Save £16.50 on tickets to see Avenue Q at the Gielgud Theatre (moving to the Wyndhams on the 19th March)

Offer valid Fridays at 5.30pm. Or Save £6.50 on tickets to see Monday to Thursday performances.

Avenue Q has become THE cult show to see in the West End, and moves from its current home at the Gieldgud Theatre to a new home at the Wyndhams Theatre from 19 April.

To celebrate we are offering £16.50 off tickets on Fridays at 5.30pm – a perfect time for catching the show and then hitting the town.

The show may feature puppets, but like nothing you’ve ever seen before…. they swear like sailors, engage in kinky puppet sex and would never get an invite to Sesame Street – and is one of the funniest and most joyous shows you will ever see.

The show is set in a mythical NYC block occupied by an endearing, oddball collection of people; kooky Christmas Eve and hapless hubby Brian and puppets: sloppy Nicky, closeted Rod, lost soul Princeton, lovelorn Kate, porn-happy Trekkie Monster, and bimbo-licious Lucy The Slut!

‘Brash, vulgar, sometimes downright obscene, I loved every minute of it’ Sunday Times.

Save £16.50 on tickets to see Avenue Q at the Gielgud Theatre (moving to the Wyndhams on the 19th March)

Offer valid Fridays at 5.30pm. Or Save £6.50 on tickets to see Monday to Thursday performances.

Ticket offer on Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Save £11 on tickets to see this spectacular show

Valid Monday to Thursday until the 27th May Excludes School Holidays

Enjoy a special discount on tickets to see Cameron Mackintosh’s triumphant production of Lionel Bart’s classic musical Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

This new production is the most spectacular ever staged and stars Griff Rhys Jones as Fagin, Jodie Prenger (winner of the BBC’s I’d Do Anything) and a cast and orchestra of over one hundred. The sensational score is full of Lionel Bart’s irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

‘Oliver! Sets the West End alight’ Sunday Telegraph.

‘Blast away all those recession cobwebs. Anyone who needs cheering up should get along to Drury Lane sharpish and catch this humdinger of a night’ Daily Mail.

‘Uplifting stuff. Jodie Prenger is terrific, great, earthy and warm. You’ll love it’ Sunday Times.

Ticket offer on Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Save £11 on tickets to see this spectacular show

Valid Monday to Thursday until the 27th May Excludes School Holidays

We’ve had the bitter blogs, the Lord’s rebukes and hysterical Phans. We’ve had the angst over reviewing before the opening night, the power of bloggers to bring down a show, the puns, the clogged forums and the slightly desperate clamour of the press to seek out a good old-fashioned theatrical disaster story.

And now, following tonight’s glittering first night at the Adelphi Theatre, the national newspaper critics give us their thoughts on Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s latest musical, Love Never Dies.

STAR RATINGS

The Telegraph – 4 / 5

The Guardian – 3 / 5

Bloomberg – 3 / 5

The Independent –5 / 5

The Times – 2 / 5

OPENING THOUGHTS

GU: There is much to enjoy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical…. the problems lie within the book, chiefly credited to Lloyd Webber himself and Ben Elton, which lacks the weight to support the imaginative superstructure.

IN: [The] mix of the heart-stopping and the stomach-lurching (a true kinaesthetic experience) characterises some of the best sequences in Love Never Dies,

TE: What I have no doubt about whatever is that this is Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original Phantom, with a score blessed with superbly haunting melodies and a yearning romanticism that sent shivers racing down my spine.

DM: Love may never die but West End shows will come perilously close to disaster unless they have some oompf and bongo — and preferably a decent tune — in the first 15 minutes. Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to Phantom Of The Opera, is as slow to motor as a lawnmower at spring’s first cut.

TI: Oh, how time and a dismally implausible plot have altered him [the Phantom] and his life.

VA: The trouble with “Love Never Dies” is that while a couple of melodies deliver, the show doesn’t. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera” wants to be a tragic romance, but it’s simply torpid. Only a radical rewrite will give it even the remotest chance of emulating its predecessor.

