THEATREWORLD

INTERNET MAGAZINE


FORTHCOMING PRODUCTIONS

LONDON

WEST END (LARGE THEATRES)

 

(Click on production)

THE SUNSHINE BOYS – Savoy Theatre;    THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE – Kensington Gardens;    ABSENT FRIENDS – Harold Pinter Theatre (formally Comedy Theatre);    ALL NEW PEOPLE – Duke of York’s Theatre;    TOP HAT – Aldwych Theatre;    SWEENEY TODD – THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET – Adelphi Theatre;    SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN – Palace Theatre;    HAY FEVER – Noel Coward Theatre;    LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT – Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue;   NATIONAL THEATRE - All forthcoming productions - OLD VIC COMPANY All forthcoming productions - SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE THEATRE (Bankside)    REGENT'S PARK OPEN AIR THEATRE (The New Shakespeare Company) 2012 season- (seasonal)


DANNY DEVITO AND RICHARD GRIFFITHS IN

NEIL SIMON’S AWARD-WINNING COMEDY

T H E   S U N S H I N E   B O Y S

FOR STRICTLY LIMITED TWELVE WEEK RUN

 

Thea Sharrock is to direct Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths as the ageing vaudevillian team Willie Clark and Al Lewis in Neil Simon’s award-wining comedy, The Sunshine Boys. Previewing from 27 April with press night on 17 May, The Sunshine Boys is booking at the Savoy Theatre for a strictly limited run until 28 July 2012. The Sunshine Boys has designs by Hildegard Bechtler with lighting by Neil Austin and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph. Further casting will be announced shortly.

 

Kings of comedy, Willie Clark (Danny DeVito) and Al Lewis (Richard Griffiths) aka The Sunshine Boys haven’t spoken to each other in years. When CBS call for the vaudevillian greats to be re-united for a nostalgic History of Comedy, past grudges resurface as they take centre stage once more. Ageing ailments aside, can this legendary double-act overcome their differences for one last show? Old rivalry and vintage hilarity abound in Neil Simon’s classic comedy of showbiz and friendship.

 

Danny DeVito (Willie Clark), who will make his West End stage debut in The Sunshine Boys, won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy award for his portrayal of Louie De Palma in the US hit comedy Taxi, a role he played for five years. His extensive film credits include Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a role he also played on stage, Terms of Endearment, Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, Junior, Twins and Ruthless People. He appeared as the Penguin opposite Michael Keaton’s Batman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns. Later this year DeVito will voice the title character in Universal Pictures’ animated featureThe Lorax, based on the book of the same name by Dr. Seuss. As a film director DeVito’s credits include Matilda, The War of the Roses and Hoffa. This autumn DeVito returns as Frank Reynolds in the eighth season of the acclaimed American cult comedy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

 

Richard Griffiths (Al Lewis) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Hector in The History Boys at the National Theatre and on Broadway, a role he also played on screen. Griffiths has previously been directed by Thea Sharrock in Equus at the Gielgud Theatre and on Broadway, and Heroes at the Wyndham’s Theatre. His other theatre credits include The Habit of Art for the National Theatre and Rules of the Game and Galileo for the Almeida Theatre. His Royal Shakespeare Company credits include The White Guard, Once in a Lifetime, Henry VIII and Volpone. His recent television credits include Episodes, Ballet Shoes and Bleak House all for the BBC but he is most well known on television for playing D.I. Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky. On film Griffiths played the unforgettable role of Uncle Monty in the British black comedy, Withnail and I. His other film credits include the role of Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films, as well as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Hugo, Private Peaceful, Stage Beauty, Sleepy Hollow and The History Boys.

The Sunshine Boys was first produced on Broadway in 1972 and was later adapted for film and television. Sam Levene and Jack Albertson played Lewis and Clark in the stage premiere directed by Alan Arkin. Neil Simon’s 1975 Academy award-winning film adaptation starred George Burns as Lewis and Walter Matthau as Clark and was directed by Herbert Ross. Woody Allen and Peter Falk played the vaudevillian pair in the television version, directed by John Erman.

Playwright and screen writer Neil Simon’s career has spanned more than five decades during which he has written over 30 plays and 20 screenplays. His first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened in 1961. Shortly after, his second, Little Me, earned him his first Tony Award nomination. In 1966 Simon had four shows running on Broadway at the same time - Sweet Charity, The Star-Spangled Girl, The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park. He has won three Tony Awards - Best Author for The Odd Couple, Best Play for Biloxi Blues and Best Play for Lost in Yonkers - and been nominated for seventeen. Simon has also won an Evening Standard Award for Barefoot in the Park, the Golden Globe for Best Motion Screenplay for The Goodbye Girl and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost In Yonkers. He has also written the books for several musicals including Sweet Charity.

 

Thea Sharrock’s production of 13 has recently completed a run at the National Theatre where she previously directed After The Dance for which she won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Revival, Happy Now? and The Emperor Jones. The Sunshine Boys reunites Sharrock with Richard Griffiths who she directed in Equus both in the West End and on Broadway and in Heroes at the Wyndham’s Theatre. Her other theatre credits include Cause Célèbre for the Old Vic and The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre. Sharrock was previously Artistic Director at the Southwark Playhouse (2001-2003) and the Gate Theatre (2004-2006).

 

The Sunshine Boys is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Richard Willis.

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION

 

Theatre: Savoy Theatre, Strand, London WC2R 0ET

Dates: 27 April – 28 July 2012

Press Night: 17 May at 7pm

Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Prices: Previews £15 - £53.50 (plus concessions) to include £1.50 theatre restoration levy

Then £20 - £58.50 (plus concessions) to include £1.50 theatre restoration levy

20 top price seats at £10 each, available in person only, at the box office from 10am on the day of the performance

Box Office: 0844 871 7687

Website: www.sunshineboystheplay.com

 

 


 

Press  Release

 

 

threesixty presents

C.S. LEWIS’

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY RUPERT GOOLD

 

DIRECTED BY RUPERT GOOLD AND MICHAEL FENTIMAN

 

PREVIEWS 8th MAY 2012 IN KENSINGTON GARDENS

 

A dazzling and dramatic retelling of C.S. Lewis’ classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opens in the historic grounds of Kensington Gardens next summer.  In a unique collaboration this major new production is adapted by award-winning director Rupert Goold, staged by threesixty, who gained international acclaim for their first production, Peter Pan, and directed by Rupert Goold and Michael Fentiman.

Staged in the state of the art threesixty theatre tent this visually stunning live production will use threesixty's ground-breaking surround video and enchanting puppetry to bring to life the magic of Narnia in one of the world’s best-loved stories.

 

Rupert Goold said:

“The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe left a huge impression on me as a child. Its combination of fairytale strangeness and mythic spirituality seemed fundamentally English in sensibility, and returning to it now as an adapter and in reading all the stories to my children I also find it strangely Shakespearean too.

What I hope to evoke is the power of faith and the danger of tyranny in a rougher more elemental telling of the story. I'm thrilled to be working again with artists who have been at the heart of my recent work at Headlong and the RSC and can't wait to be working in the round again in the exciting possibilities the threesixty tent offers.”

 

Douglas Gresham said:
"I am really looking forward to working with Rupert Goold on this exciting production, the amazing combination of threesixty's new techniques with his renowned talent and the classic delight of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe promise a magical and delightful show."

 

Four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, discover the magical world of Narnia when they pass through a mysterious wardrobe door. Ruled by the White Witch who has cast a spell making it forever winter, the children together with new found friends battle to bring happiness to the land in this classic tale of good versus evil.

 

Threesixty’s inimitable productions offer audiences of all ages an all-encompassing theatrical experience delivering some of the greatest stories ever written as they have never been seen before. Peter Pan, threesixty’s launch production, rapidly became a phenomenon and played to over 150,000 people over 16 weeks in the summer of 2009 before moving to the O2 and on to a tour of the USA.  Currently in Boston Peter Pan continues to receive critical acclaim and has notched up many celebrity fans including Russell Crowe, Tim Burton, Barbara Windsor, Tamsin Greig and Ben Elton.

 

Rupert Goold is Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre and an Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Productions for Headlong include Earthquakes in London, ENRON (2009 Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Director), King Lear, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Rough Crossings, Faustus, Restoration and Paradise Lost.

His other work as a director includes The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet (RSC), Time and the Conways (National), Oliver! (West End), No Man's Land (Gate Theatre, Dublin/West End - Irish Times Award Best Director), The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange (West End); the world premiere of Speaking Like Magpies, a new play by Frank McGuinness, for the RSC; and a national and international tour of Scaramouche Jones with Pete Postlethwaite. In August 2006 he directed The Tempest with Patrick Stewart as Prospero for the RSC. Rupert's Macbeth, with Patrick Stewart, transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End in 2007, then to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and finally to Broadway, finishing in May 2008. He was awarded the 2007 Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Director and the film based on the production was broadcast on the BBC in December 2010.

 

Michael Fentiman is currently Artistic Director of Beggars And Kings Theatre Company.  His forthcoming productions include Titus Andronicus (RSC/Headlong) and The Light In The Piazza.  His previous credits for the RSC include Ahasverus and the Opening Ceremony, and as Associate Director As You Like It, Romeo And Juliet, Hamlet and A Tender Thing; Crackers (Belgrade/Coventry), Blue/Orange (Cockpit) and Spoonface Steinberg (Clwyd/Greenwich/Glasgow Citizens/tour).

 

PERFORMANCE DETAILS AND BOX OFFICE INFO

 

Kensington Gardens

8 May – 9 September 2012

Tickets from £25

On sale from 6 January 2012

 

Box office: 0844 871 7693

www.lionwitchtheshow.com

 

http://twitter.com/lionwitchshow

http://www.youtube.com/lionwitchshow

http://www.facebook.com/TheChroniclesofNarnia

 


 

JEREMY HERRIN TO DIRECT

DAVID ARMAND, ELIZABETH BERRINGTON, KATHERINE PARKINSON,

STEFFAN RHODRI, REECE SHEARMTIH

AND

KARA TOINTON IN

ALAN AYCKBOURN’S

 

A B S E N T    F R I E N D S

 

Jeremy Herrin will direct David Armand, Elizabeth Berrington, Katherine Parkinson, Steffan Rhodri, Reece Shearsmith and Kara Tointon in Alan Ayckbourn’s classic comedy of manners and social embarrassment Absent Friends, previewing at the Harold Pinter Theatre (formerly the Comedy Theatre) from 26 January 2012. With press night on 9 February Absent Friends, produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions and Bob Bartner, is currently booking until 14 April. Designs are by Tom Scutt with lighting by Peter Mumford and sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph.

