Dirty Rotten Scoundrels set to make Londoners cry laughing!

This week I was fortunate enough to see the hilarious Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which has now arrived in London’s West End and it was HILARIOUS. Such an enjoyable night and the cast - which include Rufus Hound, Robert Lindsay and Samantha Bond - are all spectacular! But I hadn’t seen the film on which the play is based. Of course, as soon as I got home I headed to YouTube to see Steve Martin as Ruprecht and Michael Caine oozing all that charm he possesses.

Sometimes adapting from one medium to another can be a disaster and other times it can be magical. In this instance, it has certainly sent me to the original. Having so thoroughly enjoyed the play I certainly now need to see the film!

Check out my review of the play over at Live For Films.

 

For more info, check out http://www.scoundrelswestend.com/
 

Here's a snippet of Robert Lindsay in action to whet your appetite...

Theatre Review: The Hothouse with Harold Pinter panel discussion

Guardian theatre critic and Harold Pinter biographer Michael Billington joined actresses Gina McKee and Lia Williams, writer Nick Payne and theatre director Jamie Lloyd for a special panel discussion of the playwright's work last week, ahead of the production of his play The Hothouse which stars John Simm, Simon Russell Beale and Harry Melling.

The panel discussed the influence of Pinter as a playwright, from the Pinter pause and the real meaning behind what is not said to the importance of timing in his dialogue. Pinter, they said, was revolutionary in the world of theatre and was amongst the first group of playwrights to provide works with ambiguous endings, where audiences could interpret the play the way they wanted to. Every line and every gesture, according to the panel, had significance.


Harry Melling (Lamb) - The Hothouse
Photo Credit Johan Persson

The Hothouse follows the staff of a mental health facility as Christmas Day brings the news of both a birth and a death amongst their patients. Chaos ensues as the chief, Roote, starts to panic about the implications of such events taking place under his roof.

The play moves at breakneck speed with the dialogue delivered as quickly as a Wimbledon tennis match - flying from one actor to the next and back again. The performances are often manic, adding to the hilarity but, though it is hilarious throughout and provides numerous belly laughs, the play is incredibly dark. The patients are never actually seen but hearing the way the staff talk about them is horrifying. They refer to them in numbers and look at them as an imposition and inconvenience. The news that one of the patients has given birth means that one of the staff has been having sexual relations with her but this reveal is met more with indignation at the extra work the birth has created rather than horror at the relationship itself. The most horrifying scenes are that of Lamb (played by Melling) undergoing electric shock treatment. His performance is so vivid that the result is immensely unsettling. 

For the most part, The Hothouse follows a steady rhythm but it leaps, rather unexpectedly, into one of the more shocking and unresolved endings for which Pinter is now so well known.

A clever, insightful but slightly disjointed work.

4/5 FOBLES

The Hothouse runs until August 3rd at Trafalgar Transformed.

Wicked cast ask for your votes for the #Oliviers

The fun and magical untold story of Wicked is eligible to win the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award at the 2013 Olivier Awards - and it's the only award that gives theatre fans the chance to crown their favourite show.

Wicked is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, which re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. The show follows the unlikely friendship between Glinda and Elphaba - before they become the now infamous Glinda The Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Wicked has already been seen by over 36 million people around the world and to win over a few more votes, the cast themselves have recorded a special message...

Votes for Wicked can be made via the following link: http://www.olivierawards.com/vote/ and voters will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win tickets to the Olivier Awards themselves. 

WICKED is showing at the Apollo Victoria Theatre NOW and is booking into April 2014.

Claire Foy announced as Lady Macbeth opposite James McAvoy in new stage production

Credit: Johan Persson

With BAFTA winning and Golden Globe nominated James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, X-Men) cast in the lead role for the new stage production of Macbeth, it only remained to see who would be playing the rest of the cast alongside him - namely that of 'Out, damned spot! Out, I say!' Lady Macbeth. 

It has now been announced that Claire Foy (White Heat, Little Dorrit, The Promise) will play the infamous role, opposite McAvoy.

Joining them, to complete the cast, are Jamie Ballard (Macduff), Graeme Dalling (Donalbain), Lisa Gardner (Witch), Kevin Guthrie (Lennox), Richard Hansell (Ross), Forbes Masson (Banquo), Allison McKenzie (Witch), Olivia Morgan (Witch), Catherine Murray (Caithness), Callum O'Neill (Angus), Mark Quartley (Malcolm) and Hugh Ross (Duncan/Doctor).

Jamie Lloyd’s new production will be staged at Trafalgar Studios from 9 February until 27 April. This new adaptation of the dark Shakespeare tale will take Macbeth to a dystopian Scotland brutalised by war. Under a toxic fog, Macbeth begins his tormented struggle for power fuelled by ambition and paranoia.

For more information, check out www.macbethwestend.com

James McAvoy to Play Macbeth in new 2013 Stage Production

Film and stage actor James McAvoy (Atonement, X-Men: First Class) will take on the infamous role of Macbeth next year when the Shakespearean tale comes to the London stage. Alongside his impressive film credits, James McAvoy has starred on stage in 2009 in Three Days of Rain (Olivier Award nomination). his other stage credits include Breathing Corpses at the Royal Court, Privates on Parade at the Donmar Warehouse and Out in the Open at Hampstead Theatre. For Macbeth, McAvoy will be reunited with Three Days of Rain director Jamie Lloyd. Macbeth will be staged at Trafalgar Studios from 9 February until 27 April.

On 9 February 2013 Trafalgar Studios will be transformed. Macbeth is the inaugural production in a season of productions to be directed by Jamie Lloyd in Trafalgar Studios, set to be the theatre destination of 2013. Olivier Award winner Jamie Lloyd (Donmar’s Passion, Broadway’s Cyrano de Bergerac starring Douglas Hodge, Royal Court’s The Pride) directs one of the most exciting international film stars James McAvoy (The Last King Of Scotland, Atonement, X-Men) in this nihilistic vision of chaos, played out with breathless momentum and visceral passion. Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy is re-imagined in post-apocalyptic separatist Scotland. In this toxic dystopia, mysticism and witchcraft are interfused with hallucinogenic drugs as Macbeth begins his crusade of pathological ambition. Spurred on by arrogance, paranoia and the eroticism of murder, his struggle for power explores the corrosive potential of the human mind and exposes the ugliness of a society brutalized by war and tyranny. Set to be the hottest ticket of the year. Macbeth opens on February 9th 2013 and runs until April 27th 2013. 

Website: www.macbethwestend.com