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Jan 4, 2007 3:39:28 PM Archived Entry: "Live performances 2007"

Now that I've moved to London seeing a show once a week is about like eating twice a day - it seems like it's just not enough! I think last year's shows will be exceeded easily ...

January
1. Spamalot (with Tim Curry at the Palace)
2. Napoli Divertissements and Les Sylphides, Royal National Ballet
3. History Boys, Wyndham Theater
February
4. The Ramayana - Lyric Theater, Hammersmith
5. La Bayadere Act II (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, with Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky performing), Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes (Mark Morris), and Fancy Free (Jerome Robbins, with Salstein, Radedsky, Gomes, Herrera, and Kent performing) - American Ballet Theater at Sadler's Wells
6. Coram Boy - National Theater
7. Eva Yerbabuena - Sadler's Wells
8. Estrella Morente, Sadler's Wells
9. Came a Gypsy Riding - Almeida Theater
March
10. Handel's Agrippina - English National Opera
11. Under the Lintel
12. The Dumbwaiter - Trafalgar Studios
13. Le Jardin des Voix / William Christie - The Barbican
14. Attempts on Her Life - The National Theatre
April
15. The Indian Midsummer Night's Dream - The Roundhouse
16. Pinter's The Caretaker - Tricycle Theater
17. John Gabriel Borkman - The Donmar (fantastic!)
18. Venus and Adonis - The Little Angel Theater (a puppet version of a Shakespeare poem, great!)
19. Man of Mode - National Theater (London)
20. Mahabharatha - Sadler's Wells (1 1/2 stars, A for effort, B for dance, F for singing)
21. Mixed Rep, Royal Ballet - The world premiere of Seven Deadly Sins (Will Tuckett) / Pierrot Lunaire (Glen Tetley) / La Fin du jour (Kenneth MacMillan)
May
22. Absolute Beginners - Lyric Hammersmith (too rough, both dialogue and acting)
23. Hound of the Baskervilles - The Duchess
24. Emma Kirkby, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
25. Glass Menagerie (with Jessica Lange) - The Apollo
26. Jordi Savall, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
27. Darcy Bussell's "Farewell" - Sadler's Wells
28. Ensemble La Fenice, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
29. The Entertainer - Old Vic
30. Swan Lake - Royal Ballet
31. Avenue Q (again!) - Noël Coward (Albery)
32. Cabaret - Lyric (London)
June
33. Royal Ballet's Mixed Bill: Checkmate (Ninette de Valois), Symphonic Variations (Frederick Ashton), Song of the Earth (Kenneth MacMillan)
34. The Woman in Black - Fortune Theater London (really fun, well acted and a good story, I recommend it)
July
35. Looking Busy - The Bedford Park Pub, Streatham (staged reading of an original play by Katy Harrad)
36. Hothouse - The National Theater (Crazy mixed up script but both fun and creepy. I recommend it.)
37. Drowsy Chaperone - Novello Theater (great time, really fun, I'm just sorry I didn't see it earlier in the run, but it was still full of energy, going again August 1!)
38. Carmen Jones - Royal Festival Hall (too long, dialogue painfully dated, female lead could sing but couldn't act)
39. The Bolshoi's Le Corsaire (1899 choreography, recreated - 3 1/2 hours long but a blast) - ENO
August
40. Matthew Bourne's CarMan (Sadler Wells)
41. The Bolshoi's La Bayadere - ENO
42. Paco Pena - Sadlers Wells
43. Bolshoi Mixed Rep - Asaf Messerer's "Class Concert," Chris Wheeldon's "Elsinore," and Twyla Tharp's "Upper Room" - ENO
September
44. Venus as a Boy - Soho Studios
45. Bacchae (with Alan Cumming) - Lyric Hammersmith
46. Alvin Ailey "Jazz" rep - Sadler's Wells (Camille Brown's "The Groove to Nobody's Business" (2007), "Pas De Duke" (1976), Talley Beatty's "The Road of The Phoebe Snow" (1959), and Billy Wilson's "The Winter in Lisbon" (1992))
47. Boeing Boeing - Comedy Theater.
48. 39 Steps (again) - Criterion Theater
49. All About My Mother - Old Vic
50. Chris Wheeldon's Morphoses - Sadler's Wells (Morphoses - Wheeldon, Vicissitude - Liang, Slingerland Pas de Deux - Forsythe, Prokofiev Pas de Deux - Wheeldon, After the Rain - Wheeldon)
51. Awake And Sing - Almeida Theater
52. Moonwalking in Chinatown - Soho Studios (ambulatory)
53. Hofesh Schecter ("Uprising," which we saw earlier at ROH2, and "In Your Rooms")
October
54. "Fragments" (five plays by Samuel Becket - Rockaby, Rough for Theatre I, Act Without Words II, Come and Go, Neither - directed by Peter Brook) - Young Vic
55. Songs of Enchantment - Emma Kirkby with the English Viol Consort (at All Saints Church, part of the East Finchley Music Festival)
56. Magic Lantern "Ring Cycle" - ROH2
57. Giselle - Pretty Ugly Tanz Cologne
58. Ko Murobushi - The Place
59. Macbeth (with Patrick Stewart) - The Gieldgud Theatre
60. Carlos Acosta program, Sadler's Wells (Muñecos / El río y el bosque / Paso a tres - Méndez ; Le Corsaire - Alonso after Petipa)
November
61. Glengarry Glen Ross
62. Aida - English National Opera
63. The Human Computer - Will Adamsdale at Battersea Arts Centre
64. Country Wife - Royal Theater Haymarket
65. Billy Elliot - Victoria Palace
66. Parade - Donmar Warehouse
67. King Lear (with Sir Ian McKellen) - New London Playhosue
68. Impempe Yomlingo (the South African Magic Flute) - The Young Vic
December
69. Gekidan Kaitaisha's "Bye Bye Reflection" - Riverside Studios
70. Absurd Person Singular - The Garrick
71. Bitchslapped by God - The Drill Hall
72. Dick Whittington and His Cat - The Hackney Empire
73. Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin - The Playhouse
74. Ikrismas Kherol (the South African Christmas Carol) - The Young Vic
75. English National Ballet's "The Snow Queen" - London Coliseum
76. Will Tuckett's Pinocchio - Royal Opera House
77. Stephen Frye's Cinderella - Old Vic
78. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake - Sadlers' Wells