 

When Colin loses his fiancée, his married friends invite him round for comfort over tea and sandwiches. As the tea starts to pour, it's clear that trouble is brewing with a wickedly funny blend of jealousy, infidelity and barely concealed loathing. Tension starts to boil and maybe Colin isn’t the one who needs help… with friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

Absent Friends premiered in 1974 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and received its London premier a year later at the Garrick Theatre. Sonia Friedman Productions has previously produced Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests which, following its sell-out run at the Old Vic, transferred triumphantly to Broadway in 2009.

 

Katherine Parkinson (Diana) is best known on television for playing Jen in the Channel 4 series The IT Crowd, a role for which she won the British Comedy Best Actress Award. She is soon to be seen on BBC 1 playing Conceptiva in The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff alongside Robert Webb. Her theatre credits include Pattie in Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings at the National Theatre, Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal at the Barbican as well as roles in Cock and The Seagull for the Royal Court and Other Hand and Flush for Soho Theatre. Her other television credits include Doc Martin, The Old Guys and The Great Outdoors. Her film credits include St Trinian’s II: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, The Boat that Rocked, Easy Virtue and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

 

Reece Shearsmith (Colin), a quarter of the hugely successful award-wining comedy team The League of Gentlemen and co-creator and writer of the BBC’s Psychoville, has recently completed a run as Gilbert Chivers in Betty Blue Eyes. Previously he has been seen on stage in Ghost Stories at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Comedians at the Lyric Hammersmith. Shearsmith also played Leo Bloom in The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane as well as Jacques in As You Like It at the Wyndhams’ Theatre and Yvan in Art at the Whitehall Theatre. His other television credits include the critically acclaimed Catterick (Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s BBC road trip comedy series), Channel 4’s Spaced and Horrible Histories. His film work includes Burke and Hare, The Cottage, Birthday Girl, Shaun of the Dead and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse. in which he stared and co-wrote.

 

Elizabeth Berrington (Marge) was last on stage playing Bev in Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party at Hampstead Theatre and in the West End. She will next be seen on television playing Paula in the BBC 1 Christmas Eve comedy, Lapland. On television her more recent credits include food technology teacher Ruby Fry in Waterloo Road, Dr Who, Crimson Petal and the White, Psychoville and A Touch of Frost and well as playing Marie-Antoinette in the French and Saunders series Let Them Eat Cake. On film her credits include In Bruges, Nanny McPhee, A Cock and Bull Story, Onegin and Mike Leigh’s Naked and Secrets and Lies.

 

Kara Tointon (Evelyn) has most recently played Eliza Doolittle to great critical acclaim in Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre alongside Rupert Everett and Diana Rigg. Tointon is best known on television for playing Dawn Swann in EastEnders, a role she played for four years. Other television roles include Bedlam, The Bill and Dream Team. Her film credits include The Last Passenger, The Sweeney and Just My Luck. Tointon was the winner of the 2010 Strictly Come Dancing series.

 

Steffan Rhodri (Paul) can currently be seen in The Kitchen Sink at the Bush Theatre. On television he is best known for playing Dave Coaches in Gavin and Stacey. His previous theatre credits include Clybourne Park for the Royal Court and Abigail’s Party for Hampstead and The New Ambassadors Theatres. Other TV includes roles in Crawford Park, Belonging, Wire In The Blood and Tales From a Pleasure Beach. His film credits include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Ironclad, Submarine and Ali G Indahouse.

 

David Armand (John) is best known for his roles in the TV sketch shows Sorry I’ve Got No Head and Fast and Loose, as well as The Peter Serafinowicz Show, Peep Show, Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show and The Armstrong and Miller Show. His stage credits include The Secret Policeman’s Ball at the Royal Albert Hall, Local for the Royal Court Upstairs and The Hollow Man: A Tribute and Live at the Lounge at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His other television credits include How Not To Live Your Life and Pulling. His film credits include Elizabeth: The Golden Age and St. Trinian’s.

 

Jeremy Herrin is Associate Director of the Royal Court where he directed the UK premiere of David Hare's The Vertical Hour as well as Richard Bean’s The Heretic and Polly Stenham's award-winning That Face which subsequently transferred to the West End. His other recent theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing starring Charles Edwards and Eve Best at Shakespeare’s Globe earlier this year and South Downs for the Chichester Festival Theatre. Herrin will direct Joe Penhall’s Haunted Child for the Royal Court opening in December this year and in 2012 he will direct Matthew Dunster’s Children’s Children at the Almeida Theatre.

 

Olivier and Tony award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn has written more than 75 plays, over half of which have been produced in West End as well as on Broadway. Ayckbourn was Artistic Director at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough from 1972-2009 and was an Associate Director at the National Theatre from 1986-88. He was awarded a CBE in 1987 and in 1997 was knighted for services to the theatre.

 

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION

 

Theatre: Harold Pinter Theatre, Panton Street, London SW1Y 4DN

Dates: 26 January – 14 April 2012

Press Night: 9 February at 7pm

Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

Prices: from £15

Box Office: 08448717622

Website: absentfriendstheplay.com

 


All New People

 

Brand new comedy written by and starring Zach Braff

Opens at Duke of York’s Theatre on 22 February 2012

American actor Zach Braff (Scrubs and Garden State) is to make his UK stage acting debut in a new comedy, All New People. The witty play, written by Braff, will be directed by award-winning Peter Dubois.

 

All New People will open at the Duke of York’s Theatre on 22 February 2012.  Before arriving in London for a strictly limited 10-week run, audiences in Manchester and Glasgow will get the chance to enjoy the play when it is staged at the Manchester Opera House, between 8 – 11 February and the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, between 14 – 18 February.

 

This angst-fuelled comedy saw New York’s Second Stage Theatre packed out nightly and received rave reviews from US critics, with its present day dilemmas and take on four very different characters way of life.

 

In the dead of winter, at his wealthy friends’ luxury Long Beach Island apartment, Charlie (Zach Braff) has hit rock bottom on his 35th birthday. Away from the rest of the world, this perfect escape is interrupted by a motley parade of misfits who show up and change his plans. A hired beauty, a fireman, and an eccentric British real estate agent desperately trying to stay in the country all suddenly find themselves tangled together in a beach house where the mood is anything but sunny, while Charlie just wishes they’d leave and let him get on with it.

 

Best known for the smash-hit TV comedy Scrubs – nominated for 17 Emmy Awards and watched by over 22 million people worldwide – writer, director and star of the award winning Garden State, Zach Braff is a three time Golden Globe nominee and Grammy Award winner. Peter Dubois was awarded the Callaway Award for Excellence in Directing from the Society of Stage Directors, and recently won the Elliot Norton Award for Best Production from the Boston Theatre Critics Association. Earlier this year DuBois directed Becky Shaw at the Almeida Theatre, which was nominated for an Evening Standard Theatre Award.

The UK production will feature an all new cast and further casting announcements will follow.

 

Press Quotes:

 

“Zach Braff scores with All New People, a morbidly funny play about the trendy new existential condition of being young, adorable and miserable.” – Marilyn Stasio, Variety.

 

“Sensationally funny! The jokes are delivered with the precision of ace dart throwers in this slick and lively comedy.” – Charles Isherwood, NY Times.

 

“All New People is a hipper, edgier take on the bantering comedies that were once the domain of playwrights like Neil Simon.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter.

 

 

 

LONDON LISTINGS INFORMATION - ALL NEW PEOPLE

Dates:                                                Wednesday 22 February until Saturday 28 April 2012

Press night:                          Friday 24 February / Tuesday 28 February at 7pm TBC

Performances:                                 Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

Saturday and Wednesday matinees at 2.30pm

Ticket prices:                                £15-£49.50

Premium seats available

 

Address:                                Duke of York’s Theatre, St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4BG

Box Office:                            0844 871 7623

Website:                               www.allnewpeople.co.uk

Twitter:                                 @atgtickets

 

 

 

 

TOM CHAMBERS AND SUMMER STRALLEN LEAD CAST IN

WEST END TRANSFER OF IRVING BERLIN’S

T O P   H A T

 

Following a 17 week UK tour and seventy seven years after its movie release, Top Hat will receive its West End stage premiere at the Aldwych Theatre previewing from 19 April, with press night on 9 May 2012. Tickets are now on sale and Top Hat is currently booking until 26 January 2013. In addition to the West End announcement, Top Hat also announces pre-west end tour dates as follows - New Victoria Theatre Woking, 13-17 March and Bristol Hippodrome, 21 – 31 March 2012.

 

Directed by Matthew White and choreographed by Bill Deamer, Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen take the lead roles of Jerry Travers and Dale Tremont, played in the movie by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. They are joined by Martin Ball and Vivien Parry playing husband and wife Horace and Madge Hardwick, Ricardo Afonso as Alberto Beddini and Stephen Boswell as Horace’s valet Bates. Set designs are by 2011 Laurence Olivier Award Winner Hildegard Bechtler, with costume designs by Jon Morrell, lighting design by Peter Mumford, musical direction by Daniel Jackson, musical supervision by Richard Balcombe, new orchestrations provided by Chris Walker and sound by Gareth Owen.

 

With music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and based on the RKO motion picture, the screenplay by Dwight Taylor and Allan Scott has been adapted for the stage by Matthew White and Howard Jacques and is presented by arrangement with RKO Pictures LLC, Warner Bros Theatre Ventures Inc. and the Irving Berlin Music Company.

 

Jerry Travers (Tom Chambers), the famous American tap dancer, arrives in London to appear in his first West End show. Travers meets the irresistible Dale Tremont (Summer Strallen), the girl of his dreams, and follows her across Europe in an attempt to win her heart.

 

Nominated for four Academy Awards Top Hat is widely regarded as one of the greatest dance musicals of all time and the most successful picture of the nine movies Astaire and Rogers made together. Top Hat premiered at the Radio City Music Hall where it broke all box office records. Within a few weeks, all five songs from the film occupied the top five places on the American Hit Parade.

 

Performed by a cast of 31 and accompanied by a live band of 15, this new musical comedy will include Irving Berlin classics from the movie such as Cheek to Cheek, Isn’t It a Lovely Day to be Caught in the Rain and Top Hat White Tie and Tails. In addition, from Berlin’s 1200 strong back catalogue, a further ten numbers have been interpolated including Let’s Face the Music and Dance and I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket.

