THEATREWORLD
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FORTHCOMING PRODUCTIONS
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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
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
http://twitter.com/lionwitchshow
http://www.youtube.com/lionwitchshow
http://www.facebook.com/TheChroniclesofNarnia
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 -
Dates: Wednesday
22 February until Saturday 28 April 2012
Press night: Friday
24 February / Tuesday 28 February at
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 Walliams’
Childrens 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 Make
‘em 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
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
UK TOUR
Richmond Theatre
22 February – 3 March 2012
www.ambassadortickets.com/richmond
Nottingham
Theatre Royal
5 –10
March 2012
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
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
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).
· Shakespeare's Globe Trust is
a registered charity No.266916.
Box
Office Fax: (020) 7452 3030
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 Ellams’ BLACK 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
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
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.
Box Office Fax: (020) 7452 3030
THE OPEN AIR THEATRE, REGENT'S PARK
Web Site: www.open-air-theatre.org.uk
·
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