Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary celebrations to be staged at the Royal Albert Hall
May 26, 2011
Plans have been announced for the 25th anniversary celebrations of The Phantom of the Opera this October.
A gala celebration of the long-running show will be staged at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The show’s original choreographer, Gillian Lynne, will stage the spectacle, which will be produced by Phantom’s producer Cameron Mackintosh and the musical’s composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Unconfirmed sources suggest that the show will be a fully staged, brand new production of the show which will run for more than just one evening.
The role of the Phantom will be played by Ramin Karimloo, who is currently starring as the Phantom in Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre and has also spent long periods playing in the original show.
The Stage newspaper is also reporting today that Karimloo will be joined by Sierra Boggess, who will reprise the role of Christine after playing the role in Phantom in Las Vegas and in Love Never Dies in London. The actress is currently in rehearsals for a new production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway featuring Tyne Daly.
Stars of the Phantom 25th anniversary show, Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess (pictured in Love Never Dies)
As previously covered on westendtheatre.com, Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful group and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd will team up to produce the large-scale show, following Mackintosh’s dazzling production last October celebrating the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables at the O2.
The last celebration for The Phantom of the Opera took place on 23 October last year, to mark the 10,000th performance of the show. Patrick Woodroffe will design the lighting for the show, advised by original Phantom lighting designer Andy Bridge.
Speculation over a concert or special performance of Phantom had been fuelled by Ramin Karimloo posting on Twitter in March that he would be appearing in the 25th anniversary celebrations, and by an Ebay auction held in aid of Comic Relief, to win ”two great tickets to the Celebration of Phantom’s 25th Birthday in October 2011 – when he [Karimloo] will don the mask as the original Phantom one more time”.
Michael Crawford, currently playing the Wizard in Lloyd Webber’s new production of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium, originated the role of the Phantom, alongside Sarah Brightman as Christine. It is unconfirmed whether Crawford and Brightman will play any part in the celebrations for the show.
The show originally opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 9 October 1986 directed by Harold Prince. Over 80 million people have seen the show worldwide, ranking it the most popular entertainment of all time.
LINKS
Book tickets to the Phantom 25th Anniversary at The Royal Albert Hall
Book tickets to The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London
Book tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London
Betty Blue Eyes and The Wizard of Oz extend booking periods
May 5, 2011
Two of London’s major new musicals – Cameron Mackintosh’s Betty Blue Eyes and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Wizard of Oz – have both announced new booking periods, extending their runs into 2012.
Andrew Lloyd Webber with Sophie Evans, who is starring as Dorothy this week
Betty Blue Eyes, which opened at the Novello Theatre on 13 April 2011, is now booking to 28 January 2012. The show, which is adapted from Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray’s film A Private Function, features a score by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and the cast includes Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith.
The Wizard of Oz opened on 1 February 2011 at the London Palladium and stars Danielle Hope as Dorothy, Michael Crawford as the Wizard and Hannah Waddingham as the Wicked Witch. The show is now booking until 15 January 2012. This week has seen Over The Rainbow runner-up Sophie Evans cover the role of Dorothy across all performances whilst Danielle Hope is on holiday. Sophie also plays the role every Tuesday.
LINKS
Book tickets to The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium
Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre
Read more news and reviews on Betty Blue Eyes and The Wizard of Oz
Sunday Times Rich List: Gap narrows between Lloyd Webber and Mackintosh for top West End spot
May 5, 2011
Ahead of publishing its annual Sunday Times Rich List this Sunday, 8 May 2011 , the Times newspaper has revealed that Andrew Lloyd Webber has clung on to his top spot to be the richest man in UK theatre, valued at £680m, but down £20m on last year.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, valued at £680m
The Love Never Dies and The Phantom of the Opera composer, who launched his new production of The Wizard of Oz earlier this year at the London Palladium, will celebrate Phantom’s 25th anniversary this October in the West End.
He remains narrowly ahead of his long-time collaborator and rival producer and West End theatre owner Cameron Mackintosh (Betty Blue Eyes, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins) who is valued at £675m, up £40m on last year. This in turn is a whopping £325m up on 2009.
