News Reviews

Harjanne Company Ltd is today celebrating 4 years in business! We are looking forward to many more with new exciting projects coming up!

We are happily and with great excitement welcoming year 2023, but before we do so, let's have a quick look at what 2022 brought us, and our industry.

It is only 10 months ago that theatres across Finland were closed and no performances took place. It is easy to forget, and to go back to take live entertainment for granted, but let's remember the challenges previous years has given us, and let that experience help us grow stronger.

Harjanne Company Ltd has managed the creative teams for three musicals premiering this year - ANASTASIA (Tampereen Teatteri), COME FROM AWAY (Tampereen Työväen Teatteri) and THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (Turun Kaupunginteatteri). Two of the musicals we managed the creative teams for closed after very successful runs, both at Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, MATILDA and KINKY BOOTS.

Apart from this, our CEO Samuel Harjanne also opened PRISCILLA - QUEEN OF THE DESERT and Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri as well as re-opened SISTER ACT at Vanemuine Theatre in Estonia, a show that entered its 3rd year!

Harjanne Company Ltd also took an initiative to start ACT 2 ACADEMY for professionals to freshen up their skill-sets, and to bring exciting workshops for our industry professionals. The first season included workshops by Samuel Harjanne, Petrus Kähkönen (Finnish musical actor), Neil Rutherford (British casting director) and Saara Aalto (Finnish singer-songwriter).

We are so excited to see what 2023 has to offer, and let us assure you, it will be yet another year to remember.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Helsingin Kaupunginteatteri (Helsinki City Theatre) is bringing back Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID to their main stage, fall 2023. The show first premiered 2019 but was forced to close early 2020 due to COVID -19. Now it is finally coming back to bring the magical underwater world to life right in front of your eyes! Cast will be announced early 2023.

We are so happy to announce that SCHOOL OF ROCK The Musical will have its Finnish premiere at Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, fall 2024. And on top of this, Harjanne Company Ltd is proud to manage the creative team for this production, with our CEO Samuel Harjanne as the director of the show. This show makes the kids musical trilogy at Tampereen Työväen Teatteri complete with BILLY ELLIOT opening 2018, MATILDA 2021 and now SCHOOL OF ROCK 2024. The search for our rock kids has started with open applications for kids aged 7-12 years old, please follow this link for more information:
https://ttt-teatteri.fi/rekry/

LET'S ROCK!

I couldn't be happier.

Record-breaking musical phenomenon WICKED is finally arriving to Sweden! After 20 years of musical theatre history making, this musical receives its Swedish premiere at GöteborgsOperan. The production will open in 2023. I have the great honour to lead the creative team and direct this fantastic piece of musical theatre for the first time in Swedish. I am extremely excited to collaborate with the GöteborsgOperan, and I cannot wait to start looking for the amazing cast members of this fresh new production.

This will also be my first time to collaborate with takis (Set & Costume Design) and Bjorn Dobbelaere (Music Direction). And I have the huge pleasure to continue working with my partner in crime, Gunilla Olsson (Choreography).

This musical is my all-time dream to re-design and direct. I couldn't be happier. Truly.

I am very excited to enter 2022! 2021 has not been the easiest year, but it has been filled with musical theatre magic.

My productions have been seen in three countries, in three different languages, and we have survived all challenges created by viruses.

My production of SPRING AWAKENING played in Gothenburg, Sweden, earlier in 2021. It was such a pleasure to get back to this magnificent script and direct it for the 4th time in my career. KINKY BOOTS has had once again a sold-out year in Tampere, Finland. I am so proud to realise this production enters its 4th year in Finland! My production of KINKY BOOTS was also featured at the 74th Annual Tony Awards in 2021 as part of the international Broadway community. This was a big moment for me, for the cast, and for the entire country of Finland.

SISTER ACT is going strong in Tartu, Estonia. Every single performance has been sold out, and every show receives standing ovations. The nuns are making Estonians crazy!

In October, we opened MATILDA in Tampere, Finland - and our brand new production received raving reviews from all papers and critics!! We received 5 star reviews after another. I personally am so happy and proud for all the children in the show, and how much they all have achieved and developed in this production. May this show have a long run, and not be challenged by viruses.

