London Musicals 2015
COMING SOON: Below is the information from 2015 to give you a sense of how our travel worked then. This stays fairly constant from year to year.
The new year is upon us and shows are starting to appear on the London theatre websites, letting us know what sort of fun shows are showing up. Are you into musicals? Okay, let me rephrase that because, seriously who isn’t into musicals. How much do you LOVE musicals?? I know, right! Here are a couple that are launching this summer or making a glorious return to the various stages around London.
The big new shows this year is a musical-dance version of the young adult film Bend It Like Beckham, a story of two young women – one white and English, the other Punjabi and English – who live in Southall, a small suburb of London, which features constant airplane flights overhead (it’s next to Heathrow). Both girls love football (soccer) and David Beckham, but Jess comes from a traditional Punjabi family and football isn’t their idea of what a daughter should do. We’ve been looking forward to this show for a couple of years. If you’ve not seen the movie, do it ASAP and then get ready for a great show at the Phoenix Theatre in July! Even better, tickets are selling as cheaply as £15 ($22), so you will NOT want to miss this show!
London’s also planned for a few classic musicals that you’ll want to add to your list: Gypsy and High Society! Gypsy is a THE musical in so many ways, the story of Mama Rose and her desperate desire to make her daughters into stars. Mama Rose is the archetype “show biz mom”; those women on “Toddlers and Tiaras” have nothing on Mama Rose! Every great musical actress has played (or wanted to play) Mama Rose, from Rosalind Russell, Bette Midler, and Bernadette Peters to Linda Lavin, Betty Buckley, and Patti LuPone. You’ll recognize the amazing songs of Jules Styne and Stephen Sondheim: “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Some People,” and “Let Me Entertain You.” Gypsy heads into Savoy Theatre after a successful run in Chichester and stars everyone’s most hated Harry Potter figure, Delores Umbridge: Imelda Staunton! We can’t wait to see her on stage and we hope you’ll join us!
This radio interview of “Late with Kate” interviews Imelda Staunton on her new role:
Like Gypsy, the Cole Porter musical High Society is chock-a-block (know your English phrases!) with wonderful musical standards that you’ll recognize or, if not, that you’ll want to. You’re invited to the wedding of the year, the “IT” event for everyone in high society, what a great party it will be! Based on the film The Philadelphia Story (what? you haven’t? OMG, go watch it immediately!), High Society involves a posh socialite, Tracy Lord, her fiancé, her ex-husband, and now a gossip reporter who wants in on the action, all on the weekend of Tracy’s wedding. A classic “who will she choose” comedy with fun songs like “True Love,” performed beautifully by Bing Crosby here:
http://youtu.be/PAO8vlvPS88?t=3m26s
Over the next couple of months, we’ll have many more that show up in addition to long-running musicals that you may also want to catch, including Billy Elliot: The Musical, The Book of Mormon, Les Miserable, Let It Be, Lion King, Matilda: The Musical, Miss Saigon, or take in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the wonderful Regents’ Park Open Air Theatre!
