Wednesday, June 10, 2015
The 69th Tony Awards again demonstrated that, when it comes to producing an award show, America knows how to do it best.
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:00AMFriday, May 22, 2015
“Musicals do not get written – they get rewritten.” It’s a familiar expression in musical theatre production. But tinkering with a musical
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:00AMTuesday, April 28, 2015
The resignation of Tessa Ross as chief executive of the National Theatre has seen many directors declare that producing theatres should be
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMMonday, April 13, 2015
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but when it comes to the Olivier Awards, it certainly has seemed to. Watching the Oliviers as a kid growing up in
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:21AMThursday, April 9, 2015
More than ever, this year’s Olivier Award nominations reflect the change since the Society of London Theatre, and its strong commercial membership, reviewed
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:00AMTuesday, March 24, 2015
I received a gift recently that seems incredibly rare in 2015: the new CD studio cast recording of a West End musical,
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:00AMThursday, March 12, 2015
The idea of getting your work performed internationally is an ambition held by many in theatre, but producing overseas is a complex
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:00AMTuesday, February 24, 2015
Recently the issue of class has featured heavily in the media’s entertainment reporting, especially surrounding the awards season. I started in the
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:25AMTuesday, February 10, 2015
Over the past few weeks, I have seen some fantastic theatre productions that all share a crucial factor for their success: the work of their supporting actors. They are the glue behind any p…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, January 27, 2015
Question: how do you turn a lousy movie script into a multi-million dollar blockbuster? Answer: cast Tom Cruise in it. That’s a long-running joke around Hollywood. However, as these pa…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, January 13, 2015
In my last column I asked if 2014 had been one of the best years for play productions over the past decade. I believe that it was, and already underway in 2015 are West End…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMWednesday, December 31, 2014
Let’s face it, 2014 wasn’t a great year for British musicals. Stephen Ward and I Can’t Sing! both made undeserved early exits. The arrival of Made in Dagenham offers reassurance that t…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:00AMTuesday, December 16, 2014
It’s a question you hear a lot over the festive season: what happened to…? A few weeks ago a UK colleague asked me if I knew whatever happened to Scottish actor and comedian Craig Fe…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, December 2, 2014
Why do musicals often get treated as second-class citizens in the theatre industry? South Pacific, Next to Normal, Urinetown – these shows fearlessly tackle issues such as race, toleran…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, November 18, 2014
For the many thousands of pounds often spent on marketing and press for a production, one has to admire Shakespeare’s Globe for its recent coup. Posters for its production of John Ford…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, November 4, 2014
I love the fact that theatre can blindside you on an idle Wednesday afternoon. I found myself at the Bush Theatre a couple of weeks ago watching Chris Thompson’s new play Albion, for …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, October 21, 2014
British readers may not be aware of US-style TV drug advertising. These pharmaceutical promotions invariably come with the sort of rapidly-spoken disclaimers you might recognise from financi…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, October 7, 2014
After weeks of speculation in the media about Lindsay Lohan’s impending disaster in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, the production opened last week at London’s Playhouse Theatr…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, September 23, 2014
Regular readers of this column will know I grew up in Norwich where I discovered my interest in the theatre attending performances at the Norwich Theatre Royal, Arts Centre and Playhouse. Th…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:40AMTuesday, September 9, 2014
Every evening, lights are going down in theatres and different audiences are all having unique and individual experiences watching performances. It’s a thrilling idea, and to choose which …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, August 26, 2014
We live in a society increasingly driven by a cycle: consume, discard, repeat. And while this consumerism is usually applied to material things, it risks spreading into theatre too, potentia…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:43PMTuesday, August 19, 2014
There is an underpass called Potterrow by Bristo Square in Edinburgh. When asked what has been one of my defining moments of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe it’s walking through this underp…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:20AMWednesday, August 6, 2014
Before August 1, 2014, few people had heard of The City. It was simply one of 2,700+ Edinburgh Fringe shows, a non-political musical theatre production playing at the Underbelly. Today, it h…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:34AMTuesday, July 29, 2014
Last June, my colleague Mark Shenton wrote a blog about the return of the new production of Les Miserables to Broadway. One reader responded to his article: How sad that with all of the reso…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:37PMWednesday, July 23, 2014
“When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? Not in years, huh? Well, get ready to reel, New York. Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant “Mr&#…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, July 8, 2014
So it’s official: Lindsay Lohan will be the latest US film star treading the West End boards at the Playhouse Theatre in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow this autumn. The last big US…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMTuesday, June 17, 2014
“The most famous man nobody has ever heard of”. That’s the description given to legendary theatre and film producer Michael White in Gracie Otto’s moving and affectiona…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:01AMTuesday, June 3, 2014
In October last year, the Tony Award’s focus was centred upon four new musicals: Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie directed by Susan Stroman; Rocky, adapted from the Sy…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:14AMWednesday, May 21, 2014
Who are the most important people in the theatre? The actor and the writer are obvious answers, but a close third, alongside the backstage team that run the production, are the ushers, yet t…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:53AMTuesday, May 6, 2014
This week’s closure of I Can’t Sing, the X-Factor musical, makes it one of the biggest failures in West End history. As the most anticipated new musical of the season, its rapid …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:52AMTuesday, April 22, 2014
If there is ever any argument as to whether, in 2014, cinemas are still necessary, the BAFTA and Oscar multi-award winning feature Gravity demonstrates why they most definitely are. Here is …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:32AM 
