Category Archives: Musicals

Tony awards 2024: Stereophonic, Merrily We Roll Along and The Outsiders win big

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At the annual celebration of Broadway, major acting winners included Jeremy Strong, Daniel Radcliffe and Sarah Paulson

The 77th annual Tony awards were dominated by major wins for shows Stereophonic, Merrily We Roll Along and The Outsiders as well as actors Jeremy Strong and Daniel Radcliffe.

Stereophonic, the most nominated play in Tonys history with 13 nods, picked up five awards including best play. It tells the story of a British-American rock band in the 1970s trying to make an album.

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‘I can’t understand a lyric’: Patti LuPone laments lost art of projection in musical theatre

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Award-winning star, who is bringing the concert A Life in Notes to London’s Coliseum, says lyricists’ words are not reaching audiences clearly, due to a lack of training and overbearing sound mixes

Over a 50-year career she has sung lines written by musical theatre’s biggest names but the Tony award-winning star Patti LuPone fears that lyricists are being failed by today’s productions. “I cannot understand a lyric,” she said, referring to Broadway’s current wave of musicals.

LuPone blamed the problem on sound mixing that drowns out singing voices and actors who have not learned the art of projection because forehead microphones are now so widely used. “Young performers have no idea how to project,” she said, adding that they should ask themselves “who are you doing this for?” when on stage and remember “they are singing for the back row”.

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Dolly Parton announces Broadway musical: ‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll clap’

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Hello, I’m Dolly, a stage show inspired by the superstar’s life, will include her classics and new songs

Dolly Parton is heading to Broadway with the musical Hello, I’m Dolly.

The star is writing new songs to go along with some of her past hits and co-writing a stage story inspired by her life – a stage show that she hopes to land on Broadway in 2026.

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Rufus Wainwright blames UK’s ‘narrow outlook’ after Brexit for Opening Night’s flop

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Exclusive: Audience had ‘vitriolic reaction’ to European tone of musical, forced to close early

Rufus Wainwright has defended his musical Opening Night, which was forced to close early after mixed reviews, saying West End audiences lack “curiosity” after Brexit and the British press had turned on the project because it was “too European”.

Opening Night was Wainwright’s first musical and is an adaptation of John Cassavetes’ 1977 film about an actor struggling to cope, who is played by Sheridan Smith. Directed by Ivo van Hove, it opened in March at the Gielgud theatre but a month later announced it would be closing two months early.

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Move over Abba: new ‘riskier’ wave of British musicals to challenge West End’s established order

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Theatreland is taking a gamble on a wave of quirky little shows to challenge the big but tired box office beasts

A fresh kind of musical theatre show, set apart by having started life on the fringe or in a small-scale provincial production, is challenging the established order in London’s West End this season.

A wave of new, quirky productions will be taking their places alongside Phantom of the Opera-style classics and all those big, popular musicals that rework a familiar film title or milk a superstar legacy.

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Actor drives 150 miles to star in Evita after lead and understudy fall ill

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Jessica Daley rushed to the rescue after Curve theatre in Leicester put out a call for someone who knew the role

An actor travelled more than 150 miles to ensure the show went on after both the lead and understudy became ill and could not perform in a musical.

Jessica Daley travelled from her home in Middlesbrough to the Curve theatre in Leicester to sing the starring role of Eva Perón in a 7.30pm performance of Evita on Saturday.

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London theatregoers escorted from Grease the Musical by police

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Rest of audience applauds after people causing ‘disturbance’ removed from Dominion theatre on Saturday

Theatregoers were escorted from a London performance of Grease the Musical by police on Saturday night, to cheers of approval from the rest of the audience.

Footage posted online shows eight police officers and staff from the Dominion theatre lining the stairway in the balcony as audience members chant “out, out, out!”.

