Palladium celebrates Centenary year

Veteran celebrity Bruce Forsyth unveiled a commemorative plaque at the London Palladium today, 12 October 2010, to celebrate the forthcoming Centenary of the theatre.

Forsyth, 82, who has a long association with the theatre, was joined by showbiz pals and past performers at the theatre including Ken Dodd, Jason Donovan, Lesley Garrett, Michael Ball, Elaine Paige, Jonathan Pryce and Des O’Connor.

The owner of the theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber, also unveiled plans for a major refurbishment of the venue, including rebuilding the front of house areas. “Today’s celebration is about recognising the rich history of this wonderful theatre and the fantastic performers who have graced its stage”, he said. “It is also about the beginning of the biggest programme of refurbishment and change in the Palladium’s history and I’m delighted to announce the restoration of the iconic revolving stage and plans for the complete refurbishment of the Front of House areas.”

The London Palladium has spent 100 years at the centre of Variety in Britain. Forsythe, who first played the theatre 52 years ago and presented popular TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium, told the Guardian today that, “I started here 52 years ago as a compere, which was the plum job. You were meeting and welcoming stars from all over the world.”

He also paid tribute to the enormous popularity of the venue: “Anybody that was anybody played the Palladium. It had a worldwide name and if you played the London Palladium you had made it.”

The theatre’s exact birthday is on 26 December 2010. Designed by famous theatre architect Frank Matcham, the theatre’s first production in 1910 was a variety show and one act play called The Conspiracy.

The London Palladium is currently home to Sister Act until 30 October. Early next year Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of The Wizard of Oz will open the theatre.

LINKS

BBC News: Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the significance of the London Palladium

Donovan and Swenson bow out of West End

Two West End stars left their roles in major shows this weekend. On Saturday night (29 May) Jason Donovan left Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre and Broadway star Will Swenson left Hair at the Gielgud Theatre.

JASON DONOVAN

Fans and cast members paid tribute to Jason Donovan on Saturday 29 May as he shimmied in his fabulous shoes and frocks for the final time in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London, after 14 months and over 450 performances.

On Jason’s Facebook page, fan Laura Harvey said: “So sad that it’s your last Priscilla…. you will be greatly missed”. Cast mate Amy Edwards posted on Twitter that, “am going to miss him loads! He’s a fantastic performer and an amazing person”, and Oliver Thornton, who plays Adam in the show said: “So sad to lose my playmate and friend from the show”.

Ben Richards from ITV’s The Bill takes over Donovan’s role from 1 July. Richards is an accomplished musicals actor having played numerous roles in high-profile West End shows including Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Danny Zuko in Grease, Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and Jerry Lukowski in The Full Monty.

Book tickets to Priscilla Queen of the Desert starring Ben Richards at the Palace Theatre in London

WILL SWENSON

In a theatrical circle of life, Saturday also saw Broadway star Will Swenson leave Hair The Musical in the West End – in order to take on Jason Donovan’s role of Tick in a new Broadway production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Swenson, who was Tony Award-nominated for his performance as Berger in Hair, will open in Priscilla in Toronto in October for 12 weeks before moving the show to Broadway.

The Broadway production will also see Tony Sheldon, who played Bernadette in the Australian and London productions of Priscilla, reprise his role.

Steel Burkhardt, a company member in the original Broadway production and the West End transfer, has taken over Swenson’s role as Berger. Hair marked Burkhardt’s Broadway and West End debuts.

Hair will close at the Gielgud Theatre on 4 September 2010.

In other HAIR news, Gavin Creel, fellow Broadway and now London cast member of the show, will make his solo debut in London this summer. He will play one night only at the Pigalle Club in London’s West End on 20 July. See Facebook for further information.

Book tickets to see Hair starring Gavin Creel at the Gielgud Theatre in London

Jason Donovan to leave Priscilla

Jason Donovan to leave hit musical Priscilla. The Bill star Ben Richards to take over as Tick.

Jason Donovan, the star of Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London, is to leave the show this June. Donovan, who led the first UK cast of the show in the starring role of Tick, has appeared in the musical since March 2009.

The role of Tick will be taken over by Ben Richards, best known for playing hunky PC Nathaniel Roberts in ITV drama The Bill. Britain’s longest-running police drama, The Bill was recently axed by ITV in a prime-time shakeup that sees the drama end its run on UK screens this autumn.

As well as his high-profile TV work in shows including Footballer’s Wives, Ben Richards  is also a musical theatre star having played numerous roles including Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, Danny Zuko in Grease, Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and Jerry Lukowski in The Full Monty.

Richards told the Daily Mail, “If I’m scared, I’m happy. It’s a challenge… And it’s a gay character and I want to play it right. Hopefully, I can nail it.’