 

Tom Chambers was winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2008 with his partner Camilla Dallerup. On television he is also well known as surgeon Sam Strachan in Holby City, a role he played for three years. In 2010 he starred in the sold out production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at The Sunderland Empire. After studying at the National Youth Music Theatre and Guildford School of Acting, Chambers went on to star in the British film Fakers. Last year he joined the cast of the BBC Drama Waterloo Road as Head Teacher Max Tyler. His other theatre credits include productions for the Young Vic, Sadler’s Wells, Derby Playhouse and the Lyric Hammersmith.

 

Summer Strallen created the role of Meg Giry in Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre, for which she was nominated for Best Performance for a Supporting Role in a Musical at the 2011 Olivier Awards. Previously she has been seen on stage as Maria in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium, Janet Van Der Graaf in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Novello for which she was Olivier Award nominated,

the title role in Dick Whittington at the Barbican and Maisie in The Boy Friend for the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park for which she was also Olivier Award nominated. On film and television her credits include Hotel Babylon, Beyond the Sea and Hollyoaks.

 

Martin Ball recently played Thenardier in Les Miserables at the Queens Theatre, he was in the original Company of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria and MAMMA MIA! at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Regionally his theatre credits include the role of Mr Banks in the UK Tour of Mary Poppins, Dead Funny at the Nottingham Playhouse, Charley’s Aunt at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre and Absent Friends at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. His television credits include My Family, New Tricks, Trial & Retribution, Doctor Who, Doctors, Hotel Babylon and The Thick of It.

 

Vivien Parry has most recently been seen on stage in Shakespeare’s Will and Great Expectations at Theatr Clwyd. Her other theatre credits include Memory at The Pleasance, Macbeth and Arcadia both at theatr Clwyd, The Swing of Things at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, MAMMA MIA! at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Boston Marriage at the Bolton Octagon and The Ashgirl at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Her television credits include Crash, The Bill, Outside The Rules and The Bench. She also played the lead role of Donna for three years in Mamma Mia.

Ricardo Afonso was last in the West End starring in the principal role of Galileo in We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. He has performed as lead vocalist in Strictly Come Dancing - The Professionals tour and has appeared twice in The Night of 1000 Voices at the Royal Albert Hall. His recording credits include Dreamer for the album based on the Terry Pratchett book Only You Can Save Mankind, and The Meerkat Muchachos for the album Bush Tales. Afonso is also one of the regular singers for the ongoing summer concerts A Rock and Symphonic Spectacular since 2007.

Stephen Boswell was seen on stage earlier this year in Double Falsehood at the Union Theatre. His other theatre credits include Much Ado About Nothing at the Liverpool Playhouse, the national tours of Round The Horne: Unseen & Uncut, Round the Horne – Revisited and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Othello at the Northampton Royal Theatre and Greenwich, Life is a Dream at the Young Vic, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Theatre Royal Bristol and The Shoemaker’s Holiday at the Leeds Playhouse. His film credits include Ali G in Da House, Chaos and Cadavers and South Kensington. His television credits include Kingdom, Murder City, Down to Earth, The Bill and Casualty.

 

Matthew White directed Sweet Charity and Little Shop of Horrors both for the Menier Chocolate Factory, both of which transferred to the West End. His other directing credits include world premiere of David WalliamsChildrens novel Mr Stink, The Black and White Ball at the King’s Head, The Magic Flute for the Peacock Theatre, Far From the Madding Crowd for the Watermill Theatre, Maria Friedman – by Special Arrangement for the Donmar Warehouse, as well as national tours of Carousel and The Demon Headmaster.

 

Top Hat continues on tour as follows: Canterbury Marlowe Theatre until 19 November 2011, Edinburgh Playhouse (22-26 November 2011) and Leeds Grand Theatre (29 November – 10 December 2011).

 

Top Hat is produced by Kenny Wax, and his partners on the production are Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comley, Ted Hartley, Flora Suk-Hwa Yoon and Lee Menzies.

 

 

Dates: 19 April 2012 – 26 January 2013

Press night: 9 May 2012 at 7pm

Address: Aldwych Theatre, Aldwych, London WC2B 4DF

Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

First Saturday matinee 21 April

First Thursday matinee 26 April matinee

Box Office: 0844 847 1712

Ticket prices: £55 - £20 in previews

£65 - £20 post opening

Concessions available

Website: www.tophatonstage.com

 


 

 

Playful Productions, Robert G. Bartner, Old Vic Productions and Matthew Mitchell present

Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton in

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of

 

Sweeney Todd –

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

 

Directed by Jonathan Kent

Designed by Anthony Ward

Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

From an adaptation by Christopher Bond

Originally directed on Broadway by Harold Prince

Original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Originally produced on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards in association with Dean and Judy Manos

 

The hit Chichester Festival Theatre production transfers to the Adelphi Theatre in March 2012

 

Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton reprise their roles as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett

 

Tickets go on sale on Friday 11 November 2011 at 10am

 

Following sell-out success at Chichester Festival Theatre, Jonathan Kent’s acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd transfers to London’s West End for a limited season from 10 March 2012. Widely acknowledged as Stephen Sondheim’s musical masterpiece, Sweeney Todd stars distinguished musical performer Michael Ball as the eponymous demon barber of Fleet Street and Oscar-nominated actress Imelda Staunton as the devoted Mrs Lovett.

Set amongst London’s seedy side streets and laced with Sondheim’s characteristically brilliant wit and dark humour, the musical depicts Sweeney Todd’s savage quest for justice and retribution after years of false imprisonment. Aided and abetted by the pie-shop owner, Mrs Lovett, he sets out to avenge the wrongs done to him and his family.

Combining a brutal sensibility with elements of English music hall, the production offers a fascinating portrait of a man driven to madness by injustice.

Sweeney Todd is directed by Jonathan Kent, designed by Anthony Ward and choreographed by Denni Sayers with lighting design by Mark Henderson. The Musical Director is Nicholas Skilbeck, with orchestration by Jonathan Tunick and sound design by Paul Groothuis.

The cast includes: John Bowe, Peter Polycarpou, Robert Burt, Gillian Kirkpatrick, Lucy May Barker, Luke Brady, James McConville, and Simeon Truby. The ensemble includes: Valda Aviks, Will Barratt, Josie Benson, Emily Bull, John Coates, Daniel Graham, Robine Landi, Tim Morgan, Aoife Nally, Adam Pearce, Wendy Somerville, Kerry Washington and Annabelle Williams.

 

Presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York.

 

www.sweeneytoddwestend.com

 

Box Office: 0844 811 0053

 

 

The Chichester Festival Theatre production of

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Adelphi Theatre, Strand, London, WC2R 0NS

10 March – 22 September 2012

www.SweeneyToddWestEnd.com

Box Office: 0844 811 0053

Age guideline: 12+ (parental guidance)

 

Previews from: 10 March 2012, 7.30pm

 

Press Night: 20 March 2012, 7.00pm

 

Performance Times:

Monday – Saturday 7.30pm

Wednesday & Saturday 2.30pm

No shows on Sunday

 

Ticket Prices: £20.00 - £67.50. Day seats available.

 

Group rates:

All rates valid Monday to Thursday and midweek matinee

10+ £47.50 on top price seats

6+ £57.50

 

Senior Group rates:

10+ £39.50 on Top Price (Valid Monday –Tuesday and Midweek matinee)

 

Education rate:

10+ £19.50 on Second and third price, Free teacher with every 10 paid.

Valid Monday to Wednesday and midweek matinee)


 

WEST END TRANSFER CONFIRMED FOR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION OF

S I N G I N    I N   T H E   R A I N

STARRING

ADAM COOPER

DANIEL CROSSLEY, SCARLETT STRALLEN & KATHERINE KINGSLEY

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2011

 

Jonathan Church’s new production of Singin’ in the Rain is to transfer to the Palace Theatre following its critically acclaimed, sell-out run at Chichester Festival Theatre.  Church’s production of Singin’ in the Rain, with choreography by Andrew Wright, is based on the classic 1952 MGM film and  produced in the West End by Stage Entertainment UK and Chichester Festival Theatre, and is booking at the Palace Theatre from 4 February 2012, initially through to 29 September 2012.  The production will open on TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY, with tickets on sale to the public from MONDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2011.

 

The West End cast is led by Adam Cooper as Don Lockwood, Daniel Crossley as Cosmo Brown, Scarlett Strallen as Kathy Seldon and Katherine Kingsley as Lina Lamont, with Michael Brandon as RF Simpson and Sandra Dickinson as Dora Bailey/Miss Dinsmore, all of whom will reprise their roles from the original Chichester production.

 

Singin’ in the Rain features songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, including Makeem Laugh, Good Morning, Moses Supposes and Singin’ in the Rain, original screenplay and adaptations are by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. With choreography by Andrew Wright, the production is designed by Simon Higlett, with sound by Matt McKenzie and lighting by Tim Mitchell. Church’s production of Singin’ in the Rain opened on 27 June 2011 at the Festival Theatre, Chichester, where it played to capacity houses and extended its run to cope with demand.  The 1952 MGM film of the same name, which will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its release next year, starred Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds and is considered one of the most beloved and enduring movie musicals of all time. 

 

Don Lockwood is a silent movies star with everything he could want - fame, adulation and even a well-publicised ‘romance’ with his co-star Lina Lamont.  But Hollywood is about to change forever. There is rumour in the studio of a new kind of film, where the actors actually talk… and sing... and dance. 

 

The full West End cast is Michael Brandon, Adam Cooper, Daniel Crossley, Brendan Cull, Flora Dawson, Sandra Dickinson, Jaye Juliette Elster, Peter Forbes, Gemma Fuller, Francis Haugen, Katherine Kingsley, David Lucas, Scott Mobley, Ebony Molina, Gillian Parkhouse, Sherrie Pennington, Lisa Ritchie, Scarlett Strallen, and Nancy Wei George. 

 

Multi award-winning Adam Cooper’s theatre credits include Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre, Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, On Your Toes and The Wind in the Willows at the Royal Festival Hall and Zorro on tour in the UK.  With the Adventures in Motion Pictures Company as well as playing the Angel in Cinderella, he created the award-wining role of the Swan in Swan Lake, which, after opening at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, transferred to the West End, LA and Broadway.   As a member of the Royal Ballet Company (1989-97) his numerous credits include Romeo and Juliet, Myerling, The Judas Tree, Onegin and La Ronde. 

