Published: 29 July 2011
Michael Crawford is to extend his stay playing the eponymous Wizard Of Oz at the London Palladium to 5 February 2012.The star, who has been playing the role since the… Read More
How should a highly acclaimed writer solve the issue of writer’s block? That’s not the question I asked myself this morning, staring at a blank computer screen, but the problem… Read More
Published: 28 July 2011
Frank, Sammy and Dean will offer the West End another dose of seasonal crooning this festive season when The Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas plays at the Wyndham’s theatre… Read More
Primeval star and former S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt is to make her stage debut in a revival of The Belle’s Stratagem at Southwark Playhouse this autumn.The Georgian stage… Read More
Lee Blessing’s tale of arms negotiators, A Walk In The Woods, is to return to the London stage at the Tricycle theatre this autumn. The production, which was originally performed… Read More
David Suchet is to return to the London stage next year in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which is scheduled for the Apollo theatre from 2 April to… Read More
Published: 27 July 2011
Edward Hall’s all-male Propeller company will tour the Shakespearean pairing of Henry V and The Winter’s Tale in 2012, bringing them to the Hampstead theatre from 4 to 21 July.The… Read More
Fate brought him to the British stage as Henry VI and now Richard III will take him back to America. Chuk Iwuji talks to Caroline Bishop about the international course… Read More
Soho Cinders, the latest musical from writing duo Stiles and Drewe, is to be given a one-off world premiere concert at the Novello theatre on 9 October. The concert performance,… Read More
Published: 26 July 2011
Proving that preparation for 2012 is a marathon rather than a sprint, more than half of the West End’s hit shows have recently extended their booking to be ready for… Read More
Further details have been released of Little Angel theatre’s 50th anniversary Christmas production, which will see the company’s founding family join forces with celebrated theatre company Kneehigh. A Very Old… Read More
Published: 25 July 2011
It can’t be often that a playwright can boast of having more than one show on in London at any one time, but Ken Ludwig has that pleasure this summer.… Read More
The critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Swallows And Amazons, which wowed crowds at the Bristol Old Vic in 2010, is to come to London’s Vaudeville theatre for a Christmas season.The… Read More
Lend Me A Tenor The Musical is to end its West End run at the Gielgud theatre on 6 August due to disappointing ticket sales. It had been booking to… Read More
Published: 22 July 2011
Karen Gillan, best known as Amy Pond in popular sci-fi drama Doctor Who, will make her professional stage debut in Inadmissible Evidence at the Donmar Warehouse from 13 October. Gillan… Read More
I’ve seen some odd things happen at Official London Theatre towers over the years, but nothing to match the borderline psychotic goings-on in the workplace in Ed Harris’s Mongrel Island.… Read More
Hollywood star Thandie Newton is to swap the film set for the stage when she appears in Ariel Dorfman’s Death And The Maiden in the West End. The production, directed… Read More
Published: 21 July 2011
The Railway Children, which won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment earlier this year, is to extend its second stay in London to 8 January 2012. It had been… Read More
Being the wife of Tony Blair’s chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell, when Britain went to war with Iraq gave journalist Sarah Helm a unique viewpoint on an extraordinary situation. In this, her… Read More
Published: 20 July 2011
After a long period of development, Ghost The Musical finally made its West End debut last night at the Piccadilly theatre. “I’ve just released a solo album and I made… Read More
Former Coronation Street star Lee Boardman and award-winning actress Lisa Eichhorn are to join Marc Warren in the stage adaptation of Cool Hand Luke at the Aldwych theatre this autumn.Boardman,… Read More
If the Lyttelton theatre were to see a psychiatrist, it would probably be diagnosed as bi-polar. On one night it houses the fun-filled hilarity of One Man, Two Guvnors, the… Read More
On paper, a stage adaptation of a film about a ghost who can walk through doors shouldn’t work. But the show that opened last night at the Piccadilly theatre defies… Read More
Published: 19 July 2011
Frantic Assembly and English Pocket Opera Company are to take part in a brand new arts festival for children at the Unicorn theatre this summer.U Fest, which takes place from… Read More
Christopher Shinn and Lynn Nottage are among a stellar collective of writers assembled for Headlong theatre’s exploration of the legacy of 9/11, Decade, which plays from 1 September in St… Read More
Published: 18 July 2011
