Sign of the Times – Reviews Round-up

A round-up of reviews for Sign of the Times at the Duchess Theatre in London

Tim Firth’s new play Sign of the Times has opened at the Duchess Theatre in London to decidedly mixed reviews.

The Calendar Girls author has written a comedy about a disillusioned sign erector whose life is changed by a clumsy teenager. The show stars Matthew Kelly and Shameless actor Gerard Kearns.

See reviews below from the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Stage and Express.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £28.50 on tickets to see Sign of the Times at the Duchess Theatre in London

Opening this week: Blithe Spirit, Flare Path

Première’s this week in the West End include Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit starring Alison Steadman and Ruthie Henshall, Sienna Miller in Flare Path, Polly Rae in Hurly Burly, Matthew Kelly in Sign of the Times and the Olivier Awards this Sunday 13 March.

Monday 7 March

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Tim Firth’s new play Sign of the Times starts previews at the Duchess Theatre tonight, with its press night on Friday. The Calendar Girls author has written a warm and witty comedy about a disillusioned sign erector whose life is changed by a clumsy teenager. The show stars Matthew Kelly and Shameless actor Gerard Kearns.

Wednesday 9 March

BLITHE SPIRIT: Noel Coward’s blissful comedy Blithe Spirit officially opens at the Apollo Theatre tonight featuring an all-star cast including Alison Steadman (Gavin & Stacey), Ruthie Henshall (Chicago), Hermione Norris (Spooks) and Robert Bathurst (Hattie). The revival is directed by the award-winning Thea Sharrock (After the Dance).

Thursday 10 March

FLARE PATH: Trevor Nunn kicks off as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket with the press night for Flare Path. Terence Rattigan’s Second World War romance stars Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith.

Friday 11 March

HURLY BURLY: Salacious show Hurly Burly opens at the Garrick Theatre, featuring the luscious Miss Polly Rae in an all singing, all dancing burlesque-inspired revue, with a contemporary twist. Long-time Kylie collaborator William Baker directs.

Sunday 13 March 2011

OLIVIER AWARDS: The Olivier Awards are tonight at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, promising a high star quotient at the UK theatre’s most important event. This year’s ceremony is hosted by Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, and you can tune in live to hear who wins on Radio 2 or via the BBC’s red button TV service. Visit our Olivier Awards micro-site here.

LINKS

Shows – tickets and booking information
Olivier Awards 2011

Sign of the Times – Save £28.50

Save £28.50 on tickets to Sign of the Times at the Duchess Theatre

Tim Firth (Calendar Girls) brings his warm and witty play into the West End starring Matthew Kelly as a disillusioned sign erector whose life is changed by a clumsy teenager – played by Shameless star Gerard Kearns.

Save £28.50 on tickets to Sign of the Times by Tim Firth, the writer of Calendar Girls, one of the most successful British films of all times.

The show stars Olivier Award winner Matthew Kelly (Of Mice and Men, Waiting for Godot) and, making his West End debut, Gerard Kearns, best known to millions as Ian Gallagher in the hit TV series Shameless.

Frank Tollit has put up giant letters on the sides of buildings for over twenty-five years. From forty-foot yellow IKEAs to five-foot red COMETs, Frank’s done them all. But in his heart, he’s always yearned to work with smaller letters… novels… spy novels. Stories of unexpected encounters in dangerous places, disasters, treachery and daring rescues. However, a lifelong lack of success is driving Frank to the edge. Not even in one of his wildest plots could Frank have dreamed that salvation would turn up in the shape of a clumsy young teenager.

Sign of the Times is a heart-warming, human comedy about finding happiness in unpredictable times.

Save £28.50 on tickets to Sign of the Times at the Duchess Theatre

Sign of the Times tickets at the Duchess Theatre starring Matthew Kelly and Gerard Kearns

Tim Firth (Calendar Girls) brings his warm and witty play into the West End starring Matthew Kelly as a disillusioned sign erector whose life is changed by a clumsy teenager – played by Shameless star Gerard Kearns.

Dominic West to take West End role

British actor Dominic West, star of HBO’s The Wire, is to return to the London stage this summer in a new production of Simon Gray’s 1970 play Butley.