 

Daniel Crossley’s theatre credits include Me and My Girl and A Chorus Line for Sheffield Theatres, Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost for the National Theatre, Kiss of the Spider Woman for Hull Truck Theatre, The Snow Queen for Derby Theatre, Hello, Dolly!, As You Like It, Oh! What a Lovely War and Romeo and Juliet for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Mary Poppins on tour in the UK.  His television credits include Doctors, Heartbeat and Coronation Street.

 

Scarlett Strallen’s theatre credits includes The Music Man at Chichester Festival Theatre, Passion for the Donmar Warehouse, the title role in Mary Poppins in the West End and on Broadway, The Merry Wives of Windsor for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Witches of Eastwick at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium and HMS Pinafore, Twelfth Night and Cymbeline for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Her film credits include Beyond The Sea and The Snow Queen. 


Katherine Kingsley’s theatre credits include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for the Donmar Warehouse, Aspects of Love at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse and Vaudeville Theatre, (Olivier Award nomination) High Society at the Shaftesbury Theatre, The Canterbury Tales at Bristol Old Vic and The 39 Steps at the Liverpool Playhouse and on UK tour.  Her film credits include Days of the Siren, Now We Are Three and 100 Second Marriage.

 

Michael Brandon’s UK theatre credits include the title role in Jerry Springer - The Opera which opened at the National Theatre and transferred to the West End, Wet Weather Cover at the Arts Theatre, Speed The Plow for the Theatre Royal Lincoln and On the Waterfront for the Hackney Empire.   On television he is known for playing Dempsey opposite Glynis Barber in Dempsey and Makepeace.  His other television credits include roles in Hustle, The Last of the Lehman Brothers, Doctor Who, New Tricks, Trial and Retribution and Ally McBeal.  His film credits include Captain America – The First Avenger, Me and Orson Welles and Presumed Dangerous.

 

Sandra Dickinson’s theatre credits include A Woman of No Importance for Salisbury Playhouse, the UK tour of Anything Goes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, The Graduate at the Gielgud Theatre, Orpheus Descending at the Donmar Warehouse and Not About Nightingales for the National Theatre.  Her television credits include White Van Man, Two Point Four Children, New Tricks, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who.  Her film credits include Tormented and Malice in Wonderland. 

 

Jonathan Church has been Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre since 2006.  In the West End he has directed Of Mice and Men at the Savoy and The Old Vic, The Witches at Wyndham's and A Busy Day at the Lyric Theatre.  His productions at Chichester include The Real Inspector Hound, The Critic, The Grapes of Wrath, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Hobson’s Choice, The Circle and Pravda.

 

Previously for Chichester Festival Theatre award-winning Andrew Wright has choreographed 42nd Street.   His other choreography credits include By Jeeves for the Landor Theatre, Almost Like Being In Love at the National Theatre, Naked Boys Singing at the King’s Head and Arts Theatre and The Showgirl Within at the Garrick Theatre.  As well as many pantomimes he has choreographed six performances of The Night of 1000 Voices at the Royal Albert Hall, Sunday Night at the Theatre Royal and Evita for Leeds Grand Theatre.

 

Stage Entertainment is one of the world’s largest theatrical producers and venue owners, with bases across Europe and in New York.  Previous UK credits include the multi Olivier Award winning Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre and UK tour, Sister Act at the London Palladium, the Broadway Theater in New York and UK tour, Strictly Come Dancing Live! UK arena tours, Disney’s High School Musical 1 & 2 (Hammersmith Apollo and UK tours), Fame at the Shaftesbury Theatre and UK tours, The Full Monty at the Prince of Wales and UK tour, Contact at the Queen’s Theatre and Blue Man Group at the New London Theatre.

 

Chichester Festival Theatre is one of this country’s most prolific and successful producing houses having transferred many productions to the West End and beyond, including recently the multi-award winning productions of Macbeth and ENRON (which both also transferred to Broadway), the world premiere of Yes, Prime Minister, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead which recently completed a run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.  Chichester’s critically acclaimed revival of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls is currently playing at London’s Trafalgar Studios.  Chichester Festival Theatre celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2012.

 

Singin’ in the Rain is based on the classic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film and produced by arrangement with Maurice Rosenfield, Lois F Rosenfield and Cindy Pritzker Inc. This production is by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Inc. Music Published by EMI.

 

Theatre:                      Palace Theatre, 109-113 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 8AY

 

Dates:                                 4 February – 29 September 2012 (First booking period)

 

Press Night:                         15 February 2012 at 7pm

 

Performances:                      Monday and Tuesday at 7pm

                                  Wednesday – Saturday at 7.30pm

                                  Wednesday and Saturday at 3pm

 

Prices:                                 £15 - £65

 

Box Office:                  0844 412 4656

 

Website:                      www.singinintherain.co.uk 

 

 


COWARD AT THE COWARD:

HOWARD DAVIES TO DIRECT

LINDSAY DUNCAN, JEREMY NORTHAM, KEVIN MCNALLY & OLIVIA COLMAN

IN NOëL COWARD’S

H A Y F E V E R

 

For the first time since its renaming and refurbishment, one of Noël Coward’s most well known plays will be performed at the Noël Coward Theatre. Howard Davies is to direct Lindsay Duncan in Coward’s Hay Fever, reuniting the director and actor who together received seven major international theatre awards for their 2001 collaboration on Coward’s Private Lives. Duncan is joined by Jeremy Northam, Kevin McNally and Olivia Colman in Coward’s sublime comedy of bad manners.

 

Running at the Noël Coward Theatre from 10 February – 2 June 2012, Hay Fever has designs by Bunny Christie, lighting by Mark Henderson and sound by Mike Walker. Press preview performances are Thursday 23 February at 7pm, Friday 24 February and Saturday 25 February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, with reviews embargoed until Monday 27 February 2012. Hay Fever is produced in the West End by Richard Willis, Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions. Further casting will be announced shortly.

 

Judith Bliss, once glittering star of the London stage, now in early retirement, is still enjoying life with more than a little high drama and the occasional big scene. To spice her weekend up, Judith invites a young suitor to join her in the country. However, her novelist husband, David, and her two eccentric children, Simon and Sorel, have had the same idea for themselves and any hope for private flirtation disappears as the family’s guests begin to arrive. Misjudged meetings, secret seductions and scandalous revelations all run riot at the most outrageous of all house parties.

 

In 1920 Noël Coward made his stage debut at what was then known as the New Theatre in his own first play, I'll Leave It To You. In 1973 the theatre was renamed the Albery and subsequently, in 2001, Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman played Amanda and Elyot in Coward's Private Lives to great critical acclaim. In June 2006 the theatre was renamed once again as the Noël Coward Theatre when the building underwent major refurbishment including the naming of the two principal dressing rooms as Noël and Gertie, the latter being Coward’s favourite leading lady, Gertrude Lawrence.

 

Cameron Mackintosh said: “I’m delighted to be able to have our first Coward play at the theatre since it was renamed after The Master. Truly one of Noël’s masterpieces, Hay Fever promises to be as great an evening at this theatre as Howard Davies’ Private Lives a few years ago, also starring the delicious Lindsay Duncan. I am also delighted to welcome to the salon of the Prince of Wales Theatre, Noël’s beloved grand piano on which he composed so many of his wonderful songs. His talent to amuse lives on forever.”

 

Playwright, composer, director and actor Noël Coward wrote Hay Fever in 1924 and it was first produced a year later at the Ambassadors Theatre. Coward wrote over 50 plays during his career including Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever. His many compositions include Mad Dogs and Englishmen, A Room with a View and Mrs Worthington, and his film credits include Brief Encounter, The Vortex and The Italian Job. Coward was knighted in 1970.

 

Double Olivier award-winner Lindsay Duncan (Judith Bliss) has worked extensively for the National Theatre where her credits include Plenty, The Homecoming and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and for the Royal Shakespeare Company in productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. In the West End she has been seen in The Cryptogram, That Face and Noel Coward’s Private Lives. For the Royal Court her credits include the original production of Top Girls as well as Ashes to Ashes and Mouth to Mouth. For the Almeida Theatre her credits include Celebration and The Room. On television she has recently appeared as Alex Cairns in Black Mirror – The National Anthem and The Duchess of York in Rupert Goold’s Richard II. Her other television credits also include White Heat, Dr Who, the title role in Margaret, as well as Lost in Austen, Longford, Rome, Shooting the Past and Perfect Strangers, The Rector’s Wife, A Year in Provence, GBH and Traffik. Her film credits include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Starter For Ten, Mansfield Park, An Ideal Husband and Prick Up Your Ears.

 

Olivier award-wining Jeremy Northam (Richard Greatham) was most recently on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in Old Times. His other theatre credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost and The Country Wife for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Certain Young Men for the Almeida Theatre and The Voysey Inheritance at the National Theatre. He has most recently been seen on television in Stephen Poliakoff’s Glorious 39 and as Thomas Moore in The Tudors. His other television credits include White Heat and Journey’s End. Northam’s film credits include Creation, Dean Spanley, A Cock and Bull Story, Gosford Park (in which he played Ivor Novello), The Winslow Boy, An Ideal Husband, Happy Texas, Possession, Emma, The Net and Carrington.

 

Kevin McNally’s (David Bliss) most recent stage credits were as Claudius in Hamlet and Lebedev in Ivanov, both for the Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham’s Theatre. Previously his extensive theatre credits include Boeing Boeing, The Lady in the Van, Naked, Dead Funny and The Iceman Cometh. On television he can soon be seen in ITV1’s Downton Abbey. His other television credits include New Tricks, Life On Mars, Margaret, Bloodlines, Dunkirk, Spooks, Shackleton, Rab C Nesbitt, Enigma and Diana. McNally’s many film credits include the role of Joshamee Gibbs, Captain Jack Sparrow’s first mate in The Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Raven (to be released next Spring), Valkyrie, De-Lovely, The Phantom of the Opera, Johnny English, Sliding Doors, Irish Jam and Entrapment.

 

Olivia Colman’s (Myra Arundel) theatre credits include England People Very Nice for the National Theatre, The Three Some for the Lyric Hammersmith and A Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Lyric Theatre. Her upcoming film credits include The Iron Lady directed by Phylidda Lloyd and Hyde Park on Hudson. Her other film credits include Tyrannosaur, Dog Altogether, Grow Your Own, I Could Never Be Your Woman and Hot Fuzz. On television she is best known for playing Sophie Chapman in the Peep Show series and Harriet Schulenburg in the Green Wing series. Her other television credits include The Baader Meinhof Gang series, Exile, Doctor Who, Beautiful People, Consuming Passion, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Hancock and Joan, Love Soup, Much Ado About Nothing, Ny-Lon and The Office.

