London Theatre News

West End production of Waitress announces early closure

Producers have announced that the West End production of Waitress, which opened at the Adelphi Theatre last year, has closed.In a statement posted on social media, producers said: 'It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of our beloved London production of Waitress the Musical. As you'll be aware, we've had to temporarily lower the curtain at the Adelphi Theatre and it's now unlikely that the diner will reopen once this period of uncertainty is over.'If things do change and there...

BBC to screen new theatre recordings as part of Culture in Quarantine

The BBC has announced a number of productions it plans on screening as part of its Culture in Quarantine arts season, as it aims to fill its schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic.Productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Almeida Theatre, Emma Rice's Wise Children, Battersea Arts Centre and Northern Ballet will be screened on the BBC and iPlayer service as part of the arts project.Six RSC productions which all form part of the UK education syllabus will be screened as the BBC aims to focus...

National Theatre Live to stream shows from archive for free every week on YouTube

The National Theatre has announced a project that will see its National Theatre Live collection of filmed live productions streamed for free on YouTube, beginning with Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors.National Theatre At Home will see a different NT Live film streamed live on YouTube for free every Thursday from 2nd April for the next two months, with each stream available on demand for the next seven days.A host of accompanying content, including Q&As, interviews and post-stream talks...

Watch live musical performances from the Olivier Awards

Enjoy performances from the Olivier Awards in recent years, with shows including Oklahoma!, The Band's Visit, Sister Act, Newsies and The Book of Mormon.

Mark Shenton's favourite musical theatre performers: Leading men of the West End

During this unprecedented shut down of West End and Broadway stages, we can still enjoy the amazing talents of those that usually populate them. Some artists are doing daily live online concerts; or interacting with their fans by amazing initiatives that include, for example, Waitress star David Hunter offering to write a personalised song for them - at just $25 each, it's brilliant bargain, and he tops and tails the song with a personalised message! So, I'm happy to lead my list of my current...

Olivier Award winners ‘likely’ to be announced at ceremony in the autumn

The ceremony, which was meant to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on 5th April, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak

Theatre study guides to help your children learn about theatre at home

Home-schooling is something parents across the country have found themselves thrown into teaching their little ones from their kitchen tables. We've already given tips on how you could incorporate drama into your activity schedule, but there are plenty of study guides online for children to become more aware of what theatre is, and how to learn about what goes on behind the curtain.Here are some online guides you can use to engage, teach and inspire little ones, and get them keen to see a show...

Which musical theatre character should you be quarantined with?

It may be tough spending time in quarantine as we all social distance in an attempt to limit the spread of Covid-19, and while you may be beginning to experience cabin fever, spending time with good company will always help. Take our quiz below, and find out which character from the world of musical theatre you would be best suited to spend time in quarantine with, and don't forget to share your results at the end of the quiz. <iframe id="interactApp5e788964b6d4c300140306d4" width="750"...

5 drama activities to keep the kids entertained at home

Schools are shut, after-school clubs are closed and currently, there's no set dates for when theatres are going to reopen. With families socially distancing and self-isolating, the coming days and weeks will see parents and children spending even more time together. If you're worried your young ones are going to exhaust playing with their toys, or you're looking for new drama activities to work on with children, here's five ways you can incorporate drama skills into daily activities all around...

Friday Briefing: Accentuating the positive, closing without a closing night, and Sondheim at 90

"You've got to accentuate the positive..."One of Broadway and Hollywood's greatest-ever songwriters Harold Arlen wrote an Oscar-winning song for the 1944 Bing Crosby/Betty Hutton film Here Comes the Waves, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, called "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive".You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative And latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-BetweenYou've got to spread joy up to the maximum Bring gloom down to the minimum Have faith or...