Disney’s legendary musical The Lion King is leaving London’s West End for Bristol Hippodrome before embarking on its first ever UK tour, it was announced today.

The award-winning show, based on Disney’s epic 1994 film, has been seen by over 65 million people worldwide since its Broadway premiere in 1997 and will soon welcome its 10 millionth visitor at the Lyceum Theatre in London.  In 2011, The Lion King, which is in its 13th year at London’s Lyceum Theatre, completed its best financial year, smashing the industry record for highest annual gross box office in West End history. It has also just celebrated its 5th year on Broadway.

The cast and creative crew will be based in Bristol from early July, with the production opening at the Hippodrome in the Autumn. It will then enjoy an 11-week run in Bristol, before heading up to Manchester for Christmas. With a company of 52, The Lion King will visit 10 cities in the UK & Ireland over two and a half years, with further dates to be announced.

Disney’s The Lion King was brought to life for the stage by Director and Co-Designer Julie Taymor. She draws upon her immeasurable experience of various theatrical styles and cultures to tell the compelling tale of Simba, the young lion cub, as he journeys through life and struggles to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and his destined role of King.

“We continue to be thrilled by how UK audiences have enjoyed The Lion King in London, and have long wished to also share this production with audiences nationally.” said Thomas Schumacher, Producer and President Disney Theatrical Productions. “Following years of planning, and after receiving the counsel of some very smart friends in the British theatre world, we are delighted to be launching a production that conveys Julie Taymor’s epic vision and at a moment that feels absolutely right.”

Tickets go on sale on Wednesday February 22, from the Hippodrome Box Office – Tel: 0844 871 3012

Dreamboats and Petticoats

Dreamboats and Petticoats
The Bristol Hippodrome – until Saturday, February 4

Either/or questions are a great way of defining character. Tea or coffee? The Beatles or the Stones? Dogs or cats? Mickey or Donald? Bugs or Daffy? There’s a scene in Dreamboats and Petticoats where the producers had to answer just such a defining question.

It’s Laura’s sixteenth birthday. This is a Rock ‘n’ Roll jukebox musical, so which song is it going to be? Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” or Neil Sedaka’s “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen”? Sleazy old Chuck never stood a chance.

This is a good-time show about wholesome British teenagers playing table tennis in a youth club and dreaming about one day becoming Americans (how long ago does that seem?). When sex does rear its ugly head, it’s disapproved of by just about everyone onstage. So Neil – surely the least sexy singer in the history of pop – was a shoo in.

Dreamboats isn’t American Graffiti, it isn’t even Grease. If anything it’s a UK musical version of Happy Days with the male lead Bobby (David Ribi) playing Richie Cunningham and his singing and romantic rival Norman (Ben James-Ellis) a version of The Fonz (with a touch of Buzz Lightyear over-confidence thrown in for good measure).

The good-girl songwriter Laura (Samantha Dorrance) spends most of her time in a school uniform as a cross of Dirty Dancing’s Baby when she is still in the corner and Grease’s Olivia Newton-John before she invests in the tight trousers.

By pure chance a lot of the characters happen to have names that encourage easy transitions into songs Laura does indeed want to be “Bobby’s Girl” whereas Norman, “The Wanderer” , has his eye on the local “Little Town Flirt”, the “Jezebel” known as “Runaround Sue”. Lucky really.

It’s impossible to stay cynical about Dreamboats and Petticoats. That would be taking it too seriously. It’s been designed to be nothing more than a very slickly produced fun night out and it does that job very nicely thank you. Before the stage show D and P was a compilation CD that became a surprise hit when it sold millions of copies to a mostly older audience. Someone was smart enough to realise that if that nostalgia crowd liked listening to old pop songs they might also pay money to watch those same old pop songs being sung and danced to onstage. It worked, and continues to work every night.

Nearly all of the opening night audience at The Hippodrome were older than X Factor graduate Terry Winstanley – and he plays Bobby’s dad. Everyone was up on their feet for the big finish – with much jiving in the ailes.