 

Multi award-winning Howard Davies is an Associate Director of the National Theatre where his many productions include The Cherry Orchard, The White Guard, Burnt by the Sun, The Taking Cure, Flight, Present Laughter and Mourning Becomes Electra. For the Almeida Theatre, where he was also Associate Director, his productions include Period of Adjustment, The Play About the Baby, The Iceman Cometh and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? At the Royal Shakespeare Company he produced 26 new plays in 4 years at the Warehouse Theatre which he established and ran. His other RSC credits include The General from America, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Jail Diary of Albie Sachs. In the West End Davies’ directing credits include All My Sons, The Breath of Life and Noel Coward’s Private Lives. His many Broadway transfers include A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Iceman Cometh, My Fair Lady, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

 

Dates: 10 February – 2 June 2012

 

Press performances: 23 February at 7pm, 24 February at 7.30pm, 25 February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Reviews embargoed until 27 February

 

Address: Noël Coward Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2  4AU

 

Performances: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm

First Wednesday matinee 29 February

 

Box Office: 0844 482 5140

 

Ticket prices: £16 - £53.50 plus concessions

 

Day Seats: a limited number of £25 best front row stalls seats will go on sale at the Box Office at 10am on the day of each performance

 

Website: www.hayfeverlondon.com

 


 

 

EUGENE O’NEILL’S AMERICAN CLASSIC

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

 

DIRECTED BY ANTHONY PAGE

 

STARRING DAVID SUCHET, LAURIE METCALF AND KYLE SOLLER

 

OPENS AT THE APOLLO THEATRE, SHAFTESBURY AVENUE

 

ON 10 APRIL 2012

 

WITH PREVIEWS FROM 2 APRIL 2012

 

David Suchet returns to the West End stage in Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, following his critically acclaimed performance in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons last year.  Directed by award-winning director Anthony Page, Eugene O’Neill’s semi autobiographical play paints a powerful portrait of a family tormented by the past and paralysed by its own personal demons.

 

Set in 1912, the story is a compelling family drama between James Tyrone (David Suchet), Mary Tyrone (Laurie Metcalf) and their sons, Jamie and Edmund (Kyle Soller) during a long summer’s day. This multi-award winning play is one of the greatest American plays written in the twentieth century.

 

David Suchet is one of Britain’s most respected actors on stage, screen and television.  Best known for his role as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Poirot his other television work includes the award-winning BBC drama Maxwell for which he won Best Actor International Emmy Award in 2008, The Life of Freud, Victoria and Albert, Murder in Mind, Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now (BAFTA nomination). Suchet’s film credits include Executive Decision, A Perfect Murder, Flood and The Bank. Aside from his television and film work, David has also worked extensively in theatre. His recent stage credits include All My Sons (Best Actor What’sOnStage.com Awards, Evening Standard Theatre Awards nomination and Olivier Award nomination), Complicit (The Old Vic), Once in a Lifetime (National Theatre),The Last Confession (Theatre Royal Haymarket) and the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Troilus and Cressida, The Tempest and Othello. Other credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Critic's Circle Award), Separation (Olivier Award nomination), Oleanna and Amadeus (Best Actor, Royal Variety Club Award, Tony nomination on Broadway and Olivier Award nomination).

 

Laurie Metcalf is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne for which she is a 3 time Emmy Award Winner. Her other television work includes The Big Bang Theory, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Metcalf’s film credits include the well known voice of Andy’s Mum throughout Pixar’s Toy Story Trilogy as well as appearances in Scream 2 and Desperately Seeking Susan. She has also won numerous awards for her performances on Broadway including The Other Place (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award), A Lie Of The Mind (Obie Award), November (Tony Award Nomination) and Balm In Gilead (Joseph Jefferson and Obie Award Winner)

 

Kyle Soller has recently received acclaim for his role in The Faith Machine at the Royal Court opposite Hayley Atwell. His other theatre work includes The Government Inspector and The Glass Menagerie (Young Vic), The Talented Mr Ripley (Northampton Royal & Derngate), The Glass Menagerie (Shared Experience), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe Touring) and The Beautiful People (Finborough). He is also soon to appear on screen in the forthcoming film Anna Karenina directed by Joe Wright.

 

Anthony Page has directed both on Broadway and the West End stage as well as for film and television. His most recent theatre credits include the acclaimed version of Coward’s Design for Living (The Old Vic), Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Broadway), Rosmersholm with Helen McCrory (Almeida) and The Lady from Dubuque with Maggie Smith (Theatre Royal Haymarket). Other theatre work includes A Doll’s House, for which Page was awarded a Tony Award for Best Direction. Recent television work includes My Zinc Bed (Rainmark Films) with Uma Thurman and Jonathan Price. Page also directed the critically acclaimed 1990s period drama Middlemarch (BBC).

 

Long Day’s Journey Into Night is produced by Nica Burns Elliot Martin Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Max Weitzenhoffer.

 

Director      Anthony Page

Designer    Lez Brotherston

Lighting       Mark Henderson

Sound                   Gareth Owen

 

Further cast to be announced

 

For further information please contact:

 

Jo Allan at Jo Allan PR

jo@joallanpr.com / 020 7243 6176

 

 

PERFORMANCE DETAILS AND BOX OFFICE INFO

 

WEST END

 

Apollo Theatre, 31 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1 7EZ

 

Tuesday 2 April – Saturday 18 August 2012

Press night Tuesday 10 April 2012 at 7:00pm

Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm

 

Box Office 0844 412 4658

www.longdaysjourneylondon.com

 

UK TOUR

 

Richmond Theatre

22 February – 3 March 2012

www.ambassadortickets.com/richmond

 

Nottingham Theatre Royal

5 –10 March 2012

www.trch.co.uk

 

Milton Keynes Theatre

12 – 17 March 202

www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes

 

Theatre Royal Bath

19 – 24 March 2012

www.theatreroyal.org.uk

 

Glasgow Theatre Royal

26 – 31 March 2012

www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow


Regent’s Park

Open Air Theatre

 

 
 

 


REGENT’S PARK

OPEN AIR THEATRE

2012 SEASON

 

·         2012 season is announced: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ragtime

 

·         £20.12 Olympic ticket prices introduced for all performances from 25 July – 12 August*

 

 

Executive Director, William Village, says: “What better way to acknowledge another record-breaking year than by the transfer of Crazy For You to the Novello Theatre. 2012 will be a remarkable year for us all in London and with Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre now a firm fixture in the cultural landscape, we look forward to welcoming even more people to what will be two major productions in the theatrical calendar.”

 

With over 140,000 visitors each season, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is now an essential part of summer in the city and, in 2012, with the eyes of the world on London, a destination for visitors from around the world.  Celebrating this unique year, the theatre will present a repertory season of two major productions which will share the same creative team, led by Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader.

 

Featuring their celebrated fusion of original music, movement and unique setting, Sheader, and co-director Liam Steel, will present their vision of Shakespeare’s most magical of plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Sheader and Steel’s previous collaborations at Regent’s Park include Lord of the Flies, The Crucible and Into the Woods.

 

Playing in repertory from 18 May – 8 September 2012, Sheader and Steel will also direct Ragtime, a contemporary musical based on the novel by E.L Doctorow. This powerful musical, set at the turn of the 20th century, unites three families separated by race and destiny in a story of hope and transformation. Ragtime has a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.  The 1996 Broadway production won four Tony Awards including Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

 

The production follows the multi Olivier Award winning productions of Hello, Dolly! and Into The Woods, and a West End transfer for this year’s record-breaking production of Crazy for You.

 

 

Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader, says: “What has proved exciting at Regent’s Park over the past few years are productions that embrace scale, both physically and in their narrative.  The titles for 2012, each with their own particular ambition, are united in their exploration of space, light and the changing atmosphere of theatre in the open air.”

 

Designer Jon Bausor will work with Sheader and Steel following his acclaimed set designs for Lord of the Flies and The Crucible. Laura Hopkins will design the costumes for both productions. Laura’s previous credits include Shoes (Sadlers Wells) A Delicate Balance (Almeida) and Black Watch (National Theatre Scotland).

 

*Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre will offer a special Olympic pricing structure for all performances from 25 July – 12 August 2012. All tickets will be available for £20.12 when booked before the end of April 2012.

 

Priority Booking for Members opens 10am, 6 December 2011

 

Public Bookings open at 10am on 6th January 2012

 

 

 

 

Ragtime

Directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel

Set Designed by Jon Bausor

Costumes Designed by Laura Hopkins

18 May – 8 September 2012

First preview: 18 May

Press night: 28 May

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel

Set Designed by Jon Bausor

Costumes Designed by Laura Hopkins

2 June – 5 September 2012

First preview: 2 June

Press night: 11 June

 

No matinees on 23 May, 2 June, 6 June, 20 June or 27 June

No performances on 30 May – 1 June inclusive or 27 July

There will be an additional matinee of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on 21 June and 26 July, and an additional matinee of Ragtime on 28 June.

 

Ticket prices

£22.50 - £42.50 for both productions

£5 off regular prices during previews if booked before the end of April. From 1 May, £2 off regular prices for previews

 

For all performances from 25 July – 12 August all tickets will be £20.12 when booked before the end of April 2012.

 

Box Office: 0844 826 4242

Online Bookings: www.openairtheatre.com

 

A full performance schedule will be available from mid October at www.openairtheatre.com

 


 

Edward Snape for Fiery Angel presents

In association with Stage Entertainment UK

and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse

 

THE LADYKILLERS

A new stage adaptation by Graham Linehan

 

·       Iconic 1955 Ealing Comedy is adapted for the stage

 

·       Father Ted and IT Crowd writer Graham Linehan writes his first West End comedy

 

·       Directed by Sean Foley, with design by Michael Taylor

 

·       All star cast to include: Peter Capaldi, James Fleet, Ben Miller, Clive Rowe, Stephen Wight and Marcia Warren as Mrs Wilberforce

 

The 1955 classic Ealing comedy is this autumn brought back to life on the stage in a production that will play at the Liverpool Playhouse from November 3rd – 19th, prior to opening at the Gielgud Theatre on November 26th with a press night on December 7th.

 

The Ladykillers tells the story of the eccentric little old lady Mrs Wilberforce who lives alone with her parrots in a strange lopsided house in King’s Cross. Her life is turned upside down by the arrival of Professor Marcus and his four friends, who between them make up the most unlikely group of criminals. Planning the heist of a security van, they decide to use Mrs Wilberforce as cover and involve her unwittingly in the plot. Things do not go well and the Professor’s plan starts to unravel in spectacular and hilarious fashion.

