The Mousetrap theatre breaks http://theatrebreaks.theatre.travel/details.php?d=0&a=532

Whatsonstage Theatre Awards http://theatrebreaks.co/wiki/Whatsonstage_Awards

Theatre breaks by Coach http://theatrebreaks.theatre.travel/filter.php?f=HC_COACH

Theatre breaks are one of the best ways of seeing the top London shows, even if you live near London. It might seem a bit mad to spend a night in a London hotel when your own bed is only 50 miles away but please hear me out
Theatre Breaks to Warhorse I was chatting to some folks in deepest Essex the other day and it soon became clear that for them, an evening trip to a West End show was not really a viable idea. They had been to see Warhorse and couldn’t speak highly enough of the show. But they said they’d think twice before going to the West End again. They live just over 50 miles from the centre of London but getting in and out of the city at night is no easy matter. Usually they drive to a train station, park the car there and hop on a train. Driving in the city means congestion charges and parking nightmares so they try to avoid it if at all possible. However, travelling into the city centre by rail at the right time means going against the flood of commuter traffic and paying the peak time fare (4pm to 7pm). You don’t really want to battle with the peak time tubes either so a black cab also adds to the cost. Most shows start around 7:30 but you want to be there a little early to pick up your tickets, maybe have a pre-theatre drink and order something for the interval.  This means you need to eat early (a special pre-theatre menu in one of the West End restaurants perhaps). If you try to wait till after the show to eat then you’ll have much less choice and you may well be rushing to catch the last train home.  The trains do run quite late but it can be 1am or even later before you get home. I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Here’s a glimpse of what Warhorse does best – some amazing life sized puppetry:

I gently suggested they might be better booking a theatre break next time and that was when I discovered people have some funny ideas about theatre breaks! Three Myths about Theatre Breaks 1. Expensive! My friends went to see Warhorse. A theatre break with top price tickets to see Warhorse a central hotel with breakfast the next morning starts from  around £120 each. Most sites will let you book your rail fare with a good discount. With  a hotel near the theatre you can  walk and avoid paying for a cab and  most sites offer a special price on a pre-theatre supper. By the time my friends had paid for all their little extras there really wasn’t much in it. 2. Bad seats My friends could only get single seats that were not next to each other. They were top priced seats and very nice, but not together. Most theatre breaks websites have better access to seats than the general public. You can often choose from a range of seat prices. You always get to sit together. The lesser known fact is that these sites often have tickets for top shows (like Warhorse!) that are reserved for theatre breaks customers. 3. These internet sites are dead dodgy! Buying stuff online is part of all our lives these days. My friends are sensible. They bought their tickets from a well known site that they have used before and trusted. That same site also sells theatre breaks!  If you are worried about how secure a site is check out this advice. (Book Theatre Breaks On Line with Confidence) So next time you are thinking about booking theatre tickets for the West End do check round first before you assume that theatre breaks aren’t a better idea.

Backbeat is the new Beatles musical which covers the early period of teh Beatles success story, mostly in Hamburg where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe entertained the nightclub goers in the Reeperbahn district. The main focus of the show is Stuart Sutcliffe, the “lost” Beatle, who played incompetent bass guitar but was an art school friend of John’s and an ambitious young painter. The show follows Sutcliffe’s relationship with the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr – who was responsible for the Beatles’ mop-top haircuts and some superb early images of the group. It also depicts Lennon’s angry feelings of rejection, and McCartney’s relief that he has got John back.

This article titled “Backbeat – review” was written by Lyn Gardner, for The Guardian on Tuesday 11th October 2011 18.08 UTC Does London need another jukebox bio musical? No, and it doesn’t get one either in this intelligent, multilayered and often touching account of the Beatles’ early days in Hamburg and Liverpool and the “lost” Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe. The epitome of cool, Sutcliffe was John Lennon‘s art-school buddy and a gifted young painter who abandoned the group for art and the love of Astrid Kirchherr, the photographer who took some famous moody shots of the band and originally styled their mop-headed, collarless look. Sutcliffe died aged 21 of a brain haemorrhage, just as the Beatles were on the brink of success. Based on Iain Softley’s 1994 movie, Backbeat is – despite all its raucous energy and high levels of amplification – often quite downbeat. It’s all the better for it. More a play with songs than a fully fledged musical, this is not a show threaded through with familiar Beatles’ hits: a brief glimpse of John improving on Paul’s faltering attempts to write Love Me Do is about the closest we get. Instead we see the boys in their Hamburg days when they were essentially a covers band playing in a seedy nightclub, perfecting their sound and skills on hits such as Twist and Shout and Please Mr Postman. The music is delivered with some panache that does eventually lead to the inevitable dancing in the aisles, but it’s a mistake to think that Backbeat is about the music or is indeed the verifiably true story of the early days of the Fab Four. In David Leveaux‘s moody, often painterly production it is much more about art and ways of seeing. There is a small, quiet scene where Sutcliffe contemplates the changes wrought by a lighthouse beam. Oh and it’s about love, in particular the love between Andrew Knott’s arsey antagonistic Lennon, who claims that all art is “dick”, and Nick Blood’s charismatic Stuart, who sees the band as a diversion and is forced to make the hard choices about who he should be with and what he should do with his life. “You’ve got to let me go,” he tells John, and it’s as if he is trying to disengage tenderly from a lover. It’s a small show wrapped up big for a West End theatre, and there are moments of clunkiness in the handling of the ensemble in the Hamburg scenes. But it’s always visually arresting and, finally, a little bit heartbreaking too.

