance In A Play for the Royal Shakespeare Company's HAMLET.

Adapted from Jack Heifner's 1970s stage play, Vanities the Musical makes its London debut at the intimate Trafalgar Studios. Joanne, Kathy and Mary, the musical play's only characters, tell an all-American story audiences world-over will be familiar with, though in a bold new way, as three high school friends face the painful realities of adulthood.

Lauren Samuels (Bend it Like Beckham, BBC's Over the Rainbow, Grease), Ashleigh Gray (Wicked, Cool Rider) and Lizzy Connolly (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Xanadu) star in the European debut of VANITIES, a classic American story. This brand new production features never before seen material with all new direction and choreography from Racky Plews (Footloose, American Idiot), and has its press night at Trafalgar Studios tonight. It plays until 1 October.

Once there was a time with no mobiles, no online dating and no Facebook, when teenage girls waited with bated breath by the letterbox for their weekly issue of Jackie Magazine. In Jackie The Musical we revisit those heady days, and tell the story of a recent divorcee who seeks advice once more from the pages of her old Jackie annuals.

The Circus comes to town with the London premiere of sizzling new show BLANC DE BLANC and BroadwayWorld has your first look!

BWW speaks to actress Nancy Sullivan ahead of her performance in Fabric at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe.

The World Premiere of EXPOSURE THE MUSICAL- LIFE THROUGH A LENS will run at the St. James Theatre, for a limited season, from 16 July until 27 August 2016, with press night on Thursday 28 July 2016. BroadwayWorld has your first look below!

The critically acclaimed play, Stalking the Bogeyman will get its UK debut beginning July 13 and will run through August 6, 2016 at The Southwark Playhouse. BroawayWorld has your first look at the rehearsal process. Check out all the photos below!

FABRIC, the powerful new play by Abi Zakarian will arrive in London 11-14 July at the New Wimbledon Studio Theatre. 

BWW speaks to writer Abi Zakarian about her 2016 Edinburgh Fringe show 'Fabric'.

Rehearsal images have been released for EXPOSURE THE MUSICAL - LIFE THROUGH A LENS, which features David Albury (Jimmy), Natalie Anderson (Tara), Andy Barke (Ensemble), Rhiannon Duncan (Lust/Ensemble), Zeph Gould (CEO/Sloth/Ensemble), Michael Greco (Miles Mason), Kurt Kansley (Jimmy's Father/Envy/Ensemble), Stevie Mahoney (Ensemble), Niamh Perry (Pandora), Cassie Rogers (Ensemble), Lauren Stroud (Ensemble), Jahrel Thomas (Aid Worker/Gluttony/Ensemble), Manny Tsakanika (Ensemble) and Ella-Rose Whitehouse (Ensemble).

Many will remember Sideways as the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2004 film based on Rex Pickett's novel. The production now at the St James Theatre is directed by David Grindley and written by Pickett. Sideways is about a pair of middle-aged men drinking their way through California's wine country on a bachelor trip before one of them gets married.

The European premiere of Rex Pickett's acclaimed comedy SIDEWAYS opens tonight at St James Theatre, directed by David Grindley, for a limited run until July 9. The cast features Daniel Weyman (Miles), Simon Harrison (Jack), Ellie Piercy (Maya), Beth Cordingly (Terra), Anne Kavanagh(Phyllis/Evelyn), Kirsten Hazel Smith (Rosie/Victoria) and Daniel Barry (Chris/Daryl).

OFF THE KING'S ROAD will play Jermyn Street Theatre (16b Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6ST) from Wednesday 1st - Saturday 25th June 2016. Press Night is set for Friday 3rd June at 7.30pm. Go inside rehearsal below!

West End LIVE with MasterCard takes place in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June 2016. Celebrating its 12th year, the free musical extravaganza showcases the best of the West End. Attracting crowds of more than 500,000 people over the course of the weekend, West End LIVE with MasterCard is the largest event of its type in the world.

We took a trip back to Planet Seventies at the New Alexandra Theatre as Jackie the Musical swept into town. Based on the book by Mike James, Jackie the Musical follows a forty-something divorcee as she stumbles across her old collection of Jackie magazines and once more seeks their advice about fashion, boys and love.

Daniel Weyman (Miles), Simon Harrison (Jack), Ellie Piercy (Maya), Beth Cordingly (Terra), Anne Kavanagh (Phyllis/Evelyn), Kirsten Hazel Smith (Rosie/Victoria) and Daniel Barry (Chris/Daryl) form the cast for the brand new production of Rex Pickett's critically acclaimed and much loved novel and play Sideways. Sideways opens at the St. James Theatre for its European premiere, directed by David Grindley (Daytona, Journey's End, The American Plan) for a limited run from 26 May until 9 July, with press night on 31 May. 

Honouring the contribution of the million South Asian soldiers who fought alongside the British during World War I, celebrated playwright Ishy Din presents his powerful new play, Wipers, at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry later this month. The show premiered at Curve, Leicester last month is currently on a short UK tour.

Film and stage biopics surrounding the life of a celebrity hold particular intrigue for many people. They can be inherently risky due to the validity of the information being portrayed but ultimately, the general public want to gain an otherwise unforeseen insight into that person's life. Here with the legendary Judy Garland as the subject, she certainly provided a story worth telling. Sadly like most other biographies of its kind, End Of The Rainbow is essentially a tragedy which focuses on the final demise of Judy's personal health and relationships during what should have been her comeback in London in 1968.

The full cast has been announced for the 2016 UK and Ireland Tour and the West End limited season of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, adapted by Richard Greenberg and directed by Nikolai Foster.  BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at rehearsals below!