Love Never Dies – Ticket Offer Save 25%

Our first offer on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-million pound spectacular LOVE NEVER DIES

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £17.50 (25%) on tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre

Offer valid on Stalls and Dress Circle Seats for Monday-Thursday performances from 30th August until 21st October

Westendtheatre.com is proud to present our first ticket offer on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera – LOVE NEVER DIES.

This spectacular, multi-million pound show is a roller coaster ride of obsession and intrigue starring an acclaimed cast including Ramin Karimloo as The Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine, Joseph Millson as Raoul, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry and Summer Strallen as Meg.

Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daaé accepts an offer to come to America and perform at New York’s fabulous new playground of the world – Coney Island.

Arriving in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave, Christine soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing.

Music and memory can play cruel tricks… and The Phantom sets out to prove that, indeed, LOVE NEVER DIES.

“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.” (Daily Telegraph)

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £17.50 (25%) on tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre

Offer valid on Stalls and Dress Circle Seats for Monday-Thursday performances from 30th August until 21st October

ELENA ROGER in Passion

Argentinean actress continues to forge acclaimed career

By the time 2012 is out, Elena Roger is going to be considerably more famous than she is now.

That’s because Michael Grandage’s 2006 production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita is to be revived on Broadway in Spring 2012 starring Roger as Eva Peron, and joined by Latino superstar Ricky Martin as Che.

The Argentinean actress won an Olivier award for her role in the show – and if the reaction to her London performance in that role is anything to go by, America is going to fall in love with her.

She followed Evita in London with a 2009 Olivier Award win for her performance as Edith Piaf  in the Jamie Lloyd directed Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

And she is about to return to the Donmar to star in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion alongside Scarlett Strallen and David Thaxton, again directed by Jamie Lloyd.

The show is part of the Donmar’s celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, that will also include concert performances of Merrily We Roll Along and Company at the Queen’s Theatre, featuring members of the original Donmar productions including Anna Francolini, Adrian Lester, Clive Rowe, Michael Simkins and Sophie Thompson in Company and Daniel Evans, Julian Ovenden and Samantha Spiro in Merrily We Roll Along.

Elena Roger’s other credits include Matthew Warchus’s Boeing Boeing, and in her native Buenos Aires she played Nine, Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables, Saturday Night Fever and Mina, che cosa sei, with director Valeria Ambrosio.

Links:

News: West End Evita to transfer to Broadway

Donmar Warehouse

Baz falls out of love with Love

The UK’s leading entertainment correspondent, Baz Bamigboye from the Daily Mail newspaper, has finally broken ranks and ranted his frustration at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new Phantom sequel, Love Never Dies.

After years of enthusiasm for the project in his weekly Daily Mail column, Baz has had enough, writing that, “it’s as if the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which boasts his most beautiful score, has become an abandoned child”.

In a rare ALW bashing, he also berates the composer for not sorting out the show before the opening, “[he] should have sat down with his team and changed the show, including trimming his score”.

Even the marketing people get a good going over, with Dewynters’ advertising campaign for the show cited as “a shambles”.

This seems a bit unfair: if it was a hit show then the advertising campaign would be neither here nor there. But marketing and PR have become a theme of this show’s progress in the West End.

If a big show is not entirely working after opening night, the dream of any producer is to be able to “fix it”. But that’s not usually an option for producers spending bags of money a night on an expensive show, especially given that the creative team will have all disbanded and moved on to other projects. And so the show keeps on going as long as there’s an audience, and then it’s done.

For Andrew Lloyd Webber – and Cameron Mackintosh when he produced Martin Guerre back in 1996 – money is no object and so the fixing begins. Martin Guerre was completely reworked after it opened, even going dark and reopening – which is what Andrew Lloyd Webber has muted as an option for his show.

The mistake here has been to make any public reference to problems with Love Never Dies. Sure continue to tinker a bit behind-the-scenes, but the show is what it is. As soon as that opening night is done, we only want to hear positive things from the producers and the creative team. No bitching, no moaning, no angst from Andrew Lloyd Webber about how he’s not happy.

The lessons here are all going to be about how to manage theatre PR in a brave new world, from bloggers blogging before the show even opens to a composer/producer who’s bigger than the show itself.

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-million pound production of The Wizard of Oz starring Over The Rainbow winner Danielle Hope.