But it isn’t easy to create a hit musical, even a jukebox one based on such an apparently firm financial calculation. So the producers were smart enough to hire Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran (the creators of Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart) to weave a story around the songs and write plenty of gags and funny set-pieces of theatrical business to make sense of it all.

The singing’s good. The choreography is crisp and energetic, the music all played live with no song allowed to outstay its welcome (many are cut down to a verse and a couple of choruses). The band is good, tight and unusually features two girl sax players (a baritone saxophone twinned with layers of petticoats producing a surprisingly sexy combination). There are also some nice touches of period detail like the boys eating Wagon Wheels while the girls dance around their handbags.

I wonder if one day there’ll be a jukebox musical set in late seventies punk Britain, with a band live onstage doing impersonations of The Pistols and The Clash while a cast in Mohican wigs perform a song and dance representation of the Poll Tax riot? I’d like to think so – nostalgia is a wonderful thing.

You’ve read the review, now listen to Andy Batten-Foster’s interview with X Factor graduate and star of the show Terry Winstanley…

Lord of the Dance at Bristol Hippodrome

The Lord of the Dance
Bristol Hippodrome, until January 29

The composer and violinist Paganini would occasionally confound his musical competitors by deliberately breaking strings during his performances. Just at the point where they considered what he was doing was already on the very edge of human ability, he’d prove he could go still further.

Jimmy Page during the Zeppelin days would do something similar. Already playing faster and more stylishly than any of his rival guitarists he would effortlessly change up a gear in the middle of a song to play at twice or sometimes four times his original speed.

This is a fantastically cool way to show off and the same device is used by The Lord the Dance troupe now at The Bristol Hippodrome. Just as the audience believes the dance has reached an impossible point of complexity and syncopation it shifts up to a previously unimaginable level of virtuosity. Not only is this hugely impressive, it also has the effect of being overwhelmingly uplifting. It brings tears to the audience’s eyes as they silently mouth “Wow”.

There’s lots of other big, impressive stuff happening too. A classic story of good versus evil, another of love versus lust, a graceful chorus line of nymph-like women dancers set off by a muscular bunch of tough guys, state of the art lighting, pyrotechnics and video projection, a rock-band loud soundtrack and a spectacular “duelling violins” sequence where a breath-taking mash-up of traditional Irish jigs and reels is performed in a distinctly non-traditional style – two very glam fiddlers strut the stage in mini-skirts and very high heels. The whole package blows your socks off.

There are some areas of mild concern. Act one is stronger than act two. Because the show is driven by a pre-recorded soundtrack there’s no real opportunity for spontenaity (the cast must know what time they’ll be coming off-stage to the second) and, though it might seem a contradiction, the staging is sometimes so slick that it seems a little cold, almost too perfect.

But these are tiny niggles in a massively self-assured piece of ultra-professional entertainment that has been honed over the years to hit every emotional button; from the cocky little tics and personal mannerisms of the hero Lord (I bet Michael Flatley was great in the role during his performing years), to the quite beautifully performed songs that comment on the narrative.

It is Michael Flatley’s great genius that he recognised how traditional Irish dance, instrumental music and song could be lifted out of pubs and county fairs and transformed into an extravaganza that sells out the world’s biggest theatres and super-stadia.

As a choreographer he also deserves huge praise for realising how timeless dance skills could be harnessed to tell a story and define character. The Lord of the Dance might well be – in terms of audience figures alone – the biggest show on earth. Based on this Hippodrome performance it is also one of the greatest.

Rescue Me by Far Out Man Theatre

The Bierkeller theatre this week unveiled their first production of their inaugural season, a piece of new writing called ‘Rescue Me’, by local company Far Out Man Theatre.

The space, which is commonly used as a gig venue, has real potential as a theatre as it is extremely flexible and can be transformed for each new production. The artistic director of the theatre has also announced grand visions for the venue, including a 30-strong musical and a spoken word event and is optimistic that the venue can make a real impression on Bristol’s theatre scene. The Winter/Spring 2012 season includes Moby Dick and Romeo and Juliet, so these big productions should be a truer test of the capabilities and versatility of the theatre.