While all these productions have been performing, I have been in the rehearsal rooms for my upcoming productions of COME FROM AWAY and ANASTASIA. Both shows are set to open in 2022, and now we must just carefully look into how the possible restrictions develop. COME FROM AWAY is going to be something extraordinary, and a show the entire world should see. Especially during times like these. ANASTASIA is promising to be a beautiful, emotional story about Russia, the close neighbour of Finland. Culturally this is a special production.

This year will also introduce other great musicals, and more about those productions later.

Harjanne Company Ltd had a busy, tough, but a good year in 2021. I am happy to be a CEO of a company that succeeds taking care of their employees as well as to maintain the high level of artistic excellence. May year 2022 be full of happy moments and new exciting opportunities for Creative Team Management, and musical theatre creation. Happy New Year, everyone!

Live theatre has suffered a lot due to the outbreak of COVID-19. But theatre is back - and with a bang!

Both SISTER ACT (playing at the Vanemuine Theatre, Estonia) and KINKY BOOTS (playing at the Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, Finland) resumed performances in September, 2021. It is also wonderful to realise that both of these productions are sold out, and audiences are getting wild! During these times it is extremely important to celebrate life, love and happiness - and these shows most definitely offer a proper party for these themes.

KINKY BOOTS opened originally in Helsinki, 2018, and has been playing to sold out audiences now for more than 3 years. SISTER ACT opened originally in Tartu, 2020, and has been raising people’s voices ever since.

Year 2020 has been nothing but comfortable. Despite all devastating restrictions that have immobilised our industry, I have kept busy with work. I must be one of the lucky 2% worldwide who is capable of working professionally during these times, and some of my shows are actually even open for public.

In late November 2020, my new production of SISTER ACT opened in Tartu, Estonia. Vanemuine Theatre is the same grand theatre that produced my production of LES MISÉRABLES in 2017. Due to slight challenges created by COVID-19, it was a tiny miracle to open this show in time, and what a show it turned out to be! SISTER ACT became the much-needed-feel-good-show that brings audiences to their feet night after night! Laughter, happiness, tears, joy are the first four reactions one can spot from the audiences, and that just brings tears to my eyes to see how much live theatre means to so many. SISTER ACT is completely sold-out until further notice, and Vanemuine Theatre is currently capable of welcoming 400 people at a time. Hopefully this will soon become full auditoriums.

More information can be found here:

https://www.vanemuine.ee/repertuaar/nunnad-hoos/

In December, SPRING AWAKENING started rehearsals in Gothenburg, Sweden. This production will be my very first show in Sweden, and I sincerely hope there will be many more to come. Sweden is highly appreciated due to their skills in musical theatre, and that is strongly due to their efforts in musical theatre training. The young cast of this production is from Balettakademien Göteborg (BA). I am very glad to work with this spectacular story for the 5th time in my life. This daring, brave production will bring chills of happiness, sadness and anger to your body mind and soul. SPRING AWAKENING is scheduled to open on February 4th, 2021.

And as the final announcement of 2020, I will be directing a totally new production of ANASTASIA THE MUSICAL in 2022! This will most definitely be a wondrous journey to the past. ANASTASIA will premier in Tampere Theatre September 3rd, 2022. Auditions will take place in January 2021. I cannot wait to design this magical historical story on stage.

Happy New year! May 2021 be greater, easier, and filled with live entertainment of all kinds!

In May 2019, it stood clear that KINKY BOOTS was to transfer from Helsinki City Theatre to Tampereen Työväen Teatteri, in the fall of 2020. The success show from Helsinki was going to be given a new life, and what a life it’s been given!

We all know that times are devastating for the arts industry, and while a lot of rehearsals and productions got put on hold this year in Finland, KINKY BOOTS got around it with rehearsals right before the breakout of the virus this spring. And when theatres started to open their doors for audiences again in the end of the summer, our production was planned to enter the last weeks of rehearsals before opening in the end of September – an opening night to remember.

KINKY BOOTS is a show that bring joy to people, both on and off stage, and joy is something we always need to feel, but especially right now. The happiness and warmth the show gave audiences in Helsinki is now heating up the auditorium in Tampere too. I am so proud of this show, the team behind it, and especially proud to see a transfer like this to happen in Finland. The importance of this show in today’s society, with a message of acceptance, is crucial. The show has changed people’s life, and now once it has opened again, we are here to keep spreading that positivity and making Tampere kinky!

Tickets are selling fast, if you want to secure yours, bookings can be made here:

www.ttt-teatteri.fi