New Soho venue The Boulevard Theatre, which is set to open in October 2019, will feature regular comedy nights. Fawn James, director of Soho Estates is behind the project and the reimagined venue is located on the site where her grandfather Paul Raymond opened the original Boulevard Theatre which famously became home to Peter Richardson’s Comic Strip.
Alongside an extensive theatre programme there will be regular late-night offerings including new comedy/cabaret nights as follows:
LATE NIGHT SCENE Friday night alternate weeks from 8 November – 20 December
British Comedy Award winner and BAFTA nominee Nina Conti (pictured) will host the inaugural Late Night Scene, a gleefully unruly after hours mixed-bill show curated in collaboration with Simon Pearce (The Invisible Dot). Nina’s television credits include Live at the Apollo (for which she won the British Comedy Award), QI, Russell Howard’s Good News, Sunday Night at the Palladium, The John Bishop Show and Family Tree and on radio Clare and the Community (BBC Radio 4). She received a BAFTA nomination and won a Grierson Award for her directorial debut Her Master’s Voice. Award-winning performer Kiri Pritchard-McLean will then take up the baton, presenting the boldest and funniest comics in town throughout the autumn. Winner of the Best Compere and Best Club Comedian at the Chortle Awards 2018, and as seen on Frankie Boyle's New World Order and Russell Howard’s Good News, rising star Kiri will introduce an exceptional line up of established comedy titans and fresh-faced emerging upstarts from the worlds of stand up, sketch, and character comedy.
THE YES QUEENS Friday night alternate weeks from 1 November – 3 January
The Boulevard Theatre is proud to announce Soho’s newest female-led comedy improv night curated by Julie Clare. Each week a different line-up of queens will grab the sceptre and hilariously hold court for an evening of spontaneous scenes, sketches and games created on the spot with suggestions from the audience. Special guests confirmed so far include comic Pippa Evans, a core member of the awardwinning improv team behind Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. Pippa has made guest appearances on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show and Comedy Central’s Drunk History. Also confirmed is Cariad Lloyd whose TV credits include BBC One’s This Time with Alan Partridge, and Channel 4’s Peep Show. Cariad’s podcast Griefcast won three Gold prizes at the British Podcast Awards 2018.