After five years of waiting for a theatre license and with such ambition for the space, it is a surprise that they would open with a piece of new writing by an unknown playwright, and disappointingly, it is a decision which doesn’t pay off.

Rescue Me focuses on six broken women in a refuge home, each of whom is fleeing an abusive husband. Their stories are all dark and sad, but are written in such a way that makes the characters seem two-dimensional and difficult to believe. The performance is filled with GCSE psychology and feels like it could have been written in GCSE Drama, with unnecessary blackouts and a story that spirals wildly out of control. By the time the lights go down for the final time, the play has encompassed undercover police, long lost relatives and a child trafficking ring, and it all feels a bit far-fetched.

The all-female cast all did a fantastic job, given the circumstances, but were struggling against a script which was impossible to believe and characters which needed a great deal more development.

Jared Morgan, who wrote and directed the piece, is clearly very ambitious and deserves credit for trying to write a feminist play which tackles such weighty issues, but could do with a bit more guidance.

I look forward to returning to the Bierkeller Theatre to see what more can be done in the space, but hope they take a bit more care when selecting productions in future.

Words: Max Boon

Rescue Me by Far Out Man Theatre at the Bierkeller Theatre runs from Jan 22 – 26. Performances start at 8.15pm. Tickets £10 on the door.

Sister Act at the Bristol Hippodrome

By Kelly Jobanputra

Most people would agree that the all-round entertainer Whoopi Goldberg’s part in Sister Act is a tough act to follow. However the two people who are playing her part in the Bristol Hippodrome’s opening show of the stage adaptation of that film tonight are doing a more than adequate job.

Yes, that’s right, two people. Cynthia Erivo played the part of wannabe star Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence in the first half but after an unusually long interval we’re now watching Gemma Knight Jones fill these shoes.

The buzz of the audience has remained uplifted despite the slightly longer half way break and lots of them have broken into an excitable applause as soon as the curtain has started to edge up again. They’re ready for more of the same of what they got in the first half – amazing soulful voices, loud 70s costumes, fantastic sets and an on-going humourous script.

A totally different soundtrack from the film means the audience have no idea what’s coming in terms of song but the storyline is like the film.  All of the tunes are catchy in this performance and a clear favourite during the first half is ‘When I find my baby’.

In a nutshell it’s a song sung by Curtis who is the character that’s trying to find the main part Deloris because she witnessed a shooting that he was involved with. Unknown to him, Deloris has slipped away under a witness protection programme and is currently Sister Mary Lawrence at the Church Of Angels.

What makes this song so funny is the way it’s sung in such sweet, smooth tones (complete with beaming smiles on the faces of Curtis and his backing dancers) despite the fact that he’s talking about killing Deloris in a horrific way when he finds her.

It’s during this particular part of the show that we meet the role of TJ, played by Tyrone Huntley. This show is his first professional debut and oh how the audience love him and his terrible moonwalking.

It’s hilarious watching Deloris trying to fit in as a nun when she clearly hasn’t got a religious bone in her body and would rather have a drink and wear her knee highs than get involved with the lord. Against the odds, the audience are witnessing a massive change as she starts to find her place by teaching the vocally challenged nuns to become a harmonious choir. This once awful group of singers end up with voices of perfection, they learn scales and master true talent.

Denise Black is the wonderful (rather unhappy with how the choir is turning out) Mother Superior. She sings the line: “Celibate nuns out their shaking their buns.”

Tonight’s theatre goer is ending up in a privileged position as they’re all witnessing a grand climatic performance set for a Pope. The result is a standing ovation from everyone and overheard talk of having to see this show again before it moves on from this city. They’ll have to be quick, they only have until the 21st…

Wednesday 11^th – Saturday 21^st January 2012

Performances:Wed 11^th , Fri 13^th, Tues 17^th, Fri 20^th at 7.30 pm. Thur 12^th , Sat 14^th, Wed 18^th, Thurs 19^th, Sat 21^st at 2.30 pm & 7.30 pm. Sun 15^th at 3.00 pm. No show Mon 16^th

Tickets: £18.50 – £48.50

www.sisteractthemusical.com

Robin Cousins in Teen Angel

Bristol skating legend Robin Cousins will swap the ice rink for the stage to guest star as ‘Teen Angel’ in the musical Grease during its short season at the Bristol Hippodrome.