It is almost impossible to imagine living in 21st century Europe without free speech and unlimited artistic freedom. Belarus, however, is the exception and one underground theatre company is doing… Read More
Published: 15 July 2011
It’s odd to come away from a Palestinian production of a Kafka tale thinking about Harry Potter, especially as there is not a bespectacled child wizard in sight.But the device… Read More
Published: 14 July 2011
Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley are to return to the London stage later this year to star in royal yuletide drama The Lion In Winter at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.James… Read More
Published: 13 July 2011
Following a first day of booking that broke all opening day Kids Week records, the annual festival of theatrical family fun has extended its summer frivolity for an extra week… Read More
Caroline Bishop meets current Legally Blonde star Lee Mead on the eve of his 30th birthday and finds a man with a lot of ambition and a very mature head… Read More
The Theatrical Management Association has announced a new awards ceremony for the 2011 calendar. The Theatre Awards UK will recognise both performance and management excellence when they are presented on… Read More
Richmond theatre is offering a unique way for 12 to 16-year-olds to fill the summer holidays with its new week-long summer school. Held from 25 to 29 July, the summer… Read More
Ding ding! Like a cautious fighter, Billy Roche’s travelling roadshow-set drama steps out of the corner and eases round the square circle, quietly sizing up its audience.With a boxing ring… Read More
Nicholas Lyndhurst is to join Ralph Fiennes in Trevor Nunn’s production of The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 27 August. Lyndhurst, who plays Trinculo, is best known for… Read More
Published: 12 July 2011
Max Stafford-Clark’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, which is currently playing at Chichester’s Minerva theatre, is to transfer to London’s Trafalgar Studios 1 from 5 August to 15 October… Read More
Bad Physics theatre company is back at Southwark Playhouse with a summer treat for the family, an adaptation of Toad that gets the balance just right between frightening thrills and… Read More
James Corden, the star of Richard Bean’s comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, which is currently playing at the National Theatre, will lead the cast into the West End when the… Read More
Eager theatre fans of all ages can now hit the internet and get on their phones as tickets for Kids Week in the West End 2011, which runs from 12-26… Read More
Published: 11 July 2011
Current Royal Court hit The Village Bike has proved so successful that it will extend its run at the Sloane Square venue for a second time and will now run… Read More
After being asked to create magic effects for a 1991 production of The Invisible Man at Theatre Royal Stratford East, magician Paul Kieve found himself in a theatrical niche which… Read More
Jez Butterworth’s multi-award-winning tale of modern rural life, Jerusalem, is to return to the West End this autumn with its central casting of Mark Rylance and Mackenzie Crook intact.The show,… Read More
Caroline Quentin, Andy Nyman and Sharon Horgan are to star in the debut play by Canadian actor Saul Rubinek, Terrible Advice, at the Menier Chocolate Factory from 22 September to… Read More
David Wood’s latest adaptation for children takes one of the best loved children’s books of all time, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, and faithfully replicates it on stage at… Read More
Published: 8 July 2011
Stage and screen star Stanley Townsend, most recently seen in the hit BBC crime drama The Shadow Line, is to join Antony Sher and Tara Fitzgerald in the Tricycle revival… Read More
The supermodel Christie Brinkley has been forced to put her London stage debut on hold as her mother undergoes emergency surgery. She had been due to join the cast of… Read More
An actress currently playing a minor role in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead at the Theatre Royal Haymarket will see her stock rise considerably this summer when she plays Miranda… Read More
Ruby Wax is to bring her hit show Losing It into the West End this summer following a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show, which has already enjoyed… Read More
Published: 7 July 2011
Respect La Diva, a new show paying tribute to five decades of hits by female music icons, is to play at the West End’s Garrick theatre from 7 to 24… Read More
Madani Younis is to become the new Artistic Director of West London’s Bush theatre following the departure of Josie Rourke.Younis, who takes over the role on 1 January 2012, is… Read More
Stephen Sondheim’s Road Show has journeyed for over a decade, through rewrites, new titles and shifting directors, to receive its European premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The intimate fringe… Read More
Published: 6 July 2011
