The winners of the 2023 National Dance Awards were announced at a ceremony at The Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill Gate, the first time the event has been held there. The awards—voted by the 60 dance critics of the Critics’ Circle—are for performances seen during 2022. The winners came from a list of 70 nominations… Continue reading National Dance Awards 2023
Month: May 2023
Edinburgh Untapped Award winners
Edinburgh Untapped Awards this year have gone to: The winning shows were chosen from a shortlist of 15 taken from more than 180 applications. The Edinburgh Untapped Award helps early- and mid-career companies to make their Edinburgh Festival Fringe premières with an award of £10,000, a package of paid-for PR and marketing support, an enhanced… Continue reading Edinburgh Untapped Award winners
The Spongebob Musical
The cartoon Spongebob Squarepants originated in the USA, which does not have a pantomime tradition. Moving the cartoon to the stage, therefore, results in a sophisticated, glossy musical rather than the cheap and cheerful panto that might have been produced in England. Actually, there is so much singing—the opening number lasts ten minutes—the show is close to… Continue reading The Spongebob Musical
RSC comes of age with new As You Like It
A company of actors aged mostly over 70 have been cast in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s next production of As You Like It. Omar Elerian who is directing his first production for the company said, “when the RSC got in touch about directing the play, I was really keen to explore it from a fresh and… Continue reading RSC comes of age with new As You Like It
A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Benjamin Britten’s opera cuts Shakespeare’s opening scene. The elopement and pursuit of the lovers has already begun; except we are not in a forest. There is no forest. In Tobias Theorell’s production, the actors remain in a messy, overcrowded house, a psychological location. Rodrigo Sosa Dal Pozza’s Oberon is a counter tenor in drag, with… Continue reading A Midsummer’s Night Dream
RAD screens Frederick Ashton film
The Royal Academy of Dance will host a special screening of a film celebrating choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton on 16 May at its HQ in London. Created by filmmaker Lynne Wake, Frederick Ashton: Links in the Chain was commissioned by The Frederick Ashton Foundation in 2021 to mark its 10th anniversary and features historic footage and interviews… Continue reading RAD screens Frederick Ashton film
The Misandrist
The Misandrist, that is someone who hates men, as misogynists hate women. In this case that is Rachel, though well into the second act, she has a very long tirade naming all the reasons why she hates them that Elf Lyons delivers like a battle broadside barrage, which perhaps is more distrust than hate in… Continue reading The Misandrist
Rakie Ayola makes Chichester debut
Rakie Ayola will make her Chichester debut in the UK première of Mom How did you meet the Beatles? by Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P Kennedy. Adrienne Kennedy’s autobiographical play, told in the form of a one-act, near-monologue to her son Adam, is a tale of a young playwright in the Swinging ’60s rubbing shoulders with a… Continue reading Rakie Ayola makes Chichester debut
Frederick Ashton: Links In The Chain
Though Lynne Wake’s Ashton film is available for free on YouTube (thirty thousand viewers and counting), The Royal Academy of Dance presented it (on a larger screen) at their new headquarters with a post-film Q&A featuring Wake, Vadim Muntagirov and Francesca Hayward, principal dancers with The Royal Ballet, Lynn Wallis, former Artistic Director of RAD,… Continue reading Frederick Ashton: Links In The Chain
Buxton to preview 2023 shows
A preview of the 2023 Buxton International Festival is to be held in the Derbyshire town and guests will be introduced to a new musical based on the early life of Vera Brittain. The event at the Octagon in the town’s Pavilion Gardens on Wednesday 17 May will include extracts from The Land of Might-Have-Been. The… Continue reading Buxton to preview 2023 shows