London Theatre News - UK Touring Productions News

UPDATE from ATG 8th July 2020

All performances at Ambassador Theatre Group venues have been suspended until Sunday 20 September.

Customers booked for performances between 3 August and 6 September 2020 will be contacted in the week commencing 13 July. And customers booked for remaining performances will be contacted in the week commencing 20 July.

Bookings for performances with confirmed rescheduled dates will be automatically moved to the new dates and customers will be informed accordingly. We are working with Producers to reschedule as many postponed shows as possible so please do bear with us. Full credit vouchers which are valid until 31 December 2021 and including all fees, or refunds, are available for all cancelled shows. For further details please visit ATGtickets.com/corona.

Over the last few months, our teams up and down the country have successfully rescheduled over 15,000 separate performances of great quality plays, musicals, comedy and live music.

The Shows Must Go On has brought the theatre home every weekend throughout lockdown, entertaining millions of theatre fans. The YouTube channel will continue to release show clips over the summer but will be taking a brief hiatus from full shows before returning with all-new seasons of exciting shows to entertain audiences at home, while theatres are closed.

To conclude and celebrate their first season of shows, The Shows Must Go On will be returning to where it all began, with an encore of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond on Friday July 10^th, available for 48 hours. A new season of shows will return again every weekend from mid-August.   

This Friday, Magic at the Musicals, the digital radio station dedicated to musical theatre, is hosting a Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Day. The Digital Radio station, dedicated to everything musical theatre, will play all the music from the show and special guest Jac Yarrow presents his own show at 1pm. Have a listen at magic.co.uk/musicals.

Matilda The Musical release video of current children and Miss Honey singing 'When I Grow Up

REGENT’S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE SEASON POSTPONED TO 2021

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre have today announced that their entire 2020 season has now been postponed to 2021. The 2021 season will open on Saturday 15 May with the new musical, 101 Dalmatians followed by Romeo and Juliet and concluding with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. MoreOutdoor events will include Jimmy Carr’s, Terribly Funny, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year LIVE, Luisa Omielan’s God is a Woman and the Luna Cinema screenings of Pretty Woman and The Shining. During August 2021, the theatre will also host Dragons and Mythical Beasts.

Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader, said: “Whilst obviously unavoidable, it is incredibly sad that we are unable to open our theatre this summer for the first time since 1961. Our thoughts are with all those who were due to work with us this summer and our loyal audience. We are so grateful for the messages of support we have received over the past weeks and I am delighted that we have been able to reschedule all of our productions in 2021.

We are a charity which receives no public subsidy and so ticket sales in the summer months provide the vast majority of our income. Through creative programming, shrewd financial management and the backing of an ambitious audience always up for the thrilling, yet unpredictable, nature of open air theatre, we have built a successful and resilient business which has allowed us to weather this loss of an entire season.

However, with another whole year until we are able to welcome audiences again, if our audiences are able to do so, I would be very grateful if they would consider supporting us in one of three ways:

§ Buy tickets now for our 2021 season;

§ Join our Annual Membership scheme and benefit from discounts and special events; or

§ Make a one-off donation, helping us re-build our resilience fund as quickly as possible.

This support really is much appreciated by all of us at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in a sunnier 2021.”

PARK THEATRE

Park Theatre has today announced that its celebrated Creative Learning Programme will be moving online from May, with adult classes in acting technique, a script based acting course and devising available, as well as drama and performance skills classes for children and young people aged between 4 – 18.

Led by professional actor and creative learning facilitator Amy Allen and professional director and experienced creative learning facilitator Natasha Kathi Chandra, the courses will be held weekly via the Zoom video conferencing platform and will be available to book via https://www.parktheatre.co.uk/creative-learning, with both individual drop-in sessions and full courses available to purchase.

As with all theatres across the UK, Park Theatre has had to temporarily close to help prohibit the spread of Covid-19. This meant cancelling all performances, hires and in-person classes for the foreseeable future. As a small charity with no government or Arts Council funding, this has led to a catastrophic loss of income.

Helen Mirren, Miranda Hart, Michael Ball front West End fundraiser for COVID-19 relief

h CLUB LONDON TO LAUNCH FREE ONLINE MEMBERSHIP FOR MEMBERS OF THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Leading arts members club h Club London (formerly The Hospital Club), are today pleased to announce the launch of a brand new free online membership for people who work in the creative industries. The initiative will last for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown period, and will provide much-needed solace for the creative communities, which have been particularly badly impacted by the pandemic. The club, which has suspended all fees for current members, hopes to support and connect individuals during this challenging time.

This new online membership will provide creatives with much-needed networking opportunities with new and existing members of the clubs in varying creative industries, both in London and LA. Members will be given access to the club’s content via desktop and app which includes: the members' news feed, where people can call out for project collaborators and test new ideas; the members' network, where members can directly message each other, and the newsletter, which includes news from the club, helpful content and links to contributor blogs.

Members will also be given access to the specially tailored online members event programme, which includes informative, educational, and fun programming. The first of these events is taking place tonight (Thursday 23rd April), with the club playing host to celebrities and authors who will read from much-loved books for World Book Night. Those interested will need to register at https://hclub.com/general/event/booking/2389 and will be sent a link to virtually attend the event.

