If your NewYear’s resolution was“Out with the Old, In from the Cold”, let us help you break the ice and turn up the heat with our winning winter warmers.
3. Best In Show British theatre burns bright any time of year but seems to have an especial glow in the chillier season. Whether your fires are best lit by toasty and traditional pantomime, steamy and serious drama or toe tapping, soul warming musicals, UK Theatreland has much on show this winter to counter the iciest frost.
For one of the new year’s hottest tickets we’re putting our dollars and pence on a stunning 50th anniversary revival of the musical Funny Girl. Multi-talented wunderkind Sheridan Smith (Cilla, Mrs Biggs), brings the life and loves of Broadway’s Fanny Brice to the London stage complete with showstopping numbers like Don’t Rain on my Parade and People. The show opened recently to 5-star accolades at the superb but tiny, off-West End Menier Chocolate Factory, where its entire run sold out in 90 minutes. No surprise then to find it’s transferring to the West End’s Savoy Theatre in April.
Until then, you can enjoy the brassy bravado of gamblers, gangsters and goniffs in Guys and Dolls at the Savoy. This is one not to miss, with a vivacious cast led by rising star Jamie Parker and vibrant choreography by Royal Ballet’s Carlos Acosta. You can also catch the show as it turns Britain’s top regional theatres into New York gambling dens during an extensive national tour.
Hot on its heels comes the UK premiere of Walt Disney’s Aladdin the Musical, the Tony award-winning Broadway smash show from producers of the Lion King. Con-genie-ally combining beauty, comedy and breathtaking spectacle, this looks destined for huge success, with former SugaBabe Jade Eden and heartthrob Dean John Wilson taking lead roles. The whole family will also love the classic and multiple- award winning, Goodnight Mister Tom. Fresh from a triumphant festive season in the West End, the show will be on an extensive tour of top regional venues including Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Glasgow. This is the unforgettable story of a young boy evacuated from the dangers of World War II London to idyllic British countryside and his moving friendship with the elderly recluse, Tom.
If initial reviews are anything to go by, (e.g., “theatre doesn’t get much better than this”), the Kenneth Branagh Theatre will be unmissable in its debut season at the Garrick, London. This is a unique chance to see outstanding young thespian talent alongside national treasures such as Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Zoe Wanamaker, Adrian Lester, Rob Brydon and the great Kenneth himself in sizzling productions like Romeo and Juliet and Red Velvet.
2016 also looks like a vintage year to celebrate Shakespeare, with the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. Centrepiece of festivities will be Shakespeare’s Globe-produced The Complete Walk. Over the weekend of 23-24 April, the Walk will feature the UK’s top actors in specially-created short films, one for each of Will’s plays, showing free and continuously throughout the weekend on 37 outdoor screens along London’s riverside, from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge. The weekend will also mark the return of the unprecedented world tour of Hamlet, which will play on the Globe stage for four final performances, after an extraordinary two years performing in every country in the world.
Further information:
www.menierchocolatefactory.com
Image: Walt Disney's Aladdin comes to London, photo by Deen van Meer. Article by Judith Schrut; email Judith at judith0777@gmail.com