As he takes to the stage in the site-specific production of The Railway Children, Marcus Brigstocke talks to Caroline Bishop about reemploying the original string to his bow.“The plan,” says… Read More
The second annual Billy Youth Theatre West End Gala will take place at the Victoria Palace theatre on 17 July featuring performances from 13 school and youth theatre groups from… Read More
Published: 4 July 2011
Dancing On Ice champion Sam Attwater will prove that he doesn’t need to be on skates to strut his funky stuff when he joins the cast of Dreamboats And Petticoats… Read More
Natalie Abrahami talks exclusively to Official London Theatre about creating this year's annual child-friendly Shakespeare production for the Regent's Park Open Air theatre: I always like a challenge and so… Read More
Canadian stage star Alex Gaumond, who recently left the London production of Legally Blonde The Musical, is to return to the West End stage in hit Queen musical We Will… Read More
Anna Massey has died aged 73. The veteran stage and screen actress had been suffering from cancer and passed away on Sunday.Awarded a CBE for services to drama in 2005,… Read More
Penelope Skinner is the latest graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme to turn anthropologist, creating a witty insight into the lives of a newly married couple in the… Read More
Published: 1 July 2011
The 25th anniversary of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom Of The Opera is to be celebrated with a two-date staging at the Royal Albert Hall on 1 and 2… Read More
Sheila Hancock and Anna Chancellor are to go head to head in Nicholas Wright’s drama The Last Of The Duchess, which plays at Hampstead theatre from 20 October. The drama… Read More
Tom Riley will star alongside the previously announced Tracey Ullman in Stephen Poliakoff’s My City at the Almeida theatre this September.David Troughton, Sorcha Cusack, Sîan Brooke and Hannah Arterton, who… Read More
Olivier Award-winning actress Julie Walters will return to the National Theatre next summer to star in The Last Of The Haussmans, a new comedy by writer and actor Stephen Beresford.… Read More
Published: 30 June 2011
Belarus Free Theatre, the Minsk-based company which resists the censorship of its home country, is to return to London with a new production at the Almeida theatre in July.The underground… Read More
Reuniting with Kevin Spacey for the first time since the film American Beauty, director Sam Mendes has created a stylish, engaging, film noir production of Richard III. This final instalment… Read More
Sleep and I have not always been good friends. While never a full-blown insomniac, long days have passed where fitful bursts of sleep have had to sustain me and the… Read More
Published: 29 June 2011
Adaptations of stories by Michael Morpurgo, EB White and Hans Christian Andersen feature in the new season at Polka theatre this autumn/winter. However it is an original story by Levi… Read More
As he appears in Simon Gray’s Butley in London, Paul McGann tells Caroline Bishop that while film is his first love, nothing beats the buzz of acting live on stage. … Read More
John Gay’s 1728 comedy about a womanising highwayman is a bawdy tale indeed, resurrected with suitable gusto by Lucy Bailey for the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre. Prostitutes and pickpockets,… Read More
Published: 28 June 2011
Peter Duncan, the actor and former Blue Peter presenter, has joined the cast of forthcoming offbeat musical Betwixt! at Trafalgar Studios 2. Duncan is still best-known for his daredevil antics… Read More
Christopher Haydon has been appointed Artistic Director of Notting Hill’s Gate theatre. The director will take over the running of the fringe venue from January 2012.Associate Director of experimental company… Read More
Margaret Tyzack, who won the Best Actress Olivier Award in 2009, has died at the age of 79. The actress, who passed away on Saturday following a short illness, had… Read More
Published: 27 June 2011
Charlotte Marshall joined a group of theatre enthusiasts on a Theatreland Walking Tour and discovered the bizarre and interesting facts behind the beautiful facades of some of the most iconic… Read More
Boundary-pushing director Rupert Goold is to explore the legacy of 9/11 in a new theatrical production staged at St Katharine Docks this September, 10 years after the tragedy. Decade, produced… Read More
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are to return to the London stage this autumn to reprise their roles in the recent Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy. The pair… Read More
Published: 24 June 2011
As the night grew black last night, Shakespeare’s Globe grew blacker still with ghostly apparitions, black magic and devilish beasts taking over the stage for Matthew Dunster’s engrossingly gory Doctor… Read More
Home And Away’s Ray Meagher enjoyed playing mechanic Bob in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical so much that he is returning to the West End show this autumn,… Read More