Friday 18th November 2011 by Will Langdale
A quick pick of what’s hot in the TicketTree.com office
 |
| Broadway in New York City, snapped by Ryan Hoard on flickr |
An international affair
What’s better than having British-born musicals doing well in London? Having them do well abroad! This week sees a couple of huge shows announcing productions in other corners of the globe, joining a tradition of jetsetting theatre that’s been around for the best part of a century.
This week Ghost the Musical follows in the footsteps of Love Never Dies, and the reverse footsteps of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, in announcing a future Australian production. Slated for August 2013, it’ll have run for two years in the West End before its cousins down under have their opening night at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Conversely, Australia is now the only place you can see Love Never Dies, whose London show ended this summer. It’s currently playing at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, and will be transferring to the Capitol Theatre in Sydney on January 18th. Priscilla Queen of the Desert, unsurprisingly for a show about Australian drag queens, began life in the country, and only opened in London after three years’ of productions all over the Australasian region.
Also marking another step in its meteoric rise, the National Theatre’s One Man, Two Guvnors has announced a Broadway transfer, still headed by James Corden as lead man Francis. The natural comparison is, of course, War Horse, which also has a production running on Broadway, with plans for touring shows either side of the pond, and a production in the works in Toronto, Canada. And that’s before mentioning Steven Spielburg’s War Horse film, due to be released in the next few months, which will catapult the story all over the world.
Curtain down at the Pinter
The freshly-named Harold Pinter Theatre (neé Comedy Theatre) has announced the early closure of Death and the Maiden this week, a 1990 play by long-time Pinter student and friend Ariel Dorfman. The play stars Thandie Newton and concerns itself with a political prisoner who gets an unlikely opportunity to avenge the harrowing events of her past. It’s sad to see it go, as it got fairly solid 3* reviews all round, but with nothing yet announced to follow it this leaves quite an exciting opening in the new year!
Deal of the week
If it’s international stars you’re interested in, Michael Jackson’s definitely one of the most famous. This week we’re giving our blog readers the opportunity to get 5% off any Thriller theatre break by using the voucher code THRILLERBLOG! Just head through the booking and plug it in at the end for your juicy discount.