Theatre – Page 5 – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

Reaching The Top In Musical Theatre

Musical theatre is captivating for many people, where the magic of illusion makes anything possible. For professional musical theatre performers, being on stage is the culmination of years of training and hard work; often encompassing more skills than were originally required by becoming a triple threat of singing, acting and dance. Now productions require an ever-increasing range of skills, such as puppetry and stilt-walking (Lion King), acrobatics (Pippin), playing a musical instrument (Fiddler on the Roof) and roller-skating (Starlight Express).

Traditional triple-treat performers should be strong across all three traditional areas of dance and have a few extra skills as well for the best chance of continuous work. Most musical theatre performers start in the industry as members of the ensemble or as understudies meaning they need to be as good as every swing or ensemble member in the show in all three traditional areas of performing. This can be relative between shows, as some require stronger dancers (Chorus Line or West Side Story) as well as being a singer and an actor, and some require stronger singers (Les Miserables)

In terms of the style of dance students should be learning, a strong ballet technique is an important foundation in addition to jazz and tap as the basics. Classes in pas de deux, ballroom and Pilates are also particularly useful to students in training. It is imperative that musical theatre performers show a technique regardless of dance ability with strong body posture and carriage, long lines, legs and feet turned out and upper body and arm lines.

It is therefore important to make the most of your training, regarding discipline as an integral part of training and bringing your own personal style and commitment to classes and rehearsals. Make sure you are unique and make choices to commit to working hard and going for every opportunity given.

ROH Production Of The Wind In The Willows To Return!

Directed and choreographed by Will Tuckett, the Vaudeville Theatre will see the Royal Opera House production of The Wind in the Willows return to London’s West End this Christmas, running from 26 November 2014.

The Olivier Award-winning production will play an eight week season at the Vaudeville Theatre with full casting to be announced soon. The production’s transfer to the Duchess Theatre in December 2013 marked the Royal Opera House’s first commercial transfer and the production was named Best Entertainment and Family at the 2014 Oliviers.

Based on Kenneth Grahame’s timeless classic, the adventures of four woodland friends are retold through dance, song, music and puppetry along a peaceful riverbank, with a speeding car, a racing train and criminal deeds from the Wild Wood. The escapades of Toad, Ratty, Mole and Badger are brought to life in a production that has charmed audiences of all ages, suitable for all from the age of 5. Drawing inspiration from the music of Edwardian composer George Butterworth, the action is set to a score by Martin Ward. Tuckett’s choreography is accompanied by narration written by former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion.

Tuckett is an award-winning choreographer, dancer and director. He was a member of The Royal Ballet 1990–2005, with whom he is now a Guest Principal Character Artist. His work as a choreographer and director includes The Wind in the Willows, The Soldier’s Tale, Timecode, Pinocchio, The Thief of Baghdad, Faeries, Into the Woods and Pleasure’s Progress (ROH2), The Seven Deadly Sins, ‘Diana and Actaeon’ in Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, (Royal Ballet), West Side Story (Sage, Gateshead), The Canterville Ghost (ENB), Hansel and Gretel (Ilford Arts Festival) movement and puppet direction on The Orphan of Zhao (RSC), as well as projects in Europe, the USA, Japan and China. He has choreographed widely for film and television, was Creative Associate for ROH2 and was the Clore Dance Fellow 2008-10. Tuckett’s production of The Wind in the Willows is in its eleventh year.

West End LIVE’s 2014 line up

The line up has been revealed for West End LIVE 2014, and it looks set to delight each and every visitor. Last year more than half a million people descended on Trafalgar Square for West End LIVE, and this year’s event promises to be even bigger and better. Now in it’s tenth year, the celebration of the West End’s top shows is a staple in the capital’s performing arts calendar. It will take on the square on 21 and 22 June.

The tenth anniversary of the festival will be celebrating all things musical, and will feature performances from musicals including Wicked, Miss Saigon, Jersey Boys, Matilda the Musical, as well as other shows confirmed to be included in the two day spectacular, such as Billy Elliot The Musical, The Bodyguard, Disney’s The Lion King, Les Misérables, Mamma Mia!, The Phantom Of The Opera, Once, Stomp, Thriller Live, The Commitments, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Pajama Game

This annual festival is free to attend, and guarantees there to be something for everyone with a mixture of both West End newcomers and Theatreland veterans performing throughout the weekend. Opera fans will also be treated to performances by the Royal Opera House Chorus and the English National Opera, whilst cabaret lovers can enjoy a special show entitled 10 From 10. The cabaret sees a star-studded line-up return to their former roles to perform ten iconic songs from the last decade’s most popular West End shows.

If your interest is more backstage than onstage, the Spiegeltent Theatre Emporium in Leicester Square enables visitors to take a sneak peek at the inner workings of Theatreland. As well as giving an insight into scriptwriting, costume, and special effects, there will be a talks from the cast of Handbagged and award-winning director Jamie Lloyd (Shakespeare in Love).

