From Hornchurch to Australia and Rome via Suffolk
The autumn season at the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch has just been announced. There are three very contrasted shows from the end of August through to late November and, of course, the resident company cut to the chase…’s pantomime from the beginning of December to mid-January.
Next off the starting block is the Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Ancient Rome (the musical is based on an amalgam of comedies by Plautus) steps out onto 1962 Broadway as young men chase pretty girls, old men try to keep control of their money-bags and crafty slaves run rings around their masters. Incidentally, this is the first musical for which Sondheim wrote both the music and the lyrics and the production is another tribute to him at the age of 80. Select your sandals and tug on your toga from 24 September until 16 October.
Christopher Bond’s play derived from the Sweeney Todd stories was the basis for another, later Sondheim musical. The Mysterie of Maria Marten and the Murder in the Red Barn has its roots in an actual murder case of the early 19th century, about which much printer’s ink has subsequently been spilled establishing the guilt (or otherwise) of William Corder – not to mention a whole string of barn-storming melodramas. There are songs as well as suspense in Bond’s version which introduces an unusual detective called Lady Augusta Holmes. Draw your own conclusions between 29 October and 20 November.
Last year’s Hornchurch pantomime –
