Aria Entertainment Presents Sleeping Arrangements Landor Theatre
17th April – 12th May
Sophie Kinsella’s Sleeping Arrangements adapted for the stage
Sleeping Arrangements, a new musical based on the novel by Sophie Kinsella, author of Confessions Of A Shopaholic now has a full cast.
The exceptionally high calibre cast includes Fascinating Aïda’s Liza Pulman and West End favourite Jenny Gayner who has trodden the boards as Roxie Hart in Chicago amongst other high profile roles and Sabrina Aloueche who is best known for playing the character ‘Scaramouche‘ in We Will Rock You.
The Confessions Of A Shopaholic novel was adapted into a film released in 2009, starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy but this will be the first of Sophie’s popular books to be adapted for the stage.
“I am so excited to see my story on stage in such a hilarious and tuneful musical”
Sophie Kinsella
This exciting new musical will play at the Landor Theatre in Clapham London for four weeks starting in April 2013 (17th April – 12th May)
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the musical tells the tale ofChloe who desperately needs a holiday. She’s sick of making wedding dresses and her partner, Philip has troubles at work. Her wealthy friend Gerard has offered the loan of his luxury villa in Spain – Perfect
Hugh is not a happy man. His immaculate wife Amanda seems more interested in her new kitchen than him and he works so hard to pay for it, he barely has time for his children. Maybe he’ll have a chance to bond with them on holiday. His friend Gerard has lent him a luxury villa in Spain – Perfect.
Both families arrive at the villa and realise the awful truth – Gerard has double-booked. What no-one else realises is that Chloe and Hugh have a history, and as tensions rise, old passions resurface. It seems that Gerard’s ‘accidental’ double booking may not be an accident after all…
The Tailor-Made Man, set in Hollywood during the 1930s, is a musical theatre show, which
still strongly maintains the quality of a play.
Exceptionally staged – at the Arts Theatre in London, West End – its creative team,
includes super talented choreographer Nathan M. Wright who, in between his many credits,
also counts the mass movement choreography of the London Olympic & Paralympics
2012.
The stars studded musical production has brilliant actors in the leading roles: Faye Tozer, Mike
McShane and Dylan Turner. Faye Tozer (from the band pop band Steps) delivers
an outstanding and energetic performance certainly not inhibited by the vocal tone
variations the part requires and the upper class mannerism of the early 20th century. Also,
starring undying talent Mike McShane and classically, impeccably beautiful, as much as
skilled, Dylan Turner that has already landed roles in Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales)
and Grease (Victoria Palace) just to mention a few. Full of character Bradley Clarkson
also gives a captivating and dynamic performance. Worth a mention is Kay Murphy
who gives a funny and outstandingly performance in the role of Pola Negri, the famous Polish actress.
Claudio Macor co-wrote ‘The Tailor-Made Man’ book with Amy Rosenthal, adapted
the play and directed it. ‘The Tailor-Made Man’, was nominated for Best New Play in 1995 and
for writer of the year and then some years later was made into a musical. The music is by Duncan
Walsh Atkins and Adam Meggido.
‘The Tailor-Made Man’ is a true old Hollywood story that brings back memories of when
the homosexuality was far from being socially accepted. It is the true story of William ‘Billy’ Haines who was a movie star at MGM, and then became a famous interior designer in Hollywood. It highlights the emotional difficulties, openly declared gay men had to go through including work discrimination
and episodes of verbal and physical violence, all of this surrounded by the Hollywood
creative melting pots of sophisticated artists and a bit of sentimental twist.
The musical will run for a limited eight weeks season until the 6th of April.
When I got sent the press release for Siro-A they were billed as ‘Japan’s answer to the Blue Man Group’. It is high praise indeed considering how successful the Blue Man Group are.
There was buzz about Siro-A before the show even started and celebrities and paparazzi were both out in force. The show started with audience interaction, a hard thing to do with a British crowd, we tend to just sit there and be quiet, even if we think you are the most amazing thing in the world.
The show was a visual feast. Inventive, imaginative, stunning, fun and entertaining. Siro-A gave a performance that was not just good, but also highly intelligent. The audience loved them. They did not make one noticeable mistake all night and it was hard to work out how they managed most of the effects. The show is also funny and mixes real performers with projected images. The six talented people in the group are from Sendai, Japan, and this was their first performance in London.
Their use of lights and magic tricks add to the brilliant physical and dance skills that the group have. The VJing was also very ‘in’ and worked beautifully. VJing (visual djing) had been growing in popularity and the cool kids have known about it for years. I remember going to a VJing evening at the BFI in 2009.
If you want a good night then go along to the Leicester Square Theatre and catch this stunning visual feast. You can win tickets here.
SIRO-A
The multi-award winning, electronic multimedia dance theatre extravaganza presents its London premiere
1st Feb – 22nd April 2013.
