Blog / Off West End
Check here for the latest musical news with links to all your #StageFaves performers, shows and theatres. Also look out for our regular #GetSocial features and contributions from our syndicate media partners including MyTheatreMates.com and the Musical Theatre Appreciation Society.
Jack Wolfe makes his professional stage debut playing the titular Louis Braille opposite West End star Jerome Pradon in the world premiere of THE BRAILLE LEGACY at Charing Cross Theatre. Lots of other great #StageFaves in this cast too...
2017
How are preparations going for the long-awaited UK premiere of Cy Coleman's Tony Award-winning masterpiece THE LIFE? We sent fellow #StageFave and Backstage Jam creator Michael Watson along for a sneak-peek at rehearsals. Check out his mini video interviews including with stars Sharon D Clarke, Cornell John and the musical's legendary original director Michael Blakemore...
Tony and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Duncan Sheik follows up American Psycho with another musical thriller. WHISPER HOUSE, which premieres at The Other Palace in April, boasts a superb cast of West End #StageFaves: Simon Bailey, Nicholas Goh, Simon Lipkin, Niamh Perry and Dianne Pilkington...
In the 2017 Olivier Awards shortlists, which were announced today, the #StageFaves musicals battling for supremacy include Groundhog Day, Dreamgirls, The Girls, Half a Sixpence, Jesus Christ Superstar, School of Rock and Sunset Boulevard - the last three of which were all composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber...
Judy, Judy, Judy! All three Judy Garlands - Helen Sheals, Belinda Wollaston and Lucy Penrose - wowed us in Through the Mill at Southwark Playhouse last year. Now the renamed bio-musical, JUDY!, with its trio of leading divas gets its West End debut this May at the Arts Theatre...
Judy, Judy, Judy! All three Judy Garlands - Helen Sheals, Belinda Wollaston and Lucy Penrose - wowed us in Through the Mill at Southwark Playhouse last year. Now the renamed bio-musical, JUDY!, with its trio of leading divas gets its West End debut this May at the Arts Theatre...
#StageFaves founder Terri Paddock recently hosted a post-show Q&A at the UK premiere of LIZZIE, with a panel including the four stars Eden Espinosa (finally making her UK debut), Bjorg Gamst, Jodie Jacobs and Bleu Woodward. Listen to the raucous and insightful podcast here...
2017
As #StageFaves legends go, Peter Straker is right up there. Now he returns to one of the show's that helped launch his career: The Who's TOMMY. The rock opera is revived care of Ramps On the Moon, the consortium of seven major theatres that puts deaf and disabled artists centre stage, and it comes to London's Stratford East in June...
Homegrown musical MISS NIGHTINGALE, set in London during the Second World War, finally gets an extended London season after five successful UK tours. It runs for eight weeks this spring at The Vaults (which is near-enough to a bomb shelter?)...
2017
Musical theatre meets rock concert in LIZZIE, the tragic tale of American murderess Lizzie Borden. LIZZIE is four women fronting a six-piece rock band. LIZZIE is rage, sex, betrayal, and bloody murder. And LIZZIE is opening tonight at the Greenwich Theatre! Count down until curtain up with these ten tweets...
Who's joining Samantha Barks and Arthur Darvill in the London Musical Theatre Orchestra stellar concert presentation of Broadway musical HONEYMOON IN VEGAS? This is one night at the London Palladium not to be missed. (And you could win tickets through #StageFaves if you're lucky!)
Lots of #StageFaves musicals and performers have been nominated in this year's third annual #AlsoRecognised Awards, run by our sister site MyTheatreMates. Public voting has now opened and continues until 26 March 2017...
Lots of #StageFaves musicals and performers have been nominated in this year's third annual #AlsoRecognised Awards, run by our sister site MyTheatreMates. Public voting has now opened and continues until 26 March 2017...
2017
The true-life story of a Yorkshire chapter of the Women’s Institute who posed nude for a charity calendar 18 years ago has already been a hit film and a record-breaking stage play. But, far from being tapped out, the tale of love and friendship and coping has, according to critics, now found its ideal form in Tim Firth and Gary Barlow’s musical adaptation THE GIRLS, officially opened last night in the West End. Here’s a round-up…
On the back of sensational reviews for its West End premiere, THE GIRLS has extended its booking period at the Phoenix Theatre and added an extra weekly matinee - rather perfect for Yorkshire (and other) ladies of a certain age...
After looking back at the musical theatre successes of 2016, Musical Theatre Review opened the year by previewing some of the 2017 musical theatre openings we know about so far in the West End, on the London Fringe and across the UK. Here are some of the big ones coming up fast. Where are we up to?
After looking back at the musical theatre successes of 2016, Musical Theatre Review opened the year by previewing some of the 2017 musical theatre openings we know about so far in the West End, on the London Fringe and across the UK. Here are some of the big ones coming up fast. Where are we up to?
2017
V for victorious West End gala! Gary Barlow wowed the audience last night at the West End's Phoenix Theatre, when he took to the stage along with Tim Firth and the original Calendar Girls for the curtain at the star-studded gala night for THE GIRLS musical, held in the presence of HRH The Duke of Kent and HRH The Countess of Wessex. Access gala night video and pics here...
2017
Our #FirstNightTakeover series continues with Perry O'Bree attending the gala night (on 20 February 2017) of the premiere of THE GIRLS, Tim Firth and Gary Barlow's musical adaptation of the story of Yorkshire's Calendar Girls, at the West End's Phoenix Theatre.
After West End success with Half a Sixpence and, transferring later this year, The Wind in the Willows, the Stiles & Drewe juggernaut continues this Easter with the 20th anniversary production of HONK!, the story of the Ugly Duckling, at London's Union Theatre, where the pair's Soho Cinders was revived in November...