Category Archives: What’s on / Listings

WHAT’S ON: GLASGOW SHOW ADDED TO CARRIE HOPE FLETCHER’S DEBUT TOUR

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Glasgow, Theatre Royal – Sunday, June 11

Award-winning stage star Carrie Hope Fletcher will be bringing her new debut solo tour to Glasgow.

Carrie Hope Fletcher – An Open Book will see the musical theatre star, author and vlogger play a series of unmissable theatre shows in May and June 2023, including a new date at Glasgow Theatre Royal on Sunday June 11.

Performing songs from her incredible West End and touring career, fans can look forward to hits from Heathers, Les Misérables, The Addams Family and many more, interspersed with chat about Carrie’s life and career.

Tickets are on sale from 10am, on Friday, November 4 from www.cuffeandtaylor.com

Speaking about Carrie Hope Fletcher – An Open Book, Carrie said: “I am so excited to be preparing for my first ever solo tour – and to be adding new dates is absolutely fantastic.

“A solo concert tour is something I have wanted to do for some time, and it’s great to be able to visit even more places and meet even more fans.

“I adore being on stage and am fortunate to have performed in so many theatres, but there’s something very special about being able to get out on the road and visit some beautiful theatres around the UK.”

Earlier this year, Carrie was named best performer in a female identifying role in a musical as the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella. Most recently, she has wowed critics in a new revival of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and is now preparing for her pantomime debut as the villain Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

Carrie, who has an impressive three WhatsOnStage Awards to her name, has enjoyed a breath-taking career since her West End debut at the age of nine playing Young Éponine in Les Misérables.

Since then, Carrie’s theatre credits include Fantine in Les Misérables: The Concert, Veronica in Heathers, Wednesday in The Addams Family, Éponine in Les Misérables, both Truly Scrumptious and Jemima in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Beth in Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds and Jane Banks in Mary Poppins.

When she’s not treading the boards of the West End’s biggest stages, Carrie is also a best-selling novelist, Top 20 recording artist and respected vlogger with her popular self-titled music and vlog channel attracting more than a million views a month.

Carrie Hope Fletcher – An Open Book is presented by Lambert Jackson, Live Nation and Cuffe and Taylor.

Jamie Lambert, of Lambert Jackson, said: “Carrie Hope Fletcher – An Open Book presents an opportunity to take one of the West End’s most celebrated and successful leading stars to theatres across the UK.

“There has been a phenomenal demand for the tour so we are delighted to be adding extra dates so even more people will be wowed by the stunning voice of Carrie, while also getting an insight into her incredible career.”

Cuffe and Taylor Director of Theatre Touring Ben Hatton added: “We are very excited to be presenting Carrie’s debut UK tour, and it is testament to her great popularity that we’re adding these dates. Carrie is the most wonderful musical theatre talent and audiences will absolutely love this show.”

For more information about Carrie Hope Fletcher – An Open Book and to secure tickets head to www.cuffeandtaylor.com

 Image: Michael Wharley

NEWS: SCOTTISH OPERA PRESENTS THE VERDI COLLECTION IN GLASGOW

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As part of the Opera in Concert series, Scottish Opera presents The Verdi Collection, a selection of the Italian composer’s greatest hits at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen on 19 November and Eden Court, Inverness on 26 November, with the concert then touring to City Halls, Glasgow and Usher Hall, Edinburgh in February 2023.

A cast of internationally acclaimed singers bring numerous roles to life, capturing the breadth and drama of Verdi’s incredible array of popular operas that earned him the title of the “king” of all Italian opera composers. In Aberdeen and Inverness, Scottish Opera’s Music Director Stuart Stratford conducts The Orchestra of Scottish Opera along with the cast including Hye-Youn Lee (Don Giovanni 2022), Christopher Turner (La traviata 2017), Roland Wood (Don Giovanni 2022) and Jihoon Kim. In 2023, the concert travels to Glasgow and Edinburgh with Eri Nakamura, Peter Auty (Eugene Onegin 2018), Lester Lynch (Silvano 2019) and Brindley Sherratt (Inês de Castro 2015).

Capturing the romance, passion and tragedy of Verdi’s works, the concert features a playlist from operas including La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Otello and Macbeth. In an evening of dramatic storytelling this is a chance to hear some the composer’s more iconic music, recognisable from numerous TV adverts and films.

