This Is London Half Term Edition

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NICE FISH WEST END TRANSFER
The West End transfer of Mark
Rylance and Louis Jenkins’ criticallyacclaimed
new comic play Nice Fish, is
to extend its run by 3 weeks and will
now play at the Harold Pinter Theatre
until 11 February. The production opens
in November at the Harold Pinter
Theatre. Direct from sold out seasons at
the American Repertory Theater at
Harvard University in Cambridge and
St Ann’s Warehouse in New York,
Academy and Bafta Award-winner Mark
Rylance will return to the West End to
perform in the production, directed by
Claire van Kampen.
In a unique collaboration with
critically-acclaimed Minnesotan
contemporary prose poet Louis Jenkins,
Mark Rylance draws on his teenage
years in the frozen winters and culture of
the American Midwest. This beguiling
new play follows an ice fishing
expedition where the ordinary and
extraordinary collide in a sublimely
playful and profound way.
On a frozen Minnesota lake, the ice is
beginning to creak and groan. It’s the
end of the fishing season and on the
frostbitten, unforgiving landscape, two
old friends are out on the ice and they
are angling for something big,
something down there that is pure need,
something that, had it the wherewithal,
would swallow them whole.
Box Office telephone 0844 871 7622.
Jim Lichtscheidl and Mark Rylance.
Photo: Teddy Woolf
DIRTY DANCING BACK IN THE
WEST END
The new UK production of Dirty
Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage,
currently wowing audiences around the
country on its UK tour, will play a
season in the West End this Christmas,
mambo-ing into the Phoenix Theatre
from 6 – 31 December.
Starring Lewis Griffiths as ‘Johnny
Castle’, Katie Hartland as ‘Baby
Houseman’ and Carlie Milner as ‘Penny
Johnson’, the UK tour has taken over
£5.5 million since it hit the road in
August. The classic story of Baby and
Johnny, features the hit songs 'Hungry
Eyes', ‘Hey! Baby’, ‘Do You Love Me?’
and the heart stopping ‘(I’ve Had) The
Time Of My Life’.
Full of passion and romance, heartpounding
music and sensationally sexy
dancing, the record-breaking show has
been re-conceived in an all new
production created by an innovative new
creative team; directed by Federico
Bellone, choreographed by Gillian Bruce
and with design re-imagined by top
Italian set designer Roberto Comotti. The
production premiered in Milan in July
2015, subsequently packing out the
15,000 seat Roman Arena in Verona, and
then played a season in Rome.
It’s the summer of 1963, and 17 yearold
Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman is about to
learn some major lessons in life as well
as a thing or two about dancing. On
holiday in New York’s Catskill Mountains
with her older sister and parents, she
shows little interest in the resort
activities, and instead discovers her own
entertainment when she stumbles across
an all-night dance party at the staff
quarters. Mesmerised by the raunchy
dance moves and the pounding rhythms,
Baby can’t wait to be part of the scene,
especially when she catches sight of
Johnny Castle, the resort dance
instructor. Her life is about to change
forever as she is thrown in at the deep
end as Johnny’s leading lady both
on-stage and off, and two fiercely
independent young spirits from different
worlds come together in what will be the
most challenging and triumphant
summer of their lives.
For tickets to Dirty Dancing,
telephone the Phoenix Theatre box office
on 0844 871 7629.
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