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Ghost The Musical started previews in London this week at the Piccadilly Theatre with Caissie Levy as the leading lady. Caissie Levy stars in Ghost the Musical Ghost has been a great hit with the Manchester audience during its pre-West end run and one of the firm favourites of everyone who has seen it is Caissie Levy. Caissie plays Molly Gordon, the female lead of the show. Caissie is a Canadian with a gorgeous voice and good acting skills. She needs them both during Ghost. This is a very demanding role as Molly’s character goes through an amazing range of emotions as the show progresses. We saw Caissie on the West End stage last year in the visiting Broadway production of Hair. Although Hair is a very much an ensemble piece I felt when I watched it that Cassie’s performance really stood out. She played the idealistic Shelia with real conviction and her voice rang out in songs like Good Morning Starshine. I think this bodes very well for her performance as Molly. Caissie’s other most famous role is probably as Elphaba in Wicked in the Broadway production.  In recent interviews she has drawn parallels between Ghost and Wicked. She felt that the range both of vocal skills and acting required of Molly and Elphaba were rather similar. When asked she agreed it was possible that, like Wicked, critics would not like Ghost and it might be a show that would appeal more to audiences. This wasn’t true of the Manchester critics who gave the show  great reviews but London can be harder to convince. Caissie has a gorgeous voice and I thought you might enjoy a sample:

Theatre review of Irish Blood, English Heart – Trafalgar Studios, London

This article titled “Irish Blood, English Heart – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Wednesday 4th May 2011 22.04 UTC Darren Murphy is clearly a generous man. We go to the theatre expecting one play and he gives us at least three: a psychological study of sibling rivalry, a social portrait of the London Irish and a meditation on the nature of narrative. But, although some would argue that nothing succeeds like excess, I would gladly have settled for half. At first, we seem to be in familiar theatrical territory. Two brothers converge on the Southwark lock-up where their father, an emigre Irish cab driver, apparently killed himself. Con is the struggling one who followed his dad into the cab trade and whose wife, Peggy, dreams of opening a restaurant. The other brother, Ray, is the success story who has written a bestselling novel and TV film that cannibalises the family history. While Con is anxious to honour the dead dad, Peggy’s main aim is to extract compensation from Ray for appropriating their lives in a piece of fiction. Behind the play lurks the formidable shadow of Arthur Miller: the fraternal rivalry is straight out of The Price, and lines such as “A man is more than the worst thing he’s ever done” strive to achieve a Milleresque resonance. But I feel Murphy’s real preoccupation is with stories and their ownership. Does one, he implicitly asks, possess the copyright on one’s own life? A comedian once expressed his bewilderment to me that it was the author, rather than the subject, of a biography who got paid; and it is such a provocative issue that I wish Murphy had explored it in more detail. Instead, he gets carried away with the brothers’ re-enactment of past familial wrongs, and even introduces a totally implausible fourth character to remind us that the dead father was himself a monstrous fantasist. I will say this for Murphy, however: he gives his actors plenty to chew on and, in Caitriona McLaughlin’s nicely cooked production (which transfers from Southwark’s Union theatre), they clearly relish the emotional feast. Ian Groombridge exudes a nervy anxiety as Con, seeking closure on the disordered narrative of his dad’s life. Howard Teale has the right sheen of success as the brother who has adopted the name of Ray Suede and whose whole career is a form of self-invention. Although Con’s wife is marginalised in the later stages, Carolyn Tomkinson invests her with a fractious energy. In the end, the play seems to suggest that the Irish capacity for fabrication and storytelling needs an element of formal restraint. Though it is a perfectly valid message, I wish Murphy had followed his own good advice.

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Nick Clegg is the unlikely hero of Nicked, a new musical that’s unfashionably sympathetic to the Lib Dem leader

