Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Monday 1 May 2017

London theatre summer

It is shaping up to be a good summer for theatre in London with lots of new shows and revivals and transfers We enjoyed the revived BOYS IN THE BAND and the new DREAMGIRLS recently - see Theatre label for reviews. 
Now I have booked for Andrew Scott as  HAMLET (my seventh stage Hamlet) transferring from the Almeida to the Harold Pinter Theatre for the summer season; and we cannot wait to book for the new National Theatre production of Sondheim's FOLLIES (above) opening in August and running to November, with Imelda Staunton (once she finishes her stint at Martha in the current WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?) and the fabulous Tracie Bennett in the cast (she sings "I'm Still Here" ...). Others in the cast include veteran Gary Raymond. There is a cast of 37 and orchestra of 31. The last FOLLIES I saw was back in the late 80s or early 90s, with Diana Rigg and Eartha Kitt, and if the new one is as good as the National's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC we will be well pleased .... (booking opens on 5 May _ seats now booked for 20 September, whew!)
We have also booked for Part One (a mere four hours and ten minutes) of the National's ANGELS IN AMERICA, a live screening to our local cinema in June. I had better see how I like that before booking for part two! The cast includes Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey and Nathan Lane, and is of course a revival of Tony Kushner's great play on the Aids era in Reagan America. 

I could still book for a live screening of that new VIRGINIA WOOLF ...... Imelda is giving a tour-de-force in that too, but I don't really like the play that much.
I don't usually bother with shows based on films but the new AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is getting all the raves, and could be a summer treat too ... and it has Jane Asher too. 

1 comment:

  1. As you know I'm also booked for FOLLIES, 2 days after you. We were lucky to get tickets I think. This will be the fourth time I've seen it. I saw the orginal London production with slight cast changes and then I saw a concert performance at the Royal Festival Hall. Have you watched the HBO film of both parts of ANGELS IN AMERICA yet? It is superb, one of the best things Nichols ever did. Meryl and Mr Pacino are fantastic. Hopefully I will get to see this production on film.

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