Tag: theatre

Tickets On Sale For Spring Shows At Gala Theatre

By on 20th December 2016in Events

A new production of Willy Russell’s classic play Educating Rita is among the highlights of another packed season at Gala Theatre.

The spring programme at the Durham City venue also includes a varied and exciting line-up of comedy, music, film screenings and much more.

Intelligent, funny, and as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1980, Educating Rita is a modern classic. Hairdresser Rita is unhappy in her job. With a thirst for knowledge, she signs up for an Open University course in English Literature, where her tutor Frank is a middle-aged alcoholic. Forming an unlikely bond, brash Rita and academic Frank begin to inspire each other.

The Gala-produced show follows September’s critically acclaimed The Fighting Bradfords, which was the venue’s first theatre production outside of its pantomime for six years.

Educating Rita runs from Tuesday, 4 April to Saturday 8 April, with a two-for-one ticket offer for Gala members on opening night.

There’s more live theatre in February, with The Empty Nester’s Club. Mum Vicky shares her story of empty bedrooms, fresher’s flu, boyfriends, long goodbyes, motorway service stations and trips to Ikea. She also tells how she fought back to be the woman she is today.

Presented by the John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield, who return to Durham after last year’s Shafted!, The Empty Nester’s Club is at Gala Theatre on Monday, 6 February and Tuesday, 7 February.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) presents The Tempest via the big screen on Friday, 3 February. The production sees Simon Russell Beale return to the RSC after 20 years to play Prospero in a ground-breaking and unforgettable show.

On a distant island a man awaits. Robbed of his position, power and wealth, his enemies have left him in isolation. But this is no ordinary man and no ordinary island. Prospero is a magician, able to bend nature to his will.

There’s a second RSC screening on Wednesday, 26 April with Julius Caesar. As the race to claim the empire spirals out of control, betrayal turns to violence in Shakespeare’s epic political tragedy.

The new season also brings more screenings from the National Theatre’s NT Live programme. Game of Thrones star Lucian Msamati takes on the role of Amadeus on Thursday, 2 February, while The Affair’s Ruth Wilson stars as Hedda Gabler on Thursday 9 March.

Spring also brings music to Gala Theatre with songs and sounds to suit all tastes.

The Pitmen Poets share songs and stories on Sunday, 5 February and there’s a chance to relive the music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr on Saturday, 25 February with The Rat Pack Vegas Spectacular.

Elkie Brooks, one of the most popular singers the UK has ever produced, performs on Sunday, 5 March. With numerous hit singles and million-selling albums, Elkie promises an evening that will be a treat for fans new and old.

Also taking to the stage are the Yamato Drummers, who will be captivating audiences with an explosive visual spectacular on Tuesday, 11 April, while guitarist and singer-songwriter Chantel McGregor, showcases a bigger and bolder rock sound on Thursday, 13 April.

There are also plenty of laughs lined up with a gaggle of top class comedians set to entertain audiences over the coming months.

Susan Calman celebrates her 10th year in comedy with a brand new show, which she brings to Gala on Sunday, 12 February.

And, later in the month, on Friday, 24 February, audiences can expect a heady mix of spontaneous stand-up and outlandish musical talent courtesy of Alex Horne and The Horne Section.

In The Sound of Mucus, showbiz legend Count Arthur Strong pays tribute to one of the best musicals he can remember, recreating the salient and poignant moments for the audience’s enjoyment. Demand for tickets has led to a second date being added, with the show now running on Wednesday, 22 February and Thursday, 23 February.

Publican, politician and philosopher Al Murray – The Pub Landlord embarks on a common sense campaign to re-Great Britain in his brand new show at Gala on Saturday, 18 March, while Lee Nelson is back on the road, visiting Durham on Sunday, 30 April.

Other comedy highlights include Love Island narrator Iain Stirling (Monday, 27 February), Mock the Week’s Andy Parsons (Sunday, 23 April) and writer, journalist and DJ Danny Baker (Wednesday, 8 March).

Fans of Gala’s regular The Comedy Store slot, meanwhile, can snap up a season ticket. Valid for three shows (Sunday 29 January, 26 February and 16 April), it means a saving of £2 per show.

The new season at Gala also includes plenty of fun for all the family with a selection of shows aimed at younger theatre-goers.

Sponge is a fabulously kitsch adventure for babies aged from six months to children under four and their grown-ups. At Gala on Friday, 24 February and Saturday, 25 February, the show is infused with audience participation, improvisation and multi-sensory experiences.