 

This stage production of The Ladykillers has been adapted by Graham Linehan who is best known for his work on the TV comedy series Father Ted and The IT Crowd. In partnership with Arthur Mathews, Linehan has also written for Harry Enfield, Smith and Jones, Alexei Sayle, The Fast Show and Steve Coogan. Linehan’s solo writing credits include work with Chris Morris on Brass Eye, Blue Jam and Jam and co-writing the first series of Black Books with Dylan Moran.

 

Director Sean Foley is a multi award winning stage director whose work in the West End includes Do You Come Here Often, Play What I Wrote, Ducktastic, Pinter’s People and Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress. Foley has also adapted and will direct The Painkiller which will star Kenneth Brannagh and Rob Brydon at the Lyric Belfast later this year.

 

The cast for The Ladykillers includes the BAFTA winning Peter Capaldi who is best known for his role as Malcolm Tucker in the television series The Thick Of It. He has appeared in over forty television series and films including most recently the ITV series The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.

 

Playing the role of Major Courtney will be James Fleet who is most famous for his role as Tom in Four Weddings And A Funeral and Hugo Horton in The Vicar of Dibley. He has also appeared in numerous stage productions including most recently Richard Bean’s The Heretic at the Royal Court.

 

The part of Louis will be played by Ben Miller, who is best known as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, which has had more than ten television series since they formed in the late 1990s. Miller has also appeared in a variety of other TV series and films including Primeval (ITV), and The Parole Officer (with Steve Coogan) and Johnny English (with Rowan Atkinson).

 

Clive Rowe will play One Round. A hugely accomplished stage actor Rowe is also well known for his role as Duke in the BBC Children’s drama The Story of Tracy Beaker. His stage roles include Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, and Feste in Twelfth Night at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park. Clive has also become renowned for his pantomime dames as part of Hackney Empire’s celebrated Christmas pantos.

 

The part of Harry will be played by Stephen Wight. Stephen won the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer in the Evening Standard Awards for his performances in Don Juan In Soho at the Donmar Warehouse, he also appeared in Dealer’s Choice both at the Menier Chocolate Factory and in the West End and made his National Theatre debut in 2004 in Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads.

 

Finally the role of Mrs Wilberforce will be played by Marcia Warren who has won two Olivier Awards for roles in Stepping Out and Humble Boy. She has multiple stage and screen credits including most recently the TV drama Hattie.

Listings:

 

The Ladykillers

Adapted for the stage by Graham Linehan

Directed by Sean Foley

Set and Costume design by Michael Taylor

Lighting design by James Farncombe

Sound design by Ben and Max Ringham

Special effects created by Scott Penrose

 

Liverpool Playhouse

Williamson Square

Liverpool

L1 1EL

November 3rd – November 19th

Evenings at 7.30pm

Matinees at 1.30pm on 10th & 17th Nov and at 2pm on 5th, 12th & 19th Nov

From £12

0151 709 4776

www.everymanplayhouse.com

 

 

Gielgud Theatre

35 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, Greater London W1D 6AR

Previews from November 26th

Press night December 7th at 7pm

Booking until February 18th

Times: Mon – Sat @ 7.45pm, Wed and Sat @ 3pm

Prices: £12.50 - £55.00 (additional premium seats @ £85.00)

Box Office: 0844 482 5130

 

www.theladykillers.co.uk

Follow The Ladykillers on twitter at: @ladykillersUK

 

The Ladykillers is a 1955 British black comedy film made by Ealing Studios. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick, it starred Alec Guinnes, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, Jack Warner and Katie Johnson.

 

American William Rose wrote the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA for Best British Screenplay. He claimed to have dreamt the entire film and merely had to remember the details when he awoke.

 

In 2004 The Coen Brothers made a new version of the film starring Tom Hanks.

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse together make up a single engine for creative excellence, artistic adventure and audience involvement. In recent years the theatres have been on a remarkable journey, described as “a theatrical renaissance on Merseyside” (Observer).

 



 

THE OLD VIC

The Cut

London SE1 8NB

Box Office: 0870 060 6628

www.oldvictheatre.com

 

 

 


SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE

New Globe Walk

London SE1

Box Office: 020 7401 9919

· Shakespeare's Globe Trust is a registered charity No.266916.

 


NATIONAL THEATRE

BOX OFFICE:  (020) 7452 3000  

Box Office Fax:  (020) 7452 3030

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

 

NATIONAL THEATRE:  FEBRUARY – JUNE 2012

 

Polly Findlay directs ANTIGONE, with Jodie Whittaker in the title role, for the Travelex £12 Tickets season in the Olivier

 

DETROIT by Lisa D’Amour opens in the Cottesloe, directed by Austin Pendleton

 

Enda Walsh’s MISTERMAN receives its London premiere at the Lyttelton, with Cillian Murphy recreating his acclaimed solo performance

 

Inua EllamsBLACK T-SHIRT COLLECTION visits the Cottesloe

 

COLLABORATORS transfers to the Olivier

 

TRAVELLING LIGHT visits Salford, Leeds, Aylesbury and Newcastle

 

The third season of NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE continues with Travelling Light, The Comedy of Errors and She Stoops to Conquer

 

Platforms, Exhibitions and Learning

 

 

MISTERMAN                                           Lyttelton Theatre

Previews from 14 April, press night 18 April, in repertoire until 28 May

 

The Landmark Productions/Galway Arts Festival production of MISTERMAN, written and directed by Enda Walsh, will open on 18 April for a limited run in the Lyttelton Theatre. Cillian Murphy returns to the London stage to play the population of an entire town in a tour-de-force solo performance of epic proportions, greeted with huge press and audience acclaim in New York and Ireland. 

 

Inishfree might seem like a quaint Irish town, but fierce evangelist Thomas Magill knows better. He knows jovial Dwain Flynn is a miserable drunk, that Timmy O’Leary enslaves his lovely mother and that sweet Mrs Cleary is a blasphemous flirt. It is down to Thomas, with God on his shoulder, to save this sinful place. But the townsfolk are not listening, an angel is misbehaving and a barking dog will not be silenced. Just how far will Thomas go in his quest for salvation?

Cillian Murphy is reunited with writer/director Enda Walsh for the first time following the success of Disco Pigs, which toured Ireland, the UK, Canada and Australia, and was later filmed. His screen work includes Red Lights, Inception, Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Breakfast on Pluto, Red Eye, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Girl with a Pearl Earring and Cold Mountain. His stage credits include The Country Boy and Juno and the Paycock (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin); The Playboy of the Western World (Druid tour); Peter Stein’s production of The Seagull (Edinburgh Festival); Love Song (West End);  and The Shape of Things (Gate Theatre, Dublin).

 

Enda Walsh’s plays include The New Electric Ballroom, The Walworth Farce, Chatroom (for NT Connections, also adapted for the screen), Disco Pigs, Bedbound and The Small Things; his musical adaptation of the film Once transfers from off-Broadway to Broadway in February. His screen work includes Disco Pigs and the multi award-winning Hunger, co-written and directed by Steve McQueen. 

 

MISTERMAN is designed by Jamie Vartan, with lighting by Adam Silverman, music by Donnacha Dennehy and sound by Gregory Clarke.

 

 

DETROIT                                                 Cottesloe Theatre

Previews from 8 May, press night 15 May, continuing in repertoire

 

DETROIT by Lisa D’Amour receives its UK premiere in a new production by Austin Pendleton, who directed the acclaimed premiere of this brutal, hilarious play at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 2011. Set design is by Kevin Depinet, costumes by Susan Kulkarni, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by John Leonard and choreography by Arthur Pita. The cast includes Clare Dunne.

 

In a suburb of a mid-sized American city, Ben and Mary welcome their new neighbours, Sharon and Kenny, who have moved in to the long-empty house next door. Fuelled by backyard barbecues and booze, their sudden friendship rapidly veers out of control, as inhibitions are obliterated and the fragility of Ben and Mary’s off-the-shelf lifestyle is laid bare.

Lisa D'Amour is an award-winning playwright and interdisciplinary artist, often  collaborating with artists of different disciplines on work presented in non-traditional sites.  Her plays include Anna Bella Eema, Nita and Zita (2003 Obie Award) and The Cataract.

Austin Pendleton is an actor, director and playwright; he has been a Steppenwolf ensemble member since 1987.  His previous directing credits at Steppenwolf include Love Song, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Harvey, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Three Sisters, Loose Ends and Say Goodnight, Gracie.

 

 

ANTIGONE                                              Travelex £12 Tickets, Olivier Theatre

Previews from 23 May, press night 30 May, continuing in repertoire

 

Polly Findlay directs ANTIGONE by Sophocles, in a version by Don Taylor, opening in the Olivier on 30 May as part of the Travelex £12 Tickets season. Jodie Whittaker makes her National Theatre debut in the title role. It will be designed by Soutra Gilmour, with lighting by// Mark Henderson and movement by Aline David.

 

Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone’s rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive.

 

The people daren’t object but the prophet Teiresias warns that this tyranny will anger the gods: the rotting corpse is polluting the city. Creon hesitates and his fate is sealed.

 

Jodie Whittaker plays Antigone.  Her television credits include Cranford, The Night Watch, Marchlands, The Accused, Royal Wedding, Tess of the D’Urbevilles, This Life Plus Ten and Billy Two-Sheds;  her films include Good Vibrations, Ashes, One Day, Attack the Block, A Thousand Kisses Deep, Good, St Trinians and St Trinians 2 and Venus.  Theatre work includes Awake and Sing! and Enemies (Almeida), The Storm (Globe) and Bash (Trafalgar Studios).

 

Polly Findlay directed DC Moore’s The Swan and Prasanna Puwanarajah’s Nightwatchman for Double Feature in the NT’s Paintframe in 2011. She was the winner of the JMK Award for Young Directors, and the recipient of the 2006/07 Bulldog Prinsep Bursary at the NT Studio. Her directing credits also include Twisted Tales (Lyric Hammersmith), Honest (Royal & Derngate Northampton, Edinburgh Festival and Soho), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Arcola), The Door Never Closes (Almeida), Eigengrau (Bush), Short Fuses and Kick Off (Bristol Old Vic), Riz MC - MICroscope (Sadler’s Wells), Miles Away (for Nabokov at Latitude), Romeo and Juliet (BAC), Good (Sound Theatre) and As You Like It (Oxford Playhouse).