The impresario has recently launched a successful new, original production in the West End, with Betty Blue Eyes doing good business within one of his Delfont Mackintosh-owned venues, the Novello Theatre, starring Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith.
In the past year Mackintosh also celebrated the 25th anniversary of his most successful show, Les Miserables, with a major concert at the O2 Arena in London and follow-up DVD and CD merchandising, and a major US tour of Mary Poppins starring Caroline Sheen.
Also in the list of the richest entertainment people in the UK is Billy Elliot composer Elton John, who was valued at £195m, up £10m on last year. John and his partner David Furnish have recently produced Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart on Broadway. The show has been nominated for five Tony Awards and there are ambitions to bring the production to London.
LINKS
The Rich List 2010 – Showbusiness people
Phantom of the Opera 25th anniversary celebrations
April 20, 2011
We’ve got the celebration poster, now we are waiting for news of the celebrations.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year: Phantom first previewed on 27 September 1986 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, with its official opening night on 9th October, and it has played at the venue ever since.
New-look poster for The Phantom of the Opera's 25th anniversary
Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful group and the show’s producer, Cameron Mackintosh, are rumoured to be planning a 25th anniversary concert for the musical, following Mackintosh’s large-scale concert celebrations at the O2 last year for the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables.
The last celebration for The Phantom of the Opera took place on 23 October last year, to mark the 10,000th performance of the show.
Further speculation over a concert or special performance of the show has been fuelled by current star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom follow-up Love Never Dies, Ramin Karimloo. He posted on Twitter last month that he would be appearing in the 25th anniversary celebrations, and an Ebay auction has been held in aid of Comic Relief, to win ”two great tickets to the Celebration of Phantom’s 25th Birthday in October 2011 – when he [Karimloo] will don the mask as the original Phantom one more time”.
Michael Crawford, currently playing the Wizard in Lloyd Webber’s new production of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium, originated the role of the Phantom, alongside Sarah Brightman as Christine. Crawford and Brightman would be expected to take part in any celebrations for the show.
Over 80 million people have seen the show worldwide, ranking it the most popular entertainment of all time.
LINKS
Book tickets to The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London
Book tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London
Book tickets to The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium
Betty Blue Eyes and Free Dinner Offer
April 19, 2011
Sarah Lancashire in Betty Blue Eyes
Package Availability: Valid Monday to Thursday evenings. Excludes bank holidays and school holidays
IT’S 1947 – AUSTERITY BRITAIN, BELTS ARE BEING TIGHTENED, FAIR SHARES FOR ALL, THE COLDEST WINTER IN DECADES AND A ROYAL WEDDING. SOUND FAMILIAR?
Adapted from Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray’s hilarious comic film ‘A Private Function’; a tale that centres around Betty, an adorable pig who is being illegally reared to ensure that the local dignitaries can celebrate the forthcoming Royal Wedding with a lavish banquet while everyone else makes do with Spam!
This utterly British musical, full of eccentric characters, has a deliciously witty score by Stiles and Drewe and a marvellous cast of great British actors, headed by Sarah Lancashire as Joyce, Reece Shearsmith as Gilbert and, of course, Betty as Herself.
Times
Guardian
Telegraph
Westendtheatre
BOOK NOW: Enjoy a delicious free theatre dinner at either Porter’s English restaurant or Maxwell’s restaurant – both in Covent Garden – when booking a full price £59.50 ticket to see Betty Blue Eyes.
Package Availability: Valid Monday to Thursday evenings. Excludes bank holidays and school holidays
Exclusive Photos: Betty Blue Eyes – The First Night
April 15, 2011
One of the highlights of the West End’s year took place on Wednesday, as a star-studded audience gathered at the Novello Theatre in London for the first night of Betty Blue Eyes, produced by Cameron Mackintosh.
The show is Cameron’s first new musical for a decade and wowed both the audience and critics alike with its porky tale starring Sarah Lancashire and Reece Shearsmith.
Our official photographer Roy Tan was invited to follow the show’s composer George Stiles on his journey through the day and night of the launch of the show, meeting the creative team including the show’s lyricist Anthony Drewe, book writers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, director Richard Eyre, and a host of famous faces.
Here we take a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at final preparations for the show and the glamorous after-party at the Waldorf Hilton in London.