The show will start performances on 29 March 2011 at the London Palladium (CLICK HERE TO BOOK TICKETS). Sister Act is currently playing at the theatre.

Sign up here for news, casting and ticketing information on The Wizard Of Oz.

Lord Webber is currently searching for a lucky newcomer to star in the show, in BBC One’s Over The Rainbow. His company owns the London Palladium alongside a number of theatres in London including the Adelphi, where he recently launched his follow-up to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies.

The first stage version of L Frank Baum’s classic book was in 1902 starring Anna Laughlin. The 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland is the most famous version of the show, and was adapted into a stage musical in 1945 by Frank Gabrielson for the St. Louis Municipal Opera. In 1987 the RSC produced a new stage musical version which was much closer to the film, and starred Imelda Staunton as Dorothy, who was nominated for an Olivier award for Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actress in a Musical.

Andrew Lloyd Webber will look to add some new songs to the stage show: “The film worked fantastically but we need some new songs for the stage show”, said Lloyd Webber.

BOOK TICKETS TO THE WIZARD OF OZ AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM

Love Never Dies

Andrew Lloyd Webber presents his greatly anticipated sequel to The Phantom of the Opera – LOVE NEVER DIES.

Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daae accepts an offer to come to America and perform at New York’s fabulous new playground of the world – Coney Island. Christine arrives in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave. She soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing.

LOVE NEVER DIES is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue… in which music and memory can play cruel tricks… and The Phantom sets out to prove that, indeed, LOVE NEVER DIES

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

Love Never Dies – Free Dinner

Love Never Dies – Enjoy a free Dinner in November when booking top price tickets

BOOK THIS THEATRE DINNER PACKAGE >

Selected dates in November 2010. Free dinner at the Palm Court restaurant, pre or post theatre.

Love Never Dies is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s spectacular sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. Now open at the Adelphi Theatre in London, the show is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue with a swirling, romantic new score by Lloyd Webber.

Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daaé accepts an offer to come to America and perform at New York’s fabulous new playground of the world – Coney Island. Christine arrives in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave. But she soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing.

A talented cast includes Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine Daaé, Joseph Millson as Raoul, Liz Robertson as Madame Giry and Summer Strallen as Meg.

“Andrew Lloyd Webber’s finest show since the original” (The Telegraph).

“The splendour of the orchestra pours forth Lloyd Webber’s dark-hued, yearning melodies as if its life depended on them” (The Independent).

SPECIAL OFFER: Love Never Dies – Enjoy a free Dinner in November when booking top price tickets

BOOK THIS THEATRE DINNER PACKAGE >

Over the Rainbow’s Sophie Evans off to Oz

Who says that it’s all about winning?

Over The Rainbow runner-up Sophie Evans is set to make her West End debut next year playing Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-million pound new production of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium.

Sophie, 17 and from Tonypandy in Wales, will take over from Over The Rainbow winner Danielle Hope every Tuesday evening and the week of 2 May and the 5 to 17 September, when Ms Hope will be on holiday.

Lord Lloyd-Webber and producer Bill Kenwright made the announcement yesterday at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. Lloyd Webber’s controversial decision comes in an attempt to learn lessons from his previous TV casting experiences. “People do get sick,” he said, referring to Connie Fisher, star of his 2006 production of The Sound of Music, who was also cast from a BBC One TV show. “[She] had very bad flu and sang through it which she shouldn’t have done, so she was off for a couple of weeks. We didn’t want a repetition of that. We have a responsibility to the girls as well as the audiences”.

Already a number of the other Over The Rainbow finalists have secured parts in shows, including Lauren Samuels, who makes her West End debut next week playing Sandy in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre, and Steph Fearon, who is currently appearing in Smokey Joe’s Café at the Landor Theatre.

Loyd Webber and Tim Rice to reunite

In an interview with the Daily Mail this week, Lord Lloyd Webber also revealed that he will be reuniting with Tim Rice after 34 years to pen a number of new songs for The Wizard of Oz. Rice and Lloyd Webber are arguably the world’s most successful living composer-lyricists with shows including Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph. Lloyd Webber told the paper: “The fact is that The Wizard Of Oz has never really worked in the theatre. The film has one or two holes where in the theatre you need a song. For example, there’s nothing for either of the two witches to sing.”

