Preview: Dreamboats and Miniskirts at Newcastle Theatre Royal

Local Actress Elizabeth Carter Returns

For Dreamboats Sequel

Dreamboats and Miniskirts

Newcastle Theatre Royal

Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 January 2015

Washington born and raised Elizabeth Carter returns as Laura in a sensational new musical showcasing the biggest hits of the sixties is set to arrive in Newcastle next month. Dreamboats and Miniskirts, the sequel to smash hit fifties show Dreamboats and Petticoats will bring back ‘the summer of love’ to brighten dark January days! Catch it at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tue 20 – Sat 24 Jan ’15. 

 

Elizabeth Carter as Laura &

Alex Beaumont as Bobby

Photo: Darren Bell

Since its premiere in 2009 Dreamboats and Petticoats has become a musical phenomenon.  Originally inspired by Universal’s multi-million selling album series, it has now played to more than two million people across the UK and boasts seven double compilation albums and a myriad of one off special releases.  Now the creative team has reunited for the sequel – a super-psychedelic celebration of Mersey-beats and swinging sixties sounds.

Elizabeth Carter as Laura & Alex Beaumont as Bobby

Photo: Darren Bell

Dreamboats and Miniskirts isset in 1963, when the world is changing. Bobby and Laura’s single “Dreamboats and Petticoats” is only half a hit. Norman and Sue have settled down to non-marital bliss – and a baby! And Ray and Donna seem blissfully happy…

Photo: Darren Bell

The advent of the Beatles and the Merseyside sound is inspirational. But will it inspire Bobby and Laura to have one more shot at stardom – Norman to “get off the drains” and find that hit parade voice he has longed for, and Ray to realise his ambition and manage a really top pop act!?  All will be revealed in a follow up with the same wit, charm, and great songs as Dreamboats and Petticoats.

Dreamboats and Miniskirts is written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the team behind Goodnight Sweetheart, Birds of a Feather, The New Statesman, Shine on Harvey Moon, Save the Last Dance For Me and of course, Dreamboats and Petticoats, and is produced by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield in association with Universal Music.

Featuring hit after hit from Twist & Shout to Handy Man to Pretty Woman, One Fine Dayand many more, Dreamboats and Miniskirtsis happiness guaranteed.

Elizabeth Carter as Laura

Photo: Darren Bell

The cast features Washington born and raised Elizabeth Carter (Save The Last Dance For Me, Dreamboats and Petticoats) as Laura, Louise Olley (Dreamboats & Petticoats) as Sue, David Luke (Dreamboats and Petticoats, Zaide) as Ray,  Ross William Wild (Grease; We Will Rock You) as Norman and Alex Beaumont (Aladdin & his Magic Lamp) as Bobby. 

                     

Jowheretogo Review from earlier in the tour: Dreamboats and Miniskirts at Civic Theatre

                                                                           

Tickets:

Dreamboats and Miniskirts appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal Tue 20 – Sat 24 January 2015 (Evenings: 7.30pm, Matinees: Wednesday & Thursday 2pm and Saturday 2.30pm). 

Tickets are from £14.00 (a booking fee of 95p - £1.95 will apply to most tickets) and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 or select your own seat and book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk

 

Afternoon Tea is available on Thursday 22 or Saturday 24 January after the Matinee. Enjoy a range of home-made and locally-sourced delicacies served on crisp white linen in our beautifully restored Upper Circle Bar, accompanied by a pianist. Only £14.95, or upgrade to an Afternoon Tea with Prosecco £20.90. Bookings can be made via the Box Office or Theatre Royal website. 

Preview: A Lyrical Dance Concert

A Lyrical Dance Concert

National Tour

Featuring

Gillie Kleiman and Eleanor Sikorski

5 NOVEMBER 2014 - 28 FEBRUARY 2015

Tue 24 & Wed 25 February 2015NewcastleNorthern Stage

Sat 28 February 2015 Berwick The Maltings Theatre

Can a party be a comedy double act? And can cabaret also be a gig or an experimental dance performance?  Gillie Kleiman, Sara Lindstrom and guest performer Eleanor Sikorski have all the answers when they tour the UK with A Lyrical Dance Concert from November until spring 2015.

