Latest news with #DundeeRepTheatre
STV News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- STV News
Alan Cumming and other original cast from The High Life reuniting for musical
Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson are reuniting with other original members of The High Life cast to create a musical based on the 1990s TV show. The production will tour Scotland in spring 2026, almost three decades after the series was screened. All four original cast members – Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart will feature in the show. The High Life, first commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, centred on the crew of the fictional Air Scotia airline. In the musical Air Scotia has been sold and the crew is fighting for their future. The TV series was created by Cumming and Masson who have reunited to create the musical, joined in their creative collaboration by writer, performer and panto-maker Johnny McKnight and the artistic director of Dundee Rep, Andrew Panton. Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson said: 'Never say never! We are both beyond excited to be donning those nylon slacks and crimpelene blazers and connecting with our inner trolly dollies after all these years. 'Returning to these characters alongside the genius that is Johnny McKnight has been a joyful experience and we can't wait to share what madness we've come up with around Scotland.' The High Life was first introduced to TV audiences in an initial pilot in 1994 and then in a series of six episodes which were broadcast in early 1995. The series is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Johnny McKnight said: 'I am absolutely thrilled to join the Air Scotia cabin crew. I grew up watching The High Life, wishing that one day I could get to fly 30 thousand feet with Alan, Forbes, Siobhan and Patrick. 'I never believed that a reunion show would happen, let alone that I would get to be part of the team working on it. 'The bags are packed, the tena-man pants on, and I am ready for check in. 'Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the flight of a lifetime.' The new show is being presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres. It will tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and King's Theatre, Glasgow in Spring 2026. Andrew Panton said: 'Having been a High Life fan right from take-off in 1994, it's been a total joy to work with this amazing team of pure talent. 'Our development time together has been a riot of creative energy, hilarity and brilliant music and songs and I feel sure our new stage musical will appeal to both fans of the TV show and folks new to The High Life. 'I'm thrilled that we're creating the show at Dundee Rep Theatre before it jets off to entertain audiences across Scotland.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Powys County Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Alan Cumming and other original cast from The High Life reuniting for musical
Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson are reuniting with other original members of The High Life cast to create a musical based on the 1990s TV show. The production will tour Scotland in spring 2026, almost three decades after the series was screened. All four original cast members – Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart will feature in the show. The High Life, first commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, centred on the crew of the fictional Air Scotia airline. In the musical Air Scotia has been sold and the crew are fighting for their future. The TV series was created by Cumming and Masson who have reunited to create the musical, joined in their creative collaboration by writer, performer and panto-maker Johnny McKnight and the artistic director of Dundee Rep, Andrew Panton. Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson said: 'Never say never! We are both beyond excited to be donning those nylon slacks and crimpelene blazers and connecting with our inner trolly dollies after all these years. 'Returning to these characters alongside the genius that is Johnny McKnight has been a joyful experience and we can't wait to share what madness we've come up with around Scotland.' The High Life was first introduced to TV audiences in an initial pilot in 1994 and then in a series of six episodes which were broadcast in early 1995. The series is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Johnny McKnight said: 'I am absolutely thrilled to join the Air Scotia cabin crew. I grew up watching The High Life, wishing that one day I could get to fly 30 thousand feet with Alan, Forbes, Siobhan and Patrick. 'I never believed that a reunion show would happen, let alone that I would get to be part of the team working on it. 'The bags are packed, the tena-man pants on, and I am ready for check in. 'Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the flight of a lifetime.' The new show is being presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres. It will tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and King's Theatre, Glasgow in Spring 2026. Andrew Panton said: 'Having been a High Life fan right from take-off in 1994, it's been a total joy to work with this amazing team of pure talent. 'Our development time together has been a riot of creative energy, hilarity and brilliant music and songs and I feel sure our new stage musical will appeal to both fans of the TV show and folks new to The High Life. 'I'm thrilled that we're creating the show at Dundee Rep Theatre before it jets off to entertain audiences across Scotland.'