Dare you take on the dangers of Dinosaur World? Grab your compass for a journey across uncharted territories to discover a pre-historic world of astonishing and remarkably realistic dinosaurs. The whole family can enjoy the interactive show on Saturday, 15 April and Sunday, 16 April.

The Scarecrow’s Wedding is at Gala on Tuesday, 18 April and Wednesday, 19 April. From the creators of The Gruffalo, this truly heart-warming show is bursting at the seams with style, wit, drama and wedding bells.

Robin Byers, Durham County Council’s service manager for place and experience, said: “Gala is well established on the touring circuit for many of the country’s top comedians, musicians and performers, and each season we try to select the very best of that work for our audiences.

“We feel we have a really strong season this spring, and we know it will appeal to our regular Gala customers, as well as bringing new people to the venue.”

To view the full spring programme and book tickets, visit Gala Theatre box office, call 03000 266 600 or go online at www.galadurham.co.uk

Panto Improv For Grown Up’s

By on 15th December 2016in What's On?

It’s panto time at Gala Theatre – but audiences are encouraged to leave the kids behind for a very different Christmas show this Friday.

For one night only, The Suggestibles will be taking over the Gala stage on Friday, 16 December for an evening of panto improvisation aimed at grown-ups.

The Newcastle-based comedy improv group will be staging their own pantomime but with no script, no score and no kids.

The off-the-cuff, off-the-wall show will see audience suggestions turned into spontaneous scenes, skits, stories, sketches and songs.

Expect the unexpected but previous performances have included goodies, baddies, fairies, soppy love songs, scary bits and bags of sweets.

This is the first time The Suggestibles have appeared in Durham and to mark the occasion, they will be joined by special guest Niall Ashdown. A member of the Comedy Store Players, Niall was a regular on Whose Line is it Anyway?

Tickets for the performance, which starts at 8pm, are priced at £17.50.

To book, visit Gala Theatre box office, call 03000 266 600 or go online at www.galadurham.co.uk

Guys & Dolls Announces All Star Lineup For Theatre Royal

By on 26th February 2016in Entertainment

An extra dose of glitz and glamour has been confirmed for the tour of Guys and Dolls to Newcastle Theatre Royal…

It has been announced that the star line-up will include Richard Fleeshman (Coronation Street, Ghost the Musical, Call the Midwife) as Sky Masterson, Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2, Emmerdale, The Colbys) as Nathan Detroit, Louise Dearman (Wicked, Evita) as Adelaide and Anna O’Byrne (Love Never Dies) as Sarah Brown.

This glittering production of gamblers, gangsters and night-club singers rolls into Newcastle on Tuesday 22nd March, direct from rave reviews in the West End. The Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Guys and Dolls features dazzling choreography by world-renowned Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta alongside Andrew Wright, whose credits include Chichester Festival Theatre’s Singin’ in the Rain and is directed by New York’s Gordon Greenberg.

Audiences will be transported to the sizzling sidewalks of New York, where they’ll meet Nathan Detroit, who is desperate for money for an illegal dice game… and he needs it fast. Not to mention a 14-year engagement with nightclub singer Miss Adelaide, whose patience is finally running out. Enter notorious gambler Sky Masterson, a guy who can never turn down a bet, and straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown, a doll with a heart of ice. Nathan’s wager is that Sky has to romance Sarah by taking her to Havana for dinner, and in return he’ll provide a dozen ‘sinners’ for Sarah’s mission. Is this one bet Nathan can’t lose?

A joyous and vibrant celebration of Prohibition-era New York, Guys and Dolls first premiered on Broadway in 1950 and captured the optimism and energy of post-World War Two America. This hugely popular and multi award-winning musical, based on the colourful stories by American journalist Damon Runyon (renowned for his vivid fictional depictions of the gamblers, hustlers and nightclub singers of New York) features some of Broadway’s greatest musical numbers, including My Time of Day, Luck be a Lady and the show-stopping Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.

 

Completing the cast are Jack Edwards as Nicely Nicely Johnson, Peter Harding as Arvide Abernathy, Anthony McGill as Lt Brannigan, Mark Sangster as Benny Southstreet, Melanie Marshall as General Cartwright, Craig Pinder as Harry the Horse/Joey Biltmore, Cameron Johnson as Big Julie, Christopher Howell as Rusty Charlie. The ensemble includes Eamonn Cox, Jamal Crawford, Jonny Godbold, Ross Lee Fowkes, Aron Wild, Kiel Payton, Matthew Whennell-Clark, Ruthie Stephens, Bethany Linsdell, Hannah Cauchi, Chloe Chambers, Danielle Stephen, Abigayle Honeywill and Lucy Ashenden.