ON THE CREATIVES

TE: [Jack O’Brien’s production] seems entirely in tune with Lloyd Webber’s vision… Bob Crowley’s designs, though not as opulent as those of Maria Björnson in the original, and lacking the breathtaking panache of the collapsing chandelier and the candlelit boat-trip across the underground lake, are nevertheless constantly inventive, including clever use of video, a riot of writhing art nouveau, and splendidly creepy animated models in the phantom’s eyrie.

IN: What is in no doubt is the technical excellence of Jack O’Brien’s seamlessly fluent, sumptuous (and sometimes subtle) production… Bob Crowley’s design and Jack O’Brien’s direction have a beautiful kaleidoscopic fluidity.

GU: While offering a spectacular eyeful, O’Brien’s production is also unafraid of simplicity: the staging of the climactic number, with Christine advancing down to the shell-shaped footlights, could hardly be more direct… Crowley’s designs offer a beguiling mix of new technology and art nouveau… Paule Constable’s lighting adds to the show’s visual appeal: she lends a Hopper-like gloom to a sub-pier bar and gives a broadwalk vista a Renoiresque glow.

TI: Visually, there’s nothing to match the marvels that Maria Bjornson created with murk, candles and vast curtains in the original Phantom, but Bob Crowley successfully evokes much of Phantasma, helped by projections of spooky horses on carousels.

ON RAMIN & SIERRA

IN: Ramin Karimloo may not be a physically imposing enough presence as the Phantom, but his marvellously supple voice can run the gamut from a seductive guttural whisper to the full blare of frustrated passion. Looking gorgeous in a range of stylish period-outfits, Sierra Boggess’s Christine boasts a voice that can pool and purl quietly and then knock you dead with her towering rendition of the climactic title number.

TE: Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess sing superbly as the Phantom and Christine, with a real spark between them. Boggess is especially fine in the soaring title song, and Karimloo deftly combines menace and vulnerability throughout. Meanwhile Joseph Millson memorably captures the self-destructive Raoul.

GU: From my distant seat in row O, the performances seemed fine. Ramin Karimloo’s Phantom may not have the tragic quality of Michael Crawford’s prototype but that is hardly his fault: the character is now more a mildly disabled Kane (of the Wellesian variety) than a social pariah. Sierra Boggess also displays a strong, vibrant soprano as Christine. Summer Strallen as the vengeful Meg and Liz Robertsan as her creepy, Mrs Danvers-like mum are both strongly defined.

DM: Sierra Boggess, as Christine, is the production’s great joy — its show saver. She has a soprano of porcelain precision and her scene 4 duet with 10-year-old Gustave (excellent Harry Child), brushed by harp, is the first of three quick songs which rescue the evening.

TI: Even though Sierra Boggess’s sweet but never sickly Christine gets a bit piercing when her high-note flutterings hit the vocal stratosphere, it also pleases the ear, as do several other numbers — though usually with a major-key lilt, never with the danger and dissonance that the Phantom tale would seem to demand. Beside, say, the Elephant Man, Karimloo’s urbane, melodic, not-so-sinister Phantom might be Cary Grant.

THE MUSIC

GU: The score is one of the composer’s most seductive… At his very best – as in Joseph, Jeeves, The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard – Lloyd Webber’s melodic inventiveness matches the material; here you have a welter of great tunes in search of a strong story. But at least the American setting gives Lloyd Webber the chance to explore a variety of musical idioms.

IN: the splendour of the orchestra which pours forth Lloyd Webber’s dark-hued, yearning melodies as if its life depended on them.

TE: The music is a constant pleasure, lavishly orchestrated and ranging from deliciously pert vaudeville numbers to those thrillingly romantic love songs, by way of an eerie dissonant waltz and a sudden unexpected blast of full-on prog-rock.

DM: The Entr’acte asserts Lloyd Webber at his most soupily sumptuous and the second half is far better. His music crests in a breaking chord when Christine is staring into her dressing-room mirror, trying to decide between her loves.

