David Graham Entertainment Ltd in conjunction with ITV have announced the first ever stage production of ITV’s highly-successful Sunday evening 60s police drama, HEARTBEAT. The brand new stage adaptation makes its Scottish premiere at the

The brand new stage adaptation makes its Scottish premiere at the Theatre Royal Glasgow from Monday 27 June until Saturday 2 July 2016 starring members of the TV cast.

Based on The Constable series of novels by Nicholas Rhea, HEARTBEAT ran for 18 years from 1992 to 2010 on ITV in its regular Sunday night slot with audiences often exceeding 10 million viewers and the show was constantly in the top five TV programmes across all channels.

Now it comes to the stage starring regulars DAVID LONSDALE, who played the loveable David Stockwell, and STEVEN BLAKELEY, who played PC Geoff Younger. They are joined by Hollyoaks and Emmerdale star MATT MILBURN playing handsome copper PC Joe Malton. The cast also features CARLY COOK, DAVID HORNE, ERIN GERAGHTY, JASON GRIFFITHS and CALLUM O’NEILL.

Favourite HEARTBEAT characters including Gina Ward and Bernie Scripps will also be making an appearance in this production which, with the use of video footage and a brilliant set, recreates the atmosphere of the 1960s rural Yorkshire setting.

This production features a brand-new script, original storyline and offers audiences an opportunity to be transported back to the swinging 60s, with all the great music which was always a feature of the TV series, in a two-hour live stage show.

Full tour information can be found at www.heartbeatontour.com

Heartbeat

Theatre Royal Glasgow

Mon 27 – Sat 2 July

Mon – Sat eves 7.30pm

Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm

Box Office 0844 871 7647 (bkg fee) Calls cost 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge

www.atgtickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)

The 306: Dawn is a new piece of music theatre directed by National Theatre of Scotland’s Artistic Director Laurie Sansom, written by Oliver Emanuel and composed by Gareth Williams.

Based on real events, it charts the heart-breaking journey of three of the 306 British soldiers executed for cowardice and desertion during World War I (1914-18). The work is a co-commission with 14-18 NOW, the UK’s First World War centenary cultural programme.

The 306: Dawn is the first in a trilogy of new plays commemorating the First World War, to be presented in 2016, 2017 and 2018. These plays will explore personal stories of the 306 soldiers, as well as looking at how the war affected women, families, and communities on the home front. The first part of the trilogy is set in France around the time of the Battle of the Somme, marking the centenary of the battle. Dawn follows the real-life stories of three soldiers on the front line:

Joseph Byers (17) from Glasgow. Too young to enlist, Joe, like so many at the time, has lied about his age to join the other men at the Front. However, his dreams of being a soldier are quickly destroyed by the brutal realities of trench warfare and he soon finds himself in trouble with the authorities.

Private Harry Farr (25) from London. Traumatised by the things he has seen and lived through as a serving soldier, Harry is suffering from shell-shock and is now unable to fight. He has subsequently been convicted of cowardice and, as he waits to hear his fate, he dreams of his wife and hopes for a last-minute reprieve.

Lance-Sergeant Joseph Willie Stones (24) from Durham. Having used his rifle to block the entrance to a trench during fierce fighting, Joseph stands accused of casting away his arms in combat – an offence punishable by death. He thought he was protecting his men, but the top brass wants to make an example of him to maintain discipline in the ranks.

With a contemporary score performed live by the Red Note Ensemble, the songs explore the vulnerability and devastation of the battlefields, alongside the inner struggles of the men. Composer Gareth Williams is a long-term collaborator with both Red Note and Oliver Emanuel; the pair previously worked on The End of the World (for One Night Only) which Red Note commissioned, developed and staged in Edinburgh in December 2012.

Poignant and powerful, The 306: Dawn will be performed in a transformed barn in the Perthshire countryside, and will explore the lives of these unknown soldiers – who appear on no war memorials, to give them back their voices, stories, and names.

The 306: Dawn will open with a special dawn performance on the morning of Saturday 28^th May.

Written by Oliver Emanuel and composed by Gareth Williams; directed by Laurie Sansom; costume and set designed by Becky Minto; lighting design by Simon Wilkinson; musical direction by Jonathan Gill.

Full cast is Nathan Armarkwei-Laryea, Emily Byrt, Josef Davies, Steffan Evans, Scott Gilmour, Peter Hannah, Joshua Manning, Josh Miles and Jimmy Walker

Dalcrue Farm barn in the Perthshire countryside from 24 May to 11 June 2016

Fawlty Towers Dining

Laughlines Comedy Entertainment presents The Sitcom Experience Basil & Co – the Comedy Dinner Show

The Laughlines cast performs the ‘Sitcom Experience’, a live situation comedy dining experience which unfolds in real-time providing a hilarious evening of theatrical improvisational comedy and caricature, in a live fully inclusive immersive dining experience.

Performed as you dine, it’s unscripted, so expect laugh out loud comedic mishaps from the hapless hotel owner and the Spanish waiter.

