Review: American Idiot – the Musical at London Arts Theatre

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Have The Time Of Your Life

American Idiot – the Musical

London Arts Theatre

Extended until 22^nd November 2015

Photo: Darren Bell

Green Day are one of the most popular bands of its type since they formed in 1986. They are popular enough to play 2 nights in Milton Keynes in front of 130 000.  Their music resonated with Generation X as they sought to make sense of the world. It was only going to be a matter of time before their music found its way into that latest stage trend: the jukebox musical.

Photo: Darren Bell

With a book by Green Day’s front man Billie Joe Armstrong and original director Michael Mayer, American Idiot is different to the usual jukebox musicals. With its dialogue often limited to stating the date, this show relies more heavily of the song’s lyrics to tell the story. There is no cut and shunting in order to get the story to fit the songs here. The overall fell is much more of a rock opera than a traditional musical. The single act without an interval increases that feel. The fact that it was won 5 awards of which one was for the cast recording shows that it is both popular and features a strong soundtrack.

Photo: Darren Bell

Set in Jingletown, USA, the show begins with news footage of 9/11 before kicking straight into the memorable hit American Idiot. The split level stage frequently features both a lead guitarist (Tommaso Varvello) and a bass player (Brock Eddows), which adds to the authenticity of the piece, as the ensemble dance and sing without missing a note. The story then follows the paths taken by 3 friends. Will (Steve Rushton) stays in Jingletown to look after his pregnant girlfriend Heather (Natasha J Barnes). Tunny (Alexis Gerred) and Johnny (Aaron Sidwell) decide to leave town in order to seek a new future. Tunny is quickly sucked in by a tv ad for the army and enlists. Johnny wonders the big city meeting up with a drug dealer known as St Jimmy and a girl called “Whatsername” (Amelia Lily).

Photo: Darren Bell

Though the soundtrack the lives of the three friends are explored. Thrown in with the explicit lyrics of the American Idiot and 21^st Century Breakdown albums, from which the soundtrack is generated, are hard drugs use, violence and sexually explicated scenes. This is not a show to take the more sensitive members of your family to.

Photo: Darren Bell

The outfits are frequently stunning. The point in which Extraordinary Girl’s (Raquel Jones) nurse outfit suddenly changes into a lit up angel was particularly impressive. Through Racky Plews direction the show flows well into a kinetically charged assault on the senses. Great dance sequences pepper throughout the show despite the heat in the intimate confines of the Arts Theatre. The band, under musical director Mark Crossland, are very tight and the drumming by Alex Marchisone can rival Tré Cool.

Photo: Darren Bell

The show will hit the right note for the fans of Green Day.

This review was written by Stephen Oliver  the North East Theatre Guide Preview from Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo

Read the original North East Theatre Guide preview here: Preview Link

Photo: Darren Bell

On The Web:

Website:  www.americanidiotwestend.com
Twitter:     www.twitter.com/ukamericanidiot
Facebook:  American Idiot UK
Instagram:  ukamericanidiot

Tickets

American Idiot – The Musical at Londons’s Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JB
Performances:  Tuesday – Friday at 8.00pm
Saturday – 2.30pm & 8.00pm
Sunday – 3.00pm & 6.00pm

Photo: Darren Bell

Running time:   90 minutes (no interval)
Ticket Prices:  £15.00 – £65.00 (all seats £25.00 during previews)
Groups 20+    £25.00
Groups 10+    £32.50
Groups of 6   £35.00
* All group rates valid Tues – Fri & Sunday
Main Booking Line:                 020 78368463
Group Booking Line:               020 7836 8463
Access Booking Line:             020 7836 8463

Preview: Jersey Boys at London Piccadilly Theatre

THE SMASH HIT MUSICAL “Jersey Boys”

CELEBRATES ITS 7^TH LONDON BIRTHDAY

ON 18 MARCH

NEW CAST ANNOUNCED

Sunderland born Gary Watson takes on the role of Nick Massi, playing Nick Massi, as the smash hit musical Jersey Boys celebrates its 7^th London birthday on 18 March. 