Guys and Dolls is directed by Gordon Greenberg, who has directed plays and musicals at major theatres across America and Europe, written for television and stage, and runs the musical theatre program at The New Group in New York, where he is based. He directed the current revival of Guys and Dolls for Chichester Festival Theatre, which is now running in London’s West End. He will direct his adaptation of Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn on Broadway in October.

 

The music and lyrics for Guys and Dolls are by Frank Loesser, whose credits include How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and the song Baby, It’s Cold Outside. The book is by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Burrows’ credits include How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Swerling’s credits include the seminal film It’s A Wonderful Life.

Guys and Dolls plays at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday 22nd March to Saturday 2nd April. Tickets are from £17.50 (pay less online) and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge).

Story Of Indian Stowaway Comes To Bishop Auckland

By on 19th February 2016in Entertainment

A stowaway is set to slip into Bishop Auckland Town Hall this month, as ‘the bright young things of British theatre’ bring their latest show to County Durham…

 

On Wednesday 24th February, as the venue continues to take part in Febfest, a three week programme of arts events across the town, the award-winning company Analogue bring their tale of an extraordinary journey in search of an impossible future to the south Durham stage.

Stowaway, which was inspired by real-life stories, tells of a man from India who, desperate to change his life, hides in the wheel arch of a commercial airliner bound for the UK – only to hours later be found frozen in the car park of a DIY superstore in a leafy outer London suburb.

With the skeleton of a plane cutting across the stage, the play flies back and forth through time and place to explore a journey that leaves the man far from home and adrift from everything he knows.

Next week also sees Jackass Youth Theatre take to the stage to perform a new play, What Are They Like, which examines the changing nature of the relationship between parents and their children, as adolescence takes its grip and adulthood beckons.

The play, by Lucinda Coxon, was especially written for young performers and, through the course of the show (on Monday 22nd February) the troop will take on existential angst, mood swings, fashion fiascos, terrifying physical changes and never having enough money… and that’s just the parents!

Tickets for Stowaway – which is suitable for theatregoers aged 14 and over – cost £10 or £8 for concessions. Tickets for What Are They Like – which is suitable for all ages – cost £6 and £4 for concessions.

To book for the shows, which both take place at 7.30pm, call Bishop Auckland Town Hall’s Box Office on 03000 269 524 or visit the venue in person.

Find out more about the plays by visiting www.bishopaucklandtownhall.org.uk.

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty Returns To Theatre Royal

By on 18th February 2016in Entertainment

The UK’s most popular dance company, New Adventures, returns to Newcastle Theatre Royal this Spring with Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, a gothic tale for all ages…

This ground-breaking production heads to Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday 5th to Saturday 16th April.

Directed and choreographed by the ‘hottest’ choreographer in the world right now, Sir Matthew Bourne OBE, and from the UK’s most popular dance company, Sleeping Beauty is a revival of the new classic, giving audiences one more chance to see the final piece in the trio of Tchaikovsky masterpieces.  With sumptuous sets, costumes and evocative lighting, the audience will be transported in time.

Returning to the central role of Aurora in this first revival is rising star Ashley Shaw. Ashley recently played Lana in the triumphant revival of The Car Man, and also played Kim in Edward Scissorhands, Sugar in Nutcracker, and the title role in Cinderella. Cordelia Braithwaite made her debut with New Adventures in Swan Lake in 2013, and has since featured in this year’s revival of The Car Man, covering the role of Lana. Cordelia makes her debut as Aurora this season; her first Principal role with New Adventures.

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty premiered in 2012, and was the fastest selling production in the company’s history. Sleeping Beauty was created for New Adventures 25th birthday celebrations and completed Sir Matthew Bourne’s OBE trio of re-imagined Tchaikovsky ballet masterworks that started in 1992 with Nutcracker and, most famously, in 1995, with the international hit Swan Lake. This dazzling production has won the hearts of thousands, and smashed box office records across the UK and at Sadler’s Wells.

The leading role of Leo will once again be played by Dominic North and Chris Trenfield, who co-created the role in 2012.