ON THE BLOGGERS

GU: I should say that I have no truck with those ghoulish groupies who’ve seen The Phantom of the Opera 852 times and regard any sequel as equivalent to painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa. No masterpiece has been besmirched

TE: I have received furious emails from fans or, as they style themselves, “Phans” of the original Phantom of the Opera, still running in the West End more than 23 years after it first opened, telling me that the new piece is a travesty. And there is no doubt that Love Never Dies seems like a relic of another age. Gloomy-doomy, largely through-sung musicals like this have in recent years been superseded in public affection by a welcome return to musical comedy in such shows as Hairspray, Sister Act and the latest hit, Legally Blonde. In the midst of a recession, will audiences fork out top dollar for two-and-a half hours of dark Gothic imaginings, seething passion, and in the final scene, sudden violent death?

TI: The blogosphere has been teeming with views of Lloyd Webber’s long-awaited Phantom II. For some, Love Never Dies is “Paint Never Dries”, and for others the composer is at his musical best. I tend to agree with both factions.

ON THE BOOK

GU: What the show lacks, in a nutshell, is narrative tension. For Christine, having discovered her employer’s true identity, the big question is “to sing or not to sing?”. The result is a foregone conclusion.

TE: It seems extraordinary that it should have taken four hands to write the not especially complex book, among them Lloyd Webber, Ben Elton, and Frederick Forsyth, while Glenn Slater’s lyrics strike me as serviceable rather than inspired.

DM: That core justification — the romantic gubbins — is badly lacking. In the end you conclude that she simply seeks out suffering to improve her art.

TI: So where’s the tension in Ben Elton and Lloyd Webber’s book? That’s not helped by a narrative that might have been part-written by Ibsen’s ghost, there’s so much earnest poring over the past. But mainly it comes from Christine’s one-time friend Meg (Summer Strallen) who has also moved to Coney Island and aims to be the belle of all this balls.

ON ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

IN: In a sense, Lloyd Webber has become hoist by his own petard. Having over-petted the public, he is now being badly mauled by a section of it – the Phantom fanatics who feel that they own the original more than he does. On both counts (casting and the right to do what he likes with his own material), Lloyd Webber has, for once, the moral high ground here.

TE: There is something personal about Lloyd Webber’s relationship with the Phantom, as if in the character of the tortured and deformed composer he is confronting something of his own inner darkness. The character might just be a terrifying self-portrait, hanging in the attic of his imagination.

IN: It’s revealing that Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has cast leading roles in his most recent ventures by public vote on reality TV talent show, has not allowed the public anywhere near his casting decisions for Love Never Dies. This rather exposes how low-risk those TV experiments have been, geared as they have been to fairly safe properties such as The Sound of Music and Oliver!.

FINAL THOUGHTS

IN: The ending (which I won’t give away) feels phoney in the unconvincing completeness of its resolution. It makes what has preceded it abruptly feel a good deal less than the sum of its parts and cries out for more ambiguity. In short, it should be “phixed”.

GU: The show has much to commend it and the staging is a constant source of iridescent pleasure. But, as one of the lyrics reminds us, “diamonds never sparkle bright unless they are set just right”. Although Lloyd Webber’s score is full of gems, in the end a musical is only as good as its book. With a libretto to match the melodies, this might have been a stunner rather than simply a good night out.

TE: The show may ultimately prove too strange, too dark, too tormented to become a massive popular hit, but I suspect its creepy allure will linger potently in the memory when frothier shows have been long forgotten.

DM: The night ends with a death scene so long that it may only reignite the euthanasia debate… So: a hit? Not quite. It is too much an also-ran to the prequel, and its opening is too stodgy. But if it is a miss, it is — like Christine — a noble miss, noble because Lloyd Webber’s increasingly operatic music tries to lift us to a higher plane.

TI: Where’s the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness? For that I recommend a trip to Her Majesty’s, not the Adelphi.

VA: At the moment, watching the sequel only makes you appreciate the achievement of the original.

