London Theatre Tickets 2008

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LONDON THEATRE

London, EN 39 Steps, The Criterion Theatre  Comedy  Absurd Person Singular Garrick Theatre  Comedy  Avenue Q No?l Coward Theatre (formerly Albery)  Musical  Billy Elliot Victoria Palace Theatre  Musical  Blood Brothers Phoenix Theatre  Musical  Boeing-Boeing Comedy Theatre  Comedy  Buddy...The Buddy Holly Story Duchess Theatre  Musical  Cabaret Lyric Theatre (Shaftesbury)  Musical  Chicago Cambridge Theatre  Musical  Dealer's Choice Trafalgar Studios - Studio 1  Comedy  Desperately Seeking Susan Novello Theatre (formerly Strand)  Musical  Dirty Dancing Aldwych Theatre  Musical  Fiddler on the Roof Savoy Theatre  Musical  Grease Piccadilly Theatre  Musical  Hairspray Shaftesbury Theatre  Musical  History Boys, The Wyndham's Theatre  Drama  Jersey Boys Prince Edward Theatre  Musical  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Adelphi Theatre  Musical  Les Misrables Queen's Theatre  Musical  Lion King, The Lyceum Theatre  Musical  Lord of the Rings, The Drury Lane (Theatre Royal)  Musical  Mamma Mia! Prince of Wales Theatre  Musical  Monty Python's Spamalot Palace Theatre  Musical  Mousetrap, The St Martin's Theatre  Thriller  Phantom of the Opera, The Her Majesty's Theatre  Musical  Sea, The Haymarket (Theatre Royal)  Comedy  Sound of Music, The London Palladium  Musical  Stomp Vaudeville Theatre  Performance  Wicked Apollo Theatre (Victoria)  Musical  Woman in Black, The Fortune Theatre  Thriller

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We are offering London Theatre Tickets in 2008
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LONDON THEATRE SHOWS

London Theatre - Grease

The smash hit musical about high school love returns to bring smiles to the faces of all wannabee T-Birds and Pink Ladies.

Voted the greatest musical of all time in a Channel 4 poll, Grease follows Danny and Sandy, two very different teenagers who fall in love in 1950s America . The show features hit songs including You're The One That I Want, Hopelessly Devoted and Summer Nights.

Danny Bayne and Susan McFadden, the leads in this production, were cast via public vote on reality television show Grease Is The Word.

Music by: Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey;
Lyrics by: Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey;
Book by: Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey;
Director: David Gilmore;
Producer: Paul Nicholas and David Ian;
Choreographer: Arlene Philips;
Cast includes: Danny Bayne, Susan McFadden, Siobhan Dillon

Previews from: 25 July 2008
Opening night: 8 August 2008
Booking until: 23 February 2008
Times: Mon-Thu 19:30 (8 Aug 19:00 ), Fri 17:00 & 20:30 (27 Jul 19:30 ), Sat 15:00 & 19:30

London Theatre - The Emperor Jones

Former convict Brutus Jones, with the help of his double-crossing ally Smithers, talks his way into the dictatorship of a West Indian island. When the people revolt he is forced to try to escape, but the trackers are on his trail and he is working his way through his bullets.

This production of The Emperor Jones was first staged, to much acclaim, at the Gate in 2005. Director Thea Sharrock reconceived it for the Olivier stage, while Paterson Joseph returns in the lead role.

Playing as part of the Travelex £10 season.

Author: Eugene O'Neill;
Director: Thea Sharrock;
Cast includes: Paterson Joseph

Previews from: 22 August 2008
Opening night: 28 August 2008
Booking until: 8 September 2008
Times: Mon-Sat 19:30 , Mats 14:00 In rep - please check schedule for dates

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is ‘An ear splitting, stamping, clapping and sing-a-long riot that paints a permanent smile on the audience's face' Sunday Express

Based on the legendary rock band the Rolling Stones, Satisfaction blends the extraordinary energy and genius of the award-winning (Laurence Olivier Award, Evening Standard Award) choreographer Peter Schaufuss with the forbidden sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll spirit of the 60s and 70s in a thrilling raw musical-dance spectacular where each track tells its own story. Twenty-four original Rolling Stones hits come alive on stage through dance, music and light in this unique performance.

Satisfaction brings the intensity of the rock 'n' roll era back, projecting the audience into a vibrant and fascinating multimedia experience. Including the favourites Ruby Tuesday, Sympathy For The Devil, You Can't Always Get What You Want and (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.

Valid performance times*: 28 August ( 20:00 ) and 29 August ( 19:00 ).

*Valid on top two priced tickets, first two performances only, subject to availability. Booking fees apply.

The First Night Feature: Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Multi-coloured sheep, tutu-wearing ears of corn and a singing camel were all on stage at the Adelphi last night. Oh, and Lee Mead. After all the hype, the winner of the reality television contest Any Dream Will Do faced the press and an audience of celebrities as he fulfilled his dream of playing Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's most jolly of musicals. Caroline Bishop went to see how Mead got on…

It is a schools favourite, produced countless times in amateur productions and a frequent visitor to the West End – Webber and Rice's 1968 musical has become one of the most enduring, and it is easy to see why. Based on the biblical story of Jacob and his 12 sons, it is an uplifting tale of personal triumph over hardship, as Joseph, Jacob's second youngest and most popular son, is sold as a slave by his brothers but struggles through his suffering to become the Egyptian Pharaoh's right-hand man. Told in storybook fashion by a Narrator, with a children's choir providing endearing backup vocals throughout, this is a hugely fun, witty musical which doesn't take itself seriously.