The former Olympic champion and Dancing on Ice judge will be in the city for one week, between April 2 and 7, starring in the show which has been on tour since May last year.

“After being part of Grease in the West End and on tour last year, I am very excited to be re-joining this fantastic cast,” he said. “I can’t wait to return to the Hippodrome and have the cast feel a great Bristolian welcome.”

Following its four-year London run, and for the first time in more than five years, the West End show began a new tour last spring. Grease premiered at the Edinburgh Playhouse in May and has since played venues throughout the UK and Ireland. It will continue around the UK in 2012 with confirmed venues in Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Crawley, Nottingham, Northampton, Stoke and Sheffield.

Performances will be on Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm; on Friday at 5.30pm & 8.30pm; and Saturday at 5pm and 8.30pm. Tickets cost between £13 and £40, with concessions available on certain performances.

For more information, visit www.greasethemusical.co.uk

The Hoff starring as Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the Bristol Hippodrome

Peter Pan
Bristol Hippodrome
Until Sunday, January 8

This year’s panto at the Hippodrome is such a gloriously strange and schizophrenic production that it will have pantomime traditionalists foaming at the mouth within seconds. There we are, act one, scene one in the Darling childrens’ nursery in Victorian London when suddenly – making a surprise entrance even before Peter flies in through the window – are three Supremes-style Motown Divas belting out a pop song.

This moment sets the tone for the whole evening; throughout, the traditional pantomime story is constantly being stretched and subverted by contemporary references, songs and modern day jokes. I loved every minute.

Obviously David Hasselhoff – The Hoffmeister himself from Baywatch and Knightrider – is the big star as Captain Hook, so the show’s soundtrack inevitably shoehorns in his musical hits “Hooked on a Feeling” and “Jump in my Car” regardless of them having nothing to do with the plot.

The Hoff’s an okay singer, but not much of a hoofer or actor but no-one cares because he’s a larger than life, genuine movie star with massive stage presence and a fabulously self-deprecating sense of his own absurdity.

Many of Hook’s lines deliberately feed the Hoff myth; when Wendy starts screaming he says: “Stop that noise it reminds me of my first marriage.”

Swashbuckling about the stage in a preposterously over the top pirate costume that makes Jack Sparrow look underdressed, he clearly loves taunting the jeering kiddies in the crowd: “You know you love me, you know you do.” The Hoff’s a hoot and was born for panto.

The other true star of the show is Andy Ford. You may not know his name, but he’s famous in the Neverneverland of panto – this is his eighteenth – and he’s simply the best supporting player and comedian there is. Last year Barbara Windsor apparently insisted he be in Dick Wittington before she signed her Hippodrome contract and I can see why.

Playing the rubbish pirate Smee (he’s just too loveable to be properly wicked) he’s a wonderfully physical comic and the scene where he, The Hoff and some conspicuously camp pirates perform “I’m too Sexy” will stay with me for a long time. Yet he’s every bit as successful at working with four young children brought up on stage to sing a traditional audience participation sing-a-long about Smee’s favourite food – pasties! (Lots of Yo, Ho, Ho and Yum, Yum, Yum here as we all join in.)

The sets, costumes and special effects deserve a mention, too. It’s no expense spared on the lavish and colourful depiction of Neverland or, indeed, on the hi-tech projection techniques that enhance the flying sequences. Peter and the Darling children swooping through the night sky of London is nowadays more like a three dimensional flight simulator than someone in slack tights dangling on a wire. Although there is one frankly odd moment when those Motown Divas (played by Lakesha Cammock, Donna Hines and Linda John-Pierre) appear as gravity defying mermaids hovering over Dead Man’s Cove. I’d like to know what inspired the show’s director Ian Talbot to come up with that idea, and how I can try some.

