Show Archive: Harold and Maude

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Harold and Maude
Equal parts dark comedy and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude is an idiosyncratic romantic fable told though the eyes of the most unlikely pairing: a compulsive, self-destructive young man and a devil-may-care, septuagenarian bohemian.

Maude (Linda Marlowe), is a free spirit who wears her hair in braids, believes in living each day to its fullest, and “trying something new every day”. Harold Parker Chasen (Patrick Walshe McBride) is an 18-year-old man who is obsessed with death, attends funerals of strangers for entertainment and stages elaborate fake suicides. Through meeting Maude at a funeral, he discovers joy in living for the first time. Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with ones that separate people by class, gender and age. 

★★★★★"Beautifully inventive, funny and moving production" British Theatre

★★★★ "Linda Marlowe embodies the eccentric Maude with an innate ease that’s simply heartwarming" Pocket Sized Theatre

★★★★★ Rewrite this Story ★★★★★ Stage Review  ★★★★★ London Theatre 1

★★★★  Financial Times★★★★ Spy in the Stalls  ★★★★ Jonathan Baz

★★★★ "Pure class. Director Thom Southerland has framed the production as a surrealist painting" Johnny Fox

★★★★ Reviews Hub ★★★★ Theatre Monkey ★★★★ The Upcoming

★★★★ "Delightfully funny, a beautiful production" Broadwayworld

The cast also includes: Anthony Cable (The Woman in White, Charing Cross Theatre), Rebecca Caine (Flowers For Mrs Harris, Crucible Sheffield), Christopher Dickins (Ragtime, Charing Cross Theatre), Joanna Hickman (Ragtime, Charing Cross Theatre), Samuel Townsend (84 Charing Cross Road, Cambridge Arts Theatre), Anne White (Love in the Past Participle, The Other Palace) and Johnson Willis (Dido Queen of Carthage, RSC).
 
Charing Cross Theatre’s artistic director Thom Southerland directs the production, with set design by Francis O’Connor, costumes by Jonathan Lipman, lighting by Matt Clutterham, sound design from Andrew Johnson and compositions by Michael Bruce.



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Stiletto

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Stiletto
In Italy during the 18th century, an average of 5,000 boys were castrated annually. Almost exclusively, they came from poor families. Their treble voices intact, castration promised those who survived a chance to earn fame and fortune by singing female roles in the opera. A few made it, but most didn’t and were swept aside.

Stiletto, a new musical with Music and Lyrics by three-time Grammy nominee, Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Matthew Wilder (Disney’s Mulan), Book by double Olivier Award nominee Tim Luscombe (Noël Coward’s Easy Virtue, Terrence Rattigan’s The Browning Version and Harlequinade), is set in Venice, Europe’s opera capital.

During the winter of 1730-31, Venice is a city bristling with opportunity where fortunes can be made but life is cheap. A city of lustre and intrigue with plenty of chances of success for Marco, who was castrated as a child to retain his perfect voice. Opera stars being the rock stars of their day, Marco is on course to be an 18th-century Jagger or Bowie, to snag a powerful patron and play leading roles.

In a busy square he meets Gioia, confident, strong willed...and supremely talented. But despite her musical gifts, being the daughter of an African slave, there’s no chance for her to fulfil her dreams. Marco recognises her talent and, sensing that they are both outsiders as well as sharing a love for music, they fall in love.

In an attempt to get her on stage, Marco introduces Gioia to society and his patron, the Contessa Azzurra, but at the end of the evening, a body lies dead and Gioia is hauled off to prison. To free her, Marco must overcome the demons of his past and the morally corrupt forces of the present.


Creatives:
Music & Lyrics: Matthew Wilder
Book: Tim Luscombe
Director: David Gilmore
Staging Consultant: Anthony Van Laast
Musical Director: Jae Alexander
Orchestrator: Simon Nathan
Set Designer: Ceci Calf
Costume Designer: Anna Kelsey
Lighting Designer: Ben Ormerod   
Sound Designer: Andrew Johnson
Casting: Neil Rutherford
Executive Producer: Guy Kitchenn
Produced by Patrick Bywalski for the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Steven M. Levy for Charing Cross Theatre Productions Limited.
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