LINKS
Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre
VIDEO: Betty Blue Eyes – Webisodes
April 14, 2011
To celebrate the opening of brand new West End musical Betty Blue Eyes, we bring you some exclusive video footage from rehearsals and behind-the-scenes of the show.
Part one of the webisode features Sarah Lancashire, Reece Shearsmith and the cast and crew of Cameron Mackintosh’s smash hit new musical, now playing at the Novello Theatre in London.
VIDEO
Exclusive behind-the-scenes video from Betty Blue Eyes
LINKS
Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre
Betty Blue Eyes – Review
April 14, 2011
A review of Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London
Sarah Lancashire as Joyce in Betty Blue Eyes. Photo: Roy Tan
BETTY BLUE EYES
A little bit of austerity joy has sprung up at the Novello Theatre where Cameron Mackintosh’s latest West End venture, Betty Blue Eyes, based on Malcolm Mowbray’s 1984 film A Private Function, has started a squealingly good run.
Set in a small Yorkshire town just after the Second World War, when austerity and food rationing is starting to bite hard, a group of local dignitaries plan to raise and slaughter an illegal pig for an exclusive, private function to celebrate the impending wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Phillip.
Alongside this runs the story of timid chiropodist Gilbert (Reece Shearsmith) and his social-climbing wife Joyce (Sarah Lancashire), who are thwarted in their efforts to get a foothold on the town’s social ladder and decide to steal the pig as an act of revenge (and hunger!).
Given the peculiarly British subject matter and source material, Mackintosh has clearly taken a gamble in hiring US screenwriters Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman to pen the book of the show, particularly as it’s their first musical. However, having a bit of distance from a subject is not a bad thing and they’ve written some pacey, witty dialogue that captures the spirit of the times without paying undue reverence to the movie.
But it’s the musical numbers by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe that go much further than the book in rounding out the themes of the show, without ever losing sight of the “let’s have fun” element which is writ large throughout this production.
Betty Blue Eyes is the most tuneful, humorous and inventive original score we’ve heard in the West End for some time, with a number of songs guaranteed to be around forever. Cameron Mackintosh has championed Stiles & Drewe for decades and they have enjoyed notable success but never a big West End production to truly call their own. Mackintosh had to step up to the plate at some point, and he’s done so with a show that will, finally, put this writing duo firmly on the international map of Class A theatre composers.
There is also no doubt that Alan Bennett’s screenplay for A Private Function, written with the movie’s director Malcolm Mowbray, is a major factor in the night’s success. Whilst the film was a little too depressing to be jolly good farce and too much like comedy to be a decent observation of post-war Britain, it was carried by Bennett’s beautifully observed characters – and the performances of Maggie Smith, Michael Palin, Denholm Elliot et al.
Much of the success of Richard Eyre’s production is based on the same factors. An animatronics pig may be the title lead of Betty Blue Eyes (given the rumoured expense of the pig, it was strangely unanimated, with stellar facial gestures but nothing that a good Jim Henson puppet couldn’t have achieved), but the real leads act Betty off the stage.
Sarah Lancashire in the role of Joyce Chivers is as close to a musical theatre revelation as you are likely to get, and plays her like she has been at the epicentre of musical theatre life in Britain for the last thirty years. There’s no question that the song of the night is “Nobody”, which she delivers with a fierce gusto that will be sung back to Cameron Mackintosh by thousands of auditioning gals for decades to come.
Lancashire plays Joyce much warmer than Maggie Smith, which in some ways highlights the tonal difference between the show and the film. Anyone who can play a sexy, house-proud Northern matriarch whilst singing big, show-stopping numbers, all the while adding an emotional heart, a dry wit and a beautifully composed showbiz smile, gets my vote!
Reece Shearsmith in Betty Blue Eyes. Photo: Roy Tan
The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith puts in a surprisingly emotive and convincing performance as Gilbert, presumably honed from years of playing it straight in macabre (or farcical) surrounds, and whilst he is not an obvious song and dance man, he makes Gilbert his own.
