Due to begin on Friday 12 December, producers of Oliver! announced only the day before that the first two previews were to be cancelled to allow for further rehearsal time.
In an official statement, Cameron Mackintosh announced that the cancellations are due to the need to safely rehearse a huge number of children on a moving set. In what will be the largest ever production of Lionel Bart’s classic musical, producers are required by licensing regulations to circulate the children’s company, similar to the arrangement of three performers alternating the younger roles in the Victoria Palace’s Billy Elliot. However, with fifty children in each show, this has left the producers with 150 children to manage in total.
It has been seven months since Jodie Prenger was awarded the role of Nancy on the BBC’s I’d Do Anything, alongside Gwion Jones, Harry Stott and Laurence Jeffcoate who will alternate the title role, and the show had been conceived and sited several months prior to the programme being broadcast. However, it seems the scale of the task of rehearsing 150 children and 35 adults on a large and complicated set created more pressure than anticipated, and the time just hasn’t been enough.
Mackintosh has assured theatergoers that this extra time is helping the team work towards creating a fantastic show, but little comfort that will bring to the four thousand fans disappointed and disrupted by these last minute cancellations.
Oliver will preview throughout December before officially opening on January 14th. Demand for the show is high across the country, and for those traveling from further afield Oliver theatre breaks , packaging hotel and theatre tickets are now available.
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The youngest member of the one of pop’s most famous families, Jimmy Osmond , will be making his West End debut in Grease at the Piccadilly next year.
Jimmy is the youngest recording artist to receive a gold record, achieving the accolade in Japan in 1970 at the age of seven. He achieved worldwide fame two years later with his classic ‘Long Haired Lover From Liverpool’, which stayed at the number 1 spot for five weeks in the UK, eventually selling two short of a million copies.
A newcomer to musical theatre, Jimmy is now following in the footsteps of brother Donny and sister Marie. Having already made names for themselves in music, their hugely successful variety television show also displayed their acting skills. Marie later attracted some rave reviews in the lead roles in Broadway’s The King and I and The Sound of Music in the early 1990’s, while Donny played the lead in Broadway’s Little Johnny Jones, which opened and closed on the same night in 1982. Donny did go on to find some theatre success as Gaston in The Beauty and the Beast and touring North America in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Jimmy’s prestigious acting credits have included small roles in US television series Love Boat, Fame and The Great Brain, and along with his sister Marie, Jimmy provided the singing voice for peculiar Hungarian children’s film Hugo the Hippo.
Jimmy will be playing Teen Angel (the role immortalised by Frankie Avalon in the iconic 1978 movie) and will appear for a limited run from 19 January to 14 March 2008
In a recent interview with a London newspaper, Hollywood actor, writer and director Ben Stiller has confirmed rumours that he is currently developing a new musical with a score by Elton John. Elton John himself began the speculation in October when he revealed in an interview that he had been asked by Stiller for his involvement in the project.
Originally intended to be a film musical, it is perhaps Elton’s willingness to help out that has made venture change direction. With such international musical theatre hits under his belt as The Lion King , Billy Elliot and Aida, it is only natural that such a project should be head to New York and London. The comedy show will be about a gay Broadway theatre director with Aids who has to go back and face the wife and children he left. Elton has asserted that although the premise isn’t funny, the script is hilarious. The book is being written by an unnamed friend of Stiller’s.
The show is in its earliest stages so no title, dates or venues have been announced. It is presumed that it will begin on Broadway before an inevitable London transfer, so just watch this space.
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The Met office has been called in to investigate the sale of expertly counterfeited tickets for the West End production of Hamlet.
The almost perfect quality, but duff tickets were presented at the Novello Theatre’s box office around 2 weeks ago. It is believed that hundreds such copies may have been made in what appears to be the biggest fraudulent ticket scam in the West End’s history.
The reason this show has been targeted may be something to do with its popularity, having already sold out for the RSC in Stratford upon Avon.
Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Tickets Forged
The counterfeiters seem to have forged tickets issued by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, the company that runs the Novello Theatre, in London’s West End.
In an attempt to avoid near chaos, Delfont re-issued thousands of tickets, but even so, Delfont ticket buyers will all be asked to show their tickets at the box office before they will be allowed into the show.
Buying London Theatre Tickets Online
This situation just goes to strengthen the argument that theatre goers should be ever vigilant when buying theatre tickets.
There is nothing wrong with buying London theatre tickets online though, and many savings can be had on the internet. So long as you are careful, and choose an established and legitimate business to buy your tickets from, all should be fine.
Avoid buying tickets from internet auctions, and try to only buy from websites that supply a telephone number, and are a member of The Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers.
