London has a brand-new theatre – yet again. Last summer, a cabaret venue opened in the Haymarket for the first time. More recently, the Marylebone Theatre near Regent’s Park held its debut show. And now Nica Burns of Nimax Theatres has announced a new venture, @sohoplace, which she says is the first West End venue to open for 50 years.
The playing area is a hoop-shaped enclosure with rising tiers of seats overlooking a deep oblong pit. Cage fighting and mud-wrestling could be staged here to great advantage. The poster for the debut show, MARVELLOUS, features the title in bright pastel letters with a yellow balloon, a pair of clown’s shoes and a perky budgerigar.
It’s like arriving by mistake at the retirement party of a gardener you’ve never met
The image suggests a heart-warming children’s comedy or a feelgood high-school musical. In fact it’s a biographical play about a working-class oddball, Neil from Newcastle-under-Lyme, who led a peculiar life as a casual labourer.
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