Category: News

Belfast’s c21 Theatre Company has revealed the details of its first visit to the Keegan Theatre in Washington DC in May when it will present the American première of Charis McRoberts’s Expecting. First seen in Belfast’s The Mac in May 2023 and subsequently at the Edinburgh Fringe, Expecting is a portrait of a young couple—deaf mother Shauna and hearing father… Continue reading Belfast’s c21 announces US premiere in Washington DC

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production about the city’s famous rock band Black Sabbath is attracting international interest. Black Sabbath—The Ballet which sold out in Birmingham, Plymouth and London, is to have its European première at the Luxor Theatre, Rotterdam as part of the Holland Dance Festival in June 2024. The company is also in advanced talks about… Continue reading Black Sabbath ballet rocks off to Rotterdam

Opera North has announced the five artists chosen for this year’s Resonance residencies: Ellen Beth Abdi, Balraj Samrai, Rory A Green, Jonas Jones and Satnam Galsian. Resonance offers resources to professional music-makers from the Global Majority based in the north of England, to enable them to experiment with collaborators and fresh ideas and to try… Continue reading Opera North Resonance artists for 2024

Belfast’s Lyric Theatre and Prime Cut Productions are to reunite following the success of last year’s award-winning staging of The Beauty Queen of Leenane with another Martin McDonagh play, The Pillowman. First seen at the National Theatre in 2003 when it won an Olivier Award for best new play and subsequently transferred to Broadway, The Pillowman is a macabre portrait of a… Continue reading Lyric, Belfast and Prime Cut revive McDonagh’s Pillowman

Five new opera productions will be unveiled at the 2024 Buxton International Festival—works by Verdi, Handel, Haydn, Bizet and Ethel Smyth. Artistic director Adrian Kelly said, “Buxton is nothing if not brave and we have some formidable casts lined up this year, with faces old and new. We’re packing a punch this summer, make no mistake.”… Continue reading Five new operas for Buxton

This is a very earnest recording with quite a few majestic and soaring melodies – I wouldn’t expect, based on the showtunes in the recording, a full production of this musical to have very many, if any at all, high-energy song and dance numbers, though it would be a pleasant surprise. Songs of hope, or… Continue reading Rosie The Musical – Original Studio Cast Album

Hilary Summers: ‘If you don’t know each other well enough to say if something is a bit rubbish, then what’s the point?’Claire Newman Williams Back in the summer of 2020 when the arts industry was largely dormant and many professional singers were either moodily knocking back the gin or uploading poor quality phone videos of… Continue reading First Person: contralto Hilary Summers on going beyond her baroque and contemporary comfort zones

Carnation libation: Julie Anne Stanzak among the 8,000 individually placed blooms in the early Pina Bausch classic, ‘Nelken’ photo: Alexander Gouliaev I am a juggler. My wife Kati Ylä-Hokkala is also a juggler. Our life for the last three decades has been juggling. We have been fortunate to be practising this art form at a… Continue reading First Person: pioneering juggler Sean Gandini reflects on how the spirit of Pina Bausch has infiltrated his work

Sean McLoughlin’s debut play I Am Steven Gerrard will run at Hope Street Theatre in Liverpool 24–28 January 2024. This one-man play is performed by Joe Cowin and directed by Amy Roberts, whose recent credits include A Pretty Sh*tty Love at Theatr Clwyd and One Man Poe for Threedumb Theatre. It is described as “a… Continue reading Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre announces Tim Sheader’s final season

Back to the Future the Musical has further extended its run at London’s Adelphi Theatre until the winter this year. The show, which first opened at the theatre in September 2021, announced it is booking for performances until December 22, on the day it celebrates its 1,000th performance in the West End. Based on the… Continue reading Back to the Future the Musical further extends West End run