The week’s theatre new, reviews, birthdays and more in tweets from London, the regions and Broadway
“Freedom Day” finally arrives tomorrow (July 19), after a week in which COVID infection rates have risen to alarming levels — today saw another 48,161 people testing positive, with 740 patients admitted to hospital, to a total of 4,313 in the last seven days, up nearly 40% on the previous week.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned just yesterday:
And as Robert Peston tweeted yesterday:
On Friday, my local village church announced this:
Meanwhile, ahead of tomorrow’s press performance of Cinderella, critics received the following notification today:
This ruling has come very late in the day. Given that we’ve known about the intention to ease the lockdown entirely from tomorrow for a full week, since Boris Johnson declared his intention to go ahead with “Freedom Day” last Monday, it’s surprising that this seems to have come as a surprise at all.
As I tweeted,
It seems to me that this is a serious failure of leadership from SOLT/UK Theatre, who — as the trade body representing UK’s leading theatres and producers, is there to set and guide policy. But they’ve simply left it, like Boris Johnson has left it to the country, to a matter of personal choice about what measures they actually take.
MY COLUMNS AND REVIEWS OF THE WEEK
Sunday
- My column for today is here: https://shentonstage.com/that-was-the-week-that-was-july-4-10/
Monday
- My column for today is here: https://shentonstage.com/july-12-update-latest-scheduled-new-returning-shows
Wednesday
- My column for today is here: https://shentonstage.com/july-14-freedom-day-confirmed-but-shows-are-already-falling-over/
Friday July 16
- My column for today is here: https://shentonstage.com/july-16-a-day-of-encore-pleasures
MY REVIEWS AND REVIEW TWEETS OF THE WEEK
- South Pacific at Chichester Festival Theatre (my new “local” theatre, pictured at the top of this column) (opened Tuesday July 13):
My tweets before the show:
My tweet after the show:
My full review is here: https://shentonstage.com/south-pacific/
- Seeing Starting Here, Starting Now (again, at Waterloo East):
- Anna X at the Harold Pinter Theatre (seen Saturday July 17, reviews embargoed to that night):
- After Life at the National’s Dorfman:
LONDON HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
REGIONAL/ TOURING AND FESTIVAL HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
CD NEWS OF THE WEEK
COVID NEWS TWEETS OF THE WEEK
THEATRE BIRTHDAYS OF THE WEEK
FAREWELLS OF THE WEEK
AND FINALLY, SOME FAVOURITE PERSONAL TWEETS OF THE WEEK
- This is where I live now!
- This was nine years ago…..