Latest news with #MenierChocolateFactory
Time Out
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Cynthia Erivo will return to London's West End to play 26 roles in a one-woman ‘Dracula'
Cynthia Erivo got her big break on the London stage, though probably not when she expected to. In 2014 the then-unknown Brit was cast in the lead role of the massive West End folly I Can't Sing!, a parody of The X-Factor that turned up years too late for the zeitgeist and duly died a death at the gargantuan London Palladium. But unbenownst to her, she'd already made it: the previous year she'd got great reviews in the tiny Menier Chocolate Factory's production of the musical adaptation of Alice Walker's classic novel The Colour Purple. It never went to the West End. But it did go to Broadway, and after that Erivo's reputation was duly made, Hollywood came calling, and she's not acted on a British stage since. That will change next year, though, when she makes the mother of all returns in not one role but 26 in a high tech one-woman stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. If that rings a bell, then it'll be because last year Sarah Snook took the West End by storm in the conceptually similar The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Dracula isn't a rip-off: it's by the same Australian creative team from Sydney Theatre, headed by director-adaptor Kip Williams (who has in fact made a trilogy of Victorian horror adaptations with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde currently unseen outside Oz). Paying moody homage to classic horror movies – so a very different look to the very fabulous Dorian Gray – it scored great reviews domestically and should be a proper showcase for Erivo, who'll take on every role from Jonathan Harker to the Count himself. Quoth Erivo: 'Returning to the stage feels like a homecoming, one that I've been craving for a long time. To do so with a story as rich, complex, and haunting as DRACULA offers a beautiful opportunity to delve into character, into myth, and into the heart of what makes us human. 'From the moment I was asked, I could not get the role out of my mind. Kip's vision is thrilling, terrifying, and deeply resonant, offering a chance to sit with not only the darkness in the world, but also the light we fight to hold onto. It's a rare gift for an actor to inhabit so many voices and perspectives in one piece, and I'm honoured to do it for West End audiences in this extraordinary production. The prospect of doing this show scares me and I know it will be a huge challenge. This show will ask everything of me — and I'm ready to give it.'
Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Producers: What you need to know about the side-splitting musical comedy in the West End and how to find tickets
Mel Brooks's legendary musical comedy is back – and it's definitely not pulling its punches. This laugh-a-minute backstage show, set in 1959, follows an odd-couple pair of con artists, failing theatre producer Max Bialystock and timid accountant Leo Bloom, who team up to defraud investors by staging a deliberately terrible Broadway musical. It's totally outrageous showbiz satire, from the duo's chosen play, Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, created by a deranged ex-Nazi soldier, to the flamboyant director and increasingly madcap rehearsal hijinks. By the time we reach the infamous Springtime for Hitler musical number, audiences are reduced to helpless hysterics. The Producers won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards for its original Broadway run in 2001, and was also a massive success in the West End in 2004, starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans. It has since been staged frequently, but this is the first time we've seen it in London since that initial run. Patrick Marber's smash-hit revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory is now transferring to the Garrick Theatre in the West End for a much-anticipated encore, starring Andy Nyman and Marc Antolin. How to buy tickets for The Producers You can find seats for the London production of The Producers on Telegraph Tickets. Check the site for the latest prices. The cast The fabulously outlandish roles in The Producers are a treat for actors. The original 1967 movie version starred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, succeeded by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick for the stage musical version. Subsequent casts have included Roger Bart, Cory English, Reece Shearsmith and Jason Manford. Now Andy Nyman has his turn as the colourful Max Bialystock. Nyman was nominated for an Olivier Award for Fiddler on the Roof, appeared in the Wicked movie, and co-created the play Ghost Stories. The cast also features Marc Antolin (Olivier nominated for Little Shop of Horrors) as Leo, plus Trevor Ashley (Hairspray) and Joanna Woodward (The Time Traveller's Wife). The Producers is directed by Patrick Marber. His writing ranges from TV comedy The Day Today to plays such as Dealer's Choice and Closer. He was Olivier nominated for directing Tom Stoppard's Travesties and won a Tony for directing Stoppard's Leopoldstadt. The details Where is The Producers playing? The Producers runs at the Garrick Theatre on Charing Cross Road, which is close to Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, and other theatres in London's West End. What is the running time of The Producers? The running time of The Producers is 2 hours and 30 minutes, including an interval. How long is The Producers running for? The Producers is booking to July 19, 2025. What is the minimum age for The Producers? The age recommendation for The Producers is 10+. Does The Producers have accessible tickets? Yes, the show has captioned, BSL and audio-described performances scheduled. Find more information on the theatre website. The review
Telegraph
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Apex Predator: This dire vampire drama lacks bite