Festival News From Wilton’s Music Hall

Wiltons Music Hall The iconic East London performance venue Wilton’s Music Hall is set to host a three-day dance festival this autumn in order to showcase new work by emerging artists, and forge relationships for future collaborations. In addition, the organisation is also looking for potential companies to partner with on future commissions across different dance forms, widening their reach to new and potential dance audiences who may have not engaged with the music hall venue before.

The venue will stage the event, to be called Wilton’s Strike!, as part of its interim arts programme that is running while the venue’s restoration continues, providing an unmissable opportunity for emerging dance artists and choreographers all over the city and beyond. Wilton’s is inviting applications from dance groups to take part in the festival, by submitting an idea for a piece of choreography, up to 30 minutes in length, based on the theme of metamorphosis.

Following applications, six of those applicants will be selected to appear in the festival in the autumn of this year, and will be given £1,500 and rehearsal time to develop their work, as well as mentoring from contemporary dancer Jonathan Goddard and other artists. The chance to be mentored by dancers of this calibre alone is an incredible opportunity and not one to be missed. Goddard danced at Wilton’s Music Hall last summer in the title role of Mark Bruce’s Dracula to great critical acclaim.

Wilton’s Strike! will take place from 25-27 September, with two companies of the six selected performing per night. Dance and theatre critics will be invited to attend the festival and view the performances, and each performance will be live streamed online to expand the festival’s reach.

The deadline for festival application submissions is 23 June.

Top Hat Tour!

Top Hat - The Musical Alan Burkitt and Charlotte Gooch, stars of the recent West End run of the much-loved musical Top Hat, will return to play the lead roles when the show tours the UK later this year.

Gooch will star as Dale Tremont in the UK tour; Gooch took over the lead role of Tremont from leading lady Summer Strallen when the production ran in the West End. Her credits include Dirty Dancing at the Piccadilly Theatre and in the national tour, the UK tour of Grease and the German tour of Cats. Burkitt, whose credits include Singin’ in the Rain and 42nd Street at Chichester Festival Theatre, and We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, understudied the lead role of Jerry Travers as part of the original West End cast of Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre.

The touring cast of the the Irving Berlin’s musical will be joined by Clive Hayward as Horace Hardwick, Rebecca Thornhill as Madge Hardwick, Sebastien Torkia as Alberto Beddini and John Conroy as Bates. The cast also includes Lucy Ashenden, Thomas Audibert, Caroline Bateson, Sophie Camble, Matthew Caputo, Kristy Cullen, Paul Farrell, Ian Goss, Carys Gray, Alyn Hawke, Rebecca Hodge, Samuel Humphreys, Thomas Inge, Thomas-Lee Kidd, Sarah-Marie Maxwell, David McKechnie, John McManus, George Olney, Ben Palmer, Holly Rostron, Maria Ward, Amy West and Monique Young.

The production will begin a 47 week tour on 12 August at the New Wimbledon Theatre before visiting venues across the UK, finishing in Eastbourne in July 2015. Directed by Matthew White, Top Hat is choreographed by Bill Deamer, with design by Hildegard Bechtler, costume by Jon Morrell, lighting by Peter Mumford, sound by Gareth Owen, musical supervision by Richard Balcombe and new orchestrations by Chris Walker. Top Hat is produced by Kenny Wax, with Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comlet.

Relaxed Matilda

Matilda the Musical West End musical Matilda will hold a relaxed performance of its hit production in the summer. It will be aimed at audiences with autism and learning difficulties, and the Royal Shakespeare Company, which produces the show, has been working with the National Autistic Society. The performance will be held on 15 June.

The show has so far been a huge hit amongst children and adults. For the relaxed performance, therefore, stage elements will be adapted to reduce anxiety or stress often experienced in a theatrical environment by those suffering with autism and learning difficulties. Lighting and sound will be adjusted to reduce their impact and there will be a relaxed attitude to noise and moving around during the performance. This will make the performance more appealing and enjoyable for both children and their parents, as it may be difficult to envisage events like West End performances as trips out, enabling them both to experience the production in an environment which is sensitive to their needs.

Tickets for the relaxed performance are priced at £20 and those who book will be sent visual aids to help them get to know the plot and characters before the show. This whole experience builds on The Royal Shakespeare Company commitment to offer the best environment and welcome for children, young people and families who might feel excluded from the work. Relaxed performances mean they have the chance to experience high quality theatre, as often many families of children with autism or a learning disability can be unwilling to attend theatre performances together.

The performance in June builds on a programme of relaxed performances the Royal Shakespeare Company has offered in Stratford-upon-Avon since 2013.

Mamma Mia! Celebrates 15 Years!

On 6 April, the global smash hit musical MAMMA MIA! celebrated its 15th birthday in London’s West End. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, stars of iconic band group ABBA who have rarely performed together since the four disbanded in 1982, then joined the cast of MAMMA MIA! in a musical finale at this year’s Olivier Awards as part of the celebrations. The show was televised for the ITV highlights show, broadcast on 13 April. 2014 also marks the 40th anniversary of the start of ABBA’s global success with the release of the hit track ‘Waterloo’.