 

2012 marks the tenth anniversary of Travelex Tickets at the National. Almost half the tickets for Antigone and three other plays in the Olivier Theatre are £12 (the rest are £22 and £32).  Media partner:  The Independent.

 

 

 

BLACK T-SHIRT COLLECTION                     Cottesloe Theatre

Playing in repertoire 12 – 24 April, press night 13 April; running time 70 minutes.

 

Following his acclaimed performance of The 14th Tale in 2010, Inua Ellams returns to the Cottesloe Theatre with Black T-Shirt Collection, playing in repertoire from 12 – 24 April (press night: 13 April), presented by Fuel as part of a UK tour.  It is written and performed by Inua Ellams and directed by Thierry Lawson, with design by Michael Vale, lighting by Michael Nabarro and sound by Emma Laxton.

 

In Black T-Shirt Collection, Inua Ellams tells a new story about two foster brothers building a global t-shirt brand. On their journey from a market in Nigeria to a sweatshop in China, Matthew and Muhammed discover the consequences of success.

 

Inua Ellams was born in Nigeria in 1984, and moved to the UK as a teenager. He merges visual art, poetry and theatre, telling stories with iconic imagery, humour and beauty.

 

The production will tour to Unity Theatre, Liverpool; Rose Theatre, Edgehill University, Ormskirk; Contact, Manchester; Bristol Old Vic; Hawth Studio, Crawley; Parabola Arts Centre; Warwick Arts Centre; The Maltings Theatre, Berwick-upon-Tweed; and Merlin Theatre, Frome.

 

Black T-shirt Collection was commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre and developed with the support of the Arvon Foundation and the National Theatre, funded by Arts Council England.

 

 

 

BEYOND THE SOUTH BANK

 

TRAVELLING LIGHT on tour

Nicholas Wright’s new play TRAVELLING LIGHT, with the NT cast led by Antony Sher, will tour to:  The Lowry, Salford (13 – 17 March); Grand Theatre, Leeds (20 – 24 March); Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury (27 – 31 March); and Theatre Royal, Newcastle (3 – 7 April).  Its run at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre continues until 2 June (see also below under National Theatre Live).

 

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE

The third season of live cinema broadcasts from the National’s stages, National Theatre Live, is now reaching over 130 UK cinemas and 600 more abroad. Nicholas Hytner’s production of TRAVELLING LIGHT will be broadcast from the Lyttelton Theatre on 9 February (varying dates internationally).

 

Future screenings will include THE COMEDY OF ERRORS on 1 March and SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER on 29 March, and encore screenings of FRANKENSTEIN later this spring.

National Theatre Live is sponsored by Aviva. For further information and booking details for all cinemas, please visit www.ntlive.com

 

PRODUCTION AND CASTING UPDATES

 

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

Nicholas Hytner’s five star award-winning production of One Man, Two Guvnors will transfer to the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 2 March – 1 September, after two sell-out record-breaking runs at the National and Adelphi Theatres.  Joining the previously announced Owain Arthur as Francis Henshall are Martin Barrass as Alfie, David Benson as Gareth, Nigel Betts as Harry, Derek Elroy as Lloyd, Gerard Horan as Charlie, Daniel Ings as Alan, Ben Mansfield as Stanley, Jodie Prenger as Dolly, Hannah Spearritt as Pauline and Gemma Whelan as Rachel; with Robin Berry, Gillian Budd, Andrew Dennis, Laura Matthews, Richard Shanks and Matthew Woodyatt.

 

MOON ON A RAINBOW SHAWL

The full cast for MOON ON A RAINBOW SHAWL by Errol John, opening in the Cottesloe on 14 March directed by Michael Buffong, is: Jude Akuwudike, Jade Anouka, Ray Emmet Brown, Burt Caesar, Trevor Michael Georges, Jenny Jules, Martina Laird, Joshua McCord, Danny Sapani, Tahirah Sharif, and Lloyd Thomas.

 

COLLABORATORS

Nicholas Hytner’s acclaimed production of John Hodge’s new play COLLABORATORS transfers to the Olivier Theatre from 30 April, opening the tenth Travelex £12 Tickets Season. The current sell-out run of Collaborators in the Cottesloe continues until 31 March.  NT Associates Alex Jennings and Simon Russell Beale will again lead the company as Mikhail Bulgakov and Joseph Stalin;  Lloyd Hutchinson joins the company to play Vladimir, alongside original cast members Sarah Annis, Marcus Cunningham, Jacqueline Defferary, Patrick Godfrey, Michael Jenn, Jess Murphy, William Postlethwaite, Pierce Reid, Nick Sampson, Maggie Service and Perri Snowdon. The production is designed by Bob Crowley, with lighting by Jon Clark, music by George Fenton, sound by Paul Arditti, fight direction by Terry King and movement by Jack Murphy; with thanks to Simon Sebag Montefiore.

 

 

Valentine’s Day Film

It Happened One Night (1934, dir: Frank Kapra, 105 mins)

Tue 14 Feb, 6.30pm, FREE

Projected on to the Flytower, best viewed from the Baylis Terrace, level 2.

Wrap up warm with a loved one and enjoy a free outdoor screening of Frank Kapra’s screwball romance which paired Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert for the first time. Despite their reservations about the script, it went on to win five Academy Awards. Hollywood legend claims that as a result of the scene in which Gable undresses controversially to reveal his bare chest, US sales of men’s undershirts declined noticeably.

Limited deckchair seating and plenty of room to sit on the floor; bring warm blankets and something comfy to sit on. And from the bar:  ‘The Classy Claudette’: two glasses of pink prosecco and a box of Turkish Delight for £10; or ‘The Classic Clark’: two laced hot chocolates and a box of dark chocolates for £10.

 

 

 

PLATFORMS

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/platforms

6pm (45 mins), £4/£3 unless stated;  BS = Platform followed by booksigning

 

Alain de Botton                                               Mon 13 Feb, Lyttelton BS

What if religions are neither all true nor all nonsense? In Religion for Atheists, the philosopher (a nonbeliever) suggests that rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should steal from them – because they’re packed with good ideas on how we arrange our societies.

 

Nicholas Hytner and Nicholas Wright on Travelling Light Fri 17 Feb, Lyttelton

The playwright and director discuss this new production.

 

Gregory Doran                                                 Mon 20 Feb, Cottesloe BS

Shakespeare’s Lost Play is the story of RSC associate director Gregory Doran’s quest to discover and stage a missing masterpiece, Cardenio; unseen since its first performance in 1613, it is believed by many to be the work of England’s greatest dramatist.

 

Sue Johnston                                                  Fri 2 Mar, Lyttelton BS

The actress best-known for her roles in Brookside, The Royle Family and Waking the Dead, reflects on the most precious and fraught relationship of any woman’s life in

her poignant and funny memoir, Things I Couldn’t Tell My Mother.

 

In Conversation with Steve Pemberton & Sophie Thompson                                                                                  Mon 5 Mar, Olivier  3pm (1hr), £5/£4

Currently playing Mr and Mrs Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, the actors talk to Al Senter about their roles and careers and answer questions from the audience.

 


DV8: Can We Talk About This?                               Mon 19 Mar, 6pm (1hr), Lyttelton

Freedom of speech, multiculturalism and Islam; a discussion on DV8’s new production.

 

Serving Up a Laugh                     Sat 24 Mar, 10.30am (90mins), £6/£5, Lyttelton

Harlequin, Dromio, Figaro, Jeeves, Baldrick, and now One Man, Two Guvnors’ Francis and Alfie: comic servants spring up in a variety of guises and serve a variety of roles, ultimately to expose the pomposity of their master and society’s mores.

Discussion, readings and clips celebrate this familiar comic figure.

 

Julian Clary                                                      Mon 26 Mar, Cottesloe BS

Briefs Encountered is Julian Clary’s latest novel, a dark and wickedly witty story of love, obsession and Noël Coward, evoking both 1920s England and our own more

liberated times...

 

Michael Buffong on Moon on a Rainbow Shawl Tue 27 Mar, Cottesloe

The director discusses his production of Errol John’s play.

 

Michael Grandage                                          Fri 13 April, Olivier BS

Michael Grandage talks to David Benedict about A Decade at the Donmar, a book of photographs capturing the most memorable productions of his ten years as the Donmar’s Artistic Director.

 

Enda Walsh on Misterman                                      Thu 19 April, Lyttelton

Enda Walsh discusses his play, fresh from its New York run.

 

Travelling Light: The Film Pioneers            Wed 25 April, Lyttelton

Film historian Christopher Frayling looks at real-life early Hollywood film-makers, including the Eastern European influx, as depicted in the new play, Travelling Light.

 

The Astaires: Fred and Adele with Ava Astaire & Matthew Bourne

Fri 4 May, Lyttelton BS

The Astaire siblings transformed musical theatre on both sides of the Atlantic at the peak of the Jazz Age. Theatre historian Kathleen Riley celebrates their partnership and its legacy with Fred’s daughter Ava Astaire McKenzie and choreographer

Matthew Bourne.

 

Lisa D’Amour and Austin Pendleton on Detroit          Wed 16 May, Cottesloe

The playwright and director talk about the production.

 

Esther Freud                                                    Mon 21 May, Cottesloe BS

Esther Freud’s novel, Lucky Break, follows a group of young actors from drama school into the ruthless world of auditions, agents, touring and red-carpet premieres.

 

Polly Findlay on Antigone                                       Fri 1 June, Olivier

The director Polly Findlay discusses her production of Sophocles’ play.

 

Orlando Figes                                                  Thu 7 June, Olivier BS

In Just Send Me Word, the historian recounts the true love story of two young Muscovites, whose smuggled letters to one another form a detailed and agonizing account of life in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

 

Janet Suzman                                                  Fri 8 June, Cottesloe BS

In her new book, Women in Theatre, the actress looks at some of her iconic roles – Phaedra, Cleopatra, Hedda – and questions their impact on today’s audience.

FREE EXHIBITIONS

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/exhibitions

Stage by Stage, a permanent exhibition on the National’s history is in the Olivier Circle, plus a changing programme throughout the year, FREE to attend.

 

London Printmakers

12 March – 21 April

Comprising twelve of the country’s leading professional printmakers, the London Printmakers frequently exhibit together to promote their work and their passion for the craft of printmaking. They are the recipients of many national and international awards and their work is featured in numerous collections including the Ashmolean and the V&A.

 

Festival!