Gary Watson’s theatre credits include Norman in Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Don in A Chorus Line (London Palladium), G.K. Chesterton in Finding Neverland (Curve, Leicester), Rudolpho in Matilda The Musical (Cambridge Theatre/RSC), and Marius in Les Miserables (Queen’s Theatre).  His screen work includes Victoria Wood’s That Day We Sang (BBC) and the film Cinderelladirected by Kenneth Branagh.

Gary will be starring alongside Michael Watson as Frankie Valli, Edd Post as Bob Gaudio and Jon Boydon as Tommy DeVito.  Sandy Moffat plays the role of Frankie Valli at certain performances.

Also joining the cast of Jersey Boys in London on 10 March will be Simon Adkins (the original Bob Crewe in London), Matthew Cutts, Stuart Dawes, Nicky Griffiths, Joseph Peters, Chris Stoddart and Helen Ternent.  They will be joining Nicola Brazil, Lucinda Gill, Thomas Goodridge, Matthew Hunt, Mark Isherwood, Charlotte Jeffery, Ben Jennings, Matt Thorpe and Ben Wheeler.

Jersey Boys opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre in 2008 and moved to the Piccadilly Theatre in March 2014.  The musical has now been seen by over 20 million people worldwide and is firmly established as one of the West End's longest running and most popular shows.  The show is also currently touring the United Kingdom and Ireland for the first time and has recently celebrated a record-breaking Christmas season at the New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

Jersey Boys is the remarkable true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their rise to stardom from the wrong side of the tracks.  These four boys from New Jersey became one of the most successful bands in pop history, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and sold 175 million records worldwide, all before they turned 30.  The show is packed with their hits, including Beggin’, Sherry, Walk Like A Man, December, 1963 (Oh What a Night), Big Girls Don’t Cry, My Eyes Adored You, Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got), Bye Bye Baby, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Working My Way Back to You, Fallen Angel, Rag Doll and Who Loves You.

Winner of Broadway’s Tony, London’s Olivier and Australia’s Helpmann Awards for Best New Musical, Jersey Boys is the winner of 55 major awards worldwide.  As well as still running on Broadway and in the West End, and on tour in the UK and Ireland, Jersey Boys can be seen in Las Vegas and across the United States on its US National Tour.

Jersey Boys is written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe.  The London production is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team, led by director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, with scenic design by Klara Zieglerova, costume design by Jess Goldstein, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound by Steve Canyon Kennedy and projection design by Michael Clark.  The orchestrations are by Steve Orich and the music supervision and vocal arrangements by Ron Melrose.           

Jersey Boys is produced in London by the Dodgers, with Joseph J. Grano, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Pelican Group, in association with Latitude Link, Rick Steiner, and a small clutch of UK colleagues.

On The Web:

Website:  www.jerseyboyslondon.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/JerseyBoysLondon    

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/JerseyBoysUK

Tickets:

Jersey Boys appears at Piccadilly Theatre, 16 Denman Street, London W1D 7DY

Performances:  Tuesdays – Saturdays at 7.30pm, Tuesday & Saturday matinees at 3.00pm, Sundays at 5.00pm

Current booking period to 25 October 2015

Tickets:  £24.50-£67.50

Box Office:  0844 871 7630

Review: Di and Viv And Rose at London Vaudeville Theatre

A return to our Theatre Blog... Victoria Ling, from 137 Imaging (www.facebook.com/137imaging)  is guest reviewer:

 

Friendship On Stage

Di and Viv And Rose

London Vaudeville Theatre

Thur 22 January 2015 - Sat 23 May 2015

This happens to be the second outing for Di and Viv And Rose.  It was first staged in Hampstead in 2011.  January 2015 saw it take to the West End at The Vaudeville.

Di and Viv And Rose takes us back to 1983 and three girls embarking on university life. Rose (Jenna Russell) is happy go-lucky including her love for men, Di (Tamzin Outhwaite) is happy to explore her lesbian life that she can’t when at home and Viv (Samantha Spiro) who seems pretty uptight and dresses as if she is ‘ready for war!’

Opening of Act 1 is very fast paced. There are three backdrops that lights up each character taking us through their first year of uni life and into the house share of the next two years.  The house share scenes are very light hearted at first, take note of the three bowls when you see it ;o) But then we are thrown into a few unexpected twists and turns with a major event of one character and not the one I thought it was going to be!  It definitely goes from laughter to tears in an instant.  And to me I would say it is one of the two strongest acting scenes (the other being Outhwaites’ monologue in Act 2) or maybe I am just in admiration of the friendship that is showcased in the forming of ‘the cave’.

