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PANTOMIME BOOKING NOW OPEN IN GRAYS AND CHESTERFIELD!
Tickets are now on sale for both of our forthcoming pantomimes at the Thameside Theatre in Grays for our magical production of the greatest pantomime of them all CINDERELLA and for our spectacular production of the best loved pantomime story of them all SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. Tickets have been on sale at Chesterfield for some weeks but the official opening for Grays is today [May 13th] so don't delay in getting down to both Box Offices and purchasing your tickets. It may be little crazy to be talking about Christmas in the bright sunshine of May but, as both of last year's productions smashed Box Office records, it will never be too early to book to avoid disappointment and to get the best seats in the house.
CINDERELLA at Grays will star COLIN RIDGEWELL, who starred as 'Colin Brown' in BBC's GRANGE HILL for eight years, as the lovable 'Buttons'; CLAIRE-LOUISE MEALOR, who became known to millions last year as part of Bruno Tonioli's winning group in the hugely popular BBC series DANCE X as our beautiful 'Cinderella' and LYNETTE McMORROUGH, a household name for her appearances as 'Glenda Banks' in ITV's hit soap CROSSROADS, as the enchanting 'Fairy Godmother'. You can book tickets now from the Thameside Theatre Box Office or by telephoning 0845 300 5264 or you can book online at http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/theatre/
L to R: LYNETTE McMORROUGH, COLIN RIDGEWELL and CLAIRE LOUISE MEALOR will all be in CINDERELLA at GRAYS this coming Christmas
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS at Chesterfield will once again star the fabulous PATRIC KEARNS as 'Dame Dolly Jollybottom'; the hilarious JAMES CAMPBELL as 'Muddles' and Chesterfield's own master of villainy GEORGE TELFER as 'Boarzo'. We are also pleased to announce that ANNA STOLLI, who toured in FAME and SOUTH PACIFIC and was in the tour of WHITE CHRISTMAS last year will be joining the cast as 'The Wicked Queen'.
You can buy pantomime tickets from the Pomegranate Box Office which is open Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. till 7 p.m. or by phoning [01246] 345222.
L to R: JAMES CAMPBELL, PATRIC KEARNS and GEORGE TELFER, pictured here in last year's JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, will all be back in SNOW WHITE at CHESTERFIELD this year [Unfortunately DAISY THE COW has mooved on to pastures new!]
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DID YOU ORDER A PANTO DVD FROM JACK AT CHESTERFIELD?
If you were part of our fantastic cast of JACK AND THE BEANSTALK at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield and placed an order for a DVD of the pantomime you will be pleased to know that we should be taking delivery of the DVDs this week! Only taken four months to get them I know but such is the speed of technology these days!? They should be going out next week - fingers crossed!
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BLACKPOOL TO GET A SLICE OF GATEAUX
We are very pleased to announce another date for our summer production of WAITING FOR GATEAUX - the latest smash hit comedy from Ed Waugh & Trevor Wood - at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool. WAITING FOR GATEAUX was seen the Theatre Royals in Lincoln and Newcastle last year and played to some fantastic audiences. The play will be arriving in Blackpool for the week commencing Monday 30th June and will also be playing at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon [W/C 16th June] and Theatre Royal in Winchester [W/C 21st July].
Last year's production, photos of which you can be seen below, starred SALLY BANKES, IAIN STUART ROBERTSON, SUZANNE RICHARDSON, JOANNE HEYWOOD and DIANA MAY and was an instant success that audiences just 'gobbled up'.
 