This article titled “Anyone for Nicked: the Clegg musical?” was written by Euan Ferguson, for The Observer on Saturday 23rd April 2011 23.05 UTC Least likely contender for Spring Hit in Theatre-World, I think it’s safe to say, is going to be Nicked. It’s basically a musical about Nick Clegg, written by a performance poet: that’s when it’s not being a play about the alternative vote. Not, on paper, I think you’ll agree, the most urgently prepossessing of dramatic ideas. And although political theatre does have a proud tradition, and the TV/film adaptations of aspects of the Blair years were enthralling, there’s also a particular recent history of turkeys, especially when “satire” is advertised within. Also… well, Cleggy. Isn’t he a bit obvious? Isn’t this what we call a laughably soft target? Fears totally unfounded. Preconceptions proved damnably and delightfully wrong. Watching early rehearsals for Nicked, one of the productions showcased in this year’s HighTide festival in Suffolk, it’s clear this could be a thing of brilliance. And, actually, something Mr Clegg might want to travel to Halesworth to see – festival director Steven Atkinson estimates about 70% of visitors come from London – because it manages the seemingly impossible at the moment: it humanises the Lib-Dem leader, and makes you think again. Among the scenes I saw, in a small, busy rehearsal room, piano in one corner, cast leaning casually against the walls as they waited to become Samantha Cameron, or Miriam Clegg, or Vince Cable, or David Laws (remember him?) or the Queen, was the crucial one that had Jason Langley and Sam Hodges, as Clegg and Cameron, meeting in an underground car park to warily woo. It’s done as a tango, perhaps the perfect form, the tango having originated in Buenos Aires as a dark celebration of the ever-changing dance of power/need/compromise, both physical and figurative, between sailors and whores. So Dave and Nick tango, head leaning against head as the music builds, and I won’t spoil it but they’re given some pretty good lines, and sing them grandly, and twirl and stamp. It’s great dramatic fun and makes you think, and I realise fairly quickly that this is not a Clegg-knocking exercise. “Absolutely not,” says the writer, Richard Marsh, as far from my idea of “performance poet” as you could imagine – self-effacing and engaging, if a little unslept. He’s been teasing and tweaking the script nightly, to give it greatest relevance when the show opens, because so much has happened to Clegg since “Cleggmania” after those election debates; and continues to happen. Marsh, and director Pia Furtado, will be changing it right up until the week of the AV vote. The script focuses, yes, on those early negotiations, our extraordinary coalition and aspects of the fallout, but it is not yet finished. “Whatever happens, this is just a human story,” continues Marsh, who has in a previous short play, among other things successfully fused Guantánamo Bay with Harry Potter. As you do. “What I wanted was to tell a story about someone whose job is politics. And humanise them, try to get people to relate to him from the view of his own set of circumstances. Everyone is the hero of his own story. But the more I’ve looked into Nick Clegg” – Marsh even read David Laws’s book. All of it – “and those extraordinary days while the coalition was being founded, a handful of very, very tired white men deciding the future of our country, the more I realised the drama of those days.” Steven Atkinson, the festival director, pulled a string or two to arrange a visit to Downing Street, to allow Marsh a glimpse into the physicality of how it all worked – men in rooms, bartering and phoning and sweating and swearing and worrying and wooing, as was happening half a mile away that sunny May in other dark corridors in and around Smith Square – but the outcome wasn’t just a power-play or a point won. It was, as we know, the car ride to Buckingham Palace, here done as another song, this time of joyous comradeship at a deal successfully done. “Just give me PR and then/ we’ll share the keys to Number 10!” Queen Liz looks on, even sings, in wonderfully sardonic fashion; Sam Cam dances with sly exuberant delight. “It’s been quite hard to hold on to my original thoughts of Nick as a person while he’s been getting stuck whack in the middle of decisions I don’t personally agree with,” says Marsh, who, when he first conceived this production, could not have foreseen the storm of opprobrium to land on Clegg of late. The team’s job, and I think rightly so, is essentially to question the knee-jerk reaction of much of this, remind us there is a person at the centre of it, fraught with his own dilemmas, and to do so in verse, with dance; it’s a little miracle it seems to be working so well thus far. As Atkinson says: “Does anyone who’s jumping on him now ever ask themselves: what would you do in the same position? What was the alternative?” The fast-changing nature of the coalition and the way it’s perceived has led to problems or, as politicians would doubtless have it, challenges and opportunities. Marsh is keen to apologise to his director. “Pia’s very patient. We’ve had to cut whole songs. Cut things that didn’t happen, insert things that did or had more impact than we’d first imagined.” Furtado smiles, patiently, itching to get back to rehearsals. She’s spent a while with them earlier just working on character, real character: “The last thing any of us wanted was some Rory Bremner-style caricature.” In one strangely touching scene, Jason Langley’s Clegg pleads with David Laws, a strong friend and fine financial mind caught in that early expenses/gay row, not to resign. Laws, a pitch-perfect Peter Caulfield, but with, I suspect, a better singing voice, breaks from song to solemn dialogue, after Clegg insists: “Most normal people won’t care.” “No, Nick,” he replies. “Most normal people will get political this year.” And they did. Which is better, surely, than apathy. But along the way, some may have forgotten the humans involved at the middle. Quite bizarrely, a sharp little musical – 70% splendid fun, 30% insights wiser than our own leader columns – could just start redressing the balance. Steven Atkinson is even talking about a West End transfer.

Nicked premieres on 30 April, as part of the HighTide Festival, at the Main House, The Cut, Halesworth. hightide.org.uk

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Despite it being a double bank holiday week, there are plenty of theatre events activity all around the UK. Here’s the cream of the crop