KEY TO CRITICS:

TE: The Telegraph – Charles Spencer

DM: Daily Mail – Quentin Letts

GU: The Guardian – Michael Billington

BL: Bloomberg – Warwick Thompson

IN: The Independent – Paul Taylor

TI: The Times – Benedict Nightingale

VA: Variety – David Benedict

Book tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London

David Ian’s successful touring production of Flashdance The Musical, based on the cult 80s movie, is making its way into the West End.

After spending 2009 touring the UK, the show will premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre from September 2010, replacing Hairspray which is finishing up at the venue on 28 March.

Riding on the high of movie-to-musical stage shows, and a hard act to follow after the successes of Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing et al, Flashdance The Musical tells the story of 18 year old Alex, a welder by day and ‘flashdancer’ by night, whose dream is to win a place at the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy.

The show features choreography by Arlene Phillips and is based on the Paramount Pictures film – which won an Oscar for its music. Some of the songs from the film feature in the stage show – including  ‘Maniac’, ‘Manhunt’, ‘Gloria’ and the title track ‘Flashdance – What a Feeling’ – as well as 10 original songs created for the musical.

Booking opens shortly.

Round up of reviews of PRIVATE LIVES starring Kim Cattrall at the Vaudeville Theatre in London

STAR RATINGS

Evening Standard –4 / 5

The Telegraph – 4 / 5

The Guardian – 3 / 5

The Independent – 4 / 5

Daily Mail – 5 / 5

IN A NUTSHELL

GU: A classy revival, expertly staged by Richard Eyre… but, while it will give pleasure, the partnership of Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen as Amanda and Elyot never struck me as hatched in some ante-room of heaven.

TE: Richard Eyre’s terrific new production

TI: Thanks to him [Eyre] and his lead actors you can’t miss the play’s unassuming point and purpose.

ES: Noël Coward’s comedy calls for a mixture of turbulence and dry urbanity, and Richard Eyre’s finely calibrated production of Private Lives exhibits just the right blend of these qualities.

IN: Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen display an onstage chemistry that works like a volatile charm in Richard Eyre’s exhilaratingly funny revival of the Noel Coward comedy classic.

VA: The delights of flippancy are only intermittently on offer in Richard Eyre’s effortful revival. It’s not just the headline casting of Kim Cattrall as Amanda that overbalances this production.

DM: This is a gorgeous, glorious production of Private Lives, just bitchy enough to be modern, yet old-fashioned enough to have a three-part form.

ON KIM CATTRALL

IN: Right from the moment when Cattrall first appears on the hotel balcony clad only in a snowy white beach towel. With her tossed blonde curls and barbed flightiness, she’s a delight. …she’s got very good comic timing and demonstrates a winning flair for emotional slapstick.

GU: Cattrall, most famed for Sex and the City, is actually very good as Amanda… she brings out the inviolable selfhood that, for Coward, was a vital part of sexual attraction.

TE: Cattral is a vision to behold, at ease in her body, and miraculously combining vulnerability with sharp wit.

TI: At first I thought… [Cattrall] too free with the sort of fluttery vowels Marilyn Monroe might have have emitted were she attempting an English accent, [but] she combines allure with the mulishness of a woman who knows her own mind as well as her own body.

ES: Cattrall conveys an arch playfulness and a good deal of flighty yet vulnerable glamour. There’s warmth, too, albeit perhaps not quite enough of it.

VA: Cattrall is as elegant and feline as could be hoped for…  But it requires too much effort for Cattrall to iron out her North American inflections and accent, making her voice — and thus her performance — high-pitched and, on occasion, forced.

DM: Actress Kim Cattrall almost completely sheds her identity as ‘that vamp from TV’s Sex And The City’… she produces a not quite faultless English accent. A few words such as ‘one’, ‘afterwards’, ‘going’ and ‘worry’ require attention, but as Elyot says in one of the play’s many memorable lines, ‘don’t quibble, Sibyl’.

ON MATTHEW MACFAYDEN

IN: Macfadyen is all the funnier for being so meatily masculine and solid a presence, with an accent that seems to mock its own port-wine plumminess in a manner that reminded me, at times, of Michael Gambon.