A little more on the Royal Ballet's Seven Deadly Sins program (as the Royal Ballet website will take this down):

Conductor: Richard Bernas (La Fin du jour, Pierrot Lunaire) Martin Yates (Seven Deadly Sins)

Seven Deadly Sins - WORLD PREMIERE
Generously supported by an anonymous donor (Benefactor)
Music: Kurt Weill
Choreography: Will Tuckett
Video Designs: Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions Limited
Designs: Lez Brotherston
Lighting: Paule Constable

Featuring MARTHA WAINWRIGHT live on stage singing Kurt Weill - for further information on Martha Wainwright

Casting:
26 | 27 | 28 (mat) April | 4 | 9 May: Zenaida Yanowsky, Marianela Nunez

Pierrot Lunaire
Music: Arnold Schoenberg
Choreography: Glen Tetley
Designs: Rouben Ter-Arutunian
Lighting: John B. Read

Casting:
26 | 28 (mat) April | 9 May: Ivan Putrov, Deirdre Chapman, Carlos Acosta

27 April | 4 May: Alexander Zaitsev, Mara Galeazzi, Edward Watson

La Fin du jour
Music: Maurice Ravel
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Designs: Ian Spurling
Lighting: John B. Read

Casting:
26 | 28 (mat) April | 9 May: Natasha Oughtred, Sarah Lamb, Martin Harvey, Ricardo Cervera

27 April | 4 May: Natasha Oughtred, Mara Galeazzi, Johannes Stepanek, Valeri Hristov

Three great works combine to give an interpretative snapshot of the inter-war years, an enduringly fascinating period of possibilities, some fulfilled others ultimately dashed. Sensual exploration begins the evening, with a new version by Will Tuckett of The Seven Deadly Sins, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's ballet with songs from 1933 performed live by singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright. Tuckett's vivid characterizations when matched with Lez Brotherston's inventive designs promise a major new production and major new insights into a classic work that follows a woman looking for money to seven cities and seven sins. And you can follow too in this dramatic opening to a rich, reflective evening of subtle links and telling contrasts with The Royal Ballet.

The post-Freud world of the mind - its motivations and its interpretations - makes for a poignant contrast in Glen Tetley's Pierrot Lunaire. This unique fusion of modern and classical dance techniques from a 20th-century master uses Arnold Schoenberg's song cycle and its expressionist texts to explore the psychological relationships of Brighella, Columbine and the ever- vulnerable Pierrot, all set against the appropriately stark scaffold design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian.

The jazz-age energy and sophistication of the 1930s rounds off the programme with Kenneth MacMillan's La Fin du jour. A dance tour de force, it drew its inspiration from the distinctive movement and fashion design of the period, the romantic new allure of the aeroplane, the surface brilliance and underlying fragility of a lifestyle soon to disappear in war, and the evocative music of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major.

More on Bye Bye Reflection:

Gekidan Kaitaisha
Bye Bye Reflection

Widely regarded as Japan's most important physical theatre company, Gekidan Kaitaisha presents a harsh and critical portrayal of war, violence and prejudice inspired by the terrorist attacks of 11 September, and told with uncompromising physicality.

Rock music and video art provide the backdrop to a harsh exploration of society's extreme violence and a vivid and engaging commentary on this violent chapter of history.

... an intense and raw experience with a rewarding and important message. - Prague Post
Mr. Hidenaga Otori was born in 1948 and was the Artistic Director of Laokoon (Kampnagel, Hamburg) from 2002 to 2004. Among his books are The 20th Century's Polyphonic Theatre: the Arts and the Worlds as a History, Noda Hideki: The Challenges of Red Demon, co-written with Noda Hideki and translations of Tadeusz Kantor's Essays and Manifestos and Andrej Tarkovski's The Sculpting Time.

"Only weak men fear able women" - Marion Boyars