This article titled “What to see: Lyn Gardner’s theatre tips” was written by Lyn Gardner, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 22nd April 2011 16.11 UTC With Easter and the royal wedding (arguably a massive piece of street theatre, but give me an elephant any day) bookending the coming week, theatrical activity is low-key and openings are few. But by the time you read this, The Passion will already be underway in Port Talbot – the last event in National theatre Wales’s first season. It’s been a wonderfully varied year of work, and if not all of it has glistened, it has nonetheless probed how a national theatre might operate and what forms theatre can take. I’m really looking forward to the announcement of the new season, which I have high hopes will be as invigorating as the first. But it’s not the only theatrical activity in Wales this week, where a revival of Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money goes out on tour, starting at Chapter Arts Center in Cardiff next week. Moving across the Severn bridge, head down to the Hall for Cornwall in Truro for Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger’s Chouf Ouchouf, which checks in next Thursday after finishing its South Bank run on Sunday. The Brewhouse in Taunton is celebrating both St George’s Day and the royal wedding with the imaginative England, My England. Up in Bristol, things are gearing up for the fabulously juicy Mayfest , but there is still time to catch Tristan Sturrock’s Frankenspine at the Old Vic studio and the excellent Propeller Comedy of Errors at the Tobacco Factory. Salisbury Playhouse offers two contrasting shows that are both well worth a look: a fabulous revival of Guys and Dolls in the main house and Martin Crimp’s teasingly enigmatic The Country in the studio. Probe’s dance-theatre piece May, written by the mighty Tim Crouch, stops off at South Hill Park in Bracknell next week. Mike Bartlett’s satirical baby-boomer comedy, Love, Love, Love, http://www.painesplough.com/current-programme/by-date/love-love-love stops off at the Nuffield Southampton next week. Brighton’s Basement will play a major role in the upcoming Brighton Festival but also opens its doors on Saturday night for one of its regular Supper Club nights, a tasty mix of performance, interventions and installations. In London, meanwhile, the Digital Stages festival takes place for five days from today (22 April) bringing together performances, discussions, workshops and exhibitions. Among those who may take your fancy are Pecora Ura with Part 11 of the Hotel Medea Trilogy and Lightwork’s installation, The Good Actor, which aims to capture the moment prior to actors going on stage to perform. The Spill festival also continues in fine fettle, and includes the Spill National Platform over the weekend, featuring work by Jo Bannon as well as Martin O’Brien’s punishing The Mucus Factory. There’s also a chance to see new work by Sylvia Rimat and Kings of England. The Globe’s touring production of Hamlet, directed by Dominic Dromgoole, heads to home base for a few performances before setting out on a long tour. I saw the viciously funny and sad Chekhov in Hell at the Drum in Plymouth and now you can catch it at Soho, and Told by an Idiot’s examination of what motivates violence, And the Horse You Rode in On, clip clops into the Barbican Pit before galloping off to the Brighton Festival. It’s your last chance for David Eldridge’s Knot of the Heart at the Almeida. Birmingham Rep’s Behna (Sisters) makes its London debut in somebody’s kitchen in a secret location in North London from Thursday. I’m looking forward to Philip Ridley’s first new play for three years, Tender Napalm, at Southwark Playhouse and The Fat Girl Gets a Haircut at the Roundhouse, a show created with teenagers by the brilliant Mark Storor, and am still dying to see the Ipswich musical London Road at the National which everyone seems to have an opinion on. If you live in the east of the country, take a look at a very well-received A View From the Bridge at the Mercury in Colchester, and book for the High Tide festival which opens on Thursday with the European premiere of Stephen Belber’s Dusk Rings a Bell about a teenage romance reignited 20 years later. Put the weekend of 30 April in your diary for the Junction Sampled at the Junction in Cambridge, which includes a chance to see work from some really talented artists including Deborah Pearson, Greg McLaren, The Other Way Works, Dancing Brick, Non Zero One and others. And don’t forget that the Norfolk and Norwich festival opens on May 6. There are some great shows, including a number of Without Walls outdoor theatre commissions. Pulse won’t be far behind at the New Wolsey in Ipswich. The RSC open their new season with a version of Shakespeare’s lost play, Cardenio, and Jonathan Slinger as Macbeth on the main stage. Plenty of Macbeths at the moment, in fact, with Belt Up getting lost in the mind of the anti-hero in an old underground prison in Clerkenwell, and David Morrissey losing his Lady M – Jemma Redgrave – in Liverpool. (She’s been replaced by Julia Ford.) It’s your last chance for a blistering Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Northern Stage and you don’t have long for Arthur Miller’s The Price which is at the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough. Book for Fissure, a walking performance over the weekend of 20-22 May in the Yorkshire Dales. Heading into Scotland, you should catch Catherine Wheels’ Caged, a beauty and the beast variation, which is at the Macrobert in Stirling, Eastwood Park and the Tron this week. Des Dillon’s revenge comedy Six Black Candles goes into Dundee Rep, Liz Lochhead’s spin on Moliere, Educating Agnes, continues at the Lyceum in Edinburgh and Rona Munro’s rom-com, Pandas, is at the Traverse. Phew. That’s that. Enjoy your Easter break.

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Theatre review of Proof. New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme

This article titled “Proof – review” was written by Alfred Hickling, for The Guardian on Sunday 24th April 2011 16.44 UTC Two shows in, and already the New Vic’s repertory season is reaping the benefits of a permanent ensemble. Actors with relatively little to do in the Rivals now appear in David Auburn’s intellectual teaser about madness and mathematics. Auburn’s 1998 drama was inspired by a passage from the memoir of the mathematician GH Hardy, who observed that “in a good proof there is a high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy”. Hardy was writing about hard sums, though he might have made an astute drama critic. Catherine’s college career has been interrupted by the necessity of caring for her late father, a burned-out professor of calculus whose genius became a torment. An eager grad student is now scouring the professor’s notebooks for any lingering flashes of insight. Among the gibberish is what seems to be one final, perfect proof. Only it doesn’t appear to be the professor who has written it. If there’s a flaw in Auburn’s reasoning, it’s that it simply becomes impossible to believe that the calculation can fulfil claims to be the theoretical link that will bind all branches of mathematics together. But Gwenda Hughes’s quiet, meditative production draws performances of impressive depth from Michael Hugo as Hal the endearing geek, and Emma Noakes as the troubled Catherine, clearly haunted by the possibility that pursuing her father’s methods may lead towards his madness. Above all, it’s a chance to appreciate some fine acting in a complex, cerebral play that might be difficult to programme in isolation. There’s life in the old repertory system yet, and here’s Proof.