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Kylie Minogue to appear digitally in new Stock Aitken Waterman musical

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The I Should Be So Lucky singer will play a ‘specially created character’ in the touring show which will feature a string of pop hits by the songwriting trio

Kylie Minogue is to step back in time for a new musical featuring the songs of Stock Aitken Waterman that shot her to chart success in the late 1980s. The Australian singer, currently enjoying a summer hit with Padam Padam, will “digitally appear” throughout the tour of the show, playing what is described as “a specially created character unique to the musical”.

I Should Be So Lucky: The Stock Aitken Waterman musical is written and directed by Debbie Isitt whose series of Nativity! films also inspired a stage musical. The show uses more than 25 numbers created by the songwriting and production trio Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, including the title song from 1987 which brought Minogue her first UK No 1 hit.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella to close on Broadway

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The musical will close on 4 June, after receiving mixed reviews from US critics and failing to receive a nomination at the Tony awards

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella is to close on Broadway just over 10 weeks after its official opening night. The show, which did not receive any nominations at this year’s Tony awards, has announced that “the ball must come to an end” and that it will bow out at New York’s Imperial theatre on 4 June. Ticket sales have dipped despite a low average price for a big Broadway musical ($54 for last week). It will have played 33 previews and 85 performances.

The musical is a retooled version of Cinderella, which ran for just under a year (including a Covid-related break in performances) and suffered heavy losses at London’s Gillian Lynne theatre. Lloyd Webber was criticised for the manner in which some current and future Cinderella cast members learned of its closure in 2022 via social media and for his suggestion, in a letter read out at its final night, that opening a new musical during the pandemic “might have been a costly mistake”. (He later issued a statement saying his words had been misunderstood and that he was proud of the show.)

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Why are British audiences suddenly so out of control? – podcast

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From fights at the Bodyguard musical to wild drunken antics at comedy clubs and even heckling at the opera, performers and theatre staff say crowds are getting out of hand. What’s going on?

From drunken revellers singing over emotional ballads at jukebox musicals to an opera-goer heckling a child performer, there has been a growing number of news stories since the pandemic about people behaving badly at entertainment venues. Then came the headlines about the police being called to the Bodyguard musical to quell an actual fight.

So what, exactly, is happening to British audiences, which are stereotypically seen as polite and even repressed? Theatre critic Alice Savile tells Nosheen Iqbal about her recent wild nights out at the theatre, and how front-of-house staff are finding it hard to cope. We hear from usher Bethany North on the abuse she’s experienced.

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Why Berlin’s U-Bahn musical shows no sign of hitting the buffers

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The longest-running production in Germany, restaged for a new generation of theatregoers, is a curious mixture of 80s nostalgia and politics … with great tunes

The four men dressed in widow’s weeds of black bombazine had hardly stepped on to the stage when the first yelps of delight rippled through the audience at Berlin’s Grips theatre, an intimate 360-seat venue in the west of the city. By the time the quartet in drag have locked arms to kick up their heels, the mixed-age crowd is clapping in time to the oompah beat.

The Wilmersdorf Widows song is to Volker Ludwig’s musical Linie 1 (Line One) what All That Jazz is to Chicago, or Time Warp to The Rocky Horror Picture Show: the catchy showstopper that brings the house down.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s eldest son, Nicholas, dies of gastric cancer aged 43

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Oscar-winning composer says son, also a successful composer, died on Saturday in hospital surrounded by family

Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced that his eldest son, Nicholas, has died from gastric cancer aged 43.

The Oscar-winning composer wrote on Twitter that his son, who was also a successful composer, died on Saturday at Basingstoke hospital in Hampshire surrounded by his family.

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Nicole Kidman surprises Broadway with $100,000 bid for Hugh Jackman’s hat

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Actor’s gesture draws gasps and cheers at charity auction, held after a performance of Jackman’s hit musical The Music Man

Nicole Kidman has surprised both Broadway audiences and Hugh Jackman by bidding US$100,000 (A$150,000, £83,000) for a hat signed by Jackman after a performance of her former co-star’s musical The Music Man.

During an auction for the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids after the performance on Saturday, Kidman made her presence known by shouting her bid of $100,000 for the hat, which led to gasps and cheers in the crowd, then a standing ovation.