The Olivier award-winning show has also extended its booking period to May 2011.  The other main cast members remain the same including Don Gallagher as Bernadette, Oliver Thornton as Adam and John Bowe as Bob.

SPECIAL OFFER: SAVE £13.50 ON TICKETS TO PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Save £13.50 on tickets to Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Save £13.50 on tickets to see Jason Donovan in the smash-hit new musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Monday-Thursday Evenings and Thursday Matinees until the 27th May

Priscilla Queen of the Desert has just celebrated its first fabulous year at the Palace Theatre in London, flushed with critical acclaim and audience adoration. Based on the Oscar winning film, Priscilla is a spectacular new musical about three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus named Priscilla and take their show to the middle of the Australian outback.

Britain’s very own adopted Aussie Jason Donovan stars as Tick and handsome young leading man Oliver Thornton plays Adam in this crowd-pleasing spectacular.

This multi-million pound production includes 500 outrageous costumes from the movie’s Oscar-winning designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner and 28 of the most glamorous and talented performers in the West End, with songs including I Will Survive, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Shake Your Groove Thing, Don’t Leave Me This Way and Finally. Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a must-see, fabulous evening in London theatre and a West End theatre smash-hit.

Save £13.50 on tickets to see Jason Donovan in the smash-hit new musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Monday-Thursday Evenings and Thursday Matinees until the 27th May

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Save £15

Save £15 on tickets to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London

Monday-Thursday Evenings and Thursday Matinees until the 27th May

This week Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical won Best New Musical at the 2010 Theatregoers’ Choice Awards and to celebrate we are offering a fabulous £15 off tickets to see the show at the Palace Theatre in London.

Rumoured to be heading to Broadway soon, catch this eye-popping spectacle starring Jason Donovan and based on the hit Oscar-winning film.In the show follow three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus (nicknamed Priscilla) searching for love and friendship but end up finding more than they could ever have dreamed. With a dazzling array of outrageous costumes and featuring a score of dance-floor classics, this new musical follows a journey to the middle of the Australian outback and to the heart of fabulous.

The production of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical at the Palace Theatre features nearly 500 costumes, and boasts over 100 wigs, 160 masks, more than 150 pairs of shoes and almost 200 hats and headdresses per performance.

Priscilla – Reviews Round-up

The critics’ reception to Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre in London, which officially opened on Monday, was decidedly mixed, although mostly middle of the road – which is fitting for a musical based on a road movie. There was no doubt on the merits of the design, and the cast and direction were largely praised. However, the source material (i.e. the movie), or what was done with it, led to most of the criticism.

Michael Coveney in The Independent and Michael Billington in The Guardian gave the show 2 stars, with Charles Spencer in The Telegraph, Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard and Benedict Nightingale in The Times opting for 4 stars.

Here’s a quick round-up of the reviews:

FIRST OFF

Michael Coveney: “I will survive, I’m sure, but the Priscilla wave that caught the Palace Theatre last night was a pretty strong blast of lethal elements…”

Michael Billington: “Compared with the warmth and joie de vivre of La Cage aux Folles, this musical version of the famous 1994 Australian movie feels like a synthetic spectacle.”

David Benedict: “Simon Phillips’ enjoyably shameless tuner restyling of this tale of self-affirmation on heels and wheels doesn’t so much teeter toward as topple into self-indulgence. But audiences happily whipped up into having, in every sense, a gay old time are likely to overlook its curious flaws.”

Charles Spencer: “Those who like their musicals tasteful, subtle, and preferably written by Stephen Sondheim and directed by Trevor Nunn should give this wildly entertaining new import from Australia a wide berth. It makes Mamma Mia! seem like something by Chekhov.”

Benedict Nightingale: “Let’s reassure those who recall the film of Priscilla, or helped to make it the cult it remains, that the stage version has everything, maybe more than everything, they could reasonably expect.”

Ian Shuttleworth: “The basic story – two drag queens and an older transsexual journey in an old coach from Sydney to Alice Springs to do a show and to introduce Tick to his young son – is there, but little more.”

Nicholas de Jongh: “Priscilla Queen Of The Desert comes flouncing and flaunting into the West End. I welcome it with open arms and a glad rag-bag of positive adjectives. London has never played host to a musical pitched on a higher level of gayness and camp comedy, transsexual barrier-breaking and bitchy, witty drag-queenery, than this ingenious adaptation of the sensational film of the same name.”

ON JASON DONOVAN

MC: “Donovan, it has to be said, seems to have lost what little stage personality he had developed as Joseph in the Deamcoat, and turned, well, rancid.”

DB: “Jason Donovan… possesses adequate skills, but his stage wattage never rises above warm.”

CS: “Jason Donovan is engagingly gauche and touching as a gay man facing up to the responsibilities of fatherhood

BN: “And at least when he’s in his paternal mode, Donovan also brings a little gravity and texture to a potentially bland character.”

