Stan Laurel News

Naturally Insane! The Life of Dan Leno will premiere at the Criterion Theatre on Monday November 15 with two very special performances. Comedian, TV star and radio presenter Steve Royle stars as Dan Leno while comedian and actor John Thomson will guest star in the cameo role of Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

Above buzzy tapas bar Laurels Whitley Bay, Laurels Theatre is a wee place to tell big stories and where everyone on the NE coast will be going to see the most exciting work before it breaks the big time. Partnered with the amazing tapas and bar downstairs, this venue offers a chilled out accessible space to bring live theatre, visual arts and comedy together.

At a time when we're getting too many words, words, words from a bumbling Prime Minister and his cronies, what a relief to discover a charming, kind and life-affirming silent movie-style production that harks back to simpler times. The enticing live piano score by composer Zoe Rahman, is the dialogue, aided by the odd ditty (song arrangements by Sophie Cotton) and clever projected captions taking you back to the heydays of Victorian music hall and Hollywood silent pictures.

Charlie Chaplin will now be played by Danielle Bird, joining Jerone Marsh-Reid as Stan Laurel, Nick Haverson as Fred Karno and Sara Alexander playing all the other parts, including Chaplin's mother, and the piano! 

Presented in a specially designed Covid-secure pop-up venue, We Are Kilter's Theatre For Two is a series of personal, interactive meetings between actor and audience member.

David Pugh, the renowned theatre company Told by an Idiot and Theatre Royal Bath Productions present Charlie & Stan created by Told by an Idiot, written and directed by Paul Hunter.  It will open in Bath on 14 July and then play the Minack Theatre, Cornwall from 1 August.  Further dates prior to the West End are to be announced.

Told By An idiot's hit play The Strange Tale Of Charlie Chaplin And Stan Laurel will hit the road in the UK this year, including a stop on the West End. 

What happens to all that stuff seen on America’s favorite antiques show once the cameras leave town?

At Told by an Idiot, our work always comes out of some kind of restriction. Thata??s why we are relishing the challenge of adapting our 2013 show Get Happy not only for the outdoors, but also for these socially distanced times.

Told by an Idiot brings its international hit family show Get Happy to outdoor audiences as part of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, including performances at a basketball court and on an island.

One of the world's longest-running annual celebrations of Silent Film, Catalina Island Museum's 33rd Annual Silent Film Showcase, transforms into a weekend-long virtual experience for all to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes. The public can tune in to the three-day event online at Facebook Live (@CatalinaMuseum) Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17, 2020.

You thought you knew more or less what to expect but, somehow, the entire show turned out to be a very refreshing surprise. Two days ago, the Théâtre des Capucins opened its doors to The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, a Told by an Idiot production, written and directed by Paul Hunter.

In 1910 the unknown Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel set sail for New York as part of Fred Karno's famous music hall troupe. On the journey, Charlie and Stan shared a cabin and then spent two years together touring North America, with Stan as Charlie's understudy.

25 Shows & Performances in the Tampa Bay Area That Rocked Our World from 2010 to 2019!

Today the world's oldest working music hall announces its glorious 2020 spring season, kicking off the year with a wonderful array of theatre and music that truly embodies Wilton's expansive and imaginative programming.

Spring 2020 marks the start of Northern Stage's 50th anniversary year; featuring ambitious new productions made in Newcastle including stage premieres of Shandyland - originally developed through The Old Vic 12 scheme, written by Bruntwood Prize winning playwright Gareth Farr; a new theatrical version of The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff by Teesside folk trio The Young'uns, directed by Northern Stage Artistic Director Lorne Campbell; HERE - a co-production with Northern Stage associate artists Curious Monkey written by Lindsay Rodden; Northern Stage's Young Company presents the third part of their kaleidoscopic view of the state of our nation, asking Where Do We Go Now?; plus new shows from some of the UK's most exciting and innovative touring companies including Frantic Assembly, Headlong and Told By An Idiot.

Performed in Told by an Idiot's trademark visual style, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel looks at an unknown period in comic history when two maverick imaginations collided for a brief time. Playing fast and loose with the facts, the show is no nostalgic bio-drama, but an hilarious and deeply moving homage to two English men who changed the world of comedy forever. The show includes an original piano score played live each night, composed by MOBO Award-winner Zoe Rahman.

For 2020, the 44th year of London's annual festival of contemporary visual theatre, 10 overseas companies join 8 British groups, including 4 LIMF co-commissioned productions: This Time, a tender take on relationships and ageing from aerial theatre company Ockham's Razor; Romancing the Apocalypse from multi award winning dance duo Thick & Tight; Dead Good, a funny and poignant story of dying from full mask theatre company Vamos Theatre; and the story of one of showbiz's long overlooked partnerships, The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel performed by Told by an Idiot at new festival venue, the iconic Wilton's Music Hall.

On Wednesday 30th October Alexandra Palace will ring to the sounds of Music Hall, over eighty years since the curtain fell on the last of the great post-war variety shows.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre has today announced a raft of shows for spring 2020. The programme precedes new Artistic Director, Sean Foley's first full season of work in autumn 2020.