Off-West End Announcements – 8 May 2009

Be Kissed By Brel

South African performer Claire Watling makes her UK debut in the award
winning Kissed By Brel, a new theatrical cabaret, celebrating Brel’s
timeless relevance and enduring passions. Kissed By Brel runs at Jermyn
Street Theatre for a limited London season from 21 July – 8 August.

Omar lights up the Young Vic

Been So Long is a new musical comedy written and directed by Che
Walker, with music by Arthur Darvill. It runs at the Young Vic from 11
June to 14 July. Internationally acclaimed soul singer Omar plays lovelorn
barman Barney. Been So Long is a feisty, stand-up and sing-out funk
musical about dealing with the frustrations of lust and love. As a
straight play Been So Long premiered at the Royal Court in 1998. This
musical version is the first co-production between the Young Vic and
English Touring Theatre.

Are you afraid of Boo?

Award-winning Mind The Gap’s Boo runs at Oval House from 13 – 16 May.
Inspired by the character of Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird, the
piece asks what does society these days make of this scared bogeyman,
this frightened ghost? And who really gets away with murder?


Great Dame Pedi at Jermyn Street
Broadway actress, Forbidden Broadway star and celebrated impressionist
Christine Pedi is to premiere her one woman tour-de-force, Great Dames,
at Jermyn Street Theatre from 2 June – 21 June. Great Dames is Pedi’s
tribute to the icons who have inspired her career. With great
affection, she conjures up the likes of Ethel Merman, Liza Minnelli,
Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews and many more, as well as singing
classic tunes.

Get Lost in the Wind

After a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Lost Spectacles bring
Lost in The Wind to Jackson’s Lane for the first time from the 13 –16
May. Lost in the Wind is a visual spectacle that takes the audiences
gently by the hand and leads them into a dreamlike other-world full of
beauty, humour and danger. The show combines clowning, puppetry and
object manipulation alongside delicate physical performance and
beautiful visual sequences to present one man’s unusual journey into
another world inhabited by a group of strange lonely beings.

Moon gaze in Southwark

Unlimited Theatre, one of the UK’s boldest companies bring their latest
production The Moon The Moon, a terrifying, tender and heartbreakingly
optimistic new play to Southwark Playhouse (2-20 June). Created by
Unlimited’s three founding artists, Clare Duffy, Jon Spooner and Chris
Thorpe, The Moon The Moon is a “huge, truthful, brilliant and gut
wrenching view of loss and how we deal with it”.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown at the Landor

Acclaimed young musical theatre director Thom Southerland makes his
Landor Theatre debut with the UK Premier of the classic film and
Broadway musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Starring Abi Finley, from
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? as Molly Brown, the real-life
American legend who survived the sinking of the Titanic. From the
composer of The Music Man comes the UK Premiere of a Tony award-winning
musical at the Landor (27 May – 20 June).

Scandalous Mrs. Warren’s Profession in Hampstead

George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession peels back the layers of
hypocrisy in British society and champions the feminine cause and
plight of the working girl decades before the term feminist was coined
and manages to address serious issues whilst being very funny. This
still very topical play is directed by Michael Friend and has a three
week run at Hampstead’s Pentameters theatre, beginning on 12 May.


Discover England in the Whitechapel Gallery

A story of a transplant: a heart inside a body, a culture inside
another country’s culture is told by two guides in Whitechapel Gallery.
England by Tim Crouch has its London premiere in association with the
National Theatre and Whitechapel Gallery from 8 May – 16 June. The two
actors are Tim Crouch and Hannah Ringham who is a founder member of
popular live-art club Shunt.

Prepare for a party at Soho Theatre

Ìyà-Ilé (pronounced yah-ley, English translation The First Wife) is the
long awaited prequel to Oladipo Agboluaje’s sell-out hit The Estate,
which Tiata Fahodzi premiered at Soho Theatre in 2006 and is currently
being made into a film. The Estate, influenced by Chekhov, was a
vibrant family satire with strong universal appeal. Ìyà- Ilé runs from
14 May – 20 June at the Soho Theatre. Set in 1980’s Nigeria, Chief
Adeyemi’s household prepares for his wife’s 40th birthday celebrations,
but is this scene set for a party or a coup?

– by Laura Norman