All the money for this production has been spent on The Hoff, Andy Ford and the staging so don’t expect much from anything or anyone else. Robert Rees plays Pan rather earnestly and Janine Esther Cowell seems to be channeling a young Olivia Newton-John as Wendy who never really stands much of a romantic chance with Peter (Tiger-Lily is a much hotter number).

Peter Pan at the Hippodrome is a fabulous night out that I can unreservedly recommend to anyone but the staunchest traditionalist (as a final seasonal touch the theatre had even arranged for a sprinking of fake snow to be falling as we rejoined the real world). But I finally recognised a low whirring noise that I’d heard in the background all night as the sound of J.M. Barrie spinning in his grave.

I believe pantomime works best when it breaks all the rules in order to deliver as much fun as possible, so felt completely satisfied by this irreverent production – but if you’d prefer a classic telling of the Peter and Wendy story go and see that instead.

Listen to our interview with David Hasselhoff…

Listen to our interview with Andy Ford (www.andyford.biz/index.htm)…

The Hoff will star at Bristol Hippodrome

David Hasselhoff stars at the Bristol Hippodrome this Christmas in Peter Pan. As Hoff the Hook, he told Bristol24-7 that his character is “crazy, out of his mind and full of himself. I’m very loud and it’s very funny!”

In this interview, hear him talk about his his global fame and how people have a strange giggling disease when they meet him… Click the link below to listen.

Jason Howard and Samantha Womack in South Pacific (Picture: Simon Annand)

South Pacific at Bristol Hippodrome
November 22 – December 3

This latest musical treat to come to The Hippodrome is the real deal. It’s lavishly staged, boasts a top-notch cast, is packed with classic Rogers and Hammerstein show tunes, contains beautifully – crafted set pieces and features all the muscular exuberance you could wish for: you almost expect the pent-up sexual frustration of the singing and dancing Seabees to make them cartwheel right into your lap – especially during There is Nothin’ Like a Dame.

This production of South Pacific also has an impressive back-story. First staged at New York’s Lincoln Centre Theatre it went on to win seven Tony awards and played to sell-out houses on Broadway and at London’s Barbican. It’s director, Bartlett Sher, has been praised for re-inventing the show; re-discovering it’s darker elements and re-emphasising it’s underlying theme of racial prejudice. He’s certainly achieved that; this is now a show with some unexpectedly troubling – even sinister – moments, but these are skillfully balanced with feel-good elements to produce an evening that has genuine gravitas while remaining hugely enjoyable.

For 90% of its first act South Pacific appears to be a simple love story that’s staged within an elegantly simple set framed by wooden blinds (“Venetian” blinds seems the wrong term to use in the context of the South Pacific – “Tahitian” perhaps?). It is World War II and the American Fleet is fighting the Japanese. Young and naïve nurse Nellie Forbush (Samantha Womack), a self confessed “Cock-eyed Optimist” as her first song describes her, swaps her home town of Little Rock for a posting to a Pacific island where she immediately falls in love with a middle-aged and wealthy French plantation owner (Emile, played by the internationally acclaimed opera star Jason Howard).

While Nellie tries to work out whether Emile is really the man for her (she knows next to nothing about him) the show delivers a lot of very good songs – whichever way she’s leaning. When she’s keen on him we get Some Enchanted Evening and I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy and when the romance is looking a bit iffy we have I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair.

Either way, a happy ending seems inevitable. But Nellie is completely knocked sideways in the final scene of Act One, when she discovers Emile is the father of two mixed-race children from a previous relationship. Weirdly, she has no problem accepting that her new love was a murderer in his home country, but apparently having sex with a “native” woman is far worse a crime. Nellie is shocked to her core, suddenly horrified by the man she thought she loved. Emile is equally thunderstruck, but because he finds her irrational prejudice incomprehensible.

This is not the only uncomfortable moment in South Pacific. In a separate story-line, US Lieutenant Cable (Daniel Koek) is forced to consider what life would be like if he chooses to marry a Tonkinese bride instead of returning to his All-American sweetheart. In what must be Oscar Hammerstein’s angriest lyric, he rages against institutionalised prejudice, “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate. You’ve got to be carefully taught.”

