Curve Leicester announces socially distanced season of work including Andrew Lloyd Webber concert
© Ellie Kurttz
Exclusive: Curve in Leicester has revealed plans for a socially distanced season, running from 20 May.
With all shows socially distanced (utilising an expanded Curve auditorium combining both of its stage spaces), the venue will officially open with a Members Event on 20 May, which will also be lvie-streamed. On 21 and 22 May, Curve associate artists and resident creatives will showcase new work, with extracts from plays as well as new dance pieces. The evenings are hosted by Sheep Soup.
On 24 and 25 May, Aakash Odedra will present dance piece Rising, featuring several short works choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and Aakash himself.
From 27 to 29 May, Janie Dee, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Raj Ghatak, Debbie Chazen, Sharan Phull, Jordan Lee Davies and Wendy Ferguson will star in Katie Lam and Alex Parker's new musical comedy AmDram, which follows an amateur dramatics society that has its plans disrupted by two unexpected arrivals. Find out more about the piece here.
The venue will present a Made at Curve concert inspired by the life and career of Andrew
Lloyd Webber from 7 to 19 June. Full casting will be revealed in due course, with the show featuring numbers from The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, The School of Rock, Tell Me on a Sunday, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and more. Lloyd Webber himself will appear in a video recording for the concerts, with direction by artistic director Nikolai Foster.
Curve executive director Chris Stafford and Foster said: "After over a year of closure, we are delighted to be welcoming audiences safely back to Curve with an exciting programme celebrating artists, our community and Leicester's passion for musical theatre.
"We are proud to present a season of work drawing together new musical theatre writers with the canon of Andrew Lloyd Webber, contemporary dance with the work of Leicester legend Aakash Odedra and new writing alongside established voices.
"We cannot wait to bring our communities, artists and audiences together in our specially-adapted socially distanced auditorium. Although we recognise some audiences may be nervous returning to live events, health and safety remains our priority and we have invested significantly in implementing measures to ensure everyone working with us and visiting our theatre is safe.
"Through reopening our theatre we are not only able to make live work once more and employ 100s of freelancers, but we are able to play an active role in helping our city begin to recover from the impact of Covid. We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for our second Culture Recovery Fund grant which is enabling us to reignite the mighty Curve engines and operate with social distancing in place. We'd also like to thank everyone who's supported us during the closure, in particular our principal funders Arts Council England and Leicester City Council- this crucial public funding has kept our theatre operating during the pandemic."
Tickets go on sale to Curve members from tomorrow, with general sale from next Friday.