West, who is about to star in new BBC drama The Hour penned by Abi Morgan, will take on the role of Butley, an alcoholic academic in the throes of a mid-life crisis. The role was originally played by Alan Bates, and starred Nathan Lane on Broadway in 2003.

Harold Pinter, who directed Bates in the first West End production in 1971, called the character of Butley “a remarkable creation” and said in his introduction to the Faber collection of Simon Gray’s plays that he “found its savage, lacerating wit hard to beat… The extraordinary thing about Butley, it still seems to me, is that the play gives us a character who hurls himself towards the destruction while living, in the fever of his intellectual hell, with a vitality and brilliance known to few of us.”

The play will be directed by Lindsay Posner and run at the Duchess Theatre from 1 June 2011. West will star alongside Paul McGann.

Chichester Festival Theatre’s musical production of Love Story is currently playing at the Duchess, with Tim Firth’s Sign of the Times following from 7 March starring Matthew Kelly and Gerard Kearns.

LINKS

Book tickets to Butley starring Dominic West at the Duchess Theatre

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actor Winners

Best Actor

2012 Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller for Frankenstein
2011 Roger Allam for Henry IV Parts 1 & 2
2010 Mark Rylance for Jerusalem
2009 Derek Jacobi for Twelfth Night
2008 Chiwetel Ejiofor in Othello
2007 Rufus Sewell for Rock ‘N’ Roll
2006 Brian Dennehy for Death Of A Salesman
2005 Richard Griffiths for The History Boys
2004 Matthew Kelly for Of Mice And Men
2003 Simon Russell Beale for Uncle Vanya
2002 Roger Allam for Privates On Parade
2001 Conleth Hill for Stones In His Pockets
2000 Henry Goodman for The Merchant Of Venice
1999 Kevin Spacey for The Iceman Cometh
1998 Ian Holm for King Lear
1997 Antony Sher for Stanley
1996 Alex Jennings for Peer Gynt
1995 David Bamber for My Night With Reg
1994 Mark Rylance for Much Ado About Nothing
1993 Robert Stephens for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
1992 Nigel Hawthorne for The Madness Of George III
1991 Ian McKellen for Richard III
1989/90 Oliver Ford Davies for Racing Demon
1987 Michael Gambon for A View From The Bridge
1986 Albert Finney for Orphans
1985 Antony Sher for Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy

Actor of the Year in a New Play

1988 David Haig for Our Country’s Good
1984 Brian Cox for Rat In The Skull
1983 Jack Shepherd for Glengarry Glen Ross
1982 Ian McDiarmid for lnsignificance
1981 Trevor Eve for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Roger Rees for Nicholas Nickleby
1979 Ian McKellen for Bent
1978 Tom Conti for Whose Life Is It Anyway?
1977 Michael Bryant for State Of Revolution
1976 Paul Copley for King And Country

Actor of the Year in a Revival

1988 Brian Cox for Titus Andronicus
1984 Ian McKellen for Wild Honey
1983 Derek Jacobi for Cyrano De Bergerac
1982 Stephen Moore for A Doll’s House
1981 Daniel Massey for Man And Superman
1980 Jonathan Pryce for Hamlet
1979 Warren Mitchell for Death Of A Salesman
1978 Alan Howard for Coriolanus
1977 Ian McKellen for Pillars Of The Community
1976 Alan Howard for Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2) and Henry V