*Please note 3 course meal is a set menu. If you have any dietary requirements please contact the Box Office on 01555 667999.*

Tickets available online www.sllcboxoffice.co.uk or from 01555 667999

Date: 22 Apr 2016

Time: 7:30pm

cost: £30.00 (inc 3 course meal and glass of wine / soft drink)

Venue: Lanark Memorial Hall

A Play, A Pie and A Pint have announced an exciting new treat for audiences this summer.

A sparkling season of mini musicals specially written to delight lunchtime theatre goers.

Experience the birth of the blues, be whisked back to Berlin in the 1920’s, have your heart melted by Judy Garland and be thrilled by a darkly funny tale of pop  history’s vintage dreamboats.

And long time friend Dave Anderson’s ‘The Day I Found the Blues’ will mark A Play, A Pie and A Pint’s 400th play.

CHECK OUT THE WHAT’S ON PAGE MORE MORE INFO ON THE PLAYS

Jun 6th – 11th
THE DAY I FOUND THE BLUES
By Dave Anderson

Jun 13th – 18th
MACK THE KNIFE
By Morag Fullarton

Jun 20th – 25th
FRANCES & ETHEL
By David Cosgrove

Jun 27th – Jul 2nd
VINYL IDOL
By Debbie Hannan & Andy McGregor

Dundee Rep’s 5-star, sell-out production of John McGrath’s musical drama exploring stories and experiences of Scotland’s land, sea and people across the centuries arrives at the Citizens for one week only this October.

The highly acclaimed production tells the history and the tragedy of Scotland, performed as a Highland ceilidh. Song, humour and drama are intermixed creating a unique theatrical event that remains as vital and relevant today as it was when 7:84 Scotland first presented it, over 40 years ago.

This extraordinary play looks at the exploitation and economic changes in the Scottish Highlands throughout history. From the ruthless evictions of Highland crofters to make way for the more economically viable Cheviot sheep in the 18th century, to the development of stag hunts in game parks in the 19th century and finally the exploitation of resources during the North Sea Oil boom of the 1970s.

Once again, the Dundee Rep Ensemble has been granted permission to present this pivotal piece of Scottish theatre.

Tue 18 – Sat 22 October 2016, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow

Hamilton District Youth Theatre present the stage adaptation of Alan Parker and Paul William’s movie masterpiece. A host of local talent stars in this hilarious and charming adventure.

Set in 1929 New York City, mob boss Fat Sam is under threat from Dapper Dan’s new gang and their latest weapon – the dreaded splurge gun. His only hope is Bugsy Malone, a washed up but well-meaning boxer who is thrust into the limelight. With twists, turns, gangsters, showgirls and splurge fights galore the plot unfolds leading to a spectacular showdown at Fat Sam’s Grand Slam.

Good, clean, comedic fun that the whole family will enjoy.

Available to book online.

Date: 21-23 Apr 2016

Time: 7:30pm, 2:30pm Sat matinee

Cost: £10.00 / £9.00 / £7.50 group 10+

Venue: Hamilton Town House

Gladys, Elsie and Olive are three cleaning ladies who are about to be “put out to pasture” by their overzealous office manager Dave. Feeling they have little chance of gaining employment elsewhere, the ladies have to boost their falling income. A chance wrong number for a sex chat line rings into the office and gives them a great idea…

Written by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, Dirty Dusting is directed by Leah Bell who injects the play with her own unique style.

Date: 12 May 2016

Time: 7:30pm

Cost: £21.00

Venue: Hamilton Town House

So successful is Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2014 production of Guys and Dolls, that not only has it made the transfer to the West End but has also spawned a comprehensive national tour. Sad to say, however, it appears to have lost some of its five-star sparkle in transit.

An amalgamation of three of Damon Runyon’s Broadway fables; The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, Pick the Winner and Blood Pressure: shifty, small-time crook Nathan Detroit (Maxwell Caulfield), in need of money to host ‘the oldest established, permanent floating crap game in New York’, bets charismatic cool-cat and inveterate gambler Sky Masterson (Richard Fleeshman), that Masterson can’t get frosty missionary Sarah Brown (Anna O’Byrne) from the Save-A-Soul Mission, to go with him to Havana on a date. A merry band of misfits help colour the tall tale, from eternally engaged, fourteen years a fiancée Miss Adelaide (Louise Dearman), to local low-lives Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Harry the Horse.

The witty words of Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows are regarded as among the funniest in the musical theatre canon and they remain intact in Gordon Greenberg’s revival. However, the pace and direction of Greenberg’s production lacks the spark required to bring Runyon’s stories fully to life, playing like a poorly connected series of stand-alone scenes rather than a flowing whole.

None of the faults of the production can be blamed on the cast, with West End leads Louise Dearman, Anna O’Byrne, and Richard Fleeshman and seasoned actor Maxwell Caulfield at the helm, then quality is assured. Dearman turns in an especially effective turn as a Lucille Ball-like Miss Adelaide, managing to balance the humour and pathos brilliantly and Fleeshman conveys the easy charm and charisma of Masterson with aplomb. The supporting cast too is of the highest quality.

