From The Box Office | National Theatre

Happy #WorldTheatreDay

March 27, 2020March 27, 2020From The Box Office

Let that lonely (self isolation) feeling wash away, raise the barricades and get ready to defy gravity, as today marks #WorldTheatreDay! While this year’s festivities can’t involve a trip to see a glittering West End show, there are still plenty of ways that you can celebrate your love of theatre…

Netflix and… sing?

One of the many gifts that the internet has given us is the ability to access and stream a myriad of films, tv programmes, music, podcasts – and now theatre too! Below we’ve rounded up the incredible selection of musicals, movie adaptations and plays currently available on a range of streaming platforms. Get bingeing!

Netflix

West Side Story (1961)
The classic musical of star-crossed lovers in New York City.

Les Misérables (2012)
Hugh Jackman… need we say more? The Oscar-winning adaptation is also available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
This 3-hour epic is the perfect way to pass #WorldTheatreDay.

Amazon Prime

The Last Five Years (2014)
Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan (swoon) star in the film adaptation of Jason Robert Brown’s hit musical.

Now TV

Dreamgirls (2006)
The film that propelled Jennifer Hudson to superstardom, get ready to belt I Am Telling You at the top of your lungs.

Grease
John Travolta in his prime and shaking his hips – what more could you need? And yes, there’s a sing along version too!

Soundtracks galore

Apple Music and Spotify users rejoice – with more soundtracks than ever before instantly available to stream and download, you can enjoy your favourite musical theatre tunes from the comfort of your home. Our top recommendations include…

SIX
Take six of the most infamous women in human history, write a girl-power fuelled smash-hit musical, cast ridiculously talented queens, record an album, and what do you end up with? The SIX: The Musical soundtrack. These are the perfect power ballads to get us through the drolls of self isolation!

Hamilton
With catchy music and impressive lyrics from talent power-house and all-round beacon of positivity, Lin-Manuel Miranda (if you don’t follow him on social media, we highly recommend), it’s no wonder that the Hamilton soundtrack is one of the most streamed worldwide. It could also be a great way to teach the kids some history as part of their home schooling!

Company (2018)
It wouldn’t be #WorldTheatreDay without Sondheim or Patti LuPone! Following a five-star West End run in 2018, the critically acclaimed gender-switched adaptation of Company transferred to Broadway in 2019, and has wowed audiences on both sides of the pond. If you didn’t get a chance to see the show yourself, listening to the soundtrack will give you a taste of the talent behind this new version of Sondheim’s classic.

The power of social media

The National Theatre recently announced that they will be uploading one of their past productions to their YouTube channel every Thursday at 7PM, and they they’ll also available on-demand for a full week afterwards. The first production to go live will be One Man, Two Guvnors, starring James Corden in the role that saw him win a Tony award. This will be live from 2nd April, with full details on further productions available here.

Sadler’s Wells have also announced a programme of full-length dance performances and workshops online, to keep you entertained and connected through dance,  wherever you are in the world while their live stages are dark. The programme launches today (Friday 27 March), with an exclusive online screening of Deluxe by  BalletBoyz at 7.30PM. It will be available to watch on the Sadler’s Wells Facebook page as the first in their weekly series  of  Sadler’s Wells  Facebook Premieres.

Game of Thrones fans that missed out on Maisie Williams’ stage debut are in luck – Hampstead Theatre have announced that they will be broadcasting their production of Lauren Gunderson’s play ‘I and You’, which tells the story of two students studying Walt Whitman on Instagram. Watch from March 23-29 on Hampstead Theatre’s IGTV @hampstead-theatre.

However you are celebrating #WorldTheatreDay, we hope you are staying safe and well!

Curious Incident: Prime Suspects

September 18, 2016September 18, 2016niallrpalmer

Is your name a Prime Number? This week we were lucky enough to revisit Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time which is still in fabulous shape and regularly selling out at the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. Our Curious post will be online soon, and while we’re playing detective, here’s a little bit of fun inspired by the show:

IS YOUR NAME A PRIME NUMBER?

On your visit to the show, you’ll find that prime number seats in the auditorium are marked out and contain a card which helps you work out whether your name is a prime number. Those lucky audience members who find out that they ARE a prime can collect prize in the foyer. So we thought we’d play along online just for fun using a hand cipher calculator!

WHAT’S A CIPHER?

A cipher is just a way of encrypting code. If you know your Bletchley Park back-story then you’ll know that codebreakers like Alan Turing were fundamental to British successes during WWII. In Curious Incident, Christopher is a gifted mathematician and it’s pretty certain he would have made a great code breaker himself. We’re going to use a very simple cipher to work out whether your name is a prime number.

ABC Cipher – use this to change your name into code

HOW DO I DO THE MATHS?