Western Telegraph
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Western Telegraph
Alan Cumming and other original cast from The High Life reuniting for musical
The production will tour Scotland in spring 2026, almost three decades after the series was screened. All four original cast members – Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart will feature in the show. The High Life, first commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, centred on the crew of the fictional Air Scotia airline. The original series can be watched on the BBC iPlayer (BBC/PA) In the musical Air Scotia has been sold and the crew are fighting for their future. The TV series was created by Cumming and Masson who have reunited to create the musical, joined in their creative collaboration by writer, performer and panto-maker Johnny McKnight and the artistic director of Dundee Rep, Andrew Panton. Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson said: 'Never say never! We are both beyond excited to be donning those nylon slacks and crimpelene blazers and connecting with our inner trolly dollies after all these years. 'Returning to these characters alongside the genius that is Johnny McKnight has been a joyful experience and we can't wait to share what madness we've come up with around Scotland.' The High Life was first introduced to TV audiences in an initial pilot in 1994 and then in a series of six episodes which were broadcast in early 1995. The series is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Johnny McKnight said: 'I am absolutely thrilled to join the Air Scotia cabin crew. I grew up watching The High Life, wishing that one day I could get to fly 30 thousand feet with Alan, Forbes, Siobhan and Patrick. 'I never believed that a reunion show would happen, let alone that I would get to be part of the team working on it. 'The bags are packed, the tena-man pants on, and I am ready for check in. 'Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the flight of a lifetime.' I feel sure our new stage musical will appeal to both fans of the TV show and folks new to The High Life Andrew Panton, Dundee Rep artistic director The new show is being presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres. It will tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and King's Theatre, Glasgow in Spring 2026. Andrew Panton said: 'Having been a High Life fan right from take-off in 1994, it's been a total joy to work with this amazing team of pure talent. 'Our development time together has been a riot of creative energy, hilarity and brilliant music and songs and I feel sure our new stage musical will appeal to both fans of the TV show and folks new to The High Life. 'I'm thrilled that we're creating the show at Dundee Rep Theatre before it jets off to entertain audiences across Scotland.'
The Courier
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Review: Doubt: A Parable at Dundee Rep
John Patrick Shanley's 2004 stage play Doubt: A Parable opened off-Broadway and ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. It's a play with a big reputation and legacy, from Shanley's own 2008 film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Viola Davis, to last year's Broadway revival with Live Schreiber and Amy Ryan. Here Joanna Bowman directs Dundee Rep Theatre's version, which keeps the American backdrop of the original – a Bronx religious school in 1964, where the relationship between a young male priest and a boy in his care is called into question. The chance to see a modern classic on a Scottish stage; although if you'd like a recommendation from outside theatre, Shanley also won an Academy Award for writing the 1987 Cher and Nicolas Cage film Moonstruck. You know you're in for a high standard all round at Dundee Rep, and the performances are predictably powerful. Ann Louise Ross is especially commanding in the central role of Sister Aloysius, a character who flips the role of strict and widely-feared religious disciplinarian – all of which she is – to reveal an innate morality which causes her to not let go when she smells wrongdoing. The way the play manages to be a contemplative, ecclesiastical piece about the meaning of faith and a tense and utterly involving thriller all at once. All the time we're given mixed signals about who to root for – Sister Aloysius seems stuffy and inflexible, while the accused priest Father Flynn is played with easy-going, youthful warmth by Michael Dylan. Emma Tracey's apprentice Sister James, meanwhile, represents a more open, less disciplinarian form of teaching, but does seeing the good make her blind and naïve Jessica Worrall's impressive set is also a character in itself, a vaulted, concrete-effect sepulchre with a panel which reveals the changing seasons outside. You don't like hearing fake American accents in the theatre. Although the reason for maintaining time and setting becomes clear when we discover the boy in question, Donald Muller, is the only black child at the school. Mercy Ojelade cameos as his complex mother, who's prepared to turn a blind eye because she believes education is his only escape to a better life, and in an already powerful play her single scene is a tour de force. At Dundee Rep Theatre until Saturday 10th May.
