The doors are still closed but the world of theatre never stops so with that, here are 10 stories from the last few days:
Who doesn't love an unexpected announcement? Disney are reported to be making an original movie musical featuring the back catalogue of Lionel Richie. Tentatively titled All Night Long, the live action movie will reportedly be more of a story set to his story like Mamma Mia rather than a biopic of his life like Bohemian Rhapsody. Lionel has a wealth of amazing songs in his catalogue, so with the right story, this could be brilliant. Further details are yet to be announced but this is something to look forward to in the future.
The latest stars to feature in Seth Rudetsky's new weekly virtual concert series have been announced. First up is the star of Smash, Newsies and The Last Five Years Jeremy Jordan. The one hour concert will take place live on Sunday 14th June at 8pm ET (1am in the UK) and will be repeated on Monday 15th June at 3pm ET (8pm in the UK). It will not be available to stream aside from those times. Tickets need to be bought in advance from https://events.broadwayworld.com/ and cost $25.
After Jeremy, further concerts are:
Beautiful and Waitress leading lady Jessie Mueller live on Sunday 21st, repeated Monday 22nd. Tickets cost $25
Miss Saigon and Les Miserables legend Lea Salonga, live on Sunday 28th, repeated Monday 29th. Tickets cost $20
My Fair Lady star Melissa Errico, live Sunday 5th July, repeated Monday 6th. Costing $20
Star of Lady Day and Beauty and the Beast, Audra McDonald, live Sunday 12th July, repeated Monday 13th. Costs $20
All tickets are available from Broadwayworld.
The West end cast of From Here To Eternity will reunite for a live one off event on Monday 22nd June. Cast including Darius Campbell and Siubhan Harrison will join forces with lyricist Tom Rice and composer Stuart Brayson for this special event featuring audience Q&A and performances. Tckets cost £10 and are available from https://events.com/r/en_US/tickets/one-night-only-presents-from-here-to-eternity-toronto-june-786378. At least 10% of the proceeds will go towards Acting For Others.
Bristol Old Vic have announced further titles they will be releasing online. Fun for all the family Mr Maglump is available for one week from Friday 12th June at 6pm, while Emma Rice's Wise Children is available for a week from Friday 19th June. This comes on top of A Monster Calls, which is still available online until Thursday 11th June, and the fantastic The Grinning Man which will be available for one week on Friday 26th June.
The forthcoming performances of Lungs which are to be filmed live at The Old Vid and broadcast live went on sale today. Starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith, this is one of the first examples of theatres adapting to the current climate, trying to keep the industry alive while importantly making enough money to stay open. Demand for this has been huge with the £10 tickets already selling out. Currently, there are over 10,000 people in the queue for tickets with more than an hour wait to buy them.
This is incredibly reassuring in what has been a very trying time. Several theatres have already announced they are making redundancies or closing potentially permanently. This experiment at The Old Vic looks to have paid off, and hopefully will see the continued success of iconic theatres such as itself.
Tickets for the shows, beginning on Friday 26th June, can be purchased at https://www.oldvictheatre.com/availability/lungs-in-camera but you'll have to be patient!
Due to the ongoing closure of theatres, there have been further postponements of future shows this week.
The newly revised concert version of Stephen Schwartz's Children Of Eden, due to take place at Cadogan Hall, has been postponed to Sunday 2nd May 2021. Starring Alice Fearn, Tyrone Huntley, Karl Queensborough, Sharon Rose and Rob Houchen, this is an event that will be worth the wait. Original tickets remain valid
The forthcoming touring production of The Kinks' musical Sunny Afternoon, due to begin in August, has been postponed indefinitely. Dates are looking to be rescheduled but are yet to be confirmed.
A new virtual production of Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong will be streamed online next month. The cast will be filmed in isolation but wearing costumes with virtual sets and sound design. The show will be online at 7pm on Wednesday 1st July for 72 hours only. Tickets cost £10 and are available from https://www.birdsongonline.co.uk/
Last week, the #StandByMeChallenge was launched online. Featuring stars of the West end singing the classic Ben.E.King song in a powerful statement in support of the #BlackLivesMatters protest. Each star has tweeted their own version of the song along with a quote from Rosa Parks - "Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it". There are some incredibly moving performances in these. A compilation of a whopping 150 of them has been put together by That Stagey Blog - Link above.
A new series of pre-recorded concerts has been announced. In The Wings will be filmed with a live, socially distanced band, a collection of theatre stars will perform songs in a West end venue from new musicals that have had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Stars appearing are Aaron Lee Lambert, Laura Pick, Steph Parry and Dougie Carter. The series begins on Friday 12th June and will be available to watch here.
And finally...
London's "earliest theatre" has been discovered in Whitechapel. It was discovered under a housing development and is believed to be 'The Red Lion', the first "purpose-built theatre". Believed to have been constructed in 1567, it is an interesting find, though don't expect to be watching your favourite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical there any time soon.
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