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Legally Blonde, Wicked, Les Miserables, Love Never Dies mentioned.

This article titled “Legally Blonde and Wicked dominate Whatsonstage.com awards” was written by Mark Brown, for The Guardian on Sunday 20th February 2011 19.00 UTC They are both West End productions which appeal to teenage girls and young women and they were both crowned big winners at the only major theatre awards voted on exclusively by the public. The 11th Whatsonstage.com awards were handed out in central London with Legally Blonde the Musical winning the most. The feelgood show, about a pink-obsessed society girl who astounds and dazzles everybody at law school, won four prizes including best new musical and best choreography. Sheridan Smith, who co-hosted the ceremony, was named best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Elle Woods and Jill Halfpenny, the one time Geordie police officer turned nail salon owner in EastEnders, won best supporting actress in a musical for her role as a sassy hairdresser, Paulette. Wicked the Musical, with its enormous social networking savvy fanbase, always does well in any public vote and it won best West End show for the second year running. It has been dropped from this year’s Olivier prize public vote to give someone else a chance. Rachel Tucker also won best takeover in a role for her performance as green witch Elphaba. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Love Never Dies, which got off to a rocky critical start but this month extended its run into 2012, won two prizes for best actor (Ramin Karimloo) and best supporting actor (Joseph Millson). Les Miserables’ 25th birthday celebrations were celebrated. The anniversary concert at the O2 was event of the year and best ensemble performance and the production at its first home, the Barbican, was best musical revival. In the straight play categories, the all-black cast Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won best play revival, Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare’s Globe was best new play, Yes, Prime Minister was best new comedy and the National Theatre’s Hamlet was named best Shakespearean production. Zoe Wanamaker and David Suchet were named best actress and actor in a play for All My Sons, with Tamsin Greig named best supporting actress for The Little Dog Laughed and Nigel Lindsay best supporting actor for Broken Glass at the Tricycle. Glee star Jonathan Groff was named newcomer of the year for Deathtrap. Terri Paddock, whatsonstage.com’s editorial director, said the awards were different to the Oliviers, where theatres such as the Donmar Warehouse and Royal Court routinely dominated. “Our 45,000-plus theatregoer votes have instead, once again, concentrated their accolades on the strong work produced by the commercial sector. “It’s fantastic to see crowd-pleasers like Legally Blonde, Les Miserables and Yes, Prime Minister receive the recognition they deserve, alongside smaller but equally worthwhile productions like Broken Glass and Anne Boleyn.”

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Legally Blonde, Wicked, Les Miserables, Love Never Dies mentioned.

This article titled “Legally Blonde and Wicked dominate Whatsonstage.com awards” was written by Mark Brown, for The Guardian on Sunday 20th February 2011 19.00 UTC They are both West End productions which appeal to teenage girls and young women and they were both crowned big winners at the only major theatre awards voted on exclusively by the public. The 11th Whatsonstage.com awards were handed out in central London with Legally Blonde the Musical winning the most. The feelgood show, about a pink-obsessed society girl who astounds and dazzles everybody at law school, won four prizes including best new musical and best choreography. Sheridan Smith, who co-hosted the ceremony, was named best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Elle Woods and Jill Halfpenny, the one time Geordie police officer turned nail salon owner in EastEnders, won best supporting actress in a musical for her role as a sassy hairdresser, Paulette. Wicked the Musical, with its enormous social networking savvy fanbase, always does well in any public vote and it won best West End show for the second year running. It has been dropped from this year’s Olivier prize public vote to give someone else a chance. Rachel Tucker also won best takeover in a role for her performance as green witch Elphaba. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Love Never Dies, which got off to a rocky critical start but this month extended its run into 2012, won two prizes for best actor (Ramin Karimloo) and best supporting actor (Joseph Millson). Les Miserables’ 25th birthday celebrations were celebrated. The anniversary concert at the O2 was event of the year and best ensemble performance and the production at its first home, the Barbican, was best musical revival. In the straight play categories, the all-black cast Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won best play revival, Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare’s Globe was best new play, Yes, Prime Minister was best new comedy and the National Theatre’s Hamlet was named best Shakespearean production. Zoe Wanamaker and David Suchet were named best actress and actor in a play for All My Sons, with Tamsin Greig named best supporting actress for The Little Dog Laughed and Nigel Lindsay best supporting actor for Broken Glass at the Tricycle. Glee star Jonathan Groff was named newcomer of the year for Deathtrap. Terri Paddock, whatsonstage.com’s editorial director, said the awards were different to the Oliviers, where theatres such as the Donmar Warehouse and Royal Court routinely dominated. “Our 45,000-plus theatregoer votes have instead, once again, concentrated their accolades on the strong work produced by the commercial sector. “It’s fantastic to see crowd-pleasers like Legally Blonde, Les Miserables and Yes, Prime Minister receive the recognition they deserve, alongside smaller but equally worthwhile productions like Broken Glass and Anne Boleyn.”