Perrault’s timeless fairy tale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa in 1890. Bourne takes this date as his starting point, setting the Christening of Aurora, the story’s heroine, in the year of the ballet’s first performance; the height of the Fin-de-Siecle period, when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forward in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era; a mythical golden age of long Summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day; a world more mysterious than any fairy story!

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday 5th to Saturday 16th April (Evenings: 7.30pm, Matinee: Thursday 2pm, Saturday Matinee 2.30pm). Tickets are from £17.00, and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge).

CBeebies Star Brings Fun-Filled Children’s Show To Durham

By on 10th February 2016in Entertainment

CBeebies star Sid Sloane is bringing a fun-filled adventure to Durham’s Gala Theatre this half term, and it’s sure to knock your socks off…

 

The children’s TV presenter and host of dressing up show Let’s Play will take families on a heroic quest from the bottom of the sea to the depths of the jungle and outer space, as he looks to find out just what’s happened to his favourite footwear.

Along the way, mums, dads and children aged three and over will meet funny characters, play games, sing songs, and even help to create a little magic – all of which is sure to leave you with a smile on your face, and a spring in your step.

Tickets for Sid’s Show, at 2pm on Sunday 14th February, are priced £12 for adults, £10 for concessions, and £40 for a family.

To book, call the Gala box office on 03000 266 600, visit the venue in person, or go to www.galadurham.co.uk.

John Godber Brings Mining Drama To Durham Gala Theatre

By on 3rd February 2016in Entertainment

Miners will take centre stage this month, as BAFTA Award-winning playwright John Godber brings his latest play to Durham’s Gala Theatre…

 

Shafted! follows the lives of former pitman Harry and his wife Dot – played by Godber and his wife Jane Thornton – in the thirty years after the strikes of 1984, as the pair struggle to settle into new jobs and to rebuild their community.

Fresh from its premiere at the Theatre Royal Wakefield, the comedy arrives in Durham on Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th February.

For more information about the show, which will be performed at 7.30pm each night, or to book tickets – priced £15 or £13 for concessions – call the Gala box office on 03000 266 600, visit the venue in person, or book online at www.galadurham.co.uk.

Dance Powerhouse Bring Picasso Paintings To The Stage

By on 2nd February 2016in Entertainment

The UK’s longest established contemporary dance powerhouse, Rambert, are back in Newcastle this year with a brand new show celebrating the dual forces of nature and art…

Thought provoking, visually stunning, and featuring Tyneside-born dancer Adam Park, the new tour is set to blow audiences away at Newcastle Theatre Royal from 2nd to 4th February.

The tour programme features two new pieces – the Picasso-inspired The 3 Dancers, and Frames, which takes audiences into a choreographer’s world, and a third piece, which was one of the huge successes of 2014, The Strange Charm of Mother Nature.

The 3 Dancers is inspired by the tragic love triangle behind Picasso’s masterpiece of the same name. A new work from former Rambert dancer Didy Veldman, it will explore the eternal themes of the painter’s work: love, desire and death. Veldman is an internationally-renowned choreographer, and uses a total of six dancers (three dressed in white, and three as their shadows) to delve into the social, psychological and human elements of Picasso’s work.

Veldman, well known for her theatrical style and earthy choreography, reveals how Cubism can be applied to movement to create the fragmented world which is so characteristic of Picasso’s work. The 3 Dancers features an original score by Australia’s leading composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

Frames is a new work from another Rambert alumni, Alexander Whitley, which lays bare the process of making a dance performance. Twelve performers assemble and dismantle the set, move lighting and change angles, constantly creating new spaces and playing with what’s revealed and what’s hidden in their sequences of highly technical dancing.

This thought-provoking work, which sees dancers create a stage within a stage, is a continuation of Whitley’s collaboration with award-winning visual artists Tuur Van Balen and Revital Cohen, and is accompanied by a new score from Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason.

The Strange Charm of Mother Nature, which premiered in September 2014, is inspired by particle physics and the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson ‘God Particle’. Continuing choreographer Mark Baldwin’s fascination with science, which has seen previous pieces inspired by the theories of Einstein and Darwin, the show sees dancers fizz with the energy of the miniscule building blocks that created life, the universe and everything. The work is set to a musical score of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3, Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, and a new piece by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

This season, the company once again features 24-year-old North East dancer Adam Park, from Jesmond, who trained at Dame Allan’s and Dance City, and has been in the company for four years.  Adam last performed with Rambert at Newcastle Theatre Royal in 2012 as part of the Seven for a Secret tour.