ON THE DESIGN

MC: “The divas descend from Sydney Harbour Bridge, cleverly evoked by legendary designer Brian Thomson. But that’s as good visually as it gets.”

MB: “What the show is really about is spectacle; which, thanks to Brian Thomson’s production design and the costumes of Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, is hurled across in bucketloads.”

DB: “The production’s most extravagantly successful element — its design. Brian Thomson’s sets — especially the impressively lit bus — may be the show’s real star.”

BN: “There’s energy, fun, tunefulness and, above all, the most outrageous swirl of costumes that I, who have seen La Cage aux Folles and even boggled at Ian McKellen’s Widow Twankey, have yet encountered.”

DB: “Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner’s ceaseless parade of spectacular costumes, making “Wicked” look like a weekend in Amish country.”

CS: “The costumes and wigs are almost insanely over the top and feature so many feathers one begins to fear for the survival of the ostrich as a species; even the bus Priscilla is an ingeniously mechanised and cunningly designed delight.”

ON THE DIRECTION

MC: “Simon Phillips’s production is slick, well-organised and fairly enjoyable.”

NdJ: “Simon Phillips’s production artfully exploits the fact that drag queenery relies on excess and exaggeration.”

MB: “Simon Phillips directs this kaleidoscopic extravaganza with martial skill.”

CS: “Simon Phillips’s production has a driving energy and a palpable mission to delight”

ON THE HUMOUR

CS: “… the one-liners and snide put-downs are also wonderfully funny and there was one gag involving a man nicknamed Trumpet and a ginger nut biscuit that almost had me out of my seat and writhing helplessly in the aisle.”

BN: “There are wisecracks galore (“we’ll be nothing but skin and silicone”, moans Tick after that desert breakdown) and songs you’ll recognise, starting with Downtown, ending in Always on My Mind.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

MC: “The journey from Sydney to Ayres Rock is a relatively modest one, but this lot have been caught up in a disco fever that doesn’t justify their travel passes. Big hand, though, for the finale costumes of shellfish and jungle animals that suddenly appeared as if by osmosis in a presentational void.”

MB: “Although the show is eventually about a father-son reunion, it never touches the heart. And, given the unexplored richness of Australian theatre, it is a pity that this artistically buoyant country should now be represented in the West End by this garish throwback in which camp is determinedly overpitched.”

DB: “There’s competition in London’s current hit revival of another grand-scale, truly gay musical, “La Cage aux Folles.” But judging by the newcomer’s infectious feel-good tone, this show’s even higher levels of sentimentality and cheerfully filthy humor are anything but a drag.”

CS: “The fastidious and the squeamish should avoid this show like the plague. Everyone else will have a terrific drag ball.”

IS: “This is not a show about diversity, or sexuality, or even drag… but if you want big frocks and wigs, clapping along to 1980s boys’-town musical numbers and a chance to pretend that you’re being affirmative without having to think or feel a thing for almost three hours, this is the show for you.”

NdJ:  ”When these gender- illusionists have dragged up, faced bar-room violence and returned to their bus to find the words “f**k off, faggots” painted all over it, the singing of Both Sides Now is given a searing poignancy. In similar fashion Always On My Mind, Tick’s song to his son who comes to accepts his gay father, helps bring a reconciling laughter and pathos to this bitter-sweet, big-hit musical, that stands up for brave sexual outsiders.”

The critics:

Michael Coveney, The Independent

Michael Billington, The Guardian

David Benedict, Variety

Charles Spencer, The Telegraph

Benedict Nightingale, The Times

Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times

Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard

BOOK TICKETS TO SEE PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT AT THE PALACE THEATRE

Save £15 on tickets to Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Save £15 on tickets to see Jason Donovan in the smash-hit new musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Monday-Thursday Evenings and Thursday Matinees until the 27th May

Priscilla Queen of the Desert has just celebrated its first fabulous year at the Palace Theatre in London, flushed with critical acclaim and audience adoration. Based on the Oscar winning film, Priscilla is a spectacular new musical about three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus named Priscilla and take their show to the middle of the Australian outback.

Britain’s very own adopted Aussie Jason Donovan stars as Tick and handsome young leading man Oliver Thornton plays Adam in this crowd-pleasing spectacular.

This multi-million pound production includes 500 outrageous costumes from the movie’s Oscar-winning designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner and 28 of the most glamorous and talented performers in the West End, with songs including I Will Survive, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Shake Your Groove Thing, Don’t Leave Me This Way and Finally. Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a must-see, fabulous evening in London theatre and a West End theatre smash-hit.

Save £15 on tickets to see Jason Donovan in the smash-hit new musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Monday-Thursday Evenings and Thursday Matinees until the 27th May

Priscilla Queen of the Desert hits London

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical shimmies into the West End tonight, starting previews at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End.