WAITING FOR GATEAUX is the latest comedy by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, the writers of the phenomenally successful hit DIRTY DUSTING which has been seen all over the U.K.
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GENERAL AUDITIONS
We are always looking for highly talented, highly motivated, dedicated actors or actresses, singers and dancers to appear in our productions. If you are interested in auditioning for us and showing us what you can do, then send your photo/CV and other relevant information to us. You can post them to the office address, which you can find on the Contacts page, or you can e-mail them to us on casting@brucejamesproductions.co.uk but please remember not to send us huge photo files [i.e. over 1MB] as they only clog up our system and doesn't make you popular!?
We do get a large number of submissions [on average it is over 100 a week!] so please don't be offended or too disappointed if you don't get a reply. If you would like a reply then please include an Stamped Addressed Envelope and we will strive to get back to everyone who submits their details. We always look at all the photos/CVs we are sent but it is not always possible to reply to them. Try and be a bit different and, if at first you don't succeed, try again!
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DORSET EVENING ECHO REVIEW
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
Octagon Theatre, Yeovil
BEST known as a classic Alfred Hitchcock film of the 1950s, this dramatised version bears a much closer resemblance to the original novel by Patricia Highsmith and is all the better for it.
Writer Craig Warner has created a powerful psychological thriller in which a chance meeting of two men on a train leads to a deadly struggle for dominance of one over the other.
In this Bruce James production, the two key roles of Bruno and Guy are played with chilling intensity by Nick Barclay and Ben Roddy who together create a growing atmosphere of heightening tension as events unfold in what appears to start out as a fanciful joke yet slowly develops into a murder.
“I want to be immortal,” enthuses psycho Bruno as he proposes a plan in which each man will kill the other’s enemy.
But death takes more than one form for the two men as their lives inexorably unravel, creating a living death for one and a self-imposed annihilation for the other.
Solid performances from Hannah Waterman as Guy’s wife and Jasmine Darke as Bruno’s mother bring a welcome sense of normality to this dark scenario in a marvellously intelligent production that is as stimulating as it is disturbing.
Highsmith’s insight into the recesses of the distorted minds of the murderer has never been better portrayed in dramatic form than in this brooding production which continues for the rest of the week before continuing on a national tour.
MARION COX
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STRANGERS ON A TRAIN AND DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE OPENING NIGHTS
After two weeks of intensive rehearsals our two major touring productions both opened recently - STRANGERS ON A TRAIN at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil and DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE at the Palace Theatre in Southend. Both productions have been very well received and you can check out the tour dates for them both on the What's On page.
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN stars HANNAH WATERMAN as 'Anne Faulkner' with BEN RODDY as her soon to be husband 'Guy Haines'; NICK BARCLAY as the mysterious mother fixated playboy with a liking for drink 'Charles Bruno'; JASMINE DARKE as Charles' mother 'Elsie Bruno'; ANDREW RYAN as Private Detective 'Arthur Gerard'; DAVID RUMELLE as fellow architect 'Frank Myers' and ADAM PATMAN as Guy's best friend 'Robert Treacher'. The production is directed by Bruce James with Set and Lighting design by GEOFF GILDER. SOPHIE LEIGH is the ASM/Understudy to Miss Waterman.
 
DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE stars ERIC POTTS as 'Sir Lancelot Spratt'; DAMIAN WILLIAMS as 'Simon Sparrow' with JAMES CAMPBELL and CHRIS NELSON as fellow medical students 'Tony Grimsdyke' and 'John Evans' respectively; KATE BURRELL is 'Vera'; GRACE ADAMS-SHORT is nurse 'Janet'; MORGAN ROBERTS is the hospital porter 'Bromley'; REBECCA LEE MORGAN appears as 'Nurse Winslow (Riggie)' and SARAH WHITLOCK is the fiersome 'Matron'. The production is also directed by Bruce James with Set design and build by CHARLES CAMM from Scenetec and Lighting design is by BRIAN WARRENS. The CSM is GLEN PACEY with ALEX NEWBOLD as the ASM.
 