“The lovechild of GamarJobat and Sirqus Alfon, this is a technical marvel. Conspiring to combine comedy, dance and technical wizardry with a healthy dose of thumping techno music, live performers superimpose themselves over projected material, … quality family entertainment”. «««« Three Weeks
Siro-A, is an exciting six strong performance group from Sendai, Japan, who have wowed audiences all over the world and are now, for the first time, bringing their unique performance style to London.
The name Siro-A, derived from the Japanese word ‘SIRO’ meaning white or colourless, means to belong to no group or impossible to define. And tough to define they are!
“At one point, I couldn’t tell the difference between live performer and projected image. This is a spectacular visual experience. This Japanese company overwhelm with staggering technological interactions between multimedia, performer and audience member.” «««« Broadway Baby
Often described as Japan’s answer to the Blue Man Group, SIRO-A perfectly fuse modern technology with mime, breath-taking optical illusions, and movement all set to a pulsating electro beat, mixed live every night. Their visually stunning show performed to 30,000 people at the Shanghai Expo, has wowed TED.com audiences in Tokyo and won Mervyn Stutter’s “Spirit of the Fringe” award at the Edinburgh Festival 2011.
New is a spectacular piece of family entertainment, fusing video mapping, laser lights and on stage DJ’s. It’s an interactive, multimedia, physical/dance theatre show combining live electronic music and human body performances with video projection technology and optical illusions. It’s an explosion of light, sight, sound, and movement, seamlessly breaking language barriers with a non-verbal performance that can be enjoyed by all people of all ages.
“A brilliant, bright and beautiful show… some of the most manic and animated human performers you are likely to see anywhere. It’s mime, but not as we know it!” Total Theatre
Now for the first time SIRO-A bring their physical extravaganza to London to the main house of the Leicester Square Theatre from 1st Feb – 22nd April 2013.
SHOW: SIRO-A
VENUE: Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BX
The Shakespeare Conspiracy by Andrew Shepherd is not only a brilliant piece of theatre, but it will also keep you guessing all the way through. Full of twists and turns, the Shakespeare Conspiracy is original and incredibly intelligent. Triumphant theatre in two wonderful acts.
The play is superbly directed by Jack Bowman, Bowman has created a well oiled machine which never dips or loses its energy. Full of pop culture references and brilliant gags, The Shakespeare Conspiracy is riveting.
A special mention must be given for the impressive and realistic fight scenes. They really are something to behold.
The play focuses around Martin Shakespeare, the last remaining descendent of Shakespeare, who is working as a travel agent in Stratford. Martin gets caught up in a 400 year old conspiracy involving The Royal Shakespeare Company, which far from being a theatre company, is actually a branch of government like MI6, and a prison, The Globe Theatre. It turns out that Shakespeare’s characters are real.
The cast of twenty are all well cast and brilliant at their parts. A special notice should be given to Jack Baldwin and Libby Evans as Benedict and Beatrice. They have amazing chemistry and I could not watch them without thinking of the brilliant film, His Girl Friday. Richard Armah as Garfield Oberon and Lee White as Edmond also deserve a special mention.
Andrew Shepherd as Iago was also brilliant. Andrew is eloquent with a wonderful stage presence. There is a funny part int he play when Iago blames his mother for making him a villain. ‘You never had a mother Iago, you are fictional’ he is reminded.
This play is intelligent and witty. You can easily follow it if you concentrate, and you should concentrate, so you do not miss even a second of this stunning play. A must see.
The Man on Her Mind is a subtle comedy exploring the reality of relationships against the imagination of the soul.
Set in the heart of Manhattan, Eleanor anxiously waits for her lover in her 32nd floor studio flat as she disgustedly deletes the countless voice messages of another suitor, Leonard.
Never knowing when boyfriend Jack will arrive, once the confident banker breezes into the room, the chemistry between the pair’s evident as they flirt over a glass of wine and he affectionately calls her ‘Nellie’.
Jack’s forced to hide in the bathroom as Janet, Eleanor’s older sister, pops by to get the gossip on her love life and quizzes her on why she’s not returned her neighbour’s calls.
Sibling rivalry is evident in the interaction; Janet wants to make Eleanor jealous of her ‘perfect’ suburban family life, mocking her sister’s tiny flat and sporadic lifestyle.
The scene then cuts to Leonard’s house.
A slightly nervous character, the audience sees the cluttered state of his mind with dozens of large boxes still waiting to be unpacked despite him moving in several months ago.
Janet and her husband Frank invite themselves in (he tends to leave it wide open) and do their best to find out more about their neighbour who they’ve already marked as Eleanor’s perfect match.
However, once the couple leave, Leonard’s girlfriend confidently strolls down the stairs.
And surprisingly, it’s Nellie, the imaginary concept of Eleanor.
Similarly, Leonard is the physical embodiment of the subconscious Jack.
Ironically, the real Eleanor hates the real Leonard, but somehow he’s manifested himself into her imagination as the perfect man Jack.
And Nellie has been formed from Eleanor, the girl Leonard desperately tried to call and hoped to date.
Once the imaginary Nellie and Jack meet, they play the part of guardian angels, willing their real selves to start a relationship.