GU: There is a sanity about Macfadyen which doesn’t quite square with Elyot’s espousal of flippancy as a way of life.

TE: Matthew Macfadyen has more than a touch of the brutish bully about him.

TI: At first I thought him too aloof, even a bit sullen and stolid… But his wit has bite

ES: In the key roles, Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfadyen have what might blithely be termed chemistry — though in fact it’s closer to particle physics, all energetic collisions and strong nuclear force.

DM: Mr Macfadyen resists any temptation to speak in a classic clipped Cowardese. He makes sense of the lines by using the sort of pouty tone of entitlement too often heard from today’s gilded 30-somethings.

VA: Macfadyen is an unusually weighty Elyot. But his unexpectedly baleful quality initially slows down the play’s pulse. He too warms up as the play progresses, but his rhythm only rarely seems in synch with Cattrall’s.

IN SUMMARY

IN: Eyre’s splendid production alerts you anew to the fact that Private Lives is a dazzling feat of airborne comic dramaturgy.

GU: It is a clever, funny production that certainly hits the spot. Only the nagging perfectionist in me makes me feel there is even more to Amanda and Elyot… they never quite acquire the halo of specialness that for Coward was the justification for living.

TE: This production never quite attains the bruising passion that Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman brought to the play a few years ago, but it comes close.

ES: Although it begins on an unexpectedly passive note, this is a satisfying and intelligently conceived production. It’s fluent, very funny and at times dazzlingly well-acted.

VA: The play only truly comes to life in the scenes of physical comedy… Cattrall’s presence may pull crowds, but compared with past couplings as blissful as Abigail Thaw and Simon Robson, or Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman, these two are simply working too hard.

KEY TO REVIEWS:

ES: Evening Standard – Henry Hitchings

TI: The Times – Benedict Nightingale

TE: The Telegraph – Charles Spencer

GU: The Guardian – Michael Billington

IN: The Independent – Paul Taylor

DM: Daily Mail – Quentin Letts

VA: Variety – David Benedict

Book tickets to see Private Lives at the Vaudeville Theatre in London

Enjoy our latest Meal Deals in our Dine for Free promotion, offering thousands of free meals in West End restaurants when booking tickets to a show.

As well as free dining, many of the packages in the promotion also include money off the theatre ticket – making this a great-value way of dining out and enjoying the best of the West End.

Shows featured in the promotion include major musicals Blood Brothers, Wicked, Chicago, We Will Rock You and The Lion King.

Restaurants in the promotion include some of the tastiest places to eat in the city, including Christopher’s, Thai Square, The Spaghetti House and The Langley.

All the restaurants are guaranteed to be close to their corresponding theatre, and a table reservation is automatically made on booking to ensure that the evening goes perfectly to plan. Many of the packages include a choice of either pre or post theatre dining, allowing customers to choose whether to eat before or after the show.

Meal Deal £24.50 Meal Deal £26.50 Hilarious Hitchcock. Stars Melanie C. Ticket (worth £24.50) + dinner at Planet Hollywood Ticket (worth £39.50) + dinner at The Spaghetti House BOOK NOW BOOK NOW Meal Deal £27.50 Meal Deal £28.50 Michael Jackson tribute. Stars Ruthie Henshall. Ticket (worth £43.50) + dinner at The Spaghetti House) Ticket (worth £45.75) + dinner at The Langley BOOK NOW BOOK NOW Meal Deal £30 Meal Deal £37.50 Grease is the word! The ghostly thriller. Ticket (worth £30) + dinner at Planet Hollywood Ticket (worth £42.50) + dinner at Christophers BOOK NOW BOOK NOW Meal Deal £39.50 Meal Deal £40 High-octane dance show. Disney’s classic show. Ticket (worth £47.50) + dinner at The Spgahetti House Ticket (worth £35.50) + dinner at Thai Square BOOK NOW BOOK NOW Meal Deal £45 Meal Deal £53 The Queen rock musical. Have the time of your life. Ticket (worth £55) + dinner at the Eagle Diner Ticket (worth £62.50) + dinner at Thai Square BOOK NOW BOOK NOW Meal Deal £60 Meal Deal £60 The joyous new musical. The spectacular musical. Ticket (worth £63.25) + dinner at Acots Ticket (worth £60) + dinner at BBar Victoria BOOK NOW BOOK NOW