Number-by-ridiculous-number, Gillie and Eleanor take lyrics of chart hits by everyone from Mariah Carey to Jay Z and dance them out – stretching them, turning them, lifting them and throwing them up in the air.  With joyful irreverence and serious fun, this show insists that pop music belongs to us and it can do what we want it to do.

A Lyrical Dance Concert is a contemporary dance performance with DIY glamour. It is in essence a work of reclamation – music, lyrics and dances are borrowed, and with the help of the audience re-imagined, to offer opportunities exploring questions of value, responsibility, care and reverence.

Visual, participatory, gently political and full of fun, audiences are advised to get their glad-rags on and experience this mixed-up whirlwind of glamorous divas, guitar solos and gangster rappers…

Gillie and Sara, both artists working in dance and choreography, met in an artist’s exchange in France in 2010. Realising almost instantly that they shared a love of the twists of language and song that pop music offers, not to mention a common – and ridiculous – sense of humour, they set about planting the seeds of the show in Gillie’s bedroom.

“We’re so excited to be able to meet people across the country with this show. It’s extra exciting this time around, as our great pal Eleanor Sikorski will be joining Gillie on stage.”

A Lyrical Dance Concert was created in co-production with Dance4, with additional support from Dance City, Northern Stage, MDT (Stockholm), and Konstnärsnämnden (Sweden).  It was premiered at Nottdance 2013 in Nottingham, before touring north east England and the East Midlands. The show received its London premiere at Dance Umbrella 2013. Show development and the 2014/5 tour is supported by public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with additional tour support from Chisenhale Dance Space and Greenwich Dance.

Tour:

Wed 5 Nov, 9pm (doors 8pm), £7/5 Norwich Arts Centre, 51 St Benedicts St, Norwich NR2 4PG, 01603 660352, www.norwichartscentre.co.uk                 

                            

Fri 7 Nov, Greenwich Dance, Borough Hall, Royal Hill, LondonSE10 8RE, 8pm(doors 7.30), £12 /£9, 020 8293 9741, www.greenwichdance.org.uk                                                                                                             

Thu 13 & Fri 14 Nov, Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old St, London EC1V 9LT, 7.30pm, £11, 020 7739 6176, www.shoreditchtownhall.com

Sat 15 Nov, Nightingale Theatre at The Basement, 24 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ.

7pm, £20/£18 (price includes dinner, and double bill ticket with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion ‘Body Not Fit For Purpose’) www.nightingaletheatre.co.uk

Wed 19 Nov, Seven Arts, 31(a) Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, LS7 3PD, 8pm, £8/£6       

0113 26 26 777, www.sevenleeds.co.uk

                                                                  

Tue 25 Nov, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy St, Exeter, Devon EX4 3LS, 8pm, £10/8, 01392 667080, www.exeterphoenix.org.uk

Tue 24 & Wed 25 Feb, Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 7RH, 8pm, £10/8  0191 230 5151  www.northernstage.co.uk

                                               

Sat 28 Feb, 8.30pm The Maltings Theatre, Eastern Lane, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland TD15 1AJ, £11.50/£10/£7  01289 330 999  www.maltingsberwick.co.uk 

On The Web

Twitter: @GillieKleiman #alyricaldanceconcert

Website: www.alyricaldanceconcert.com

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=My_pfP1pqpc

Company Information:

Choreography, original performance, design: Gillie Kleiman and Sara Lindström

Performers for 2014/5 tour: Gillie Kleiman and Eleanor Sikorski

Producer: Beckie Darlington

Additional design: Susie Green

The Cast & Creatives

Gillie Kleiman is an artist based in Newcastleand London. From Gillie’s practice of dance and choreography emerge artworks that manifest as performances, texts, and events, presented in contexts associated with dance, theatre, live art and experimental performance. Gillie is one of a group of artists who run the esteemed BELLYFLOP Magazine, with which her work has been presented at Sadler’s Wells and Dance Umbrella. Independently, her work has been seen at Chelsea Theatre, SPILL National Platform, Siobhan Davies Studios and many other venues and festivals internationally. Alongside her performance-making, she works as a writer, curator, and facilitator, and is a PhD researcher at Roehampton University.