Known for his beautiful melodies and powerful plots, complicated relationships sit at the heart of his operas, as the concert’s singers become families, lovers, friends and enemies who often find themselves at dramatic odds, with understandable motives on all sides.

Scottish Opera Music Director Stuart Stratford said: ‘The Verdi Collection comprises some of the highlights of the composer’s middle and late period from La traviata, one of the most popular operas, to Don Carlo and Otello.

‘The orchestra increasingly becomes more of an independent dramatic voice in his later works, with the sinister bassoon counterpoint in Otello and the golden aura of the cornets in Don Carlo striking examples of colour and character.

‘We hope there is something in The Verdi Collection for everyone and that the great Italian master still surprises us today as he undoubtedly did when these works were first performed.’

Verdi’s prolific output was marked by many styles, themes, and stories in a career that spanned over 50 years. At the heart of all his operas are instantly recognisable characters (noble heroes and dastardly villains alike), nuanced relationships between lovers and families, and melodies that transcend time.

Cast for Glasgow performances:

Soprano                 Eri Nakamura

Tenor                     Peter Auty

Baritone                 Lester Lynch

Bass                      Brindley Sherratt

City Halls, Glasgow
10 February 2023, 7.30pm

WHAT’S ON: Pitlochry Festival Theatre Autumn 2022 line up

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Pitlochry Festival Theatre has announced a diverse programme for their Autumn season.

ENOUGH OF HIM

WRITTEN BY: May Sumbwanyambe

DIRECTED BY: Orla O’Loughlin

PRODUCTION COMPANY: A National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre co-production.

PERFORMANCE DATES:  20-29 October then touring till 19 November. Touring till 19 November

VENUE: Studio, Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Based on a true story, Enough of Him, explores the life of Joseph Knight, an African man enslaved by plantation owner Sir John Wedderburn and brought to Scotland to serve in his Perthshire mansion. In a first-time collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland and Pitlochry Festival Theatre May Sumbwanyambe’s historical domestic drama, directed by Orla O’Loughlin opens in Pitlochry before touring Scotland in October and November 2022.

Highly favoured by Wedderburn and yet still enslaved, Joseph Knight balances on the knife edge between obligation and a soul-deep yearning for freedom. He forges a bond with Annie, a young Scottish servant working in the household, and the two of them fall in love.

But the walls of Ballindean do not keep secrets — their affair unsettles Lady Wedderburn, whose bitter loneliness is only deepened by the close bond her husband has with Knight. Joseph will endure bondage no longer. What happens when Joseph’s dreams clash with those of the man who owns him? What becomes of us all when past brutalities bleed into our present realities?

Enough of Him is a thrilling exploration of power and its attendant tensions: between those who are enslaved and those who are free, servants and masters, and husbands and wives.

SHIRLEY VALENTINE

WRITTEN BY: Willy Russell

DIRECTED BY Elizabeth Newman

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

PERFORMANCE DATES: 13-29 October

VENUE: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Shirley Valentine is a celebration of women, freedom and what it means to find yourself again. We meet Shirley, a bored, middle-aged wife and mother, when she’s contemplating what has happened to her youth, feeling stagnant and in a rut. Her children are all grown up and she frequently talks to the wall in her kitchen while preparing her husband’s regular evening meal of egg and chips. When her best friend offers to pay for a trip for two to Greece, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen, and heads off for a fortnight of rest and relaxation. In Greece, she meets Costas, rediscovers herself, finds happiness, and everything she has been missing.  She realises that there is more to life than the dull, mundane existence she leads back home.  So now, Shirley has a big decision to make.

PETER PAN AND WENDY

WRITTEN BY: Janys Chambers (North & South, Pitlochry Festival Theatre), adapted from the novel by J.M.Barrie

DIRECTED BY Ben Occhipinti

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pitlochry Festival Theatre

DATES: 18 November – 23 December

VENUE: Main House, Pitlochry Festival Theatre

A new adaptation by Janys Chambers of J.M. Barrie’s magical story about a boy who can fly and doesn’t want to grow up. One starry night, bedtime stories come alive for Wendy Darling and her younger brothers John and Michael when they meet Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and fly with them to Neverland – ‘second star to the right and straight on till morning’.  They find themselves on a thrilling adventure far from home where they make friends with the Lost Boys, meet the evil pirate Captain Hook and his motley crew, and encounter a very noisy crocodile.

 

Title image: Julias Cardew