London Theatre returns for 2010

London Theatre returns for another year in January offering reduced price tickets to some of London’s top shows, brand new activities as well as to enhance your theatregoing experience. Organised by the Society of London Theatre, Get Into London Theatre makes tickets available for shows across London at just £10 to £35. Booking opens on 8 December for performances from 1 January to 12 February 2010. The annual promotion is bigger this year and better than ever, providing theatregoers with the chance to participate in exclusive workshops and activities, including acting, singing and dance classes run by West End professionals and backstage tours at some of London’s most iconic theatres. In previous years more than 40 of the capital’s top shows have taken part in the promotion. Full details of all participating shows in this year’s event, plus details of how to book, will be announced shortly

Fans, MJ film a cover-up

Michael Jackson's a SMALL group dedicated fans have started an 'awareness' campaign surrounding the upcoming movie 'This is It,' saying it covers up the grim reality of the dead pop star's final days.
The group represents fans from at least 10 countries who claim the movie, Around the world which threaters hits on Oct 28 and is based on Jackson's rehearsals for a series of London concerts, conceals the 'dire state' of his health while enriching its promoters that they hold partly responsible for his death on June 25.
Jackson was preparing for the concerts at the time of his sudden death, which was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner and attributed to an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol as well as the sedative lorazepam.
Police have focused their investigation into his death on the entertainer's personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray. So far, no charges have been filed.
Kenny Ortega, the director of 'This is It' who also was choreographing the concert rehearsals, told Reuters earlier this week that he saw no signs of drug dependency in Jackson, that the singer was excited to be performing and that the film was not intended to make a profit.
In a separate interview on Thursday, Mr Ortega called the movie a 'musical mosaic that I think will help the fans come to appreciate and understand what Michael was putting into 'This Is It", what his dreams were for it, what his goals were for it.' 'It is a story of a master of his craft, a great genius in his final theatrical work and creative process,' Mr Ortega said.

Drab to fab, Anna goes

ANNA Friel looked her usual gorgeous self after her latest performance in Breakfast At Tiffany's.
But the stunning actress - who shot to fame as Beth Jordache in Brookside -London's Theatre had turned up to Royal Haymarket dressed for the gym in trainers, jogging bottoms and a t-shirt.
The show was over by the time Anna, 33, was back to her normal glam self and looked foxy in a pair of knee-high boots and a figure-hugging frock.
Bright red lippy finished off her eye-catching appearance.
Anna recently admitted to keeping a stack of heels and hats in her dressing room to keep fans and the paparazzi entertained.
She said: "Now the paps are hanging around the stage door every night I like to put them on to leave the theatre."

Hodge returns to London Cage

Douglas Hodge is to reprise his Laurence Olivier Award-winning performance in the London production of La Cage Aux Folles this Christmas, prior to the show’s planned Broadway transfer.

Hodge will replace John Barrowman as Albin/Zaza for a five week season from 30 November, when he will be joined in the cast by Denis Lawson, with whom he starred when the hit musical first opened at the Playhouse theatre last autumn.

La Cage Aux Folles, which won Best Musical Revival at the 2009 Laurence Olivier Awards, follows club owner Georges and his lover and leading drag performer Albin, whose way of life it threatened when Georges’s son announces an imminent visit from the future in-laws, who just happen to be a high profile right wing politician and his wife.

The West End production started life at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2007, where Hodge donned Zaza’s fabulous frocks for the first time. Following a rapturous reception at the small London Bridge venue, it transferred to the Playhouse theatre in October 2008, where Hodge was joined by Lawson.

Hodge is one of London theatre’s most versatile actors, having recently appeared in hit musical Guys And Dolls, Shakespeare’s Globe’s bloody production of Titus Andronicus and Kneehigh theatre’s production of A Matter Of Life And Death at the National Theatre.

La Cage Aux Folles’s leading roles are currently being played by Torchwood star, I’d Do Anything judge and musical theatre leading man Barrowman opposite Australian actor Simon Burke, who has previously appeared in London productions of The Sound Of Music and When The Rain Stops Falling, as Georges. Though already performing in the show, the pair face the press on 5 October.