Best Actor in a Musical

2012 Bertie Carvel for Matilda The Musical
2011 David Thaxton for Passion
2010 Aneurin Barnard for Spring Awakening
2009 Douglas Hodge for La Cage aux Folles
2008 Michael Ball for Hairspray
2007 Daniel Evans for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower for Billy Elliot – The Musical
2005 Nathan Lane for The Producers
2004 David Bedella for Jerry Springer – The Opera
2003 Alex Jennings for My Fair Lady
2002 Philip Quast for South Pacific
2001 Daniel Evans for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Simon Russell Beale for Candide
1999 The cast of Kat and The Kings
1998 Philip Quast for The Fix
1997 Robert Lindsay for Oliver!
1996 Adrian Lester for Company
1995 John Gordon Sinclair for She Loves Me
1994 Alun Armstrong for Sweeney Todd
1993 Henry Goodman for Assassins
1992 Alan Bennett for Talking Heads
1991 Philip Quast for Sunday In The Park With George
1989/90 Jonathan Pryce for Miss Saigon
1988 Con O’Neill for Blood Brothers
1987 John Bardon and Emil Wolk for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Michael Crawford for The Phantom Of The Opera
1985 Robert Lindsay for Me And My Girl
1984 Paul Clarkson for The Hired Man
1983 Denis Lawson for Mr. Cinders
1982 Roy Hudd for Underneath The Arches
1981 Michael Crawford for Barnum
1980 Denis Quilley for Sweeney Todd
1979 Anton Rodgers for Songbook

CASTING: Wolfboy, Dirty Dancing, Oliver!

Emma Rigby and Daniel Boys in Wolfboy; Ray Quinn to strut his stuff in Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre; Russ Abbot takes over from Griff Rhys Jones in Oliver!

WOLFBOY

Former Hollyoaks star Emma Rigby and recent Avenue Q lead Daniel Boys will appear at the Trafalgar Studios this summer to star in the psycho-sexual musical thriller Wolfboy (6 – 31 July).

The new musical premiered at the Edinburgh Festival fringe last year and has a book by Russell Labey, music and lyrics by Leon Parris and is based on a play by Brad Fraser.

The musical is a dark and disturbing tale of two troubled teenage boys locked in an asylum for their own good. Bernie has attempted suicide; David may or may not have the powers of a wolf. For them the outside world is a frightening place of abuse and violence. Bernie’s brother Christian and Cherry the young nurse on the unit, also hide secrets that surface in the night, when the moon is full.

Emma Rigby won a Best Actress British Soap Award in 2008 for her role on TV’s Hollyoaks playing Hannah Ashworth.

Daniel Boys appeared on BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do in 2007  and has since performed in a number of concerts and events including a special guest artist on John Barowman’s UK tour, and is a regular on BBC Radio 2′s Friday Night is Music Night.

The cast also includes Paul Holowaty and Gregg Lowe.

Book tickets to see Wolfboy at the Trafalgar Studios in London

DIRTY DANCING

X Factor and Dancing on Ice star Ray Quinn is to join the cast of Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre this summer, from 26 July to 27 November 2010.

Quinn, who recently appeared as Danny in Grease at the Piccadilly Theatre, will play the role of Billy Kostecki, Johnny Castle’s cousin, in the show for a limited season from 26 July. He will sing two iconic songs from the show – “Do You Love Me?” and “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life”.

Other cast includes Martin Harvey as Johnny Castle and Hannah Vassallo as Baby.

Dirty Dancing is now in its fourth year at the Aldwych Theatre and brings the action and music of the iconic film to the stage.

Special offer: Save £22.50 on tickets to Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre in London

OLIVER!

He stepped in for Rowan Atkinson last year and proved such a hit that Russ Abbot is to make his return to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in June, starring as Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s big-budget production of Oliver!

Taking over the role from Griff Rhys Jones from 14 June, Abbot will join Kerry Ellis as Nancy, Steven Hartley as Bill Sikes and Stephen Moore as Mr Brownlow.

No stranger to the role of Fagin, Abbot played the part in Mackintosh’s 1997 revival of the show at the London Palladium and then on tour.  The comedian and actor best known for his TV appearance including “The Russ Abbot Show” has also appeared in numerous musicals including My Fair Lady and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Doctor Dolittle and The Producers.

Special offer: Save £21 on tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

LEND ME A TENOR

Sally Ann Triplett and Matthew Kelly are to star in a new production of Lend Me a Tenor the Musical this autumn. The show will run at the Theatre Royal Plymouth from 24 September and then transfer to the West End (theatre to be announced).

Peter Sham and Brad Carroll’s musical, based on Ken Ludwig’s comedy, will be directed by Ian Talbot.

Other cast members include Damian Humbley and Michael Matus.

Links: Theatre Royal Plymouth

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