Peter McKintosh’s set design is essentially simple, an arc of lightbulb-ringed adverts and a series of roll-on-roll-off accents, which only really brings the vivid world of New York alive when fully lit. The choreography of Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta and West End stalwart Andrew Wright has been placed firmly centre stage, with extended dance sequences throughout. The duo’s work is especially effective in the ballet-inspired crap game in the sewers with its athletic, inventive sequences and a nod to Acosta’s ballet background in the Swan Lake line up.

With such a top-notch cast and first-rate creative team, it’s hard to see how this could go wrong, but Greenberg’s production falls flat in too many places that if fails to do full justice to the stellar cast and this musical theatre classic. Ultimately unsatisfying.

This review was originally written for and published by The Reviews Hub

Images: Johan Persson

The King’s Theatre Glasgow and First Family Entertainment have announced that Scottish comedy legend Gregor Fisher will be reuniting with his Rab C. Nesbitt co-star Tony Roper in the godmother of all pantomimes, Cinderella. Also returning to the stage due to popular demand is Capital FM presenter Des Clarke marking his fifth consecutive year in the King’s legendary panto. The rags to riches tale of Cinderella makes its tenth appearance in the history of the King’s traditional pantomime from Friday 2 December 2016 until Sunday 8 January 2017.

Gregor Fisher, best known to TV audiences for the iconic title role in Rab C. Nesbitt, will be joining his partner in crime Tony Roper, who played Rab’s unscrupulous long-time friend Jamesie in the BBC series, as the awfy ugly sisters. They will be swapping Rab’s trademark string vest and Jamesie’s shabby sports jacket for some fabulous frilly frocks when they set out to make Cinderella’s life a misery.

Last year Gregor made his anticipated return to the King’s panto stage as Hector the Henchman in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 2015 also welcomed his first book The Boy from Nowhere which explored his dramatic family history and inspired the BBC Documentary In Search of Gregor Fisher. This year the comedy actor is set to return to the big screen in the remake of the 1949 film Whisky Galore! starring alongside James Cosmo and Eddie Izzard. Cinderella will mark 35 years since Gregor made his King’s panto debut in Babes in the Wood sharing the stage with Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy.

Another panto stalwart, Tony Roper, is back and he’s no stranger to playing the dame having already experienced the ugly sister makeover when he shared the King’s stage with Jonathan Watson in 2000.  He resurrected his evil streak in Sleeping Beauty as Hector the Henchman in 2011 and five years on Tony said he is delighted to be returning to the King’s panto family: “I’m looking forward to getting back on the King’s stage and being welcomed by some familiar faces. Head stage door keeper Joan will have the kettle on and I’m doubly thrilled to be performing alongside my close friend, the talented Gregor Fisher. Prince Charming, I will tell you this boy, Rab and Jamesie will make a couple of good-looking gals!”

In addition to Tony’s TV appearances in Scotch and Wry, Naked Video, Only an Excuse, The Bill and Taggart, he has successfully written and produced a number of plays including Paddies Market, Rikki and Me, The Celts in Seville and the BAFTA  Scotland award-winning The Steamie which later became a popular TV programme and a novelisation by Tony in 2005. He also penned two bestselling novels about Rikki Fulton’s character The Reverend I M Jolly: How I Found God and Why He Was Hiding From Me and One Deity at a Time Sweet Jesus.

This Christmas Des Clarke celebrates five years in the King’s panto as the jovial jester character, a firm favourite with family audiences. Des first treaded the boards in 2012 as Buttons in Cinderella, so extremely fitting that he should celebrate this milestone by once again stepping into Buttons’ boots. Also an established comedian, Des recently completed his first stand-up tour in five years ‘The Trouble With Being Des’ and premiered a brand new show ‘Citizen Des’ as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. As well as presenting Capital FM’s popular breakfast show, Des hosts BBC Radio Scotland’s topical panel show ‘Breaking the News’.

On returning to the King’s panto stage for his fifth consecutive year Des Clarke said: “I can’t believe it’s been five years since I first donned the coveted Button’s costume, I hope it still fits! It’s a privilege to be invited once again to star in the King’s Theatre pantomime, a Glasgow institution that plays an integral part in the city’s Christmas tradition. To follow in the footsteps of panto legends such as Stanley Baxter and the late great Gerard Kelly, and to star alongside comedy icons like Gregor Fisher and Tony Roper, is a real honour. Panto is a lot of hard work but when you hear the audience laugh and cheer, it’s all worth it.”

CINDERELLA

KING’S THEATRE GLASGOW

Fri 2 Dec 2016 – Sun 8 Jan 2017 (please call box office for full details)

Access Performances:

Captioned Performances – Wed 14 Dec, 1pm & Wed 21 Dec, 7pm

Sign Language Interpreted – Fri 16 Dec, 11am & Mon 19 Dec, 7pm

Audio Described – Tue 3 Jan, 1pm

Relaxed Performance – Fri 6 Jan, 11am

Box Office: 0844 871 7648 (bkg fee)

Schools and group bookings: 0844 871 7602

Calls cost 7p per min, plus your phone company’s access charge

www.atgtickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)

Neither shoe-horning the hits of Michael Jackson around a flimsy storyline, nor taking his life story as narrative thread (it wisely avoids miring itself in the unpalatable controversy of Jackson’s later life), Thriller Live eschews the usual jukebox musical format, instead, it presents a roughly chronological, concert-style tribute production to the self-proclaimed ‘King of Pop’.