Adrian Scarborough doesn’t have a lot of room for manoeuvre with Wormwold, the government food inspector who, in true ‘Allo ‘Allo! style, is not only dressed as the Gestapo, but continually referred to as the Gestapo, taking the show more in the direction of Panto through no fault of his own. His big number, Painting By Heart, which reveals his passion for his work – and the painting of illegal meat to render it inedible – seems to come too early, and we need to see more of his evil ways before he can lighten up and show us his passionate side.
Also, painting Wormwold as the evil villain takes some of the meanness away from the town’s elite, reinforced by turning Allardyce (a lovely performance by Jack Edwards) into a warm and cuddly “pigophile” and Dr Swayby, played by David Bamber, as a rather one-dimensional bigot (his anti-Semitic remarks may have been historically accurate, but don’t fit well in a show that presents itself as nothing less than a joyous romp through the post-war years). All of this slightly undermines what’s at the story’s heart: that British class meant that not everyone was living in austere times.
Richard Eyre has put together a fine, National Theatre-quality supporting cast, notably Ann Emery as Mother Dear. It could have just have been me, but there felt like a subtle nod to Les Miserables in a number of scenes, perhaps some light Cameron Mackintosh ribbing by the creative team, with barricades stormed by headscarf-clad matriarchs through Stephen Mear’s quirky and inventive choreography.
Design by Tim Hatley ensures that the show keeps momentum, beautifully set against a cartoon-like blue sky and green hills.
For Mackintosh, Betty Blue Eyes must feel like a small, austerity production. The Novello is not quite a tiny, converted chocolate factory in South London, but for a producer more used to enormous productions that go global, Betty Blue Eyes must feel small-scale. However, Mackintosh is a canny producer, not only for capitalising on our current austerity and impending Royal wedding, but in creating a show that can tour to any sized venue in Britain, filling gaps in Arts funding-cut theatres nationwide, and a production that can be played out in village halls for the next fifty years.
PAUL RAVEN
LINKS
Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London
First Look Photos: Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre
April 4, 2011
Exclusive photos of new Cameron Mackintosh musical Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London
Reece Shearsmith and Betty in Betty Blue Eyes
Cameron Mackintosh’s latest stage production is a joyous new musical based on Alan Bennett and Malcolm Mowbray’s acclaimed screenplay A Private Function.
Betty Blue Eyes, currently in previews at the Novello Theatre, stars multi-talented actress Sarah Lancashire and The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith as formidable social climber Joyce Chilvers and her downtrodden husband Gilbert, played in the film by Maggie Smith and Michael Palin.
They join a talented cast including Olivier Award winner Adrian Scarborough (After the Dance, Gavin & Stacey) as Wormold, David Bamber (My Night With Reg) as Swaby, Ann Emery (Billy Elliot) as Mother Dear, Jack Edwards as Allardyce, Mark Meadows as Lockwood… and a rather talented animatronic pig called Betty!
Betty Blue Eyes is directed by the award-winning Richard Eyre and penned by George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics), with a book by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman.
LINKS
Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London
Douglas Hodge to follow La Cage Aux Folles by starring in Barnum?
April 4, 2011
In a live US radio interview with On Broadway’s Seth Rudetsky, our very own Douglas Hodge revealed that he is in talks to star in a revival of Barnum.
Douglas Hodge is currently wowing New York with his “An Evening with Doug Hodge” cabaret show at Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan (can we have this in London next please Mr Hodge?). He then makes his way back to the West End later this year to star in the Donmar’s revival of John Osbourne’s Inadmissible Evidence (from 13 October 2011), directed by Jamie Lloyd.
Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart’s musical Barnum saw Michael Crawford score a huge hit with the show in London in the early 1980s. Prior to that Jim Dale launched the show on Broadway in 1980.
Over the last few years impresario Cameron Mackintosh has talked of wanting to revive the show, and various names have been attached to the project including John Barrowman, Michael Ball – and on Broadway, Neil Patrick Harris.
Hodge has enjoyed great success with La Cage Aux Folles, winning an Olivier and Tony award for his star turn in the Menier Chocolate Factory production which transferred to Playhouse Theatre in London before heading to Broadway.
LINKS
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: Barnum
- Writers: book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, music by Cy Coleman
- Director: ?
- Starring: Douglas Hodge?
- Theatre: ?
- Date: 2012?
Source: SiriusXM’s On Broadway (16/03/11)
Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer in La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway
