Published: 14 March 2011
The National Theatre’s After The Dance and West End musical Legally Blonde were the big winners at this year’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard, revealed in a glitzy ceremony at the… Read More
British writer Stephen Poliakoff will direct his first new play in 12 years at the Almeida theatre this autumn, where he will be followed by Neil LaBute, directing the UK… Read More
After carving out a television career playing mouthy ladettes, Sheridan Smith seamlessly made the transformation to Laurence Olivier Award winning actress and won the hearts of chihuahua loving fans everywhere… Read More
Published: 11 March 2011
The wait is almost over for the most prestigious theatre awards of the year. The Olivier Awards with MasterCard take place this Sunday at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.Relaunched for… Read More
Broadway musical Rock Of Ages is heading to London. The jukebox musical which mixes 80s rock hits with a classic love story, will open at the Shaftesbury theatre on 27… Read More
Free Run, a unique show blending free running, parkour, acrobatics and martial arts, is to headline the E4 Udderbelly at the Southbank Centre this summer.The show, which was created especially… Read More
This gentle comedy by Tim Firth has been 20 years in the making, the ideas for the first and second acts coming to him two decades apart. And it shows.Though… Read More
Published: 10 March 2011
The Bush theatre’s Josie Rourke has been appointed the new Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, succeeding Michael Grandage. Rourke, who has been Artistic Director at West London’s Bush theatre… Read More
Is there a West End stage large enough to hold Alison Steadman’s Madame Arcati? The Apollo tries hard but Steadman’s striding, shouting, growling, prowling medium almost makes it burst at… Read More
Published: 9 March 2011
Co-stars Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams may live very different lives, but that only serves a new play which has them coming to blows in the rehearsal room, finds Caroline… Read More
Published: 8 March 2011
Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon is to join Rupert Everett in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of Pygmalion when it transfers to London this summer.Former EastEnders star Tointon will… Read More
Schools seem to be having a theatrical moment this season and Vivienne Franzmann’s award-winning play Mogadishu will do nothing to diminish the idea of the playground as the most brutal… Read More
Published: 7 March 2011
The Bush theatre has launched a campaign to find new writing talent in West London, with a view to staging selected plays in its autumn/winter season. The initiative, entitled Be… Read More
As two high profile new productions of his work open in London, Caroline Bishop takes a look at the life and work of British playwright Terence Rattigan.Had he lived, playwright… Read More
If you have ever been drawn into listening to a stranger’s life story over a pint, then DC Moore’s Honest will ring true for you. Upstairs in The Queen’s Head,… Read More
Published: 4 March 2011
Anya Reiss, named Most Promising Playwright by both the Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her debut play last year, is to return to the stage of her… Read More
Published: 3 March 2011
Budding young performers aged 11 to 18 can have the chance to learn from professionals by joining a new West End Performing Arts Course during the Easter school holidays. Created… Read More
Nicola Stephenson and Patrick Robinson will join the cast of War Horse next week, transporting the pair best known for inhabiting the hallways of Holby General to Michael Morpurgo’s Second… Read More
The Barbican Theatre has become a haze of crystals, metallic gowns, hairspray, glitter and feather boas for the import of Tony Briggs’s soulful Australian hit The Sapphires.Based on the real… Read More
Published: 2 March 2011
Returning to the West End as Coward’s mad medium Madame Arcati, Alison Steadman tells Matthew Amer why she is so happy to be back in London.Alison Steadman is delighted to… Read More
A plethora of the London stage’s premiere performers are coming together for a one night only concert to raise funds for musical theatre development initiative Perfect Pitch.The Great British Musical:… Read More
More than nine months since the BBC’s talent show Over The Rainbow finished, winner Danielle Hope finally gives us her Dorothy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new staging of The Wizard… Read More
Published: 1 March 2011
Following two nominations at this year’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard, The Railway Children will be pulling into London once again this summer when it returns to the former Eurostar terminal… Read More
Published: 28 February 2011
A little piece of rock ‘n’ roll history inspired this new musical about a jam session between four great musicians. But really, it is just an excuse to play some… Read More
Comedienne Ruby Wax will get another chance to lose it on stage when her new show returns to the Menier Chocolate Factory – where it is currently running – for… Read More
Chatting over small sausages and mini meringues, the Olivier Award nominees tell Caroline Bishop about the shows that earned them a place in the 2011 nominations. She may have been… Read More
Published: 24 February 2011
A brand new set of special stamps were launched by the Royal Mail today paying tribute to London musicals and celebrating the glittering West End. Each of the eight stamps… Read More
Shakespeare’s Globe’s regular Activity Weekend returns on 12 and 13 March offering families the chance to sample some action-packed activities in the venue’s permanent exhibition.Live demonstrations include sword-fighting, stage combat… Read More
Every so often a production is staged that captures the imagination far before the show’s first performance and sets tongues wagging with anticipation. Oscar-winner Danny Boyle’s return to stage direction… Read More
Published: 23 February 2011
Shrek The Musical, which opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 14 June, has announced its full cast, while former Holby City star Mark Moraghan is set to join… Read More
Multi award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn talks to Matthew Amer about volleyball, curses and why The Children’s Hour is making her so happy.The West End debut, a landmark moment for every… Read More
Dates have been confirmed for opera star Alfie Boe’s bow in the London production of Les Misérables. He will join the production along with Little Britain’s Matt Lucas and West… Read More
Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor David Bedella is to join the cast of long-running musical Chicago as the unscrupulous lawyer Billy Flynn for a limited 10-week run. Bedella joins current cast… Read More
Published: 22 February 2011
David Thaxton and Celia Graham are to join the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies to play Raoul and Christine. The duo replaces Joseph Millson and Sierra Boggess… Read More
There are some shows that create an almost insatiable urge in you to run up on stage and join in the jazz handing fun. The Donmar Warehouse’s frivolous The 25th… Read More
Published: 21 February 2011
Lydia Wilson won a part at the National Theatre before she’d even graduated from drama school and already has projects with theatrical stars such as Katie Mitchell and her current… Read More
Truth is open to interpretation and the past becomes a mouldable state of mind in Pedro Miguel Rozo’s striking and disturbing Columbian set drama Our Private Life. Bipolar fantasist Carlos… Read More
Dominic West is to return to the London stage in a revival of Simon Gray’s Butley at the Duchess theatre from 1 June (press night 6 June). West will star… Read More
Published: 18 February 2011
Legally Blonde The Musical has scooped four awards at the annual Whatsonstage Awards. The musical, which opened at the Savoy theatre in January 2010, was voted Best New Musical in… Read More
A brand new British-Chinese musical, a hip hop version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and the return of Olivier winner Blue Boy Entertainment are among the delights in the… Read More
Casting has been announced for the Royal Court theatre’s forthcoming production Remembrance Day, with Lark Rise To Candleford’s Ruby Bentall starring in Aleksey Scherbak’s political drama.Joining the young actress are… Read More
Those who missed Rory Kinnear’s performance as the troubled Danish prince in Shakespeare’s Hamlet will have another chance to see it when the production returns to the venue this spring… Read More
Tim Pigott-Smith is to join Penelope Wilton, Imelda Staunton and Lucy Cohu in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, which plays at the Almeida theatre from 5 May to 2 July… Read More
Published: 17 February 2011
In a drained swimming pool – which must surely just be a posh hole – four men wait. They have been waiting for years, trying to win the love of… Read More
Published: 16 February 2011
He is a successful playwright and screenwriter with a new play opening in London so, as Enda Walsh himself admits, maybe it is about time he started lightening up, finds… Read More
I have never seen such an un-British display of enthusiasm for public participation in a musical. Frankly, it was hard to get last night’s audience for Showstopper! to be quiet.The… Read More
Published: 15 February 2011
Tom Conti is to return to the stage in Smash!, Jack Rosenthal’s 1981 play about the journey of a musical from page to stage, which plays at the Menier Chocolate… Read More
After more than four years in the West End, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage is to end its run at the Aldwych theatre on 9 July before… Read More
Published: 14 February 2011
Keira Knightley fans who have yet to book tickets for The Children’s Hour, should rush to their phones or PCs as the drama at the Comedy theatre has released tickets… Read More
Published: 11 February 2011
Theatre fans hoping for Richard Bean to rattle the cage of eco-warriors with his new climate change play might be in for a shock.The Heretic is not a full-scale broadside… Read More
Published: 10 February 2011