The recently revamped opening medley doesn’t quite get the crowd going from the offset and the production takes some time to find its feet. The limp linking monologues with proclamations of Jackson’s greatness serving only to add to the running time rather than add any colour. However, it soon hits its stride and from the early days of the Jackson Five, through over 30 other songs, the hits keep on coming at an astonishing rate and an ever more astonishing decibel level.

Taking the idea that Jackson transcended age, race and gender, the songs are delivered by a quartet of lead vocalists: Angelica Allen, Adam J Bernard, Shaquille Hemmans and Rory Taylor. The quartet varies in their ability to deliver the mega-hits. There are some quite frankly shocking renditions: a mauling of the classics Man in the Mirror and Human Nature and a barely audible Never Can Say Goodbye, render these pop standards unrecognisable. Only Taylor survives unscathed and his strong rock vocals stand head and shoulders above his fellow cast members. However, much of the singers’ troubles can be blamed squarely on the imbalance between the vocal sound level and that of the on-stage live band who drown out the performers throughout.

The staging is simple (read for that cheap looking) with out-dated pixellated LED screens providing some background colour to the proceedings. The costumes vary from authentic Jackson to technicolour eye-popping lycra. There’s even an Egyptian-clad Remember the Time that makes you feel as if you have stumbled upon a production of Aida and when the words hunger, conflict and racism appear on the LED screens and pictures of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, John F Kennedy, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela flash past, there’s the dread that we are about to travel down the path of sanctifying Jackson, but it laudably manages to stay on the right side of tasteful.

The choreography, while energetically executed throughout and incorporating Jackson’s signature moves, (every Moonwalk is accompanied by shrieks of delight) is somewhat repetitive and lacks originality in an age when top quality dance acts grace our TV screens on a weekly basis.

That said, the audience (some in costume) in the packed auditorium, was appreciative throughout and multiple ovations followed the biggest of the hits.

For the most part, Thriller Live provides a fitting tribute to Jackson and preserves the legacy of his music. It is undoubtedly a crowd-pleasing memorial for his fans but one can’t help feeling that for a man who was renowned for his ground-breaking originality, it could be so much more than a poorly executed conveyor belt of his biggest hits.

Runs until Saturday 23 April 2016 | Image: Contributed

This review was originally written for and published by The Reviews Hub here

Following last year’s sell-out run of Southside Stories, the Citizens Young Co. are returning to the Citizens’ Circle Studio with cheeky comedy,The Birds by Stephen Greenhorn based on the classic Greek play by Aristophanes. Running in the Circle Studio from 11 – 14 May, The Birds complements Citizens Theatre’s Greek inspired Main Stage production This Restless House based on the ancient trilogy The Oresteia.

Widely considered to be Aristophanes comic masterpiece, The Birds tells the story of two cunning Athenians who persuade the birds to build the utopian city of ‘Much Cuckoo in the Clouds’ in the sky, blockading the Olympian gods and installing themselves as new deities. Stephen Greenhorn has created a bold, lively and uproarious version of the classic. Greenhorn is best known as creator of River City, Sunshine on Leith and episodes of Doctor Who.

Launched in 2005, the Citizens Young Co. has performed a very broad range of work – including Shakespeare, new writing, Goethe, devised performances, Scottish travellers’ tales and commissioned plays – in venues as varied as the Royal National Theatre, Glasgow City Chambers, secondary schools across Glasgow and in its home in the Citizens Theatre. Last year the company celebrated their tenth anniversary with a production entitled Southside Stories exploring the vibrant culture of the Govanhill community in a piece of verbatim theatre. Young Co were specially selected from youth drama groups from across the UK to take part in the inaugural Chrysalis Festival in 2015 where they performed Southside Stories. The festival was launched by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland to showcase emerging talent from across the country and was hosted by the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.

Citizens Young Co. provides opportunities in acting, writing and devising for young people aged 18 – 22, affording them a unique insight into the world of professional theatre-making by offering a range of opportunities throughout the year to be part of the wider creative life of the Citizens Theatre.

Tickets are on sale now and are available by calling the Citizens Theatre Box Office on 0141 429 0022 10am – 6pm Monday – Saturday, or by visiting the Citizens’ website citz.co.uk

Citizens Young Co. present

THE BIRDS

By Aristophanes

In a version by Stephen Greenhorn

Dates: Thursday 12 May – Sat 14 May 2016 7.30pm (Circle Studio)

Matinee: Saturday 14 May 2.30pm

Tickets: £2 – £10

£10 full price / £6 concessions

In a rich and diverse 2016/17 Season, the first to be announced since Stuart Stratford formally took up the post as Music Director, Scottish Opera continues to develop its strong creative relationships and partnerships, presenting seven fully staged productions and four operas in concert.