All eyes were, of course, on Mead last night, the 26-year-old who fought off competition from 11 other potential Josephs to win the chance to play the lead role in the West End . Attractive enough to make the jealousy of his motley crew of brothers and the advances of Potiphar's wife seem understandable, and with a strong enough voice to carry off the show's most heartfelt song, Close Every Door, Mead last night proved that he could fill a leading man's shoes, after years of understudying. He also cuts a fine figure in a loin cloth – though the losing Josephs may be glad they didn't have to wear the getup Mead finds himself in as Potiphar's slave.

But this is very much an ensemble cast and Mead must be glad to be among such company – particularly the amusingly entertaining gaggle of brothers led by John Alastair as Reuben, and Dean Collinson, who rises to the occasion as the Elvis-impersonating Pharaoh who steals the show in the second half with his rock ‘n' roll dreaming. Preeya Kalidas is a glamorous and dainty Narrator, and members of the ensemble are unfailingly energetic in their various guises.

There are many guises to be had – I had forgotten quite how eclectic in musical style this show is. The ensemble leap about the stage in a psychedelic disco for Go Go Go Joseph, get in the calypso groove for Benjamin Calypso and do some bop-shoo-wallying as the Pharaoh explains his dreams. A particular – if fairly random – favourite is Those Canaan Days, a lament by Joseph's brothers, sung in intentionally overcooked French accents. Rice and Lloyd Webber created a new song especially for this production. If a little extraneous, King Of My Heart does give the Pharaoh some more time in the spotlight as he sings this ballad which squeezes as many Elvis song titles as possible into the lyrics.

It was a long time ago, but Rice and Lloyd Webber must have had immense fun creating this musical, and Mead and the cast gave the impression it is still thoroughly enjoyable to perform. Not even the breakdown of the revolving stage, which caused a ten-minute hiatus in the performance, could dampen the evening's spirits. A great night out for both children and adults, anyone who fails to feel a tug at the heartstrings must have a hard heart indeed.

The First Night Feature: The Hothouse

The Hothouse is touted as Pinter's funniest play. A wry smile at a sharp line is easy to imagine, but can Pinter really be relied on for laughs? The Lyttelton provides the setting for a mysterious institution staffed by equally mysterious people, and Jo Fletcher-Cross was in the first night audience to witness the strange goings-on…

Written in the winter of 1958, Harold Pinter then put aside The Hothouse and went on to write his classic 1959 play The Caretaker. It wasn't until 1979 that he looked at it again and decided that it was the right time for a production of this dark and cryptic play. At the time it was written, it must have seemed like some kind of nightmare vision of the future, but a few decades later, with East and West mired deep in the Cold War, and surveillance and subterfuge the common currency of international relations, the themes of The Hothouse would have been all too relevant. In today's suspicious political climate they continue to have a chilling significance, perhaps even more so with our growing awareness of the underhanded investigative techniques of Western governments.

Plunged into darkness and blasted with loud live jazz, the curtain rising on Hildegard Bechtler's astonishing set feels like being flung into another world. Although the era is theoretically unspecified, the design is firmly late 1950s, backed up by sharply tailored costumes. It is immediately obvious this is some kind of institution, and most likely a hospital; the two-storey set reveals a large office and staff room painted the kind of dirty cream that only government buildings are ever decorated in, an empty, dishevelled room of concrete and heavy doors above, and corridors with strip lighting stretching off from each floor. The sense of claustrophobic space created is truly incredible; it really does feel like there is a huge, sprawling Victorian building onstage.

Head of the institution, Roote (Stephen Moore), is looking out of the sash windows down to the yard below as the play opens; outside it is snowing. Bad news is brought to him by Gibbs (Finbar Lynch), a young pretender to the institutional throne; patient 6457 has died and, even more shockingly, patient 6459 has just given birth to a baby boy and claims the father could be almost anyone on the staff. It is not turning out to be a good Christmas day.

Just who these patients are – or any of the patients – is never clear. Are they political dissidents, hopeless psychiatric cases, dangerous criminals? They could be any or all of these; all we know is that Roote claims to try and help them as much as possible. The greasy and knowing Lush (Paul Ritter), who does some of the best hair flicking with his hideous fringe that I've ever seen, reveals that it is a rest home, but that is as much information as we are getting. And even that could be a lie.

Some higher power is hinted at; a heavy-handed government with the capacity to turn a blind eye to dubious undertakings as long as the correct paperwork is filed. The staff are in the despotic grip of Roote and his unseen superiors, and their lack of personal communication suggests that private conversation is a privilege rather than a right in this desperate place. The suggestively named new-ish recruit Lamb is only too keen to participate in an experiment proposed by Gibbs, but his over-eager questioning would seem to be key to his fate.

Ian Rickson's direction is powerful and bold, with fast scene changes and exchanges of dialogue so sharp you could cut yourself. Flashes of co-ordinated movement and subtle, strange body language signal the involvement of Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, and superb evocative lighting by Peter Mumford cleverly highlights each and every gesture.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the hideous themes explored, The Hothouse is often absurdly funny, the unease of the staff effectively reflecting the life we are living today and holding up a mirror to the sometimes ludicrous behaviour of those in power, and those who carry out their orders. Who is living in The Hothouse? Perhaps we are.

We are offering London Theatre Tickets in 2008
For more information on London Theatre tickets, please contact one of our consultants