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Book Theatre Breaks Online Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLegally Blonde and Wicked dominate Whatsonstage.com awards

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A new addition to the range of musicals on offer for London theatre breaks The Donmar Warehouse has announced full casting for its British premiere production of The 25th Annual County Spelling Bee, beginning performances February 11th 2011, with an official opening on February 21st, for a run through until April 2nd 2011. “If you win the Spelling Bee, one’s life improves from A to Z.” Music & Lyrics by William Finn. Book by Rachel Sheinkin 11 February – 2 April 2011 Only those blessed with an extraordinary ability and love of language qualify for the Putnam County Spelling Bee. But there can only be one winner and with a place in the national final at stake, emotions run high, hopes are quashed and dreams are broken. Dust off your dictionary and prepare yourselves for the spelling challenge of a lifetime in William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s hilarious Tony Award-winning musical. This riotous musical comedy is guaranteed to have you cachinnating (use it in a sentence, request a definition?). The Spelling Bee cast will feature Chris Carswell (as Leaf Coneybear/Carl Dad), David Flynn (William Barfee), Hayley Gallivan (Olive Ostrovksy), Harry Hepple (Chip Tolentino/Jesus), Katherine Kingsley (Rona Lisa Perretti/Olive’s Mum), Maria Lawson (Marcy Park), Ako Mitchell (Mitch Mahoney/Dan Dad/Olive’s Dad), Steve Pemberton (Vice Principal Douglas Panch) and Iris Roberts (Logainne Schwatzandgrubenniere), under the direction of Jamie Lloyd. Read more: http://theatrebreaks.co/wiki/The_25th_Annual_Putnam_County_Spelling_Bee

“Like Grease and Legally Blonde, it has a vaguely academic context.”

This article titled “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – review” was written by Michael Billington, for The Guardian on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 02.09 UTC Given the Donmar’s exemplary musical track record, it is a bit of a shock to find them importing this flimsy, vacuous diversion. Like Grease and Legally Blonde, it has a vaguely academic context. But William Finn’s music and lyrics and Rachel Sheinkin’s book have little of the brio of those shows and seem unsure whether they are satirising or celebrating a peculiarly American institution. The pretence is that we are in a high school gym watching a competitive spelling bee. To add verisimilitude we are asked to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance and four audience members are invited to join the contest. It says much for the bravery of my colleague, the Evening Standard’s Henry Hitchings, that he agreed to participate and he acquitted himself with dignity and style. But much of the spontaneity and fun goes out of the proceedings when the four volunteers are eliminated and all we are left with is a remorseless whittling away of the survivors: it’s a bit like The Weakest Link without the laughs. I presume the intention is to show that spelling bees are a way for American kids to shed their hangups by exhibiting their verbal prowess. So we have the unloved fat boy, the disconsolate over-achiever, the poor kid pining for her mum on a spiritual trek to India and the guy with uncontrollable lusts who at one point sings “my unfortunate protuberance seems to have its own exuberance”. But the highly forgettable songs seem to be imposed on the action rather than arising organically from it and many of the jokes are just as arbitrary. In a heavily American show, that assumes we know the difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees, it seems implausible for a high school kid to tell us that “Nick Clegg is after the alternative vote – but what about the straights?” The best one can say is that the cast in Jamie Lloyd’s production works with unremitting energy. Katherine Kingsley, who made a big impression in Aspects of Love, lends the contest’s co-host a honey blonde vivacity and Steve Pemberton as her colleague has the fake omniscience of the smug quizmaster. And, among the contestants, David Fynn as the bumptious know-all, Hayley Gallivan as a lovelorn loser and Harry Hepple as the guy with the erectile issues make their mark. But it’s hard to warm to a show that, for all its would-be scholasticism, embodies the progressive infantilising of the American musical. And, when Christ appears in a vision to one of the struggling contestants and declares “this isn’t the kind of thing I care about”, he speaks for a good many of us.

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I tend to bang on about rail travel as preferable to driving, but theatre breaks by coach offer a different kind of experience altogether. People over a certain age may well have bad memories of coach journeys back in the bad old days when there were no onboard facilities, long uncomfortable journeys around bendy trunk roads with groups of badly behaved people and children. I know I do. But modern coaches have air conditioning, plush comfortable seating, traffic news by radio and sat nav, personal entertainment and are a fast and relaxing way to travel hundreds of miles from city centre to city centre. When you arrive in London on a theatre break by coach, you are not left to yourself to find the hotel and the theatre because you are part of a coach party who are all going to the same show and you usually get picked up outside the theatre by the coach which then drives you all directly to the hotel after the show. That can make the whole stopover a lot more manageable for some people. Theatre Breaks by Coach - Theatre Breaks Magazine Another thing I’m really excited about being able to offer now that we have Coach Theatre Breaks available through the Magazine Readers Offers is the opportunity to book a theatre break for one. Yes, there is a single room supplement to cover the extra hotel costs, but it’s a lot better than being confronted with a booking form that asks you to select the number of tickets required starting at two! And if you go on a coach trip to London’s West End as a single person then you have the perfect choice as to whether you want to keep yourself to yourself or socialise a bit with other people who are coming from the same town as yourself and will be around at the hotel and on the coach journey home again after having seen the same show.