Highlights include:

• New productions of Pelléas and Mélisande, Bluebeard’s Castle, La bohème and The Elixir of Love
• Sir Thomas Allen’s hit production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro opens the Season
• World premiere of The 8^th Door, a specially devised ‘prequel’ to Bluebeard’s Castle created by Vanishing Point’s Matthew Lenton and Scottish Opera Composer in Residence Lliam Paterson
• Scottish premieres of Philip Glass’s The Trial and Giacomo Puccini’s Le Villi
• Four operas in concert presented in The Sunday Series at Theatre Royal Glasgow, featuring early and rarely-performed works by masters of operatic writing
• Renowned director Sir David McVicar and director/designer team Renaud Doucet and André Barbe return
• Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love – in a new arrangement for an orchestral quintet – tours to 17 venues around Scotland and Opera Highlights takes to 38 the total number of venues visited

Alex Reedijk, General Director said: ‘There is a wonderful variety of work on offer for audiences this season. We take great pride in the fact that we have built on the successes of the past by reviving a hit production, but also continue to create new work for the 21^st century. It is thrilling that directors such as Sir Thomas Allen and Sir David McVicar are returning to work with us, alongside the visionary Matthew Lenton, who is making his operatic directorial debut in a Scottish Opera and Vanishing Point co-production. Young musical talent is also being nurtured with the launch of our Opera Sparks 2018 competition.’

Stuart Stratford, Music Director, added: ‘I am delighted as Music Director to present opera to audiences all over Scotland. I have been very involved in the casting of the programme, and there are some incredible talents – from Scotland as well as around the world – taking to the stage. The Sunday Series programme promises to introduce audiences to lesser-known works by composers including Debussy and Rossini, and we believe our performance of Puccini’s Le Villi will be a Scottish premiere. I’m excited also to have the opportunity to travel Scotland conducting The Elixir of Love, taking the company’s passion for music to all corners of the country.’

Opening the Season is Sir Thomas Allen’s staging of The Marriage of Figaro, a revival of his 2010 interpretation of Mozart’s masterpiece. Beautiful period designs by Simon Higlett provide the backdrop to this timeless comedy of social revolution and change. Renowned director Sir David McVicar directs a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande, and is joined by Rae Smith and Paule Constable, the design team behind War Horse, and Music Director Stuart Stratford, who conducts. In a new co-production between Scottish Opera and internationally acclaimed Scottish theatre company Vanishing Point, comes Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Directed by Vanishing Point’s founder Matthew Lenton, it is presented in a double-bill with a new piece of music theatre, which he also directs and has co-created with Scottish Opera Composer in Residence, Lliam Paterson. Entitled The 8^th Door, it is a fascinating prequel to Bluebeard’s disturbing story. Director Renaud Doucet and designer André Barbe, the team behind 2014’s Don Pasquale, return with a new production of Puccini’s classic La bohème, inspired by the Jazz Age of Josephine Baker.

In another co-commission with Music Theatre Wales, following on from the success of 2016’s The Devil Inside, Scottish Opera gives the Scottish premiere of Philip Glass’s The Trial, based on Kafka’s nightmarish novel. Directed by Michael McCarthy, it was created by Glass in collaboration with Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1989 for Dangerous Liaisons.

Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love tours to 17 smaller Scottish venues in the Autumn, with Stuart Stratford and Scottish Opera’s Head of Music Derek Clark sharing conducting duties in a new arrangement for five players from The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, who accompany a cast of soloists and a small chorus. The popular Opera Highlights – featuring four singers and a pianist – also travels around the country with a cast of fresh young talent, including two Scottish Opera Emerging Artists.

Following the sell-out success of previous years’ operas in concert and the popularity of the Sunday afternoon concerts, this Season’s The Sunday Series features performances of early and lesser-known works by masters of operatic writing with The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and world-class guest singers. Curated by Music Director Stuart Stratford, these performances at Theatre Royal Glasgow complement the Season’s staged productions and include Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, Debussy’sL’enfant prodigue, Rossini’s La scala di seta, and Puccini’s Le Villi.

Scottish Opera welcomes back a talented array of conductors including Tobias Ringborg, Timothy Burke, David Parry and Sian Edwards. Starring in the title role of The Marriage of Figaro is Ben McAteer, a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, who received critical and audience acclaim for his role in The Devil Inside (2016). He is joined on stage by two Jette Parker Young Artists, Samuel Dale Johnson and Anna Devin, and by Scottish Opera favourite Donald Maxwell.  Pelléas and Mélisande sees soprano Carolyn Sampson (The Rake’s Progress 2012) and Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prizewinner Andrei Bondarenko take to the stage in the title roles while internationally in-demand stars Karen Cargill and Robert Hayward sing Judith and Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s Castle. La bohème has a similarly impressive cast with Hye-Youn Lee (Madama Butterfly 2014) starring as the fated Mimì and Luis Gomes, winner of 2015’s Grand Prize at the Verbier Festival Academy and a Covent Garden regular, as Rodolfo.

