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10 unusual facts about West End theatre


Caslon Antique

Most recently, it has been used on promotional material for the smash musical Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway, the West End, and its tour of the United States.

Esmé Wynne-Tyson

As a child she acted in West End plays, and became a close friend, confidante, and collaborator of Noël Coward.

Lorna Want

She played the role of Ariel Moore in Footloose at London's Novello Theatre until May 2006, and in the 2006/2007 season played Peron's Mistress to critical acclaim in a London revival of Evita at the Adelphi Theatre on West End.

My Bare Lady

The series followed four American female porn stars as they took acting lessons and performed in scenes from classic drama alongside British actors in London's West End.

Stephen Fewell

He has also appeared in classical theatre, in various Doctor Who audio productions, an episode of the 2005 Channel 4 drama The Courtroom, Headlong Theatre's production of Paradise Lost at the Hackney Empire and in the musical play ENRON at the Royal Court and in the West End.

Steven Fales

He has performed the play off-Broadway and across the United States and internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London's West End.

The Society of London Theatre

The Society of London Theatre (previously The Society of West End Theatre) is an umbrella organisation for West End theatre in London.

Thor Kristinsson

After his graduation, Thor starred in Jesus Christ Superstar on West End and later in Les Misérables where he played a few of the major roles.

Victoria Wood As Seen On TV documentaries

Bessie - Behind the scenes, before the opening of the West End musical Bessie! Supposedly part of a TV show Whither The Arts, which also claimed it would then be visiting a "gallery in Bristol, and taking a look at their 'Sculpture 84' Exhibition. The centrepiece of which is the controversial twenty foot ironing board, made entirely of driving test rejection slips".

West End of London

The West End of London (more commonly referred to as simply the West End) is an area of central London containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment venues (including the commercial :West End theatres).


An Act of Valour

Director Allan Corduner had previously worked - as an actor - with both D'Amico and Monaco in the West End: with D'Amico in the play The Boys Next Door at the Comedy Theatre, and with Monaco in the revival of A View from the Bridge at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Andre Barreau

Following the final show of the West End musical Beatlemania, Barreau formed The Bootleg Beatles with fellow cast members Neil Harrison and David Catlin-Birch.

Angela Richards

A graduate of RADA, Richards is also well known for her body of work in musical theatre, having starred in several West End productions such as Robert and Elizabeth (her debut in 1964), Cats (following Elaine Paige as Grizabella), High Society, Blood Brothers, Cole and Liza of Lambeth.

Confused.com

In February 2011 a new advert started featuring Cara (voiced by West End star Louise Dearman) singing the track "Chain Reaction", a song that was originally penned by Bee Gees and sung by Diana Ross.

Crossroads to Crime

Having been impressed by his performance in a West End production of the Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mousetrap, Anderson cast actor Anthony Oliver in the leading role of Police Constable Don Ross.

Cyril Ornadel

This followed as a musical director for a number of major West End shows, including the first London production of My Fair Lady, and at the London Palladium the hit shows The Sound of Music and The King and I starring Yul Brynner.

David Grindrod

His West End theatre credits include Mamma Mia!, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, West Side Story, Saturday Night Fever and Starlight Express.

Elizabeth Estensen

She rose to prominence in the 1970s, playing Bert's girlfriend in the Willy Russell musical John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool transferring to the West End in 1974.

Gaby Roslin

In 2005, she appeared in a national tour in the stage version of When Harry Met Sally... and later in the year sang and danced in the London stage version of Chicago.

Graeme Taylor

Having spent many years playing guitars in the pit orchestras of many West End musicals, Taylor is now a member of the touring bands for both John Tams and Rolf Harris, and runs his own studio in South London.

Hertfordshire Showband

Music from Star Wars to Les Misérables, Soul Man to Wind Beneath My Wings to Robbie Williams to Big Band Medleys to St Louis Blues, their repertoire includes movie themes, classic songs & music from the West End, Big Band/Swing numbers and a few military marches too.

J. C. Johnson

After first playing in a night club at 49th and Broadway, it was taken to London's West End, where it was retooled into a large musical review, playing the Piccadilly Theatre and two command performances for the Queen, before touring England and Europe for three years.

Jack Emery

He began his career producing and acting at Keele, most notably in his first one-man show taken from the novels and plays of Samuel Beckett, called "A Remnant", which played in the West End, the Edinburgh Festival and toured worldwide.

Julia Goss

Following this, she began a career in the West End and on tour in many musicals, including in the roles of Golde in Fiddler on the Roof, Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast and Heidi Schiller in Follies.

