Opening: Whoopi, Wars, Cream, Hecuba & Punks

It’s a very quiet week for London openings, with performers, critics and audience members alike making their way north for the Edinburgh International Festival and Festival Fringe. The Fringe officially kicked off on Friday 6 August 2010 with many venues opening up to a week before. The International Festival throws open its doors on 13 August.
For those looking for their theatrical fix in London, Camden Fringe is still in full flow until 29 August with shows throughout the Borough, whilst the inaugural London Fringe runs through to 27 August.

Amongst other openings in London this week are:

OPENING TUESDAY, 10 August 2010, Whoopi Goldberg has her first night in Sister Act at the West End’s London Palladium. The American actress, who played Deloris in the 1992 film, takes over from Sheila Hancock in the role of the Mother Superior for 23 performances before leaving the cast 31 August.

OPENING WEDNESDAY, 11 August (previews from 10 August), one-act play PVT Wars, takes a comic look at three GIs recovering from their Vietnam injuries whilst in an army hospital. The play opens at the Rosemary Branch Theatre where it runs until 22 August.

OPENING THURSDAY, 12 August (previews from 10 August), at the King’s Head Theatre, Three Women in an Ice Cream Cone is the first play by Scottish singer-songwriter Elizabeth Fotheringham. Set in the 1950s, the play charts the turbulent lives of three women entangled with an ice cream shop proprietor. It runs until 5 September.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 10 August), the Shaw Theatre hosts the first major UK revival of the musical Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens. which features a 30-strong cast including actress and singer Miquel Brown and Jonathan Hellyer, one of the UK’s most popular gay cabaret performers. The musical first opened at the King’s Head in 1992 before transferring to the West End’s Criterion Theatre the following year. It plays until 28 August.

ALSO ON THURSDAY (previews from 10 August), Lazarus Theatre Company brings Hecuba to the New Diorama Theatre. The production is the Camden Fringe’s longest run. It promises to be an “explosive new production” of Euripides’ bloody and devastating play. It runs until 28 August.