Billed as the ultimate feel-good show, pre-opening buzz and reports from its run in Sydney suggest that the musical’s timing is perfect. With acres of chiffon, millions of sequins and some show stopping numbers, it promises to banish any feelings of gloom from the capital.

Based on the Oscar award-winning film, PRISCILLA tells the story of Tick (Jason Donovan), Bernadette (Tony Sheldon) and Adam (Oliver Thornton), three glamorous Sydney drag queens who agree to take their show to the middle of the Australian outback.

The road trip that ensues proves to be a heart-warming, uplifting adventure as they hop onboard a battered old bus (nicknamed Priscilla) searching for love and friendship.

An array of outrageous costumes, spectacular sets and a score of dance-floor classics promises to raise the bar on fun in the West End this Spring. An unashamed crowd-pleaser.

BOOK TICKETS TO PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT

London Theatre – 2009 Preview

If theatre mirrors life then you would expect 2009 to be a bad year for the performing arts in London: economic downturns and credit crunches sound like gloomy news for our discretionary entertainment spending. But West End theatre box office figures have kept on going up in recent years, and the huge number of new productions sailing into town during 2009 could mean that Theatreland manages to buck the trend.

THE GREAT REVIVAL

The RSC, National Theatre, Donmar and Old Vic dominated straight drama in the West End in 2008, and they haven’t finished yet. Big hitters coming to town include Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike in the Donmar in the West End’s Madame de Sade at the Wyndhams; Jude Law offering us his, hopefully fighting fit, Hamlet; Gillian Anderson in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Rachel Weisz in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse; Helen Mirren making her return to the London stage in Phaedra at the National Theatre; and a number of crowd-pleasing revivals at the Old Vic, no more so than Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel’s hugely successful play starring Andrea Corr, and Sam Mendes directing Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, both featuring Ethan Hawke, Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack.

STAR POWER

Other stars shimmying into town include Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket, Ken Stott and Hayley Atwell in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Duke of York’s, heavy-hitter Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear at the Young Vic, and Antony Sher giving us his Prospero in the RSC’s The Tempest. The Gavin and Stacey phenomenon continues to roll on, as we see Joe Orton’s delicious romp Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Trafalgar Studios starring Gavin himself, Matthew Horne, alongside Imelda Staunton; whilst Gavin’s onscreen Mum Alison Steadman plays a barking Leeds housewife in Alan Bennett’s Enjoy at the Gielgud Theatre.

NEW PLAYS

The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that all of these plays are revivals rather than new work, keeping audiences firmly in their comfort zones. That said, new plays may be thin on the ground but not absent all together, with the National offering up Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice, following two lovers across four centuries, and Samuel Adamson’s Mrs Affleck set in the 1950s. Jez Butterworth has two new plays in pre-production, with comedy Parlour Song at the Almeida and Jerusalem at the Royal Court. Also at the Royal Court, Mark Ravenhill will bring his new play Over There. Plus Hollywood man of the moment James McAvoy is to star in Richard Greenberg’s acclaimed play Three Days of Rain at the Apollo, and at The Old Vic Richard Dreyfuss headlines the world premiere of American playwright Joe Sutton’s new play Complicit, directed by Kevin Spacey.

“BASED ON A FILM”

In musical theatre, 2009 promises to be a year of great big fabulous and familiar shows, surely enough to see us through the dark times? And it’s no coincidence that many of them are based on hugely successful films.

Oliver! will be well and truly steaming ahead through 2009 at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal with Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger; La Cage Aux Folles will continue camping it up at the Playhouse but with Graham Norton taking over from Douglas Hodge; and at the Adelphi Theatre Lee Mead will bow out of Joseph to be replaced by Gareth Gates.

Jason Donovan will be donning the wigs and lip gloss to take us on an Australian power-mince in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre. And Sister Act at the London Palladium will be doing its best to recreate the fun of the film, helped along by Whoopi Goldberg as co-producer. And not quite a musical but as good as, Calendar Girls the stage play will up the naked flesh quotient in the West End, starring Patricia Hodge and Lynda Bellingham at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Also in musicals-land the power of reality TV continues to wield its power, with Gareth Gates going into Joseph at the Adelphi Theatre, the X-factor’s Niki Evans continuing in Blood Brothers at the Phoenix, Jodie Prenger in Oliver at the Drury Lane, and Ray Quinn and Danny Bayne in Grease – joined for a limited time by the legendary Jimmy Osmond.

KIDS RULE

Kids should also see a good year in 2009 with an enormous live theatrical production of Walking with Dinosaurs coming to a stadium near you, and War Horse transfers from its successful run at the National Theatre to the New London Theatre.

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