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On Saturday 20 December 2009, Oliver! will host a special preview performance in aid of wildlife charity the Aspinall Foundation. Oliver! is the latest production to benefit from the BBC’s online talent search, the leading roles and Nancy and Oliver were cast based on audience votes. The production officially opens on January 14th 2009 and tickets for Oliver! are on sale already.
Infamous socialite and gambler John Aspinall created the foundation after his own private exotic animal collections opened to the public and became Howletts Wild Animal Park and Port Lympne Zoo in Kent. The two establishments have gained a fantastic record for breeding and caring for rare and endangered species which are then released into the wild where they can.
As well as running Howletts and Port Lympne, the Aspinall foundation funds and maintains a huge number of projects overseas, most notably a scheme that saved a number of gorillas from bush meat poachers in the Congo in the late 1980’s, and now prepares orphan gorillas for their adult lives in the Congo’s Plateau Bateke National Park.
The price to attend this special performance includes a ticket, drinks at an exclusive post-show reception attended by the cast of Oliver! and a charitable donation made to the Aspinall Foundation to support their fantastic work.
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As it enters its tenth triumphant year, the smash hit Disney musical The Lion King is to make its second appearance at the Royal Variety Performance in December, making it the first West End show to make an encore in the event’s history.
Other shows putting in appearances this year include the casts of the Garrick’s swashbuckling Zorro, the Prince Edward’s Jersey Boys and the Playhouse’s La Cage Aux Folles will introduce its new leading man, Graham Norton, to the nation.
Notably absent is the cast of Mamma Mia!. Not only does the phenomenally successful show also enter its tenth year in 2009, but its big screen spin-off has become the highest grossing film musical in history and the recent DVD release has broken all records.
As the West End thrives, this year’s Royal Variety performance has a distinct theatre flavour, with an additional line-up including John Barrowman and Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson, who made his stage debut this summer in Into The Hoods at the Novello. Also, Wicked’s Kerry Ellis will be making a special appearance with Queen’s Brian May. The pair have recently released a collaboration CD called Wicked In Rock, and although she has become a huge theatre star playing Elphaba in Wicked in both London and New York, Kerry and Brian will probably do something from We Will Rock You.
The Royal Variety Performance will take place at the London Palladium on 11 December 2009 and will be screened on BBC 1 at a later date.
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Darlington borough Council is facing uproar today after it emerged it’s planning to demolish a £300,000 theatre just two years after it opened. The Young People’s Theatre has been running since 2006 at Darlington Arts Centre and is funded by the Arts Council. Unfortunately, the centre is owned by Darlington Borough Council who are considering desperate attempts to cut expenditure after a three point eight million pound overspend on two high profile road projects. In a budgetry crisis it seems that the arts stand to take the fall.
A member of the Darlington Media Group said: “The consequences of these proposals are a great deal more far-reaching. The major losers will be Darlington Media Group and the many evening and daytime adult education class members.” The site is about to be sold to Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College which intends to open a new department there.
Martin Swainston, the leader of the council’s Lib Dem group, said: “This is short-sighted financial management. This theatre is something that taxpayers have paid for, and paid for recently.” Though a council spokesperson said:“The council sees this as an opportunity to work with the college towards improving education attainment in Darlington, which is one of the aims of Darlington’s Community Strategy. We are committed to improving access to the arts in Darlington. If the proposal is agreed, detailed discussions will need to take place with the sixth form college and with the Arts Council about the possibility of providing improved arts facilities within any new building.”
However, it is unclear how the demolition of a purpose built facility and the sale of the land it occupies will improve access to arts facilities in Darlington.
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London’s production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert has announced its full cast. Already on board when the musical was launched in London were Jason Donovan, Oliver Thornton and Clive Carter, with Tony Sheldon as Bernadette, the role he originated in the first production of Priscilla in 2006. They will now be joined by Kate Gillespie, Emma Lindars and 2002 Pop Idol finalist Zoe Birkett will feature as the three Divas to whose voices the male principals will lip-synch.
Also joining the cast are Wezley Sebastian as Miss Understanding, Danielle Coombe as Shirley, Amy Field as Marion, model Tristan Temple as Jimmy, Kanako Nakano as Cynthia, John Brannoch as Frank and Steven Cleverley will play Bernadette’s younger self. Comprised mainly of newcomers to the West End stage, the young and energetic cast will be backed by an eleven member ensemble.
Staged by the same creative team that made Priscilla such a monster hit in Australia and New Zealand, the show also brings along its unique score of camp dancefloor classics including Don’t Leave Me This Way, Venus and I Will Survive. Priscilla sashays its way into the Palace Theatre next year, with performances beginning on Tuesday 10 March 2009. Tickets are on sale now.
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