]]> http://www.westendtheatre.com/1969/offers/meal-deals-enjoy-a-free-restaurant-dinner/feed/ 0 http://www.westendtheatre.com/1959/offers/jersey-boys-save-15-on-this-award-winning-show/ http://www.westendtheatre.com/1959/offers/jersey-boys-save-15-on-this-award-winning-show/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:42:33 +0000 admin http://www.westendtheatre.com/?p=1959

Save £15 on tickets to see the Olivier award winning musical Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre

Valid Tuesday to Thursday evenings

JERSEY BOYS is the feel-good musical that has smashed all box office records at the Prince Edward Theatre in London and won over 20 major awards around the world, including the 2009 Olivier Award for BEST NEW MUSICAL.

This internationally acclaimed hit musical tells the incredible story of the rise to stardom of one of the most successful bands in pop music history – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Discover how these four New Jersey boys form the wrong side of the tracks invented their own unique sound, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and sold 100 million records worldwide. With spectacular performances of all their hits, JERSEY BOYS is the electrifying true life story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons; the mob, the heartaches, the triumphs and the music.

This sensational production features many of the bands worldwide hits, including: BEGGIN‘, CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU, OH WHAT A NIGHT, WALK LIKE A MAN, BYE BYE BABY (BABY GOODBYE), SHERRY, BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY and many more.

JERSEY BOYS has now been seen by over 4 million people worldwide.

MORE ABOUT JERSEY BOYS

‘Oh what a night of magical memories….This is an utterly wonderful show full of vitality, pace and power’ Daily Express.

‘Let’s hear it for the Boys…..I suspect, be some time before London says Bye Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye) to the phenomenal Jersey Boys’ Daily Telegraph.

Jersey Boys follows the rags-to-riches tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons as they work their way from the streets of Newark to the heights of stardom, and features such hits as ‘Sherry,’ ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry,’ ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,’ ‘Oh, What a Night’ and many more.

Directed by Des McAnuff, with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Bob Crewe and The Four Seasons’ own Bob Gaudio, it has won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical and Best Lighting Design of a Musical. McAnuff is on board for the London version of the show, as are the Broadway creative team: choreographer Sergio Trujillo, production designer Klara Zieglerova, lighting designer Binkley and costume designer Jess Goldstein.

Save £15 on tickets to see the Olivier award winning musical Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre

Valid Tuesday to Thursday evenings

Editors update since this article was first posted: See a round-up of Love Never Dies reveiews from critics following last night’s world premiere at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brand new musical Love Never Dies will start previewing tonight at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

Ramin Karimloo

And to say there is some anticipation is an understatement.

The show is directed by legendary Broadway director Jack O’Brien, responsible for big Broadway hits The Full Monty and Hairspray.

The first preview performance was originally scheduled for Saturday 20 February but had to be cancelled to give the cast and crew more time to rehearse.

The multi-million pound new musical, which has already taken more than £8 million at the box-office, follows the story of Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, this time setting the show on Coney Island in New York at the turn of the last century.

The original musical has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide, so the pressure is on to create a new work that lives up to the incredible legacy of the original.

The new show is based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth called The Phantom Of Manhattan, and adapted initially by Ben Elton (We Will Rock You), who was responsible for reintroducing some of the original characters including Christine and Raoul.

A strong launch cast includes Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry, Summer Strallen as her daughter Meg,  Joseph Millson as Raoul, Niamh Perry as Fleck, Adam Pearce as Squelch and Jami Reid-Quarrell as Gangle.

Joseph Millson

The show’s World Premiere will be on Tuesday 9 March 2010, followed by New York on Thursday 11 November and Australia in 2011.

In the musical, the story continues with the Phantom moving from his lair in the Paris Opera House to haunt the fairgrounds of Coney Island in New York. Set ten years after the mysterious disappearance of the Phantom from Paris, the show works on the themes of obsession and intrigue, promising a number of shocking plot twists and large-scale spectacles.