Rambert appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday 2nd to Thursday 4th February 2016 (evenings: 7.30pm, matinee: Thursday 2pm). Tickets are from £12 (less online), and can be purchased at www.theatreroyal.co.uk or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge).

Opera North Bring Season Of Masterpieces To Newcastle

By on 29th January 2016in Entertainment

Award winning company Opera North are back at Newcastle Theatre Royal in March with a trio of continental masterpieces…

The three pieces are Mozart’s playful Cosi Fan Tutte, Donizetti’s sunny L’Elisir D’Amore and Giordano’s passionate Andrea Chenier. Let your senses be stirred from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th March 2016.

Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (Saturday 5th March) is presented by Opera North for the first time. Taking the life of the French poet André Chénier as its inspiration, the opera explores love and the individual at the time of the French Revolution, before charting the rapid descent of hope and optimism into the Terror. Combining a dramatic storyline with compelling music, this new production looks set to become an unforgettable addition to the Company’s repertoire.

Also written at the time of the French Revolution, but with a very different focus, is Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte (Wed 2nd and Fri 4th March). The production captivated audiences at the Theatre Royal back in 2009, and recently wowed at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in New York. It is once again set to intrigue people with its thoughtful exploration of fidelity, deception, human motivation and the dangers of desire.

It all begins innocently enough when Don Alfonso comes up with a wager: that the fiancées of two young men are far more likely to succumb to another’s amorous advances than they might choose to believe. The ensuing, often disconcerting, consequences are accompanied by some of the most beautiful music Mozart ever wrote.  A vibrant young cast includes Dublin-born soprano Máire Flavin, who represented Ireland at the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, making her Opera North debut as Fiordiligi.

A more light-hearted approach to the twists and turns of love is found in a sun drenched 1950s-style production of Donizetti’s comic opera L’elisir d’amore (Thursday 3rd March). Having enjoyed critical acclaim at Spain’s Ópera de Oviedo, it returns to England to charm audiences in the North with its playful tale of the ineffectual but good-hearted Nemorino and his quest to win the hand of the very self-assured Adina. Can Dr Dulcamara’s ‘love potion’ really solve all his problems?

Complete with hot-air balloon and Vespas, this stylish production is a perfect fit for Donizetti’s irrepressibly fresh comedy. Funny and moving, the opera includes one of the best-loved of all tenor arias in Nemorino’s ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ (A furtive tear).

The Spring Opera North season appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Wednesday 2nd March until Saturday 5th March 2016, playing evenings at 7.30pm (L’elisir d’amore and Andrea Chenier) and 7pm (Così fan tutte). Tickets from £18.50 (with great offers available for under 18s and school groups). Tickets can be purchased online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk, or from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (Calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge).

Northern Ballet Brings Aesop’s Fables To Gala Theatre

By on 25th January 2016in Entertainment

Northern Ballet is returning to Durham’s Gala Theatre with an adaptation of one of Aesop’s most famous fables…

 

Following the sell-out successes of Ugly Duckling, Three Little Pigs and Elves & the Shoemaker, the company is set to perform the latest in their award-winning children’s ballets, Tortoise & the Hare.

Daniel de Andrade, Northern Ballet’s artistic director of the Short Ballets for Small People series, said: “These ballets are classic tales beautifully retold through dance, and are the perfect introduction to ballet for children and young families.

“I am thrilled at how this latest production will bring the magic of ballet to many.

“It will provide a wonderful opportunity for children and their families to enjoy live performances designed especially for them, and will hopefully inspire a new-found love for dance, music and theatre.”

The new show, which is a re-imagining of the much-loved tale of a Tortoise who, tired of being teased for his slowness, challenges a speedy Hare to a race, has been choreographed by the duo who created Ugly Duckling in 2012, dancers Dreda Blow and Sebastian Loe.

It also includes an original score composed by Bruno Merz, set designs by Ali Allen, and live music performed by members of the Northern Ballet Sinfonia.

The 40 minute production – which was praised as “delightfully performed and expertly staged” by The Stage magazine – will be performed in Durham on Wednesday 3rd February at at 2.00pm, 4.00pm and 6.00pm.

Tickets cost £5 per child and £6 per adult. To book, call Gala’s box office on 03000 266 600 or visit www.galadurham.co.uk.

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