Life’s too short to do the coding yourself. We’ve found a shortcut – just type in your name and this nifty little cipher from Rumkin will covert your name into a series of numbers. e.g. if your name is Doctor Watson then your numbers are 4-15-3-20-18 23-1-20-19-15-14. Add them up and you get a number, in this case = 157.

You still have to do a little maths yourself but, once you’ve added up the sequence of numbers you’ll be left with a number which you can check against our list of primes in the grid below (e.g. Doctor Watson is 157):

See if your name is a Prime Number (the squares in grey are all primes)

If your name IS a prime, then Christopher Boone will definitely want to see you in the audience – and so will the team at the Gielgud Theatre! You can buy tickets for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre – and don’t forget to take some ID so you can prove your number is a prime and claim a prize at the interval.

If your name is a Prime Number, you’re in good company: Others include Terry Pratchett, Sherlock Holmes, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley!

If you have a mind like Christopher Boone, you’ll have no trouble solving our Theatre Brainteasers!

People, Places and Things – The Reviews

March 30, 2016niallrpalmer

Following a hugely successful run at the National Theatre, Headlong Theatre’s gritty, bleak and darkly funny tale of addiction and redemption as seen through the eyes of actress Emma has now moved to the Wyndham’s Theatre. The reviews are in – so what did the critics think of the show’s West End transfer?

"A character you can't tear your eyes from" — “A character you can’t tear your eyes from”

Chris Bennion for The Telegraph said Denise Gough’s Emma was Read more →

Cinderella and the Beanstalk: Theatre503

December 22, 2015July 12, 2016niallrpalmer

They’ve booked the venue
They’ve bought the costumes.
There’s just one problem. They’ve forgotten to cast any actors.

When award-winning comedy trio Sleeping Trees brought their unique brand of slapstick comedy to Battersea’s Latchmere last year, they sold out with their fast, furious and madcap humour.

Now James Dunnell-Smith, Joshua George Smith and John Woodburn return, jumping from character to character with a seemingly supernatural elasticity. Sleeping Trees comes from a tradition of anarchic buffoonery – but don’t let that fool you – it’s all choreographed with military precision.

Cinders and the giant vegetable — Three men with an unusual gift for climbing vegetables…

Join Cinderella on her perilous adventure as the scheming Rumpelstiltskin blackmails the would-be princess into retrieving his golden eggs from the top of the beanstalk. Prince Charming, the Fairy Godmother and Jack’s pregnant cow all do their best to get in the way, so the delicious, oversized eggs may not be so easy to reach. Is poor Cinders doomed to spend her life climbing vegetables with just one shoe?

If you’re looking to treat the family to a magical Christmas but you fancy a change from the usual celebrity-over-substance, try this gem of a show.

★★★★ WHATS ON STAGE
★★★★ WEST END WILMA
★★★★★ BRITISH THEATRE

The Latchmere, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW
Booking: 020 7978 7040
https://theatre503.com/book-online/
Tickets £15/£12 (Plus pay what you can Sundays at 7pm)

Until Saturday 2 January 2016

If you’re looking for other seasonal treats, why not also try one of these fabulous festive fancies:

A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre Kingston)
Will Scrooge open his heart to the true spirit of Christmas before it’s too late? Find out in the Rose Theatre Kingston’s beautiful production of the Charles Dickens classic.

La Soiree (Southbank)
LA SOIRÉE’s heady cocktail of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary variety is more potent than ever.

La Soiree's Blue Bunny — La Soiree’s Blue Bunny…jump to it!

Wonder.Land (National Theatre)
A giant green screen, astonishing dance numbers and a cast of extraordinary characters make this ambitious and modern production a hugely satisfying re-telling of Carroll’s masterpiece.

The Little Match Girl (Lilyan Baylis Studio)
Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story, this touching tale of an impoverished young street girl’s hopes and dreams is beautifully told through dance, song and original music performed live on stage.

The Lorax (Old Vic)
Inspired by Dr. Seuss’s classic tale, The Lorax tells of a moustachioed and cantankerous critter who’s on a mission to protect the earth from the greedy, tree-chopping, Thneed-knitting businessman known only as The Once-ler.

Derren Brown: Miracle (Palace Theatre)
Hot on the heels from his sensational sell-out show Infamous, master of the mind Derren Brown returns to London’s Palace Theatre with his most daring magic show yet.

Finally…don’t miss the BBC4 broadcast of Gypsy on Sunday 27^th Dec. The show was filmed live at the Savoy Theatre, and stars Imelda Staunton and the delightful Gemma Sutton – you can read our interview with Gemma here.

Whatever you choose to do this festive season,
May your days be merry and bright,
Happy Christmas to all,
And to all a good-night!”