The Trial boasts a superb ensemble cast including Nicholas Lester (Don Pasquale 2014), Paul Carey Jones (Inés de Castro 2015) and three of Scottish Opera’s 2016/17 Emerging Artists, whilst The Elixir of Love cast includes Ellie Laugharne (The Pirates of Penzance 2013), Welsh tenor Elgan Llyr Thomas, winner of 2015’s coveted Stuart Burrows International Voice Award, and baritone James Cleverton.

The Scottish Opera Emerging Artists programme once again nurtures young operatic talent offering a period of full-time work with the Company to help launch their careers. This year’s artists include soprano Hazel McBain, mezzo-soprano Emma Kerr, tenor Elgan Llyr Thomas, director Jim Manganello and composer Lliam Paterson. Audiences will have the opportunity to see the Emerging Artist singers perform at two recitals during the year in Glasgow.

Young opera lovers and families have plenty to look forward to with the world premiere of The Little White Town of Never Weary, an interactive musical adventure for children aged five to eight, inspired by the Jessie M. King book of the same name. It makes an extensive schools tour as well as public performances in Kirkcudbright and Glenrothes. There is also the chance to catch performances of Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley and Der Jasager, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas by Scottish Opera Connect, Scotland’s only youth opera company.

There is an opportunity for young composers and librettists to write for the Connect Company in Opera Sparks 2018, a new competition for people aged 26 and under to create a 15-minute opera to be performed during the Scottish Government’s Year of Young People 2018.

Audiences can get even more involved with the Company’s productions through the Pop-Up Opera Roadshow, Primary Schools Tour and the Community Choir, which is open to adults of all ages who wish to enjoy singing in a multitude of musical genres. The Memory Spinners group, for people with dementia and their carers, continues to meet weekly in Glasgow and is also being introduced in Edinburgh. Pre-show talks, where audiences can find out more about the opera they are seeing, will once again be on offer as well as Opera Unwrapped, free one-hour tasters delving further into the shows and how they are created.

The Orchestra of Scottish Opera is joined by British soprano Kate Royal to perform some of Mozart’s most beautiful operatic arias and sublime Lieder by Richard Strauss at Theatre Royal Glasgow, on Sunday 15 May at 4pm.

The final concert in the 2015/16 season of The Sunday Series, curated, conducted and hosted by Scottish Opera’s Music Director Stuart Stratford, explores the influence Mozart had on Strauss’s work and will end with the romantic Der Rosenkavalier Suite.

London-born Kate Royal was a winner at The Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2004, and since then has become a regular at Glyndebourne and on international stages including the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera. Her first appearance with Scottish Opera was as Iris in the Company’s 2005 production of Handel’s Semele, for which she won a Herald Angel Award.

Music Director Stuart Stratford said ‘Kate Royal is one of the UK’s most distinguished lyric sopranos. She has moved audiences all over the world with her Mozart interpretations in particular. I am thrilled that she is able to work with The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and myself on this exciting concert of Strauss and Mozart.’

Born of the successful Sunday afternoon concert series at St Andrew’s in the Square, audiences at The Sunday Series have enjoyed the chance to hear world-class musicians performing a mix of orchestral and vocal works, including Rossini, Verdi and Donizetti with tenor Ioan Hotea and Wagner with baritone James Rutherford. Performed in the specially designed ‘acoustic shell’ built in Scottish Opera’s own carpentry workshop, it offers audiences the highest sound quality.

www.scottishopera.org.uk

Mozart and Richard Strauss with Kate Royal
Sun 15 May 4pm, Theatre Royal Glasgow

Mozart
Overture to Le nozze di Figaro
‘Porgi Amor’ from Le nozze di Figaro
‘Padre, germani, addio’ from Idomeneo
Ballet music from Idomeneo 
Concert aria: ‘Bella mia fiamma…Resta o cara’
Richard Strauss
‘Das Rosenband’
‘Allerseelen’
‘Ich wollt ein Sträusslein binden’
‘Ruhe, meine Seele!’
Der Rosenkavalier Suite

Image: Esther Haase

Hit musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors is back, and bringing everyone’s favourite carnivorous plant to the King’s Theatre Glasgow from Monday 14 until Saturday 19 November 2016 as part of a major new UK Tour.

A charming, kooky and hilarious 1950s musical comedy, Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of Seymour, the assistant at Mushnik’s Flower Shop in downtrodden Skid Row, who becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers a strange and exotic plant. He names it Audrey Two to impress the glamorous Audrey, the shop assistant he secretly loves. But Audrey Two has a mind of its own and soon grows into a bad-tempered, foul-mouthed carnivore with an appetite that can’t be satisfied. Seymour must keep the meals coming to stop his prized plant from wilting, but how far is he willing to go to get the girl of his dreams?