Loring Smith

He also appeared on the West End stage in London, starring opposite Mary Martin in the original London production of Hello, Dolly! (itself based on Wilder's The Matchmaker), which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 2 December 1965.

LoveMusik

Productions, translated into their native languages, have been confirmed for Buenos Aires, Berlin, Budapest, Haifa, Madrid, as well as a planned production in London's West End.

Lucy Kirkwood

Her play, Chimerica, examining the relationship between the US and China since the Tiananmen Square protests through the eyes of a former activist, featuring over forty scene changes and British-Chinese actors, opened at the Almeida Theatre in May 2013 and transferred to the West End in August 2013.

Marion Bailey

She is probably best known for her appearances in the Mike Leigh films Meantime, All or Nothing and Vera Drake, as well as Leigh's 1981 West End theatre play Goosepimples, for which she received a Theatre Critics' Award nomination as Most Promising Newcomer.

Mark Field

He has run local campaigns on business rates, St Bartholomew's Hospital, assisting the creative industries, the control of rickshaws in the West End, social housing rent rises, the independence of the City of London Police and in July 2011 successfully argued in Parliament for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's continuing control of the Royal Parks.

Ogo Bodhu Shundori

The movie is a Bengali reworking of the story of Pygmalion, heavily drawing upon the hit British musical My Fair Lady.

Patrick Mynhardt

He died in London where he was performing in his one-man show Boy from Bethulie at the Jermyn Street Theatre in the West End.

Peter Tuddenham

Back home, he won a part in Ivor Novello's The Dancing Years and, following stints in West End revues and farces, worked with Noël Coward in Ace of Clubs.

Rebecca Lacey

She has appeared in a number of theatre productions including a season with Alan Ayckbourn in Terry Johnson's Dead Funny in the West End and Amy's View by David Hare.

Robert David MacDonald

During that time, he directed fifty productions and wrote fifteen plays for the company including The De Sade Show (1975), Chinchilla (1977), Summit Conference (1978 – later seen in the West End with Glenda Jackson, Georgina Hale and Gary Oldman), A Waste of Time (1980), Don Juan (1980), Webster (1983), In Quest of Conscience (1994), Britannicus (2002) and Cheri (2003).

Ronald Millar

Prior to becoming a full-time dramatist and then a speechwriter, Millar acted in a number of West End productions during and after World War II, in the company of luminaries as Ivor Novello, Alastair Sim and John Gielgud.

Santha Rama Rau

The play was produced for the Oxford Playhouse, Oxford, United Kingdom, moved to the West End in London, United Kingdom, in 1960 for 261 performances, and then on to Broadway in New York City for 109 showings commencing in January 1962.

Sendhil Ramamurthy

Ramamurthy has appeared in theatrical productions of A Servant of Two Masters in London's West End, Indian Ink at the Soho Repertory Theatre, and East Is East at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Side Man

Through an arrangement with Actors' Equity, which allowed for the British cast of The Real Thing to travel to Broadway, Side Man, with Wood, Falco, and Jason Priestley, opened on February 8, 2000 in London's West End at the Apollo Theatre, where it ran for slightly more than two months.

Steven Beckingham

He understudied David Harbour in the role of "Nick" at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End and understudied David Furr in the same role on the U.S. National Tour of the production.

The Prisoner of Second Avenue

The play ran in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre, produced by Old Vic Company/Old Vic Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions, opening on June 30, 2010in previews.

Theatre 503

The opening production was a new adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which proved so successful that the production transferred to the West End.

University of Laughs

In July 2007, Theatre BRAVA! in Osaka and Parco Theatre in Shibuya previewed the West End scheduled English-language version of the play (with a new title, The Last Laugh), starring British actors Martin Freeman as the Playwright and Roger Lloyd Pack as the Censor.

Warren Carlyle

He started as a dancer, after taking dance lessons, but then was chosen by Susan Stroman to be associate choreographer for the West End Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma! (1998), and she later chose him to assist her on the Broadway musical The Producers.

William Gaunt

William also has extensive stage experience, both as an actor and a theatre director, including a notable success in playing the Micheál Mac Liammóir character in Gates of Gold by Frank McGuinness at the Finborough Theatre, London, and in the West End.

Wilma Reading

She made numerous appearances on The Morecambe & Wise Show in 1973 and 1974 and played Julie in a West End production of Showboat, taking over from Cleo Laine.

World Party

After a stint as musical director of a West End performance of The Rocky Horror Show, Wallinger joined a funk band dubbed "The Out", before signing on with Mike Scott's Waterboys in 1984 to record the album A Pagan Place.