Have you ever thought about making your own theatre or events? Self Producing Artist? Ever thought about being a Theatre Producer? Wondered how to get into the business?
Well, if you want to deep dive into making your own theatre and events, we are now interviewing for students for the 10th cohort of the Diploma in Creative Producing. It’s 2 evenings a week online for 6 weeks starting in January 2027. There are only 8 places. The sessions are all run by top professional theatre and event producers, marketers, accountants and lawyers and are unique. Overseas students are welcome too. For more details, either email diploma@mavericktheatre.co.uk or see here – www.TheatreProducerTraining.com
AND if you’re not sure about the Diploma… try our 1-day ‘Introduction To Creative Theatre Producing’ workshop.
🍷🍷🍷🍷 – 4 out of 5 glasses of fine claret! (And a Sasparilla!) 5 stars! 🌟
(Oh.. 🍷… they’re our ‘bohemian’ version of Stars! ⭐️)
The Tabard Theatre put The Bomp in the Bomp ba bomp ba bomp! So now you know!
A new musical is a rare and wonderful thing. And this is unique in so many ways. It’s VERY low tech for a musical. No individual mics or amplification, apart from reverb. Which, almost charmingly misfired a couple of times during our early show. And in a sense that is almost part of the charm and glory of this new offering. It has a sweetness and integrity that means the audience would forgive almost anything.
Not that they need to. This sweet and engaging musical also has a very sweet and engaging cast. It’s the story of Gen Z Londoner Billy Johnson and his friends as they form an unamplified Doo-Wop group, celebrating the music of Billy’s Grandad. They get to know themselves – and each other – and are thrust upon the world via social media with all the positives and negatives that brings. Writer and Director Keith Strachan spent many years directing and arranging musicals for the late Bill Kenwright, and the two often talked about a Doo-Wop show. It never happened – until now – and this production is dedicated to Kenwright’s memory.
There is a freshness, a zing and an energy that fairly explodes off the stage, possibly because several of the cast are making their professional debuts.
And there are few musical genres more gloriously infectious than doo-wop. It was born in US urban neighbourhoods and post-war ghettos, rising to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s, with no or minimal instrumentation. And it’s widely accepted that it fundamentally shaped popular music.
Strachan, whose previous musical successes include Dreamboats and Petticoats, and many record releases, clearly loves the music, but rather than simply recreating a bygone era, his well written and structured production imagines a group of contemporary teenagers discovering the form.
Then with progress posted on TikTok, they become unlikely stars in the world of social media earning a shock invitation to perform at a major event!
The script is necessarily brisk and efficient, but it is also very funny – any show that can get repeated and rising laughs out of its own stage directions is a mark of its quality.
And the talented cast of six performers all have individual high spots but they also act seamlessly as a team in a textbook display of ensemble performance and generosity.
The musical director Marissa Landy also performs as the enthusiastic teacher, Miss McTavish. (Who throws in a Tap Dance for good measure!)
Joshua Webster’s choreography is unobtrusively smooth, complementing a set design that is also quietly perfect – back-wall projection giving us streets, the schoolroom, and a bar, (an Irish one, at that!) allowing for more performance space. There are occasional moments when I wished they’d break the line and move a little more during the dialogue, but it’s a niggle.
This show rocks (and rolls!) Go bag your Bomp at the Tabard Theatre.
CREDITS…
Take Note Ltd for the Tabard Theatre presents:
WHO PUT THE BOMP? by Keith Strachan at the Tabard Theatre
Nick Hennegan celebrates the birthday of Oscar Wilde. Possibly the most quoted writer after Shakespeare, with Wilde’s Ballard of Reading Gaol and news about his relationship with the British Library!
On a bohemian trip to lovely Wales. Dylan and Caitlin named a child after this river! Any idea where we are? Absolutely no huge prize for the first correct answer!
A quick hello after the success of our production ‘Winston and David’ in London. Trying to take a few days off in a place I’ve never been to before. And I’ve not opened the work laptop for TWO days! That’s a first for a long time!
Nick Hennegan talks to actor, producer and writer Nicholas Collett about his life and work – and how a son of a Steel Worker in Sheffield becomes an artist.