Rhydian will play sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello. Rhydian rose to fame as a runaway success on ITV’s X Factor and has sold more than a million albums worldwide. He has released six albums and duetted and performed with some of the biggest names in the music industry including Michael Bublé, Taylor Swift, Enrique Iglesias, Celine Dion and Nicole Scherzinger. Rhydian’s many theatre credits include Grease, We Will Rock You, The War Of The Worlds, Jesus Christ Superstar and the 40th Anniversary Tour of The Rocky Horror Show. Rhydian has just completed his third solo UK tour and is a Classical Brit Award nominee.

Rhydian said: “To be a part of this iconic show playing such a fantastic role is going to be the reason I get up in the morning. It promises to be momentous! I’m going to enjoy every second.”

Little Shop of Horrors

Theatre Royal Glasgow

Mon 14 – Sat 19 Nov

Mon – Sat eves 7.30pm

Sat mats 2.30pm

Box Office 0844 871 7647 (bkg fee) Calls cost 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge

www.atgtickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)

Claire Sweeney will play the role of Baroness Bomburst in Music & Lyrics and West Yorkshire Playhouse’s production of the much-loved Sherman Brothers musical CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, when it arrives in Glasgow this autumn. Michelle Collins, who currently plays Baroness Bomburst, leaves the production on 30 July 2016.

Michelle Collins said, “I will be really sorry to leave the fantastic CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG tour after my dates at the New Wimbledon Theatre and seven months on the road. I love playing the all-singing and dancing Baroness Bomburst, but have been advised that the knee problem I have been managing along the way will not fully recover if I carry on for the rest of the 14-month tour.  I wish Claire Sweeney every success when she takes over the role this summer.”

John Stalker, Executive Producer of Music & Lyrics, said, “I would like to thank Michelle Collins for being a brilliant Baroness in our production of CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. I am thrilled that Claire Sweeney will be joining us in the role in August.  We are lucky to be working with two such talented actresses as part of our wonderful cast.”

On television, Claire Sweeney began her career as Lindsey Corkhill in Channel 4’s Brookside and appeared in the first everCelebrity Big Brother in aid of Comic Relief.  She also appeared in the very first Strictly Come Dancing on BBC 1 and has been a regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.  She could also recently be heard hosting her very own weekly musical theatre-themed show on Magic FM.  In theatre, her many roles have included Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago in London’s West End, Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at London’s Piccadilly Theatre with Patrick Swayze, The Girl in a national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s musical Tell Me on a Sunday, Paulette in the first UK tour of Legally Blonde, and she played the eponymous role in the UK tour of Educating Rita with Matthew Kelly.  Claire is currently starring as Velma Von Tussle in the UK tour of Hairspray.

At the King’s Theatre Glasgow from Wednesday 19 until Saturday 29 October, Claire Sweeney will join Jason Manford (The Producers, Sweeney Todd) as Caractacus Potts, Phill Jupitus (The Producers, Hairspray) as Lord Scrumptious and Baron Bomburst and Andy Hockley (The Phantom Of The Opera) as Grandpa Potts.

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

Facebook:  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang The Musical

Twitter:  @ChittyMusical / #chittymusical

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

King’s Theatre Glasgow

Wed 19 – Sat 29 Oct

Wed – Sat eves 7.30pm

Wed (26 Oct), Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm

Box Office 0844 871 7648 (bkg fee) Calls cost 7p per min plus your phone company’s access charge

www.atgtickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)

Glasgow’s very own vampire legend comes to disturbing dramatic life in the latest performance by master storyteller and playwright Marty Ross… What better show to chill spines at this year’s Glasgow Southside Fringe?

Well received at last year’s Southside Fringe was Ross’ 21st Century Poe, in which he not only updated two classic terror tales by Edgar Allan Poe, but relocated them to the streets of his native Glasgow. Now he goes one better, building this new show around a native horror legend of Glasgow’s Southside.

It was in the 1950s that local kids in Glasgow’s Gorbals became convinced that the vast graveyard of the Southern Necropolis was haunted by an iron-toothed vampire with a taste for children. Mass hysteria erupted among both young and old, kids embarking nightly on vampire hunts, wooden stakes in hand while panicked adults called
the police and demanded a ban on the US horror comics perceived erroneously, modern historians believe – to be responsible: much more authentically local traditions were involved.

But this true story ended rather anti-climatically: there doesn’t, disappointingly, seem to have been a real vampire in the graveyard. Marty Ross’ drama asks: what if? What if there actually was a “something” there, very ancient and strange and terrible? And what if one vampire mad boy found himself in the vampire’s clutches?

Thus the Gorbals gets its very own full-blown Gothic horror myth, a story aspiring to do for Glasgow’s south side what Dracula did for Transylvania, what the Phantom did for the Paris Opera, as a tale is spun – dramatic, theatrical, darkly humorous but deeply disturbing, of innocence lost and – possibly – regained.

