This week I launched ShentonStage DAILY, a new daily newsletter that’s intended to land in people’s email boxes every morning on weekdays by 7.30am and on weekends by 9am. It alerts you to my daily column and other news headlines to keep you on top of what’s happening in the theatre world every day!
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This was also a week in which another round of West End shows announced their returns: The Phantom of the Opera (from July 27), Mary Poppins (August 7), Hamilton (August 19) and Wicked (September 15).
They follow earlier announcements for the returns of Prince of Egypt (from July 2), Pretty Woman (July 8, but at a new venue, the Savoy), Come from Away (July 22), Tom Stoppard’s Leopodstadt (August 7), Mamma Mia! (August 25), The Woman in Black (September 7), Wicked (September 15), & Juliet (September 24) and Only Fools and Horses (October 1).
Controversy, however, attended the return of The Phantom of the Opera; though Andrew Lloyd Webber previously assured the public that the original Phantom would return, after the original production was stripped out of the theatre (and the entire company released from their contracts), it turns out that this isn’t the case at all, and instead it is the ‘new’ touring version that is being brought in, with a substantially smaller orchestra (14 players as opposed to 27). And company veterans like Philip Griffiths, who has been in the show for a record 30 years, was not invited back to return to the show, even though he asked to be.
This cavalier treatment of both the orchestra and actors was met by a brutally insensitive response from producer Cameron Mackintosh, who told the Telegraph last weekend, “I do find it odd why musicians would want to keep doing the same thing year after year. I believe we should not be holding jobs for actors or musicians ad infinitum. This is not the Civil Service, we’re creating art.” The irony of course, is that he has held the same job himself for the last fifty-something years, “creating art” (and a lot of money) in the process.
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SUNDAY APRIL 25
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/that-was-the-week-that-was-april-18-24/
NEWS OF THE DAY:
POLITICAL TWEET OF THE DAY:
MONDAY APRIL 26:
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/april-26-update-whats-returning-and-whats-new-in-the-months-ahead/
NEWS OF THE DAY:
THEATRE COMMENT OF THE DAY:
MY THEATRE TWEET OF THE DAY:
THEATRE COLUMN OF THE DAY:
CARTOON OF THE DAY:
TUESDAY APRIL 27
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/april-27-the-rotten-stench-of-contempt-for-people-from-the-government-to-its-people-and-from-producers-to-their-orchestras-and-audiences/
NEWS OF THE DAY:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 28
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/april-28-will-there-be-a-flood-of-new-producers-after-the-pandemic/
HAPPIEST INVITATION OF THE DAY
THEATRICAL TRIBUTE OF THE DAY:
WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
BEYOND THE WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
REGIONAL THEATRE NEWS OF THE DAY:
THEATRE QUESTION OF THE DAY:
THEATRE EDITORIAL OF THE DAY:
ANOTHER U-TURN ON THE HORIZON?
POLITICAL SKETCH OF THE DAY:
THURSDAY APRIL 29
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/april-28-producers-have-jobs-for-life-but-not-the-actors-or-musicians-that-they-need-for-their-shows-until-they-start-using-digital-versions/
WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
BEYOND THE WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
OTHER THEATRE NEWS:
SCOTT RUDIN TWEET OF THE DAY:
FRIDAY APRIL 30
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/is-boris-johnsons-one-way-route-to-freedom-going-to-need-a-u-turn/
WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
BEYOND THE WEST END NEWS OF THE DAY:
REGIONAL THEATRE NEWS OF THE DAY:
TOURING THEATRE NEWS OF THE DAY:
OTHER THEATRE NEWS:
SCOTT RUDIN (AND OTHERS….) TWEET OF THE DAY:
LONDON MAYORAL ELECTION TWEET OF THE DAY:
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: THEATRE CRITIC LOOKING FOR LOVE OF THE DAY:
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SATURDAY MAY 1
My column for today is here:
https://shentonstage.com/may-1-is-it-time-for-living-theatrical-dinosaurs-to-face-extinction/
NEWS OF THE DAY:
BIRTHDAYS OF THE WEEK
SUNDAY APRIL 25: Tony Christie, 78; James Fenton, 72; Al Pacino, 81; Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76
MONDAY APRIL 26: Carol Burnett, 88; Susannah Harker, 56
TUESDAY APRIL 27: Anna Chancellor, 56; Sheena Easton, 62 (pictured above left in 42nd Street at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2017); Sally Hawkins, 45 (pictured above right with Rafe Spall in Constellations at the Royal Court, in 2012); Kevin McNally, 65; Neil Pearson, 62; Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England, 75
WEDNESDAY APRIL 28: Elizabeth LeCompte, theatre director, The Wooster Group, 77; Ann-Margret, 80
THURSDAY APRIL 29: Daniel Day-Lewis, 64 (pictured above left, as Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989; and also below, in Another Country in the West End in 1983); Cheryl Kennedy, 74; Uma Thurman, 51 (pictured above, in The Parisian Woman on Broadway in 2017, with Blair Brown)
FRIDAY APRIL 30: Tony Harrison, poet/playwright, 84; Kit Hesketh Harvey, 64; Steven Mackintosh, 54
SATURDAY MAY 1: Joanna Lumley, 75; Julian Mitchell, playwright, 86 (pictured above, poster for his play Another Country, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in the West End in 1983); Yasmina Reza, playwright, 62 (pictured above right, original 1996 West End cast of her play Art); Una Stubbs, 84