16 April – 4 June

From the riotous colour and noise of Rio to the more cerebral rhythms of Hay, festivals offer an escape route from the everyday to the urgent and boisterous celebration of harvests, music, books, tomatoes, and bog snorkelling. As we approach a summer of unprecedented festivity, images from the Corbis archive take

us into the pop-up worlds of the vibrant, the sacred and the very, very odd.

In association with Corbis, the National Theatre’s Photographic Images Partner.

 

New Work by Hilary Rosen

30 April – 9 June

Vibrant oil paintings depict the city at night illuminated by cars and the light spill from bars and clubs. The flora and fauna around Melbourne are captured in softer watercolour. Figures, alone and together, interrelate in starker monotone prints and drawings.

 

 

 

 

Discover more at the National Theatre

A programme of events and courses for all ages run as part of the National Theatre’s Learning Programme. You can also explore the theatre, meet artists and staff who work there, and find out about the National’s productions online.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/learning

 

CONNECTIONS

Regional festivals 19 March – 13 May

National Theatre festival 20 – 25 June

For this year’s Connections festival, the National Theatre has commissioned ten new plays with an international flavour. These new plays will be peformed at 20 theatres across the UK, by 180 school and youth theatre companies – the rising theatrical stars of each region.  Connections culminates at the National Theatre in June, with highlights from the regional festival being performed on the NT’s stages.

Connections is supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Accenture.

 

 

For Secondary Schools & Colleges

Masterclasses

On-stage events that bridge the gap between theory and practice. 

Puppetry, 27 March, 10.30am-12.30pm

Devised Theatre, 27 March, 2-4.30pm

Exploring Black British Plays, 30 April, 2-4.30pm

 

NT Revealed

On-stage activities exploring design and technical skills and careers.

Sound Design: 21 March, 10.30am-12.30pm

Costume, hair & make-up: 21 March, 2-4.30pm

Offstage Choices: meet staff working backstage and discover how they help create theatre (KS3 only), 23 and 24 April.

 

Can We Talk About This? post-show discussions

Lloyd Newson and members of the DV8 company explore the politics and process of their new production. Over 16 & undergraduates only. 22 & 26 March, 9.45-10.30pm.

 

Student workshops

Active sessions, giving students an insight into acting, directing, design and producing at the NT.  Dates on request.

Pre-show Q&A

Meet a member of the creative team and find out how director, designer and actors have realised the play. 30 minutes.

 

More events and information at nationaltheatre.org.uk/secondary

 

For Teachers

CPD

The NT’s programme of professional development courses for teachers explores different aspects of teaching drama, making theatre in school, and personal impact in the classroom.  nationaltheatre.org.uk/teachers

Theatreworks for Teachers: twilight sessions on 6 and 20 March.

Being a critic Techniques to help students critically review a performance, 31 March.

Directing Explore the work of NT directors and develop your skills in directing,

2-3 April

Voice and the young actor Help students understand and use their voices better, 16 June.

 

Digital Classroom

Learn more about the art of making theatre online.  Free, beautifully designed, easy-to-use resources to enhance any learning experience. nationaltheatre.org.uk/digital classroom

 

Theatreworks

Theatreworks inspires confident and creative communications, drawing on the techniques used by actors and directors in the rehearsal room.

Open Courses

Personal Impact 14 March, 16 May, 13 June

Influence and Rapport 15 March, 14 June

Advanced Personal Impact 24 April

020 7452 3770/3693 nationaltheatre.org.uk/theatreworks

 

 


Public Information:

Public phone/online booking for new productions in the February – June season opens on15 February. 

Book tickets online at www.nationaltheatre.org.uk  

Box Office:  020 7452 3000, open 9.30am – 8pm  Fax:  020 7452 3030

Information:  020 7452 3400

 

 

THE NATIONAL’S SPONSORS                   

Travelex £12 Tickets                           

The National Theatre would appreciate an acknowledgement in the body of the text and/or as a separate footnote following editorial copy, for example:

 

ANTIGONE, a Travelex £12 Ticket show’

 

Media partner of Travelex £12 Tickets: The Independent

 

The National Theatre is working in partnership with American Express

 

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE is sponsored by Aviva

 

The National Theatre is a J.P.Morgan Signature Series partner

 

National Theatre Connections is supported by Accenture and Bank of America

Merrill Lynch

 

Innovation at the National Theatre is sponsored by Accenture

 

The National Theatre’s Cottesloe Partner is Neptune Investment Management

 

Philips and the National Theatre are working in partnership to reduce energy consumption.

 

Education at the National Theatre is supported by Goldman Sachs

 

The National Theatre’s airline partner is American Airlines

 

The National Theatre’s photographic images partner is Corbis

 

The National Theatre would like to acknowledge the support of US partner

Bob Boyett.

 

The National Theatre is supported by Arts Council England.

 

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

BOX OFFICE:  (020) 7452 3000  

Box Office Fax:  (020) 7452 3030

 


THE NEW SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

AT

THE OPEN AIR THEATRE, REGENT'S PARK

Box Office: 0844 826 4242

Web Site: www.open-air-theatre.org.uk

 

(seasonal)

·        Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, at 1240 seats, is one of London’s largest playhouses and welcomes over 130,000 people to its four annual productions of three plays and one musical. Although famed for its productions of Shakespeare’s work the Company has committed to expanding the repertoire to include plays by other writers. The theatre’s outdoor setting, and the scale and ambition of its four annual productions, make it unique in the London, and British, theatre landscape.

 

 

2011 SUMMER SEASON

 

 

· ·           Record sales of £1.2m in five weeks for Into the Woods

 

· ·           2011 season is announced: Lord of the Flies, The Beggar’s Opera, Pericles and Crazy for You

 

The 2010 season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre became the most successful in the theatre’s history with more than 142,000 visitors across its sixteen-week run. Capitalising on the inimitable relationship between production and setting, Into the Woods became the highest-grossing single production at the theatre taking £1.2m in five weeks, whilst The Comedy of Errors became the most successful Shakespeare play. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, attracted a whole new audience to the theatre: 72% of those who attended the play had never been to the venue before. Steve Marmion’s production of Macbeth, re-imagined for ages six and over, achieved the highest footfall for a family show.

 

Executive Director, William Village, says: “With ambitious programming and another record-breaking year, we are delighted to be introducing a new audience to the theatre.  The entire team at the Open Air Theatre is proud of what we’ve achieved over the last three years, securing a significant place in the capital’s theatre landscape.”

 

Artistic Director Timothy Sheader and the team at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre are delighted to announce the programme for 2011. 

 

Opening the season on 19 May, and created by the team that produced The Crucible, Timothy Sheader directs William Golding’s gripping drama, Lord Of The Flies, adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams.  With a group of schoolboys stranded on a desert island, what starts as an adventure becomes a struggle for survival as superstition and immorality sees the community slide into a darkly sinister world. The production will rediscover this classic story in the unconfined and unparalleled atmosphere of theatre in the open air. 

 

Lucy Bailey injects her unique visual dynamism into John Gay’s original text of The Beggar’s Opera from 23 June. Highwayman Macheath’s love of wine, women and song has hilarious consequences, but as the play unfolds his tangled web of lies and deceit unravels as his lovers get revenge. Set beneath the gallows of rural Tyburn, at the far end of Oxford Street, this comically corrupt satire, designed by William Dudley, is packed full of lewd songs and low ballads recreated from the original pastoral score and played on authentic instruments by ‘The City Waits’, led by Roddy and Lucie Skeaping.

Continuing the successful series of Shakespeare plays for younger audiences, and making its first appearance at the Open Air Theatre since 1939, Pericles will be re-imagined for everyone aged six and over from 2 July.  The young prince, Pericles, takes to the high seas on a quest to discover the world. An odyssey adventure of shipwrecks, tournaments and of love lost, and found, this is a journey into manhood and a celebration of family.

 

The final production of the 2011 season, playing from 28 July to 10 September, is George and Ira Gershwin’s hit musical comedy, Crazy for You.  Packed full of Gershwin classics including “I Got Rhythm”, “Someone To Watch Over Me”, “Embraceable You” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, the original 1992 production won both the Tony® and Olivier Award for Best New Musical.  The creative team from the multi-award winning production of Hello, Dolly! reunite as Timothy Sheader directs, with choreography by Stephen Mear and designs by Peter McKintosh. Gareth Valentine returns as the musical director after joining the Open Air Theatre last season for Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

 

Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader, says: “We’re thrilled that 2010’s success confirms that our artistic ambition is in tune with our audience. Working with first class artists and knowing that our audience is up for the ride, I am confident that we can continue to set ourselves exciting challenges for 2011 and beyond.” 

 

Priority Booking for Members opens 23 November 2010

 

Public Bookings open on 11 January 2011

 

 

LISTINGS:

 

Lord of the Flies

19 May – 18 June

Press night: Wednesday 25 May

by William Golding adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams

Directed by Timothy Sheader

Designed by Jon Bausor

Monday – Saturday at 7.45pm (gates open 6.15pm)

Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.15pm (gates open 1.15pm)

No matinees on 19, 21 and 26 May

 

The Beggar’s Opera

23 June -23 July

Press night: Tuesday 28 June

by John Gay

Directed by Lucy Bailey

Designed by William Dudley

Original music arranged by Roddy Skeaping

Monday – Saturday at 7.45pm (gates open 6.15pm)

Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.15pm (gates open 1.15pm)

No matinees on 23, 25,and 30 June; Extra matinee on 28 June

 

 

Pericles re-imagined for everyone aged six and over

2 – 23 July

Press are welcome from 8 July onwards

by William Shakespeare

Monday – Wednesday, Friday at 1.30pm (gates open 12.30pm)

Saturday at 9.45am (gates open 9.15am)

Sunday at 10.00am (gates open at 9.30am) and 1.30pm (gates open at 12.30pm)

No 1.30pm on 3 July

 

Crazy for You

28 July – 10 Sept

Prses night: Monday 8 August

Music and Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. Book by Ken Ludwig

Directed by Timothy Sheader

Choreography by Stephen Mear

Designed by Peter McKintosh

Musical Director Gareth Valentine

Monday – Saturday at 7.45pm (gates open 6.15pm)

Thursday and Saturday matinees at 2.15pm (gates open 1.15pm)

No matinee on 28 July

 

 

Box Office: 0844 826 4242

Online Bookings: www.openairtheatre.com

 

Please note: Performance times for Lord of the Flies, The Beggar’s Opera and Crazy for You:  matinees at 2.15pm (gates open 1.15pm); evenings at 7.45pm (gates open at 6.15pm). 

 

For a full performance schedule visit: www.openairtheatre.com



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more details or individual advice/help - email:  GPowner@aol.com