Those who have attended Ross’ previous dramatic storytelling performances, whether at the Edinburgh Fringe or Southside Fringe, at Glasgow’s Britannia Panopticon or the London Horror Festival, or at any of his other regular venues, will know that storytelling with Ross is far removed from the comfy chair Jackanory clichés of this oldest,
yet suddenly newest, of theatrical forms. Rather his style is boldly theatrical and expressionistic – and here finds itself a fascinating new venue at Number 6 in Shawlands, a performance space combining the intimacy of a domestic fireside setting – so traditional for storytelling – with the room to create a startling one man theatrical
spectacle. Please note the £10 ticket price also includes food and drink both before and at the interval of the show – and also that in this intimate space, audience numbers are strictly limited!

How can you resist the spell of this very Glaswegian vampire?

MARTY ROSS is a playwright and storyteller with a long track record in radio and audio drama, particularly for the BBC, for whom he has written drama ranging from the Radio 4 series The Darker Side Of The Border to the popular serials Ghost Zone and Catch My Breath to one-off dramas such as Rough Magick, My Blue Piano, Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk, The Dead Of Fenwick Moor and Moyamensing: Scenes From The Life, Death & Dreams of Edgar Allan Poe. He has also written two Doctor Who audio dramas and an award-nominated Dark Shadows drama. He has also written drama for the Wireless Theatre Company, including two plays commissioned by, and performed at, the Buxton Festival, Redder Than Roses and The Woman On The Bridge. This year has seen the release of his most acclaimed production yet, Romeo And Jude, an epic love story for Amazon Audible featuring Owen Teale (Game of Thrones) and Nick Moran (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) He also performs widely as a live storyteller in venues great and small ranging across Britain and Ireland.

THE GORBALS VAMPIRE
A dramatic storytelling show by Marty Ross for Glasgow Southside Fringe 2016.

14th May at NUMBER 6, 6 Carment Drive, Shawlands G41 3PP.

Venue contact: 07761 299 717

8pm (for 8.30). Tickets £10 (includes food) from Southside Fringe box

office or www.brownpapertickets.com

Margaret sucks on a humbug, witnessing her fellow passengers… passing strangers now. She reminisces about the time when “come oan get aff” was heard daily on the trams. Couscous is a poignant, funny and irreverent commentary on how the art of chat is now a hoody, headphones and headset.

Part of the Southside Festival Couscous on the 29 (Come On Get Aff) is at The Shed, Shawlands on 13th/14th May details below:

To Serve is to Resist is the story of Jane Haining who lived in Pollokshields, Glasgow and was a Missionary in Hungary. She was one of 10 Scots who died in Auschwitz in 1944.

At the Shed in Shawlands as art of the Southside Fringe.

Details below:

Judy Garland is in London with her soon-to-be fifth husband Mickey Deans, ostensibly to complete a six-week residency at the Talk of the Town, but in reality to pay off her substantial debts and hopefully kick-start her career.

Forty-seven years on from her demise, Garland’s name still has the power to draw in the crowds. Peter Quilter’s intense four-hander, End of the Rainbow charts the last few months of the superstar’s life, a life that started on stage at the age of two and was cut short at the age of 47, by pill-popping and psychological abuse from the studios that made her a star and the men who supposedly loved her.

Taking us from her suite at the Ritz to the stage of the Talk of the Town, Quilter’s insightful, hysterically funny and inevitably tragic script, mirrors Garland’s roller-coaster life, portraying the emotional ups and downs of a woman who was never allowed to grow up in the eyes of both the public and her studio bosses. A woman to whomever she met thought, “they’re either gonna piss on me or kiss my ass” and despite a life of adulation and acclaim, always thought of herself as the unworthy ugly duckling.

As the mercurial Garland “I’m so buzzed they could shove cables in me and I could power Manhattan”, Lisa Maxwell carries the weight of the show on her shoulders. Embodying both the strength and vulnerability of the icon, she flits between frail bird and potty-mouthed tornado with ease. Maxwell is jaw-droppingly impressive throughout, throwing out acerbic barbs one moment and portraying gut-wrenching despair the next. She captures Garland’s idiosyncratic gestures and the rasping edge of her voice in her later years, with astonishing precision.

Sam Attwater turns in a solid performance as Deans, and while Quilter portrays him as an opportunist, we must never forget the force of Garland’s will. Did Deans really have any chance of saving her? This was a woman used to getting her own way at any cost, a woman who stuffed Benzedrine down her panties to avoid getting caught, washed handfuls of Ritalin down with slugs of whisky and threw tantrums throughout her adult life to get what she wanted.

Gary Wilmot, as musical accompanist Anthony Chapman is a sea of calm in the ocean of madness that surrounds Garland, his touching love and offer of escape tenderly played out.

As much as Garland has been portrayed as a victim, and undoubtedly she was, her path to destruction was paved from birth; at first an unwanted baby, then an indulged child, to global superstar, she never truly grew up nor accepted anyone’s way but her own. As tragic as her final years were, ultimately she was the architect of her own demise.

Quilter’s beautifully written script and the stunning performances of its cast make this a truly unmissable show.

Runs until Saturday 30 April 2016 | Image: Pamela Raith

This review was already written for and published by The Reviews Hub here