Sara Lindström is an artist from Sweden. Her artistic practice is one of dance and choreography in its broadest manifestations, from live performances to film and site-specific installation work. With MIKS, a London-based dance company, Sara choreographed and performed numerous works between 2005-2011 at Greenwich Dance, Laban, and many more nationally and internationally. Sara has worked extensively as a performer and choreographer with artist duo Lundahl&Seitl, presenting their work at BAC, the Swedish National Theatre, and at the Avignon Festival. Sara’s dance films have been screened widely, and her current creation will be screened on Swedish national television. She is the joint artistic director of multi-arts festival RIK in Norrtälje, Sweden.

Eleanor Sikorski

Eleanor Sikorski is a choreographer and performer whose solo work spans dance, cabaret and comedy. Her latest solos include Big hands, big heart (Dance Umbrella 2014) and Cake (Sadler's Wells Wildcard 2013). She has ongoing collaborations with performer Flora Wellesley Wesley, sound composer Alberto Ruiz Soler and artist Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau. As a dancer she works for choreographers Eva Recacha, Seke Chimutengwende, Alexandre Achour and Igor & Moreno. Eleanor is also a member of BELLYFLOP - an artist-led magazine curating and writing about contemporary dance in Lond

Preview: Lucy Beaumont, Katie Mulgrew, Hayley Ellis at The Witham

Three Northern Ladies 

Walk Into A Bar...

Funny Way To Be Comedy Club's new season gets underway with three of the UK's most exciting female comics - and they all hail from the North of England.

The 2015 programme, based at The Withamin Barnard Castle, kicks off on Saturday 10 January, with a headline appearance from award-winning comedian Lucy Beaumont.

Hull hero Beaumont has a clutch of awards to her name. She’s a 2014 Fosters Best Newcomer nominee, winner of the BBC New Comedy Award in 2012, and a former Chortle Award winner for Best Newcomer. 

Lucy has made appearances on TV in BBC Three's Live At The Electric, and has recently been commissioned to produce her own show for BBC Radio 4, To Hull and Back.

Described by comedy legend Arthur Smith as 'the next Victoria Wood in the making', Beaumont is one of the future stars of comedy.

Lancashire comedian Katie Mulgrew gigs all over the place in the country's best comedy clubs.  She can also be seen on the TV on the CBBC show, The Dog Ate My Homework.

A regular MC around the UK, including her native Manchester, Hayley Ellis' warmth and girl-next-door charm make her hard to dislike, something which has become evident in her success in new act competitions throughout the UK.

In 2014 she presented her debut hour show, We Need To Talk About Kevin, at the Edinburgh Fringe to great success.

Peter Dixon, of Funny Way To Be Comedy Club, announced the show, saying: "A lot has been talked about this last year about the hidden talents amongst many female comedians in the UK. In this show we set out to present an evening that brought together three of the brightest up and coming female comics in the UK today. All three will be presenting highlights from their 2014 sell-out Edinburgh Fringe shows."

Tickets for the show are on sale now from funnywaytobe.com, priced £10.

Tickets

Saturday 10 January: Northern Ladies - Lucy Beaumont, Katie Mulgrew & Hayley Ellis, £10 advanced/£12 on the door, 8.00pm

 Wednesday 21 January: Steve Bugeja, with support, £5, 8.00pm

Saturday 7 February: Alex Edelman, Felicity Ward, Jamali Maddix and Peter Brush, £10 advanced/ £12 on the door, 8.00pm.

Saturday 28 February: Tony Law, £12 advanced/ £14 on the door, 8.00pm.

