A lovely array of panto programmes (Oh yes they are!) courtesy University of Kent, Pantomime Archive
Calling all archives! If you, or someone you know, has connections with any type of theatre archive then this may be a great opportunity for 2023. But you’ll need to apply by February 10th.
Cataloguing grants of up to £45,000 are now available from The National Archives and The Wolfson Foundation, with The Pilgrim Trust.
This funding strand of Archives Revealed provides grants of up to £45,000 for the cataloguing of archives. Archives Revealed aims to ensure that significant archive collections, representing the lives and perspectives of all people across the UK, are made accessible to the public for research and enjoyment.
The latest round- Round 6- is open – you can now apply for a cataloguing grant here. The deadline for Phase 1 (Expressions of Interest) is 12.00pm on Friday 10 February. Applicants are strongly advised to read the guidance webpages below before applying.
Applicants are also strongly advised to watch a guidance webinar for the grants which is now available to watch here.
Let us know if you are applying and how your application goes.
Fayard and Harold – The Nicholas Brothers, undisputed kings of tap, in motion during a routine in STORMY WEATHER (1942).
Christmas is a time when many of us like to get out and see a show with our special friends and family, and song and dance often feature high in the sort of entertainment we seek out, to match the exuberant and cheery feelings many feel about the holiday season.
For those of you who may prefer celebrating from home, I have picked out a few things you can see online, which I think you may enjoy in this time when we relax and indulge ourselves a little.
Still on BBCiPlayer (for UK licence-holders) is the big musical ANYTHING GOES. Filmed live at the Barbican in London, this major new production of the classic musical comedy features an all-star cast led by renowned Broadway actress Sutton Foster with Cole Porter’s timeless songs and a sprinkling of dance, including a good bit of tap.
If tap is really your thing, you’ll enjoy this rarely-seen and recently rediscovered documentary, first broadcast in the UK on Channel Four in 1983, MASTERS OF TAP- with contributions from legends such as Will Gaines, Honi Coles and Chuck Green.
FOSSE/VERDON was a great series about the relationship between legendary choreographer Bob Fosse and his second wife, the dynamic performer Gwen Verdon. In eight parts, and boasting great performances by Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams, with a guest spot by Lin-Manuel Miranda, it’s well worth your holiday time.
For fans of classic tap, you can’t go wrong with Ann Miller, Guinness World Record holder as the fastest tapper in history (for many years). There’s a nice new print of a long-unavailable Miller movie, TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM from 1941 currently on YouTube. It’s a very lumpy but passable musical, but definitely worth seeing for Ann’s numbers (starting at 24:15) which are delightful, especially the number she does with comedy character actor Allen Jenkins, in what I believe is his only dance routine on film – and its enormous fun! (Find it fast by going to 37:07). Foghorn-voiced Jenkins was one of the group of Irish-heritage actor/singer/dancers who worked their way up, through being chorus boys on Broadway in the 20s and then onto Hollywood in the 30s, whose number included close friends such as Pat O’Brien and James Cagney.
And if you’d like to know more about my personal (and Fred Astaire’s) top tap stars, the Nicholas Brothers, you can see a great biography of them below with lots of clips of them in action. If you watch nothing else, jump to the end, at 49:43, where they project their movie routine LUCKY NUMBERS from 1936 behind them, while performing it perfectly almost 60 years later. I saw this routine live when they performed it at the all-star gala STAIRWAY TO THE STARS in November 1989 at the London Palladium, and it absolutely brought the house down. Enjoy!
Now in its 20th year, you can find tickets to many of London’s best-loved shows for less and grab great seats for just £10, £20, £30, £40 & £50. These special offer tickets go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 6 December, and are available for performances between January 1st and February 10th 2023.
From fun family shows to extravagant musicals to heartfelt dramas; there really is something for everyone, when you book early to avoid missing out.
Have you got a Mastercard? You can get exclusive early access to the sale through priceless.com, where tickets go on sale from 10am today, Thursday 24 November.
After a two-day delay from the planned opening night, Streatham Hill Theatre opened its doors on 20th November 1929 with the C B Cochran revue WAKE UP AND DREAM, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, arriving straight from the West End.
Now having been purchased by the Ruach Church this year, the Friends organisation will play a most important part in maintaining the theatre’s facilities and unique position as London’s largest surviving suburban theatre.
Streatham Hill Theatre in its previous existence as a bingo hall, a few years ago.
Join the Society of Theatre Research for their next free lecture on 16th November at 7:30pm online or in-person at at St Anne’s Soho.
Entitled ‘Stirring Up Sheffield: The Battle to Build the Crucible Theatre’ the talk is given by Tedd George, son the first Artistic Director of the Crucible Theatre, Colin George.
The book they wrote together– Stirring Up Sheffield – won the 2022 STR Theatre Book Prize. Stirring Up Sheffield is the story of a group of visionaries who came together to build a revolutionary thrust stage theatre in Sheffield. Their daring venture marked the high watermark of experimentation in post-war British theatre, but it was to provoke a battle amongst the UK’s theatrical elite.
So why did Sheffield opt for a thrust stage, and why was this design so controversial? In this talk, Tedd George explores the intense debates over the theatre’s design, the people who inspired the thrust stage – among them Sir Tyrone Guthrie and Tanya Moiseiwitsch – and the brilliant architects and engineers who turned their vision into concrete and steel. Drawing on material from his father’s archives and interviews with the surviving protagonists, among them the Crucible’s architect, Nick Thompson, Tedd reconstructs the design process that created what is arguably the most successful thrust stage ever built in the UK, and the technical innovations that were developed to achieve this.
Tedd also explores the battle of ideas over the Crucible’s creation, which pitted the Sheffield Star, local councillors and the so-called ‘Three Knights’ – Sir Bernard Miles, Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Clements – against the Morning Telegraph and Britain’s leading theatrical innovators, among them Michael Elliot, Peter Cheeseman and Alan Ayckbourn. Ultimately this battle drove Tedd’s father to resign as Artistic Director only one year after the Crucible’s opening, and it would be nearly forty years before he returned to the thrust stage he had helped create.
