Musicals Extend: Love Never Dies, Stomp & Blood

Long-running West End musicals Stomp and Blood Brothers, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s  Love Never Dies, have recently announced extensions to their booking periods.
Love Never Dies, the follow-up to blockbuster musical The Phantom of the Opera, with a cast led by Ramin Karimloo as the eponymous masked man and Sierra Boggess as his muse Christine, has extended its booking period by three months, taking bookings up until 8 January 2011.

The action is set in 1907, ten years after the conclusion of the original story. The Phantom has escaped to New York with Madame and Meg Giry and found success in the fairgrounds of Coney Island as a magician and entertainer. When he builds a new opera house, he persuades his old ingenue Christine Daae, now a huge star and married to her old flame Raoul, to sing for him once more…

Music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Glenn Slater. Love Never Dies is directed by Jack O’Brien, designed by Bob Crowley and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.

At the Ambassadors Theatre, Stomp, which transforms the junk and clutter of urban life into a source of rhythm and dance, has added six months to its schedule and is now taking bookings through to 10 April 2011. After international and UK touring success, Stomp, which originated in Brighton in 1991, had its West End premiere in September 2002 at the Vaudeville Theatre, where it ran for five years before transferring to the Ambassadors.
A revamped version, with new “surround sound” music and routines, was introduced early last year. Stomp was created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas.

Blood Brothers has opened a new 12-month booking period and is now taking bookings through to 26 November 2011 at the Phoenix Theatre. This production of Willy Russell‘s Liverpool-set musical about twin brothers separated at birth first opened on 27 August 1988 at the Albery Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) before transferring to its current home at the Phoenix in November 1991.

The current production, which this year celebrates its 21st birthday, is directed by Bob Thomson and Bill Kenwright and designed by Marty Flood.

Russell’s Blood Brothers has recently been joined in the West End by two of his plays, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine at Trafalgar Studios. The Menier Chocolate Factory’s Willy Russell Season transferred to the West End on 26 July 2010 with Laura Dos Santos reprising her critically acclaimed performance as Rita, opposite Tim Pigott-Smith. Glen Walford’s production of Shirley Valentine, stars Meera Syal as Shirley. Both continue until 30 October.

** DON’T MISS our exclusive Whatsonstage.com Outing to Educating Rita on 2 September 2010 including a FREE programme, FREE drink and a chance to meet Steph and our EXCLUSIVE post-show Q&A – click here for details! We’re also running an Outing to Shirley Valentine – including FREE programme, FREE drink and our EXCLUSIVE Q&A with Meera Syal – on Thursday 26 August 2010 – click here for details! **