The Wizard of Oz will follow the success of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria in London, which has broken all box-office records and tells the story of the witches from The Wizard of Oz.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group will produce the show, with performances starting from 7 February 2011 at the London Palladium. The creative team behind the 2006 revival of The Sound of Music, including director Jeremy Sams, designer Robert Jones and choreographer Arlene Phillips, will work on the show.

The first stage version of L Frank Baum’s classic book was in 1902 starring Anna Laughlin. The 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland is the most famous version of the show, and was adapted into a stage musical in 1945 by Frank Gabrielson for the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

Book tickets to The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium

Aspects of Love – Reviews Round-up

Phew! The Menier Chocolate Factory is back on form after the slight blip that was Paradise Found. A collective sigh was heard across the Review pit as Trevor Nunn’s unfinished business with Aspects of Love garnered largely positive reviews from the critics, who weren’t always enamoured with the lyrics but heaped much praise on Nunn’s intimate chamber staging, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music and the accomplished cast. Given Nunn’s success with A Little Night Music, there will be much expectation that this will transfer to the West End and beyond.

RAMIN KARIMLOO in Love Never Dies

West End star Ramin Karimloo

Ramin Karimloo is the stuff that Glee is made of. As a sporty, hockey-playing teenager, not dissimilar to Glee’s Finn Hudson, he was dragged along to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. And so a musical theatre star was born.

“From that moment, I thought that’s what I am going to do. It wasn’t a desperate aim. It was a fact,” he told the Daily Telegraph in February this year.

Ramin went on to realise his dream and to star as the Phantom in the hit show, before moving from Her Majesty’s Theatre to the Adelphi Theatre to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom sequel, Love Never Dies.

Born in Iran and raised in Canada, Ramin started his career as an actor after singing in rock bands and playing cruise ships. Once in England, he turned to musical theatre, playing a wide range of roles including Enjolras in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre, Chris in Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard.

As well as continuing to star in Love Never Dies, in October this year he will feature in the O2 Arena concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables, returning to the role of Enjolras.

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

Book tickets to Les Miserables 25th Anniversary concert at the O2 Arena

Sunday Times Rich List: Top 2000

The Sunday Times has published the details of its Top 2,000 richest people in the UK, following the publication of its Top 1,000 list in April.

The Top 2,000 list reveals a number of actors, musicians and creatives to have made the annual report, including Guy Ritchie at 1130th place, worth £55m, following the success of his film Sherlock Holmes; Alice in Wonderland’s Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter in 1233th place with £50m; and Celador Films and Slumdog Millionaire backers Paul Smith and Sarah King in 1825th place with £32m.

As revealed in April, Love Never Dies and Phantom composer and The Wizard of Oz producer Andrew Lloyd Webber fell from 52nd to 89th place inthe list with a fortune estimated at £700m. He remains slightly ahead of his long-time collaborator and rival producer and West End theatre owner Cameron Mackintosh (Oliver!, Hair, Les Miserables) who is in 98th place, worth £635m – up £285 from last year.

Billy Elliot composer Elton John was in 348th place with £185m and Sunday’s Tony Awards winner Catherine Zeta Jones and husband Michael Douglas made 371st place with £175m. Lyricist Tim Rice (Evita, Joseph, Jesus Christ Superstar) was in 472nd place with £140m and Old Vic Productions Chief Executive Sally Greene and husband Robert Bourne made the list in 596th place with £110m.

Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer came 808th in the list with £80m and Queen band members Brian May, Roger Taylor  and John Deacon all made the Top 1,000, in part due to the success of We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in London. Riverdance couple Moya Doherty and John McColgan  made 911th place with £72m, up £5m on last year.

RICHEST YOUNG PEOPLE

On the Richest Young People list, actor Daniel Radcliffe came fifth with £42m. He will star in a revival of musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway in 2011. Twilight star Robert Pattinson came in as a new entry in 14th place with £13m, recent Over The Rainbow judge Charlotte Church was in 16th place with £11m, alongside Katherine Jenkins, who earlier this year helped Andrew Lloyd Webber launch his new musical Love Never Dies by releasing a song from the show. Lily Allen was also a new entry, coming in 36th place with £5m. It is believed that Allen is working on the score for a new stage adaptation of Bridget Jones’s Diary to open in London in 2011.

See list of showbusiness people in the list

See list of young people in showbusiness in the list

LINKS:

Sunday Times Rich List

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