The membership is open to people who work in advertising, marketing & PR, architecture & design, digital media, fashion, film, gaming, music, publishing & writing, sports, tech, television broadcast, theatre & performance and visual arts. Interested parties will need to fill out an application via https://bit.ly/hClubOnline, and all successful applicants will be notified within 48 hours of submitting an application.

Rob Seals, MD said: “We are fortunate to be in a position to be able to reach out and support those in the Creative Industries and give something back in the form of this online membership. In what has been and will continue to be a period of uncertainty for many in our community hopefully this small gesture will see some people gain a big benefit.”

UK Theatre Touring News

David Pugh and Theatre Royal Bath Productions are delighted to present The Nigel Havers Theatre Company in Noel Coward’s gloriously entertaining PRIVATE LIVES. This will be the inaugural show for The Nigel Havers Theatre Company, which will be touring the country with a wonderful line-up of theatrical gems. The plan is that the UK Tour of PRIVATE LIVES will begin at Theatre Royal Bath on 1 October 2020.

Award-winning theatre producer David Pugh said of the new company, “Nigel Havers is one of the biggest stars who likes to tour and in the past we have had some incredibly successful partnerships, from Art through to Frank McGuinness’s adaption of Rebecca.

“My suggestion last year to Nigel to form The Nigel Havers Theatre Company was met with a wry smile, but he warmed to the idea and finally agreed that he would take 18 weeks out each year to tour a play, ‘as long as the play is entertaining and, most importantly, ticket prices are accessible to as many people as possible.’”

David continued, “Little did we know last year that this now seems to be more important than ever and, when we are allowed again to safely open theatres, we have to realise theatre can no longer be the luxury item it so often is; theatre should be able to be seen by and be for everybody. Ticket pricing and ticketing charges have become ridiculous. I believe our job is simply to entertain and to as many people as possible and now, out of this crisis, let’s hope we can address this and do just that.”

Coward’s dazzling comic masterpiece is both a scintillatingly witty and scathingly vitriolic study of the rich and reckless in love. Elyot and Amanda, who were once married, find themselves in adjoining rooms in the same hotel on the French Riviera, both on honeymoon with their new partners. Their initial horror quickly evaporates and soon they’re sharing cocktails and a romantic serenade.

The Olivier Award-winning Patricia Hodge OBE, one of the country’s most loved actresses, plays Amanda. Nigel Havers, ever suave and thoroughly charming, plays Elyot, the role taken by Noël Coward himself in the original production in 1930. Astonishingly, it is the first time Nigel Havers has appeared in a Coward play on stage.  Dugald Bruce-Lockhart plays Victor and Natalie Walter plays Sibyl.

PRIVATE LIVES will be directed by Christopher Luscombe, with set and costume designs by Simon Higlett, lighting design by Tim Mitchell and casting by Sarah Bird.

The Nigel Havers Theatre Company’s PRIVATE LIVES is produced by David Pugh and Theatre Royal Bath Productions.

Facebook: nigelhaverstheatrecompany
Twitter: nigelhaversco

Graeae Theatre Company announces Full Eleven Week Digital Programme

The UK’s leading disabled-led theatre company, Graeae, today announces a full eleven-week programme of online activity which will provide audiences with a rich variety of work whilst the country is in lockdown.  Crips Without Constraints – A Play, A Podcast, A Picture will, over the next few months, embrace the need to isolate and at the same time celebrate the creativity of Deaf and disabled artists across the nation.

Divided into three strands, from Monday 20 April this exciting new digital programme will roll out across Graeae’s website and Facebook pages - website - www.graeae.org  / Facebook - /graeae.

Plays is a collaboration with acclaimed screenwriter, playwright and Graeae patron Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child – Sonia Freedman, His Dark Materials BBC/HBO, Let The Right One In – National Theatre of Scotland/ Royal Court) alongside Graeae’s New Writing Department.  It is supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Chickenshed Launches VirtualChickenShed

Chickenshed has launched #VirtualChickenshed

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Deafinitely Theatre

Deafinitely Theatre today announce Deafinitely Digital with a selection of their critically acclaimed past productions available online to watch for free between April and June in a mission to bring theatre to people at a time when accessing live performance is not possible. In April, Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (2012); in May, George Brant’s Grounded (2015); and in June, Mike Bartlett’s Contractions (2017) which marked the company’s 15th anniversary and won the company an Off West End Award for Best Production; will be made available to watch for free at www.youtube.com/user/markdeafinitely. All productions are performed in British Sign Language and Spoken English.

Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre, Paula Garfield today said, “We are in precarious times – probably the most difficult and unusual of this century, and many people are struggling. It is therefore important that we find a way to survive and connect beyond physical contact and culture remains a vital way for us to come together, even when we can’t congregate in theatres or galleries. Deafinitely Theatre is thrilled to make digitally available three of our recent plays to give audiences a chance to see, or revisit, these acclaimed bilingual productions. Each will be available for free for one month on Deafinitely’s YouTube channel.”