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TOM, DICK AND HARRY
PETERBOROUGH EVENING TELEGRAPH REVIEW – WEDNESDAY 19th MARCH 2008
FANTASTICALLY FARCICAL
The brotherhood of man doesn’t get funnier than the trio in this latest Ray Cooney comedy. Ecstatic applause greeted rubber-faced Damian Williams before he’d even spoken a word. So he vanished at once for a repeat entry – this master of ad-libs loses no chance in sending up himself and everyone else on stage, sharing every mischievous joke with the audience. His fellow actors need danger money.
Mr and Mrs Kerwood long to adopt a baby, and they’re preparing their rented home ready for a social worker’s assessment. Complications galore, however. Brother Dick upstairs returns from Calais in Tom’s untaxed van with a load of cigarettes and brandy, and hospital porter Harry’s got lucrative plans to hide stolen body parts under the patio and to get a cheaper price on the house for Tom and Linda.
Andrew Lynford’s mischievous porter fell victim to the blundering Williams, getting a hefty bump on the head as he vanished panic-stricken out of a window: “That hurt!” he remarked later with a grin. For nobody escapes in this comic triple-whammy. Quick fire repartee delivered with superb timing, manic action, I didn’t stop laughing all night. Nor did Lynette McMorrough, playing the nervous wife, Williams had everyone in turn corpsing helplessly on stage: “Anyone else want to have a go?” he asked the audience as policeman James Campbell struggled against helpless giggles.
Pandemonium escalated with the arrival of two desperate Kosovan illegal immigrants from the van. Rebecca Lee Morgan and Graham Ashe are excruciatingly funny as the excitable Slavs, and brother Dick’s [Nick Wilton] sign language was absolutely hilarious with terrific mime.
It’s not every Tom, Dick or Harry that has me convulsed with laughter, but this terrific farce did – it ought to be available on prescription.
5* out of 5
ANN JOHNSON
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TOM, DICK AND HARRY
DERBYSHIRE TIMES REVIEW – THURSDAY 31st JANUARY 2008
FARCE THAT’S MAGIC
“There may be trouble ahead,” warbled the intro music as the curtain rose. When Damian Williams stars in a Cooney farce, you’d better believe it.
The shenanigans in TOM, DICK AND HARRY began harmlessly enough, with a missing tie which eventually appeared through a door as if by magic (well, there was a character called Potter…) But once they threw Nick Wilton and Andrew Lynford into the mix as Damian’s well-meaning but inept brothers it was clear things could only get funnier.
Soon smuggled cigarettes, illegal immigrants and mummified body parts were flying around the stage – literally at one point – and the evening spiralled off into the kind of chaotic hilarity Pomegranate audiences have learned to expect.
Lynette McMorrough as Damian’s long-suffering wife kept a straight face throughout, which was more than James Campbell as a passing policeman could manage.
TOM, DICK AND HARRY ticks all the boxes for great farce; running joke, mistaken identity, doors opening and closing with precision timing; and a few touches all its own; a neat trick with a lemon, and a frantic sign language sequence that earned Nick Wilton a round of applause.
I felt sorry for Mrs. Potter from the adoption agency. Poor Julie Fox was hurled into the midst of the mayhem and coped womanfully with Damian’s worst excesses.
It’s probably growing more hilarious as the week progresses. It runs till Saturday.
LYNNE PATRICK
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AUTUMN TOURS ANNOUNCED
We are pleased to announce that we shall be touring two exciting plays this coming autumn:
INTENT TO MURDER by Leslie Sands
Within minutes of the opening of this play, we are plunged into the middle of an explosive situation. Janet Preston, a well-known authoress who lives alone in a remote cottage on the Yorkshire Moors, has killed her husband, a complete rogue and criminal on the run. Before she can get rid of the body, she is confronted by his accomplice George, who blackmails her into agreeing to pass him off as the dead man until such time as he can make a getaway. The events that follow are full of twists and excitement and the unexpected denouement skilfully reconciles the audience's sympathies and sense of involvement with a demand for justice.
INTENT TO MURDER is a classic suspense thriller that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats as the plot twists and turns towards its unexpected climax. INTENT TO MURDER will be a welcome addition to the autumn season.
ONE FOR THE POT by Ray Cooney & Tony Hilton
Running for over 1200 performances at the London's Whitehall Theatre, ONE FOR THE POT has become one of the most popular and revived of the Whitehall farces. When a wealthy Northern mill owner offers £10,000 to the son of a former business associate provided he is the only living relative, Billy Hickory Wood arrives in anticipation to collect his money. It isn't long before a procession of Hickory Woods follow, all claiming to be the sole living relation and rightful beneficiaries, creating a seemingly endless string of mistaken identities and hilarious confusion.
Starring the ‘Master of Farce’ DAMIAN WILLIAMS in the role(s) of all the ‘Hickory Woods’ with a full supporting company, ONE FOR THE POT is a sure-fire comedy hit for any autumn season.
Directed by BRUCE JAMES, this hilarious comedy is perfect family entertainment, which will have audiences rolling in the aisles at classic farce as it should be played. Certainly a laughter-packed production not to be missed!
We have dates available for both productions from September to November 2008.
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CHILDREN'S PRODUCTIONS
We have productions of JUNGLE BOOK, TREASURE ISLAND, WIZARD OF OZ and SLEEPING BEAUTY adapted by Debra James, which are available for weeks or part weeks. We use local children in the performances to maximise audience potential. For more details please contact the office.
 
THE JUNGLE BOOK
 
TREASURE ISLAND
 
THE WIZARD OF OZ
 
SLEEPING BEAUTY
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