There’s also a shockingly sinister interpretation of Happy Talk. I previously considered this to be a fluffy little song about how “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?” but here it’s sung by Bloody Mary, a scheming, manipulative Tonkinese wheeler-dealer so desperate to marry her daughter off to an American serviceman that she acts as her pimp to get the job done. Sung by Loretta Ables Sayre (who starred in the original Lincoln Centre production) Happy Talk weaves a poisonous, malevolent spell that casts another dark shadow – albeit briefly – over this most unusual musical.

South Pacific has two big set pieces where the audience can expect something special – There is Nothin’ Like a Dame and The Thanksgiving Follies. Neither disappoints here. The “Dame” number is our introduction to the Seabees who burst onto the stage with big grins, plenty of pecs, and a brilliantly choreographed display of energetic gymnastics. The guys immediately had the Hippodrome audience beaming; great dancing, and no sissy stuff.

The “Follies” is a beautifully home-spun entertainment for the troops staged and performed by the nurses (with a few surprise guests). Nellie’s the centre of attention and Samantha Womack delivers a cracking version of Mary Martin’s original Honey Bun routine in an over-sized sailor suit. But what makes this part of the show really swing is how every element – the costumes, the set, the singing and the dancing – has been carefully designed to look endearingly amateurish and un-professional. Everything is just that bit “off”; some notes are not quite reached, some dancers end up on their bottoms.

Outstanding in both routines is Alex Ferns as the crafty comic-relief Luther Billis. Known best for his role as Trevor in EastEnders, Fern is a revelation here, exuding star quality with every move. His Follies “guest star” performance in grass skirt and coconut-shell bra had the Hippodrome crowd roaring it’s appreciation.

Indeed it’s hard to fault any of the cast. Samantha Womack sings and dances impeccably while bringing exactly the right level of innocent charm to the role of Nellie – she effortlessly makes the audience love a silly young girl whose blinkered prejudice makes her not easily lovable. Jason Howard brings enormous authority to the stage as Emil – although I found his classically trained operatic style sometimes too formal.

Daniel Koek, on this showing, could easily become the next Russell Watson (if he wants to be), but special praise must go to Loretta Ables Sayre. I’ve already described how her performance of Happy Talk raised the song to an extraordinary theatrical experience, but throughout the show she shuffles around the stage as a spell-binding but threatening presence that’s every bit as scary as the shrunken human heads she peddles.

South Pacific is really something special, and with lots of enchanted evenings still on offer before it closes next month, go and see it while you can.

Jason Howard and Samantha Womack in South Pacific (Picture: Simon Annand)

There’s a tremendous buzz surrounding the latest and lavish big-time musical opening at the Bristol Hippodrome on Tuesday.

This most recent re-invention of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is the acclaimed New York Lincoln Centre Theatre’s production which won seven Tony awards and has played to packed houses on Broadway and at The Barbican in London.

This classic musical set on a Pacific island during World War II has a cast and live orchestra of 50 and stars Samantha Womack (once Ronnie Branning in EastEnders) as a naïve, small-town US Navy nurse, Nellie Forbush. She has some serious growing up to do when she falls in love with an exiled Frenchman who is also the father of two mixed race, half – Polynesian children.

Nellie’s struggle to accept them restores an element of racial prejudice that gives this version of the show new gravitas; director Bartlett Sher has re-inserted sections that were cut for being too controversial before the show’s original premiere in 1949.

In another story-line the American serviceman, Lieutenant Cable, considers the prejudice he might face if he marries an Asian woman. His song exploring this, You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught, was originally criticised as indecent and even pro-communist!

But the “message” of South Pacific is cleverly interwoven with a succession of show-stopping musical numbers including There is Nothin’ Like a Dame, Younger Than Springtime, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair and Some Enchanted Evening, so the audience never has to wait very long for another great song.

The cast also includes the internationally acclaimed baritone Jason Howard and Tony Award-nominee Loretta Ables Sayre as ‘Bloody Mary’, a Tonkinese “big mama” desperate to marry her daughter off to a dashing US officer.