Summer Strallen

LOVE NEVER DIES – CREATIVE TEAM:

Director – Jack O’Brien (Hairspray, The Full Monty, Catch Me If You Can)

Music – Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Evita)

Lyricist – Glenn Slater(The Little Mermaid, Sister Act)

Set and costume designer – Bob Crowley (Phèdre, The History Boys, Mary Poppins)

Choreographer-  Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde, Hairspray, The Full Monty)

Book tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London

Hotel and theatre breaks to see Love Never Dies

Tamsin Outhwaite in Sweet Charity

The Menier Chocolate Factory’s sold out run of Sweet Charity is to transfer in to the West End.

Starring ex-EastEnders star Tamzin Outhwaite in the title role of Charity Hope Valentine, the show will open at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 23 April.

Winner of a Tony Award, the musical has a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields and features a number of legendary musicals songs including Hey, Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now and The Rhythm of Life.

Directed by Matthew White, with choreography by Stephen Mear and set design by Tim Shortall, the show is being brought in to town by David Ian and David Mirvish.

Sweet Charity follows the misadventures of the gullible and guileless Charity Hope Valentine, a woman who always gives her heart and her dreams to the wrong man.

Tamzin Outhwaite has proved a versatile actress across both stage and screen, having recently appeared in Matthew Warchus’ acclaimed production of Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre, and on television in Hustle, Hotel Babylon and new dramas The Fixer and Paradox.

Book tickets to Sweet Charity at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

The new Menier Chocolate Factory season will see a strong line-up of new shows, many of which promise West End and Broadway transfers.

Mandy Patinkin

Most high-profile will be a jointly directed Hal Prince and Susan Stroman musical starring Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin, a major coup for the small theatre that has built up a sizeable reputation: its successful production of La Cage Aux Folles starring Douglas Hodge will open on Broadway in 2010.

The musical, Paradise Found, will run at the theatre from 19 May to 26 June before a possible Broadway transfer. Based on Joseph Roth’s novel The Tale Of The 1002nd Night, the show is about a visit the Shah of Persia made to Europe in 1873. Patinkin will play the Shah’s eunuch.

The show features music by Austrian waltz maestro Johann Strauss II and Jonathan Tunick, lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh and a libretto by Richard Nelson. Composer Tunick is widely known for orchestrating many Broadway musicals, including the works of Stephen Sondheim.

Legendary director Hal Prince was responsible for the premiere productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade and Bounce.

Tony-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman has created shows including The Producers and Young Frankenstein, and last collaborated with Prince on the Broadway revival of Show Boat.

Trevor Nunn directs Aspects of Love

Also in the new season Trevor Nunn follows his successful production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, which transferred to the West End and is now playing on Broadway starring Catherine Zeta Jones, by directing a new production of Aspects of Love.

The first major London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical since Nunn’s original production, the show is based on David Garnett’s novel and originally starred Michael Ball. It tells the story of passion, love and loss across three generations of a family and their companions set against the background of 1940’s France and Italy.

The show will preview from 3 July.

Willy Russell double-bill

Also showcasing at the Menier Chocolate Factory will be a double-bill of Willy Russell plays Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita.

Both award-winning movies, the plays will provide a long overdue London tribute to Willy Russell’s work.  Willy Russell’s most famous stage work is Blood Brothers, which has played in the West End since 1988 and currently stars Spice Girl Melanie C.

Shirley Valentine will star Meera Syal, acclaimed comedienne and actress whose credits include Bombay Dreams and Goodness Gracious Me. The play will be directed by Glen Walford.

Laura Dos Santos

Larry Lamb and Laura Dos Santos will star in Educating Rita, directed by Jeremy Sams. Larry Lamb has recently enjoyed two high-profile TV roles in Gavin & Stacey and EastEnders. Relative newcomer Dos Santos appeared in Look Back in Anger at the Jermyn Street Theatre in 2008.

The productions run in rep from 26 March to 8 May.