Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily that is e-mailed to subscribers every morning (to subscribe, send message to ShentonStageMailingList@gmail.com), and is also available online here.
NEW & RETURNING SHOWS IN LONDON, NEW YORK AND BEYOND
My weekly updated list of new and returning shows in the West End, New York and beyond is here, including the week’s openings and shows newly in previews.
I will be reviewing GET UP STAND UP! – The Bob Marley Musical on this site on Thursday, and THE SHARK IS BROKEN on Friday.
TO READ IN FULL, CLICK HERE: https://shentonstage.com/october-18-update-latest-scheduled-new-returning-shows/
OVERNIGHT REVIEW OF THE DAY
Last night saw the opening of writer Richard Norton-Taylor, and director Nicolas Kent’s latest verbatim plays, constructed out of transcripts of public enquiries, that were once a staple of Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre when Kent ran it. Running instead at Notting Hill’s Tabernacle (to November 13), prior to a run at Birmingham Rep (Nov 16-20, Grenfell: Value Engineering is reviewed today by Dominic Maxwell in a four-star review in today’s Times.
“The writer, Richard Norton-Taylor, and the director, Nicolas Kent, have edited down thousands of hours of cross-examination from an inquiry that began in 2017 and is due to end next year. Their title is pointed: value engineering describes the construction process of finding ways to pay less to achieve work of the same standard. Since Grenfell, they tell us, it is a euphemism for “cost-cutting at the expense of safety”. It’s hard to emerge from this production feeling otherwise. Ron Cook [pictured above right] heads a cast of 13 with a tremendous, furrowed intelligence as the main questioner, Richard Millett QC. Kent gets low-key, outstandingly naturalistic performances from a cast testifying on a mocked-up inquiry room set (by Miki Jablowska and Matt Eagland).”
POSTER OF THE DAY
Love this poster for this musical theatre concert in Sevenoaks! It inspired me to suggest they hold a competition to guess the names of each of the shows that make up the logo; and they’ve duly launched one!
TODAY’S THEATRE BIRTHDAYS