Down in Southwark, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, they're presenting Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors – which is styled as a gender-bending, Gen Z spin on Bram Stoker's vampire classic but has its emphasis, winningly, on pure silliness. Up at Hampstead, by contrast, we're offered something ostensibly meatier to sink our teeth into. John Donnelly's Apex Predator collides the model of a vampire thriller with a domestic drama about a young mother buckling under modern-day stresses. So: genre-bending, then. Initially, we're presented with the portrait of a woman, Mia, who's showing signs of being stuck in a post-natal horror-show: it's not just the anti-social behaviour, especially noisy neighbours upstairs, that is grinding her down, but aside from a hungry babe-in-arms, there's her disturbed 11-year-old son Alfie (facing exclusion for biting another child) and a husband unhelpfully absent working at nights on a police case. The focus at first seems to shift towards Alfie, with his sinister drawings and curious wariness around his mother. But his primary-school teacher, Ana – who has taken him under her wing – leans in, literally, towards Mia, bizarrely offering to breast-feed the baby and proffering coaxing advice: 'Maybe you've just lost touch with the animal part of yourself'. Before you can say 'ouch', a drip-drip gore-fest, primarily at the expense of a rancid male sex that deserves what it gets, is the order of the night. What with the huge success of 2:22 A Ghost Story – not to mention an insatiable public craving for vampire-fodder recently stoked anew by Nosferatu – you can see why Hampstead leapt on a show with a supernatural (and thus commercial) edge. But while Blanche McIntyre's production seduces technically – with some icky sanguivorous flourishes – Donnelly's drama feels curiously de-fanged. The secondary characters are so disposable as barely to warrant attention. And while on paper, he succeeds in drawing us into a twilight world where we, too, are unsure what's in Mia's head and what lies without, in practice, the piece feels like an interesting conceit that hasn't been fully fleshed out. A twisty ending tries to have its cake and eat it, serving both to indicate Mia's maternal distress and re-assert a teasing sense of dark unleashed forces. With short scenes lending the metaphor-laden evening a televisual (yet theatrically cumbersome) choppiness, Sophie Melville turns in quite a flat performance, almost in keeping with Tom Piper's ungainly set with its rising and falling sections of frosted panels and unprepossessing scaffolding. She's more starey than scary, and isn't helped by having to jiggle a plainly fake baby, although her quivering bouts of 'blood lows' are nicely done. The brightest element is Laura Whitmore – the Irish TV presenter and actress – as the predatory primary-teacher with carnal longings and immortal leanings. She has presence, and unmistakable glamour. The piece apparently draws on Donnelly's own grasp of the complex challenges thrown up by the protective urges of parenthood. But given that it's still evidently taking its baby steps, it needed cosseting itself in a less exposed part of the theatrical food chain, ideally in the studio space.
The Guardian
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors review – batty antics with a Rocky Horror bloodsucker
Before they took on Bram Stoker's vampire count, co-writers Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen did Crime and Punishment: A Comedy – another title that speaks for itself. Here, Dracula is put through their humour wringer and comes out a pansexual bloodsucker, chasing anyone with a neck. There are gender and genre inversions galore as Jonathan Harker (Charlie Stemp, good comic timing) treks up the Carpathian mountains to Dracula's castle. Harker's fiancee is now Lucy (Safeena Ladha) rather than Mina, who is turned into Lucy's less eligible sister and played by Sebastien Torkia in ginger-ringleted wig. In a production directed by Greenberg, Dracula (James Daly) makes quite an entrance in lace midriff top and leather trousers, with the ripped bare muscles of an underworld hottie. He is bedroom-eyed and playful, in the mould of Rocky Horror's Frank-N-Furter. It is a shame then that the story does not manifest the same danger and allure in his wooing of Lucy and flirtations with Harker. None of it is truly transgressive, and his status as a sexual outsider and chaotic force is neutered by the lightness of the comedy. The script ping-pongs into earnestness too, with warnings about time and the torments of immortality. Daly is still a charming stage presence and his Byronic, gym-bunny twist on Dracula is amusing if one-note. There is lots of larking and some funny physical gags, although the scripted jokes can be less than pin-sharp: a dated gag about dentistry references Janet Street-Porter while Harker has two cousins called Mary and Shelley. In its gender reversals, the show has the rambunctious, good-natured feel of a gothic panto. Van Helsing is a German doctor and bluestocking, played twinklingly by Torkia. It is not radical or innovative, but it is fun. Tijana Bjelajac's set design, featuring luminous bat-shaped wings, bears the look of a wonky 1980s nightclub. Disco beats are mixed with claps of thunder and cracks of lightning. DIY special effects give it charm: cans sprayed by actors in place of a smoke machine when Dracula walks on, puppetry and ventriloquism by Stemp who carries off the comedy nicely as a whole. The five-strong cast juggle multiple roles with particularly fast work by Dianne Pilkington as various characters including Lucy's father. The performances are superb all round, full of fun and mischief, but the low-hanging jokes of the script short-change the actors' talents. This comedy needs sharper fangs. At Menier Chocolate Factory, London, until 3 May