Act 2 fast forwards to 1998.  The girls have graduated and all live completely different lives. And into a darker stage set of concrete walls! Di and Rose are living through the trails that university life threw at them and Viv’s life is ‘like an arrow’ as she keeps shooting towards her goals. But it is not as plain sailing as that.  Di and Rose are seen as the tight-nit one’s of the threesome and I guess Viv is the hard-nosed support act.  It is this partnership that works and shows us that even a strong bond, there are things that are thrown at us to test if a university friendship can really last when we all go off in different directions.  And why is it that we need a huge event to bring us back together.  Cue more heart-wrenching moments, which are broken by the odd piece of laughter – quite literally.

The thing that drew me to this play was that it is about female friendship formed at university and the life after it, which is similar to my life.  I heard it would make ‘you laugh and cry’ and I did laugh a LOT and verging on tears three-four times!

It is also no lie that the plays soundtrack plays as just as an important part as the script, especially RUN DMC’s feature in it.  Hands-up to the chorography.

In the 2 hours 10 minutes that Outhwaite, Spiro and Russell take to the stage there is so much emotion thrown at the audience. Sometimes it is hard to catch a breath, which is a testament to the actresses.  Maybe this why I cannot give a 5 star rating as it was so fast paced at times with huge subjects. But credit where credit’s due as I was sat at the very back of the stalls and with so much disruption of late arrivals as well as vibrating phones and blue screens it is a wonder that I did not get more distracted following the play. With the acting from these three nothing can stop you becoming enthralled by this indication of what friendship really means.

This review was written by Victoria Ling  for Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Victoria on twitter @LilVik or follow her photography on Facebook (www.facebook.com/137imaging)

On The Web:

Website: www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/di_and_viv_and_rose

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiVivandRose

Facebook: www.facebook.com/divivrose

Duration: 2hrs 20mins Including Interval
Age Limit:12+

Charity:
Di and Viv and Rose are proud to be partnering with breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel!
£3.00 from every £49.50 & £39.50 ticket and £15 student tickets purchased for performances in February will be donated to CoppaFeel! when quoting the promotional code 'COPPAFEEL' either online or by phone.The contribution will ensure more young people are educated about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer to ultimately stamp out late detection of the disease. The charity was initially founded in 2009 by twin sisters Kris and Maren Hallenga after Kris was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 23.
For more information on CoppaFeel! Visit coppafeel.org

Cast:

Di           Tamzin Outhwaite

Viv         Samantha Spiro

Rose      Jenna Russell

Please Note: Tamzin Outhwaite will be appearing until Saturday 28th March 2015

 

Creative:

Author           Amelia Bullmore

Director         Anna Mackmin

Designer        Paul Wills

Lighting         Oliver Fenwick

Sound            Simon Baker

Tickets:

Thur 22 January 2015 - Sat 23 May 2015
Monday - Saturday 7.30pm  Thursday & Saturday 3pm

Prices if booked in person at the Box Office (includes a £1 Theatre Restoration Levy) Stalls: £49.50, £39.50, Premiums £65
Dress Circle: £49.50 Grand Circle: £25, £15

Prices if purchased online or over the phone (includes booking fee and a £1 Theatre Restoration Levy)
Stalls:  £51.50, £41.50, £67 Dress Circle: £51.50 Grand Circle: £26.50, £16.50

Box Office Online: www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/di_and_viv_and_rose

Preview: Sometimes There’s Light across the North East

Moving Dust presents

Sometimes There’s Light

[sometimes there’s dark]

 

Joe Wild - Photo: Roswitha Chesher

Performed in a village hall, an old warehouse, a derelict chapel and the gym of an ex-military barracks, this multi-sensory work uses handheld movable light and contemporary dance to create an intimate meditation on love and loss.

Hosted in a variety of atmospheric, non-traditional spaces across the UK, Sometimes There’s Light [sometimes there’s dark] blends contemporary dance with lyrical text in a sculptural light installation which brings audiences into the heart of the work. Allowing audiences to share space with the five performers and experience dance up close, the work will adapt to each of the spaces across the tour, creating a series of unique, one-off events.