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This article by Andy contains a brief review of Enlightenment at the Hampstead Theatre. We’re always on the look out for new plays and venues for visitors here on London breaks to add to the possibilities for an extra evening out at the theatre, and it doesn’t always have to be in the West End by any means. There are theatre pubs, fringe theatres, off-west-end theatres and regional theatres all within the M25, many within central London itself. The play that was brought to our notice is called “Enlightenment” written by Shelagh Stephenson and directed by Edward Hall, Hampstead Theatre’s new Artistic Director. So Monday night took us to see the venue for the first time, right next to the Swiss Cottage roundabout and tube station. Arriving inside Hampstead Theatre felt more like visiting a leading performing arts centre for one of the major UK cities, like Canterbury or St Andrews, or Exeter. Not knowing anything much about ‘Enlightenment’ beforehand, I was able to deliberately keep an unprepared mind for the unfolding emotional drama as the plot weaved its way through the minefields of improbability. There was a small scientific thread in there somewhere, citing a theory akin to or possibly preceding chaos theory which needs further investigation but the big story was a classic human tragedy investigating the nature of identity and touching themes designed to disturb the audience’s sensibilities particularly poignant to parents. As a father myself, I feel particularly well placed to understand the two main characters anguish at not knowing the fate of their missing son.

The Hampstead Theatre is an impressive modern theatre venue, small enough to be intimate and with perfect acoustics and yet large enough to stage quality serious theatre productions, drawing in audiences from all over the capital, with excellent transport links on the fast Jubilee line and all the central connections just a few stops away, so this would be a sensible logistical addition to any London Breaks package. Enlightenment is a traditionally constructed play in two acts with a beginning, middle and end, realistic characters, a straightforward time line and just about believable events. There are moments where the sanity of everybody is questioned, but that is a reasonable thing for a play to do. The staging is impressively modern and effective with good use of additional sound and video, back projection and slick scene changes with transparent rising and falling furniture. Maybe it was just me but upstairs and downstairs became strangely confused, or was it deliberate? Nothing is quite as it seems with this play which has been running since September, so the acting should be well bedded in by now. There were times when I though the playscript was possibly a class above the performance, but in the second act I dropped that misgiving, particularly with all three female characters who worked well together, and the addition of a sixth character in the second act pulls the whole play together and leaves you on the edge. Cast: Daisy Beaumont Richard Clothier Paul Freeman Julie Graham Polly Kemp Tom Weston-Jones

Over on  the MusicalVerse blog, Jesse Owen has taken the initative to organise a “Theatre Blogger Week” which has some laudable aims and deserves to be supported by as many as possible of the growing band of theatre bloggers, and not just here in London. Before I explain more, the most important detail is probably the date: Theatre Blogger Week will run from the 25th – 29th October 2010 Aims: * to get more theatre bloggers commenting on each other’s blog posts * to unearth more theatre blogs which are out there. I’ve been blogging about Theatre breaks in London myself since 14th September 2007 when I published a short general article on my own Andy Roberts blog called “Theatre Breaks in London“  and then later joined forces with Linda to produce the London Theatre blog here, amongst other things. I was aware then, of one or two other theatre bloggers, mostly concentrating on reviews, and then started to notice some colourful characters who work in the West End starting up blogs, some of which continue, but hadn’t realised there might be enough out there now to form the basis of some kind of theatre blogging community. Now seems to be as good a time as any to try and pull it together a little bit, and that’s where the plan for a theatre blogger week comes into it. There’s also the people who take part in the regular theatre quiz on twitter via @westendupdates . The twitter hashtag for #theatrebloggerweek can be used to track blogger participants, and we have a Theatre Blogger Wiki page now, which should make it easy enough for anybody else to add their own theatre blog into the list of bloggers joining in. So if you are interested in following more theatre blogs, or starting one yourself, or have one to register on the list, keep an eye on developments on the Wiki page there and look out for new posts and comments about theater blogger week on the Musical Verse blog ( RSS ). That’s where Jesse will be unveiling further plans as we draw closer to October 25th.

When is Theatre Blogger Week? was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

Here’s the news today, Theatre Breaks have launched their summer offer with a 10% discount off everything on the website! Theatre Breaks site wide Summer Sale kicks off today, June 15th and lasts for the whole of June. Every theatre break booked will be at a saving of 10%… All Shows, All Hotels, All the Extras… All at 10% Off. Here’s the link for the 10% discount: Theatre Breaks with 10% Off Everything So you can tailor make your break as usual with your choice of show, hotel and dates and create yourself a bargain! *Book today for big savings – Theatre & Hotel Packages from just £55.80 per person! *Book today and upgrade to a 4 or 5 star hotel – with the money you save. *Book today and plan ahead – secure your Summer Holiday, Half-term getaway, Christmas do or New Year’s bash – all at a great reduction. The discount will run until 1700hrs GMT, June 30th – leaving you only a few days to take advantage of a great saving on your next trip to London, whenever that might be. Theatre Breaks Here’s the link again for the 10% discount: Theatre Breaks with 10% Off Everything 10% OFF all Theatre Breaks was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