Caroline Bishop finds European flair combined with a family atmosphere at West London’s Lyric Hammersmith and its Italian pizzeria, Café Brera. Café Brera Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric SquareNow playing: Twisted Tales… Read More
Eve Best and Charles Edwards are to play sparring couple Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s Globe’s production of Much Ado About Nothing this May.In taking on the coveted roles in… Read More
Derren Brown, master of psychological illusion and Laurence Olivier Award-winning showman, is set to return to the West End this summer with his brand new show Derren Brown: Svengali.Following a… Read More
Shall we cut straight to the crux of it? This Crucible-esque play – though it pre-dates Arthur Miller’s classic by two decades – marks the second stage outing of Hollywood… Read More
Published: 9 February 2011
As the British screen star prepares to make her National Theatre debut in Frankenstein, she talks to Matthew Amer about Danny Boyle, LA and why she doesn’t play girlfriends.From the… Read More
Larkrise To Candleford actress Linda Bassett will star in Simon Stephens and Katie Mitchell’s first collaboration Wastwater at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs this Spring.Joining Bassett is a cast… Read More
The tiny Landor pub theatre in Clapham seems an unusual location for the revival of a piece by theatrical heavyweights Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn.But then, By Jeeves doesn’t… Read More
The Society of London Theatre and Mousetrap Theatre Projects are offering teachers the chance to find out about the educational opportunities London theatre provides at EducationLive, a fun and informal… Read More
Published: 8 February 2011
David Fielder will lead the cast of The Tempest, the Little Angel theatre’s forthcoming collaboration with Royal Shakespeare Company. The Tempest, which premieres in Stratford before playing at Little Angel… Read More
Polka theatre is to celebrate the work of former Children’s Laureate Quentin Blake this summer with a new show entitled All Join In And Other Stories, which runs from 13… Read More
Fans of hit TV show Glee can indulge their inner Gleek at a special workshop at the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) on Sunday 27 February.The Glee Musical Theatre Workshop,… Read More
Tanya Ronder’s adaptation of DBC Pierre’s Booker Prize-winning novel played at the Young Vic in 2007. Now it is back in a revised production which exploits Pierre’s black humour to… Read More
Published: 7 February 2011
La Soirée has announced it will return this Christmas to the Roundhouse theatre in all its wacky glory for a limited festive season. The variety show’s current run at the… Read More
Best known for creating an opera for the National Theatre out of controversial American chat show Jerry Springer, composer and lyricist Richard Thomas’s distinctive writing style is once more entertaining… Read More
Published: 4 February 2011
Australian TV star Richard Grieve is to join the cast of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical at the Palace theatre from 7 March. Grieve, who replaces Ben Richards… Read More
Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Matthew Kelly will star in Tim Firth’s Sign Of The Times at the Duchess theatre next month, alongside Shameless star Gerard Kearns.Directed by Peter Wilson (Charley’s… Read More
Edward Hall, Artistic Director of the Hampstead theatre, is to bring his own company Propeller to the North London venue in June with a double bill of The Comedy Of… Read More
Published: 2 February 2011
With his return to the stage in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Steve Pemberton proves he is up for anything, as he tells Caroline Bishop.It must be a… Read More
Never one to shy away from a challenge, the National Theatre’s newest creation is a collaborative project by four playwrights about one of the most debated issues of our time.… Read More
Published: 1 February 2011
Dreamboats And Petticoats has launched a competition offering budding songwriters the chance to write a new song to be featured in the rock ‘n’ roll musical.Taking inspiration from the show’s… Read More
Published: 31 January 2011
Performing for a week in February at Sadler’s Wells, the American Ballet Theatre is on its way to London with English ballet dancer Thomas Forster in tow. Charlotte Marshall chats… Read More
Michael Sheen as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Shakespeare himself are among the highlights of the 2011/12 season at the Young Vic.Sheen, who will play the tormented Prince of Denmark… Read More
Samantha Spiro will star in Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup With Barley at the Royal Court this summer, directed by the much acclaimed venue’s Artistic Director Dominic Cooke.The play, which follows… Read More
Theatre impresario Daniel Sparrow declared himself and fellow The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg producers to be “the luckiest West End producers in town” at the glamorous launch for Kneehigh Theatre’s new… Read More
Published: 27 January 2011
Legally Blonde’s Sheridan Smith is to flex her dramatic muscles when she joins Sienna Miller in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 10 March. Smith, who… Read More