MAMMA MIA! is Judy Craymer’s ingenious vision of staging the story-telling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs with an enchanting tale of family and friendship unfolding on a Greek island. To date, it has been seen by more than 54 million people in 39 productions, in 14 different languages, grossing more than $2 billion at the box office. MAMMA MIA! originally opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre on 6 April 1999, before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre in 2004. The musical re-opened at the Novello Theatre in 2012 and has now extended its booking period to 25 April 2015.

Now a global phenomenon, the London production of MAMMA MIA! has been seen by more than 10% of the entire UK population. The show has celebrated over 6,200 performances in London and has broken box office records in all three of its London homes. In 2011, it became the first Western musical ever to be staged in Mandarin in the People’s Republic of China. This summer, the MAMMA MIA! International Tour will play an exclusive UK Summer Season at the Blackpool Opera House from 20 June to 14 September 2014: Blackpool will be the only UK venue outside of London to host the worldwide hit musical this year.

From Here To Eternity

From Here To Eternity - The Musical From Here To Eternity, the hit West End musical which sadly closed on 29 March, may reemerge in another form. It seems it is not yet over for Tim Rice’s latest musical venture: ahead of its 2015 Broadway run, a screening of the West End’s production of From Here To Eternity will be broadcast in theatres around the US. Entertainment companies Omniverse Vision and Fathom Events are collaborating to capture the musical, following in the footsteps of shows such as War Horse and Noël Coward’s Private Lives which have been screened previously.

It is fantastic that the magnificent tale of the futile waiting for the American army ahead of the attacks on Peal Harbour in 1941. With Fathom and Omniverse collaborating to capture the ambitious musical version of the iconic story, it means the production and Stuart Brayson’s score will receive the permanent recognition they deserve.

From Here To Eternity is based on James Jones’ award-winning novel about those US soldiers and their illicit affairs during the Second World War. The 1953 film adaptation, which starred Frank Sinatra, won eight Oscars including Best Picture. The West End musical version stars Darius Campbell (previously Danesh) in the lead role alongside Robert Lonsdale.

Despite many rave reviews and popularity on social media, the musical and company suffered falling ticket sales and the close was seemingly inevitable.

All-night Macbeth

Rift Macbeth Immersive theatre-makers Rift are set to stage a site-specific performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth that will take place overnight. Rift plans to stage the all-night Macbeth in east London tower block in an innovative move to put audiences to sleep – and then wake them up.

The audience will be asked to go to bed after the first few scenes of Shakespeare’s murderous production on the top floor of an iconic east London tower block and throughout the night, they will be visited by the play’s characters as they present the events around the murder, and its consequences. The play will conclude in the morning as the audience wakes for the final act.

This new production will begin by meeting the three witches in an underground car park and it will run for two months from the summer solstice in June, beginning at 8pm and finishing 12 hours later. Rift are not the first company to turn Macbeth into such an immersive experience. Punchdrunk transformed the play in 2003, when Sleep No More received its first UK performances at the Beaufoy Building, an old Victorian school in south London. The production was revived in 2011 in New York, where it has been running ever since.

The company is led by director Felix Mortimer, who has previously staged similar productions of The Tempest, which became a six-part pop-up installation in a London shop, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which was spread over two locations in east London.

Originally known as Retz, the company Rift was founded in 2010. This all-night performance of Macbeth seems set to take audiences by storm as they immerse themselves into the lives and deaths of the Macbeth family in one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies.

English National Ballet My First Ballet: Coppélia

Following the My First Ballet series, English National Ballet and English National Ballet School are presenting Coppélia from April to the delight of young children everywhere. From 5 April–25 May 2014 the Peacock Theatre in London and a national tour will see Coppélia visit Shrewsbury, Manchester, Tunbridge Wells, Woking, Aylesbury and Bromley.

My First Coppélia is the third in the My First Ballet series, the comic tale of an eccentric toymaker and his mechanical doll, based on Ronald Hynd’s original production. The dancers will wear the beautiful costumes from the professional company’s full production, giving audiences the look, feel and quality of a classic ballet, but understandable for all. The adapted story and choreography will make the ballet more approachable and fun for younger audiences.

Last year’s creative team of Gavin Sutherland and ENB’s Associate Artist George Williamson, a graduate of ENBS, will be collaborating again to bring young audiences their first taste of ballet, with captivating music and beautiful choreography performed by the students. George’s first major commission was Firebird for English National Ballet. He returns to the My First Ballet series after choreographing last year’s My First Cinderella.

Children aged 3 and over can get their first taste of classical ballet with this magical production. The simplified version builds on the great success of My First Sleeping Beauty and My First Cinderella, developing the audience of tomorrow and establishing long term relationships with the arts.

English National Ballet was awarded a £114,520 grant from the Leverhulme Trust in 2013. The grant was awarded to support two years of the series and English National Ballet are delighted that the funding will also support My First Ballet: Coppélia, helping to develop the dancers of the future and enable students with outstanding potential to gain vital skills by working with a professional company.