About London shows and hotel deals London shows and hotel deals are usually offered as a package by the theatre break agencies, some of them will let you add in train tickets (usually at a considerable discount). You can also add a variety of extras including pre-theatre meals, sight seeing trips and entrance to many of the major London tourist attractions. London Shows You can choose from a huge number of London shows including first class musicals, serious plays, side-splitting comedies. If none of these take your fancy you can opt for ballets, operas and even concerts. Three of the most consistently popular London shows in the last year have all been musicals. Wicked (London) has had a spectacular year with record box office takings. The story of what happened before Dorothy got to Oz goes from strength to strength and looks set to continue its run at the Apollo indefinitely.

Oliver has had an amazing first year and continues to be popular. If you want to see Jodie Prenger (I’d Do anything winner) as Nancy you need to go before the end of March. Those of you who wait for the summer will also get a treat as ex-Wicked star Kerry Ellis moves into the role of Nancy. Fagin is currently being played by Griff Rhys Jones. We Will Rock You is a great show for rockers of all ages. The show is full of energy and the music of Queen meshes beautifully with Ben Elton’s witty plot line. I just loved We Will Rock you. It is a wonderful ‘feel good’ evening and a perfect and popular choice of show. Hotel Deals

Show and Stay have a great hotel deal on at the moment. They are offering a free one night hotel stay in selected 3* hotels when you buy your tickets for a choice of 13 shows. The deal is available for Mondays to Thursdays only and runs until March 31st. London shows and hotel deals are available all year round but special offers like this one are limited and tend to get snapped up fairly quickly. If you want to be sure of getting the show and dates you want you will need to act fast. With prices starting from only £45 per person and limited availability this offer will not hang around. Check now to see if your dates and show are available. ** Free Hotel Offer with London Shows and Hotel Deals ** a

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Theatre Breaks Agents Theatre breaks agencies come in many shapes but here at the London Theatre Breaks blog we like to work with three in particular. We get a small commission from each reader who books a theatre break through our links and that helps to fund our blog. The theatre breaks agents offer somewhat differing services and the best one for you depends on what you are looking for when you start searching for a theatre break package. You need to decide what your priorities are first before you look at the various deals on offer because you are not really comparing like with like. (If you need help with this have a look at this post on our sister site Theatre Breaks Magazine.) The agencies specialise and offer various options, they often work with particular hotels or a particular level of ticket. Some agencies have offers on rail fares which you can bundle in with the cost of your tickets, other optional extras like meals can also be added. Often agencies offer discounts on London attractions when they are booked with your theatre break. We only work with reputable agencies where we can be sure that not only will you get a good deal but that your tickets and hotel room will be honoured. Some of the other theatre breaks companies add lots of hidden extras, like booking fees, on to your final bill. We think this is not acceptable so we only recommend the following package deals: Show and Stay Theatre Breaks

Show and Stay is a long-established theatre package company. They are part of the larger Holiday Extras group and we have been working with them for the last 2-3 years. Feedback from customers has been very positive and we continue to recommend them. Show and Stay really specialise in getting you top quality tickets at a good price and combining them with a good choice of 3 or 4* hotels. They also offer a very good deal on rail tickets, with up to 40% discount as standard. Show and Stay often has the hot tickets that no one else has. For example when Jodie first appeared and Oliver! London was the hottest ticket in town, Show and Stay was able to offer Saturday night, best seats, when there was no other way to get them and everyone else said the show was sold out. Now despite what I’ve said about them offering top quality tickets don’t assume that Show and Stay only do expensive theatre breaks. Their breaks are very competitive. For example someone just booked a midweek evening at Oliver! and 1 night in a 3* hotel for 2 people for only £213.96.

Superbreak Theatre Breaks

Superbreak is where you go for bargains. They offer a range of ticket prices so if you don’t mind being in the Upper Circle you can get a very good price indeed. They have more limited availability sometimes, than Show and Stay but if you are looking for particular dates rather than a specific show they can be very good value. The hotels they work with are just as good as Show and Stay and are usually 3 or 4*. Superbreak are a large company and they do all sorts of London breaks and breaks to other cities too. They are less specialised than Show and Stay but they still offer a good service. Their web site can be a bit harder to find your way around, as it is so large, but if you persevere you can definitely get some great deals. TheatreBreaks.com

TheatreBreaks.com is a smaller company established thirty years ago. They’ve been online for over ten years. They have pretty good availability, work with good 3 and 4* hotels but where they really excel is in their personal touch. They are they people to go to if your needs are at all outside the ordinary. Maybe you want to do a large group with an odd number to see Dirty Dancing on a specific weekend. Perhaps you have limited mobility and need to know that your hotel, and your theatre seats, are fully accessible. They are the best people to help you. You just phone them up quoting your reference number from the website and they will go out of their way to make sure your problems are sorted out. a

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Saturday December 5 2009. Anna Friel exits the Theatre Royal Haymarket in a stunning polka dot dress. The 33-year-old Pushing Daisies star is currently playing Holly Golightly in the stage adaptation of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s