Watch Girlhood with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 9 June. Girlhood is available to rent on Prime, Sky and other platforms. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we’re all part of an audience together. What is Girlhood? Before Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma directed Girlhood (Bande de filles), … [Read more...]
All That Jazz | Lockdown Theatre Club 12
Watch All That Jazz with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 2 June. All That Jazz is available to rent from Sky (no Sky subscription needed, just download the Sky app). At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. Usually people tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) but as many of us are marking #BlackoutTuesday on 2 June, let's just watch the film knowing we’re all part of an audience … [Read more...]
Lockdown lessons: Singin’ in the Rain
We learned a lot about Singin’ in the Rain during the Lockdown Theatre Club group watch. There was a lot of adoration for this film, and a lot of good facts flying around. It made me think about why I love it so much – although I’ve always been more of an Astaire boy than a Kelly fan. But what I love about the film and its hero, Don Lockwood – the silent star played by Kelly who reinvents himself … [Read more...]
Singin’ in the Rain | Lockdown Theatre Club 7
Watch Singin’ in the Rain with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 28 April. Singin’ in the Rain is available to rent on the BFI Player. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we're all part of an audience together. What is Singin’ in the Rain? One of the most joyous of MGM musicals, from 1951. Gene Kelly (who … [Read more...]
Everything Pina
I was always going to schedule Wim Wenders’ Pina for Lockdown Theatre Club. Pina Bausch’s work has been a delight and compulsion throughout my theatregoing lifetime. I’ve seen every piece I can, several of them more than once. When her Tanztheater Wuppertal brought 10 productions to London during the Olympic year, I saw them all. I’ve snatched at review, interview and programme-note opportunities. … [Read more...]
Pina | Lockdown Theatre Club 6
Watch Pina with Lockdown Theatre Club on Tuesday 21 April. Pina is available to rent on Amazon Prime. At 8pm everyone presses play and watches together. You can tweet along (#LockdownTheatreClub) or just enjoy the film knowing we're all part of an audience together. What is Pina? A documentary about the choreographer Pina Bausch, one of the most significant 20th-century artists, by Wim Wenders … [Read more...]
Lockdown Theatre Club
Join a weekly online audience for a stage-adjacent movie. Theatre and its audiences have always been there for me, even in the toughest times, and they’re still here. For you too, if you like. Coming up on Lockdown Theatre Club Tuesday 7 July at 8pmHamiltonA return to the room where it happened: Lin-Manuel Miranda leads the original Broadway cast of his landmark musical. Available on Disney … [Read more...]
Change the dance, change the world
Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins: two geniuses who sound as horrible to work with as they were inspiring to watch. Two artists whose choreography is tightly locked into the DNA of the silver-plated shows they helped create. Unpicking their movement from those landmark Manhattan musicals is tough – Robbins’ West Side Story gangboys who stake a leaping, finger-clicking claim on the streets; Fosse’s … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the suicide note in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
There aren’t many props in dance. Some may intrude on classical ballet, though only the most trad production will drag out the shiny swords and goblets. Otherwise, anything that gets in the way of bodies is considered clutter, and faces the full Marie Kondo. After all, there’s a reason those tights and tutus don’t have pockets. That’s not the case in Matthew Bourne’s production of Swan Lake for … [Read more...]
My week with swans
I’ve spent a week thinking about swans. Ballet swans, mostly, with feathery bodies, aching hearts. Last Thursday, Liam Scarlett’s richly imagined Swan Lake opened at the Royal Ballet, replacing a 31-year-old version and offering an opportunity to rethink the way the story is told. I took part in some of the events the Royal Opera House held in its wake – interviewing artists, facilitating … [Read more...]