Joe Wild - Photo: Roswitha Chesher

Presented in unusual venues in London and the North East, this cross-artform work draws on the experience of borderlands (between countries and between sea & land) to create a meditation on the fluid boundaries between life and death, and our experience of loss and grieving. Our aim is that engagement with the project will have a lasting effect on people's own encounters with grief, by allowing us more freedom to express our emotional experiences of loss.

Artistic director Kate Sagovsky said, “I spent 6 months on a remote Scottish island where the style and pace of life is very different, and you have left behind many of the assumed norms of the modern world. It seems like life is stripped back to its elemental form: the sea, the sunlight, night and day, good food and the people around you. There was so much laughter, but tears too. It was a place where I could come to terms with lots of pain from loss I had stored up over the years. When I came back to the mainland I wanted to share this experience with other people – to bring them a window of space and a slowing of time to allow reflection on the beauty of life around us, filled as it is both with love and loss, great happiness and great sadness. Most of the text in the show was written on that island and this is my chance to bring a small bit of the island to people around the UK, to allow them to step out of their everyday lives for an hour and engage with something deeper, whatever that might be for them.” 

Joe Wild - 

Photo: Roswitha Chesher

Moving Dust creates experimental performance with an international pool of long-term collaborators. The company’s work spans theatre, dance, installation and large-scale outdoors work, and has been performed at venues and festivals around the UK, including at The Bush, The Arcola (Create Festival); New Wolsey Theatre (Pulse); The Place (Resolution!); and Pleasance Courtyard (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Moving Dust have performed in festivals across the UK but this is the first chance to catch their work in the North East in an entirely new piece which has been commissioned by Dance City to support exciting new work in the North East.

Kate Sagovsky is the artistic director of Moving Dust. She also works as a director, movement director and education practitioner across a wide range of contexts. She has worked at the RSC, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Barbican, and the Southbank Centre. She has been invited to lead work in Japan, USA and South Africa, and attended by selection both the National Theatre Studio Directors’ Course  and  the  Lincoln  Centre  Theater Directors’ Lab. She was nominated in the Off West End Theatre Awards for ‘Best Choreographer’ in 2011.

On The Web:

Website: www.movingdust.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Moving_Dust

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moving.dust.3?fref=tswww.facebook.com/moving.dust 

Cast and Creatives:

Performed by Charlie Ashwell, Sarah Calver, Simon Carroll Jones, Marc Saad & Joe Wild

Devised by Kate Sagovsky and Charlie Ashwell, Ida Ballerini, Sarah Calver, Simon Carroll Jones, Sara Green, Vincent Manna, Garth McConaghie, Edmund McKay, JaneMcLean, Jindeok Park, Marc Saad, Gabriella Schmidt & Joe Wild

Music Composition & Sound Design by Garth McConaghie

Set & Lighting Design, & Production Management by Edmund McKay

Direction, Choreography & Text by Kate Sagovsky

Assistant Director-Choreographer Sara Green

Associate Creative Producer Ida Ballerini

Tour 2014 Produced by DepArts          

Tickets:

Age guidance: 16+

Running time Approx.: 1 hour

Locations: Not performed at a traditional theatre [venue as per location] Venues may be cold so please advise audiences to wrap up warm.

8^th Nov                    Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick-Upon-Tweed

                                 The Barracks, The Parade, Berwick-upon-Tweed

TD15 1DF

                                 £12, £10.50, £9 | 8pm

                                 BOX OFFICE: www.maltingsberwick.co.uk

01289 330999

9^th Nov                    Hindmarsh Hall, Alnmouth

                                 Northumberland St, Alnmouth, Northumberland

 NE66 2RZ

                                 £10, £8 | 4pm

                                 BOX OFFICE: http://mdust.bpt.me

11^th – 15^thNov        Asylum, London

                                 Caroline Garden's Chapel, London SE15 2SQ

                                 £15, £12.50, £10 | 7.30pm (Sat matinee 4pm)

                                 BOX OFFICE: www.ovalhouse.com | 0207 582 7680

22^nd Nov                  Boiler Shop, Newcastle

Stephenson Works, South Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3PE

                                 £12, £8 | 8pm

                                 BOX OFFICE: www.dancecity.co.uk | 0191 261 0505