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Fleabag producer brings Berlusconi musical to London stage

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‘Fierce, feminist’ show from Francesca Moody is written by former Grange Hill actors Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan and tells an ‘almost true’ story

A musical about Silvio Berlusconi that is described as “Evita on acid”, written by two former Grange Hill stars and features a song called My Weekend With Vladimir is to be staged in London next year.

Entitled Berlusconi, it is billed as an “almost true story” and produced by Francesca Moody who is best known for her success with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. The musical depicts the three-time former Italian PM on the eve of the verdict in his trial for tax fraud as he looks back on his rise and fall and resolves to write an autobiographical opera. His story is then told through the eyes of three women: Ilda Boccassini, the Milan magistrate known as Ilda the Red who investigated him; Berlusconi’s second wife, the actor Veronica Lario, who left him in 2009 after nearly 20 years of marriage; and the character of a journalist who is based on real people. “It places a fierce feminist lens on him,” said Moody of the musical. “These women are telling their story.”

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Theatre group pulls play from Sheffield venue staging Miss Saigon

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New Earth Theatre said ‘damaging tropes, misogyny and racism’ in show contradict its values

A touring theatre company has pulled a play from the Sheffield Crucible because of the venue’s decision to also stage Miss Saigon, a musical often criticised for its portrayal of the Vietnam war and Vietnamese people.

In a statement, New Earth Theatre, a company of British east and south-east Asian (BESEA) artists and co-producers Storyhouse said: “Miss Saigon remains a very contentious musical since its release over 30 years ago … The damaging tropes, misogyny and racism inherent in the show completely contradict [our] values and beliefs.”

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The Phantom of the Opera to close on Broadway after 35 years

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Broadway’s longest-running musical never fully recovered from the pandemic shutdown and will close next February

The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, is scheduled to close in February 2023.

The musical – a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts – will play its final performance on Broadway on 18 February, a spokesperson said on Friday. The closure will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

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James Rado, co-creator of Broadway hit Hair, dies at 90

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The award-winning writer, whose hit musical originally opened on Broadway in the late 60s, died in New York City of cardiorespiratory arrest

James Rado, the award-winning co-creator of Hair, has died at the age of 90.

The writer, whose hit musical launched songs such as Aquarius and Let the Sunshine In, died peacefully in New York City surrounded by family. The cause of death was cardiorespiratory arrest, as confirmed by longtime friend, publicist Merle Frimark.

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Tony awards 2022: Company and The Lehman Trilogy lead big night for Brits

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Broadway transfers of West End shows were out in front at this year’s celebration of the best of New York theatre

Broadway transfers of West End adaptations of The Lehman Trilogy and Company have dominated this year’s Tony awards, which were seen as a return to relative normal after Covid-impacted ceremonies.

It was a big night for British talent in New York, with the Broadway transfer of The Lehman Trilogy winning best play, best director and best actor in a play. “This play was written as a hymn to the city of New York but, like the Lehman brothers themselves, our show started thousands of miles away,” said playwright Ben Power, who adapted the show from Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massini. His version made its debut at London’s National Theatre in 2018.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cinderella to close in the West End

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Shock news that show will end in June at London’s Gillian Lynne theatre brings heartache for company and those who had been due to join cast

The curtain is to come down on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new West End musical Cinderella, just under a year after opening, with its final performance set for 12 June.

In a statement released on Sunday by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, the composer said “mounting a new show in the midst of Covid” had been an “unbelievable challenge” and that a new production of Cinderella would open on Broadway in 2023.

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Theatres need more plus-sized black actors, says Broadway and West End star

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Marisha Wallace wants to inspire young girls and call out lack of diversity as she takes on role in Oklahoma!

A professional career in theatre was not always on the cards for Marisha Wallace. The Broadway and West End star, who was born and raised on a pig farm in North Carolina, rarely saw people that looked like her on stage.

As she takes on the coveted role of Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma! at London’s Young Vic theatre, Wallace is on a singular mission to call out the lack of plus-sized black actors on stage and to inspire young girls just like her.

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