AmericanTheaterWeb NewsClips

The Times UK

Carrie’s War heads for the stage
The death of her husband in the Potters Bar train crash seven years ago gave the novelist something to fight for

Apologia
Yes, that’s how it turns out: yet another portrait of the sort of reunion that begins and ends in disunity

Romeo and Juliet
The couple meet on a Saturday, secretly marry on the Sunday, part on Monday morning and are dead by Thursday

The Guardian

Theatre review: Tom Tom Crew, E4 Udderbelly, London
Nice lads, that Tom Tom Crew. A group of cheerful, good-looking Australians, they offer an hour of skilful, old-style variety using newer approaches, ranging from acrobatics through drumming and record scratching to beat-boxing. The latter, performed by a young man who goes under the name of Tom Thum, appears to have swallowed an entire orchestra and several backing singers.

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Hampstead, London Theatre review
It is right to revive Frank McGuinness's iconic Irish play from 1985: it is both an astonishing feat of imagination by a Donegal Catholic and part of Hampstead's own 50-year history. But, while it is good to introduce the play to a new generation, I also became aware of what McGuinness omits to say and of his sometimes excessive emphasis on an apparent Ulster death-wish.

Margaret Tyzack: the accidental actor Lyn Gardner
At 77, Margaret Tyzack is scooping up awards – and about to help the National make theatre history. She reveals the secret of her success

A critique of journalism framed by the Stockwell shooting Theatre blog Vikram Dodd
In examining how the Jean Charles de Menezes killing changed the media, Oh Well Never Mind Bye is an indictment of journalism and a statement of the obvious

Top five comedians who have made the switch to West End theatre
Theatreland has long enticed comedians keen to test their dramatic chops. As Matt Lucas pricks up his ears, James Kettle celebrates comics who tread the boards

How black box theatre came of age Natalie Abrahami
Don't dismiss venues with flexible spaces. They are still the perfect blank canvas for directors' creative flights of fancy

Everything Must Go: Soho theatre's economical response to the recession Lyn Gardner
While David Hare contemplates the credit crunch for an autumn play at the National, Soho theatre unveils a programme of bite-size plays about the financial crisis

Daily Telegraph

Apologia at the Bush Theatre review
Emerging dramatist Alexi Kaye Campbell is a writer to cherish.

The Stage UK

Evening Standard arts columnist Norman Lebrecht to leave paper
Norman Lebrecht, arts columnist and former assistant editor of the Evening Standard, has announced he is to leave the recently rebranded newspaper this week.

TV and theatre are an 'old boys' network', says playwright Gupta

New pay offer may prevent theatre technician strike
The threat of a nationwide strike by theatre technicians appears to have been averted, after Bectu agreed to ballot its members on a revised pay offer from the Theatrical Management Association

Holcroft wins Tom Erhardt Award
Playwright Sam Holcroft has been presented with the second Tom Erhardt Award for up and coming writers

EFF to host Theatre Royal Haymarket's workshops for young people
Actress Nichola McAuliffe, National Theatre of Scotland chief executive Vicky Featherstone and Nimax Theatres chief executive Nica Burns are among the list of names set to present Masterclass workshops for young people at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Summertime Special with Syd Little, Pier, Bournemouth
That's Entertainment Productions are 'thrilled to be providing the 50th anniversary show to this historic and marvellous theatre and in Summertime Special have sought to capture some of the excitement, glitz and glamour of shows over the years'. The show is a time machine to seventies Minstrel Land, full of sequins and feather headdresses. With Broadway medleys, Brazilian routines and Las Vegas cabaret, this is a dancing, singing, comedy and magic show.

Seaside Special, Pavilion Theatre, Cromer
Really, we ought to be paying them a product placement fee for the prominently displayed copy of The Stage brandished by principle vocalist Aston Dobson in the opening number. But that's not the reason I'm about to heap praise on this excellent end of the pier variety show.

Whatsonstage.com

Wilton's Off, Derby On Theatre Trust's ‘Risk’ List
Wilton’s Music Hall in east London has been moved off the UK’s top ten list of endangered theatres in the Theatres Trust’s 2009 Theatre Buildings at Risk Register (TBAR), published today. Built by pub owner John Wilton in 1858, Wi...

Review: Tom Tom Crew
Something of a cross between Stomp and La Clique, the Tom Tom Crew are a merry Australian band of acrobats and musicians who have pitched up in the cavernous bowels of the Udderbelly on the South Bank, presenting an hour of high-octane (if not alwa...

Review: Apologia
Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play is in many ways an old-fashioned domestic comedy. An aberrant mother, a radical art historian, plays host to her two grown-up sons and their partners, and an old friend, round the kitchen table in a cottage in...

Photos: Show Pics: New Girls Undressed, Conley's Edna
Publicity shots have been released of the starry new cast of Calendar Girls, who take over at the Noel Coward theatre next month (28 July 2009). The new line-up includes Jerry Hall, Anita Dobson, Jill Halfpenny, Gemma Atkinson, Sara Crowe, Jill Bak...

Londonist

http://feeds.gothamistllc.com/click.phdo?i=1bb2710a70b898a580dd51e299cbf3ce
...World at One at the King's Head Theatre is a regular series that stages three interesting and entertaining 20-minute plays on one set theme, tackling contemporary issues and challenging modern times. ...

Preview: Greenwich & Docklands International Festival

London Theatre Guide

King’s Head hits get Arts transfer
F***ing Men and Naked Boys Singing 2009, the two shows currently enjoying hugely successful runs at Islington’s King’s Head theatre, are to transfer to the more central Arts theatre from 7 July.

 

The Guardian

Theatre review: Apologia / Bush, London
Alexi Kaye Campbell made a big splash six months ago with his first play, The Pride. But, although his new one takes the more traditional form of an embittered family reunion, it is based on a similar premise: that the present needs to pay homage to the past.

The Stage UK

Mark Shenton: The year’s most eagerly awaited critical blog reports…
Blogs, of course, come in all shapes and sizes, and with different levels of frequency and detail. I write one myself every day, of course (on weekdays only - I have to give myself a break occasionally, and here’s...

Whatsonstage.com

Gossip: London Gets Pop Religion with Altar Boyz???
Dubbed “the PT Barnum of Off-Broadway” by the New York Times, US producer Ken Davenport is in town and apparently on the hunt for a London theatre home for one of his hits, most likely the long-running Off-Broadway musical Altar Boyz. W...

Gossip: Sixties Swing Anew in Carnaby Street Musical???
Shout!’s recent West End shout at the Arts Theatre may have been short-lived, but another new musical taking its inspiration from the Swinging Sixties may have more luck. We hear director Bob Thomson is signed ...