Sitting In The Cheap Seats

From the parents of ThePlay That Goes Wrong comes a brand-new comedy all about growing up. Are wethe same people at 30 as we were at 13? Does school life determine our future?Do we ever grow out of our school crush? Playing an unruly classroom of kids andanarchic high school teenagers, through to the aches and pains of adulthood,the original Mischief company are back in the West End with their first newplay since 2016.

When, way back in 2004, Green Day released American Idiot it was a clarion call forthe disaffected youth of the US. It leapt up the charts on a wave of criticalacclaim and commercial success and was much beloved of a certain callow youngmusic blogger in provincial Portsmouth. Fast forward 15 years and I don’tperhaps listen to the album very often now but it still holds significance asit’s first theatrical incarnation was one of the first theatre pieces Ireviewed and quite probably the point that convinced me to start this site.Now, a good few years later here I am again in Southampton for the launch of anew national tour.

Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the Summer Season 2019. Celebrating and interrogating our ‘sceptred isle’ through Shakespeare’s history plays, a year-long journey begins with Richard II, opening 22 February in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse , continuing into the Globe Theatre this summer with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. The season also includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018’s As You Like It. Robin Hood tales will form the core of the Read Not Dead series this year, and festivals throughout the summer include Women & Power and Poland is Hamlet. This year’s Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, opening on 28 February, with 20,000 free tickets available to state secondary schools. The Shakespeare’s Globe Touring Ensemble will once again present a trio of plays for the audience to choose from: The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Twelfth Night.

As rehearsals begin, casting is announced for the West End transfer of the National Theatre and Theatr Clwyd’s critically acclaimed co-production of Home, I’m Darling , a new play by Laura Wade , directed by Theatre Clwyd Artistic Director Tamara Harvey , featuring Katherine Parkinson , which begins performances at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 26 January.

Emily McAlpine as Goody with the ensemble Photo by Helen Murray It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… and here in the Cheap Seats nothing says Christmas quite like a trip to Chichester Festival Theatre to see their youth company put on a classic show. This year they are treating us to Sleeping Beauty and if our last five visits are anything to go by it will be one of the highlights of 2018!

Jonathan Grant’s Dracula looms over Michael Gondelle as Jonathan Harker We may be a little more than a week away from Halloween but Humdrum are offering up a classic slice of horror at The Spring to get people in the mood. As director James George points out, Dracula might no longer be a story that truly shocks, but there is still enough here to make the audience uneasy and at its heart this is a classic story regardless of whether it will make you jump out of your seat.

In a wonderful case of life imitating art I have now, at the third time of trying, finally made it along to see The Play That Goes Wrong , a show that has done its best to elude me both in the West End and around the UK despite my best efforts to catch it. Now I’ve made it to the cosy Theatre Royal Brighton let’s find out if the show lives up to expectations!