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Dateline:
29th January, 2006
We Will Rock You
to Close
After last week's announcement that the Queen musical We Will Rock
You (Dominion Theatre) had extended its booking period to 7th October,
it has now been announced that the show, the longest-running musical
in the Dominion's history, will close on that date.
The show, written by Ben Elton, will then embark on a national tour
in which, according to the producers, it will "visit every major
city over the next couple of years." It is then expected to return
to the West End.
The show, which was slammed by the critics, proved enormously popular
with the public and, when it closes, will have run for four and a half
years. Productions of the show have opened in Australia, Spain, Russia,
Las Vegas, USA, Japan, and Germany, where it continues to be one of
the highest grossing musicals of all time. To date, more than five million
people have seen the show worldwide, with box office and merchandise
earnings in excess of £200 million.
This year will see the show open in South Africa, Italy, and return
for a second run in Japan.
LIPA to Expand Abroad?
The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, which celebrates its
tenth anniversary this month, could expand outside of the UK, its founding
principal and chief executive Mark Featherstone-Witty has said. ""People
have approached us in Barcelona, Japan, Texas and Colombia to assist
us in the creation of new Performing Arts Institutes," he said.
These approaches, he added, have encouraged them to be pro-active in
the coming ten years. "Rather than passively wait for people to
approach us we will find partners and do it ourselves."
Inspired by the Fame New York High School for the Performing
Arts, he conceived the idea of LIPA and, with the help of ex-Beatle
Paul McCartney, set it up in the school which McCartney attended as
a child. McCartney invested £3m of his own money into the venture
and encouraged his friends to help raise the rest of the £20m
needed for the project. He is still LIPA's patron.
On Monday 30th January - ten years to the day since LIPA's inauguration
- nearly 250 LIPA students and graduates will take part in a gala performance
at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall.
Jeffrey Dahmer Has Been Unwell for Ten
Years
In 1995 Alan Francis and Mike Hayley took their play Jeffrey Dahmer
Is Unwell, based around an obsession with the serial killer, to
the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe. It then transferred to the
Hampstead Theatre. Now, ten years later, they are reviving it at the
King's Head, Islington, from 6th February (previews from 31st January)
to 12th March. The two-hander will be directed by playwright and director
Anthony Neilson (Normal, Penetrator, Trash, Stitching,
The Wonderful World of Dissocia).
Chicago
to Move
The London production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago is to transfer
to the Cambridge Theatre. The production opened at the Adelphi in November
1997 and will close there on 22nd April, re-opening at the Cambridge
on 28th.
Broadway Musical at
the Lyttelton
The Broadway musical Caroline, or Change (book and lyrics by
Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori), which began off-Broadway at
The Public Theater in 2003 and transferred a year later to Broadway's
Eugene O'Neill, is to have its UK premiere at the National's Lyttelton
Theatre in October. It will be directed by George C. Wolfe, who directed
the off-Broadway and Broadway productions.
Kushner is best known in the UK for Angels in America whilst
Tesori wrote the music fort Thoroughly Modern Millie.
No casting or firm date for the show which garnered six Tony nominations
in 2004, have yet been announced.
Hay Fever
at the Haymarket
Booking for Sir Peter Hall's production of Noël Coward's Hay
Fever, which stars Judi Dench and Peter Bowles and runs at the Theatre
Royal Haymarket from 6th April to 5th August, opens today, 29th January.
Also in the cast are Belinda Lang, Kim Medcalf, Charles Edwards and
Dan Stevens.
Saucy Jack
to Close Early
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens (The Venue, Leicester Square)
is to close a a week early on 4th February, after a two month run.
Index
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News
Archive A-L
News Archive M-Z
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