And it’s only a matter of time before Eleanor drops her defences and gives Leonard a chance where they both discover they’re truly soul mates.
Written by Alan Hruska and directed by Bruce Guthrie, the pair have composed an original and enigmatic stage production at Charing Cross Theatre for the autumn.
Amy McAllister, who played both Nellie and Eleanor, was the standout actress, delivering a charismatic performance, adapting her persona to fit both the real and imaginary characters.
The themes of love and rivalry were wonderfully played out and the serious idea of what’s real and what’s imaginary was handled with a refreshing comedic twist.
The Man on Her Mind is showing at Charing Cross Theatre till 27 Oct 2012.
Trash by Tom Hunt directed by Kim Moakes
Produced by LittleBerry Productions
A strong ensemble piece with a slightly frantic pace the audience seemed delighted at this witty and cleverly written piece. The subject matter was well chosen and quite competently explored. A difficult ask of a director, the very large cast (and I think the cast was a little too large) Kim Moakes delivered a bold and amusing vision of a student house with an alternative twist.
Despite the rather unwieldy size of the cast there were some standout performances. These included the nicely laconic Noor Dillan-Night ably and cleverly channelling a wannabe urban revolutionary and excellent and strong physical comedy from Adeline Waybey who perfectly captured the bawdy street persona of wild child freagan Vikki. A special mention is Alexis Coward who delivered a wonderful other wordly performance as Curly Kat, brilliantly inhabiting a child-like modern hippy girl who at times appeared to be in a world of her own.
At the risk of repetition the piece did struggle at times due to the large 12 strong cast with certain parts highly confusing as so much was going on. Plus the acoustic properties of the space itself made certain sections quite overpowering. But that said much of the audience seemed to enjoy the slightly muddled and noisy interactions. And my belief is when a full capacity audience are laughing constantly and uproaringly the play must be doing something right. With elements of high farce the piece was both entertaining and funny to watch. Finally I was very heartened at the broad age range of the audience demonstrating that LittleBerry productions can deliver a mainstream piece of theatre and should go from strength to strength.
Intimately showcased in the upper decks of an Islington theatre bar, The Inappropriateness of Love delves into the complexities of the emotion, capturing each character’s hope and struggle to love and be loved.
Performed by Paradigm, a new London fringe repertory company, and written/directed by Sarah Pitard, the dark comedy explores the entangled relationships between six characters, linked together by the affable yet somewhat nerdy, Scooter.
The plot is driven by Scooter’s compulsion to attend his old university friend’s wedding with a ‘plus one’, rather than face the embarrassment and reality of his impending loneliness.
As the story unfolds, the audience is invited to share Scooter’s experience of risk-taking and rejection when it comes to his therapist Jessica, the stilted relationship with his elderly mother and his ignorance of best friend Zoey’s feelings towards him.
In other serious scenes dealing with divorce, cheating and break-ups, the play is given a slight comedic uplift through outspoken, tarty receptionist Stephanie who’s dating senior manager, Darren (therapist Jessica’s ex-husband).
The audience warms to her character, perhaps because of her evident vulnerability and the one-night stand scene with Scooter also provides an awkward, yet funny combination.
In the same way Pitard wrote ‘there’s a little bit of me in all the characters’, I too was reminded of those first pangs of love for a professional figure, a doomed office romance and the tumultuous period with an older, divorced lover.
The Inapproriateness of Love exposes the vulnerability of the heart through thoroughly convincing acting and scenes.
For it’s premier performance this week, it’s well worth seeing at the Hen and Chickens Theatre till 29th September 2012.
Theatre Collection present Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Adapted and directed by Victor Sobchak
Crime and Punishment was always going to be an ambitious undertaking, especially with limited stage space and the necessary shortening of the literary epic for the stage. However there is a great deal to like about this production.
The story itself has always fascinated me, offering psychological insight into the nature of morality, and the many forms of punishment that exist, reaching far beyond simple incarceration. Seeing the play in 2012 also makes me question whether criminals today may be so plagued by guilt and unable to enjoy ill-gotten gains.
We follow Raskolnikov (played with impressive intensity by Shaban Arifi) an anti hero and our central character. Pressured by the poverty surrounding him, he feels forced to kill and rob a woman who by all accounts is morally bankrupt. In the course of this crime he is interrupted by her sister, whom he also kills.
The punishment he brings on himself for these heinous acts – despite intermittently justifying them to himself and, at times, others – is enthralling to witness. With money the motivating factor, both for himself and his mother and sister, it is symbolic that he finds himself unable to use the money at all, becoming a miserable and tortured shadow of himself.
With these issues as the subject, set in Nineteenth Century St Petersburg, the portrayal was always going to be bleak, and while at times the intensive, tortured performances were hard to watch, they felt true to the novel. The use of space, lighting and music was particularly impressive and I really did feel swept away – albeit bleakly – in the performance.
This won’t be a play for everyone and I wonder if people who haven’t read the novel would get as much from it as I did, but overall I would highly commend such an ambitious and largely successful undertaking.
Aria Entertainment Presents