 Wednesday 11 March: Carl Hutchinson, with support, £5, 8.00pm.

Saturday 28 March: Ray Peacock & Ahir Shah, £10 advanced/ £12 on the door, 8.00pm

Venue: The Witham, 3 Horsemarket, Barnard Castle, Durham, DL12 8LY

Preview: Theatre Royal’s Rita Marks 30 Years As A Panto Dame

Theatre Royal’s Rita Marks

30 Years As A Panto Dame

Chris Hayward, A.K.A ‘Dame Rita’ – the opulently dressed star of the last eight record-breaking pantos at Newcastle Theatre Royal, is this year celebrating 30 glorious years as a panto dame.

Widely regarded as one of the leading lights in pantomime, Chris is renowned for his lavish outfits, wigs and multiple costume changes (14 in total for this year’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), all of which are designed by himself.

Aged 50, and from Newcastle, Chris starred as dame for the first time when he was just 19 years old, playing one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella at the Charter Theatre in Preston.  Not a year has gone by since when he hasn’t donned a wig and heels for the festive season in theatres the length and breadth of the UK and even around the world.

This year, playing ‘Dame Rita the Cook’ in Newcastle Theatre Royal’s record breaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, marks three decades as mistress of the boards for Chris.  In his career he has played one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters no less than 14 times and had multiple turns as Widow Twankey, The Queen , Nurse, Cook, Baroness, Empress and many more iconic dame characters.

Chris’s legions of fans also adore him for his family-friendly jokes and loveable on-stage persona.  Since his return to the region in 2006 when he starred in Aladdin at the Theatre Royal alongside Faye Tozer and panto favourites Clive Webb and Danny Adams for the first time, his local fan base has grown meteorically.  His entrance onstage is universally greeted with a chorus of “Hiya Hinney” from the audience and his finale hat and dress are always a source of much anticipation.

Chris's Nana

Rene Mills in 1937

Born and brought up in Byker, Chris comes from a long line of performers.  Infact, the Hayward clan is something of a theatrical dynasty.  Chris’s Great Auntie Helen Mills performed as a dancer in pantos Mother Goose and Robinson Crusoe at Newcastle Theatre Royal in the 1940s, but it was his beloved Nana Rene Mills who was his greatest inspiration, and whose photo is a permanent fixture on his dressing room table.  A renowned big band singer all over England in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, Rene oversaw Chris take his first steps onto the stage at Newcastle Tyne Theatre in Annie Get Your Gun and The King and I at the age of 13.

Chris has performed Dame in all the UK’s biggest Theatres from High Wycombe to Hull, Bradford to Woking.  His work has also taken him as far afield as Dubai where 17 years ago he played at the World Trade Centre there in front of a sheik and his huge entourage. 

Chris’s many other professional performances include summer season, cabaret and revue working with Danny La Rue, Jim Davidson, Barbara Windsor, Bobby Davroe to name but a few.  He also appeared in the West End’s Cockney Club and his TV credits include Bergerac, Super Gran, The Little and Large Show and many more. 

Chris said: “The last 30 years seems to have gone by in a flash – I simply love what I do.  There’s nothing like the buzz of being onstage, and no more so than in panto – the highlight of the theatrical year.  I’ve had so many amazing experiences and worked with so many incredible talents. There have been highs and lows of course – I was hospitalised with a splinter in my bottom after being dragged across the stage by a faulty prop during Cinderella at the New Theatre Hull in 2000, and my shoes even melted to the stage once after I put out a fire from a faulty Fairy Godmother pyro at Darlington Civic Theatre in 1989.  At the Theatre Royal I feel like I’ve found my spiritual home though and working alongside Clive and Danny is a dream – they are incredible performers and great friends.  Plus, we put on a pretty good show – 95,000 people a year can’t be wrong! This is my true calling and I hope I’ll still be doing it in 30 years time…”

Tickets:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal until Sunday 18 January 2015. Tickets are available from £12 (a booking fee of 95p - £1.95 will apply to most tickets) and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 or select your own seat and book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk