Published: 29 May 2009
The National Theatre has once again taken its oversized living room furniture out of storage in anticipation of its annual Watch This Space festival, which takes up residence in Theatre… Read More
Published: 28 May 2009
The Theatre Royal Haymarket production of Waiting For Godot, which stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, has extended its London run until 9 August.One of the hottest tickets in London… Read More
A musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray is to play at the Leicester Square theatre this summer, opening on 2 July (previews from 23 June) and… Read More
The Comedy theatre is to host the world premiere of new musical Too Close To The Sun, which runs for a limited eight week season in the West End this… Read More
Ronald Harwood’s plays, written independently of each other, are now staged in repertoire at the Duchess theatre, painting a portrait of the struggle to maintain the independence of culture under… Read More
An ageless woman sits on stage surrounded by half-filled glasses of exotic fruit juices and a cosy flat interior. The story she is here to tell us is one that… Read More
Published: 27 May 2009
Daniela Nardini has joined the previously announced Rachel Weisz, Ruth Wilson, Barnaby Kay, Elliot Cowan and Jack Ashton in the forthcoming Donmar Warehouse production of A Streetcar Named Desire.The full… Read More
Over 1,700 people attended the Society of London Theatre’s (SOLT) first ever West End Family Fun Day at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday, marking a huge success for the free… Read More
Sally Ann Triplett, Norman Bowman and Niamh Perry are to join the cast of Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales theatre on 15 June. Triplett, who takes over from… Read More
Acclaimed actress Clare Higgins tells Caroline Bishop about the joy of the stage and the demise of the screen.“I don’t understand the term ‘problem play’, I never have,” says Clare… Read More
Aspiring opera stars are being given the chance to perform live to a packed Trafalgar Square as part of the Royal Opera’s BP Summer Big Screens.The Royal Opera has launched… Read More
‘Gated communities’ are new to me. The idea of locking yourself away in a self-contained complex separated from the rest of the world, protected from the hideous reality of life… Read More
Published: 26 May 2009
Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams is to follow fellow American Jerry Springer in the cast of Chicago this summer.The US star will make her UK stage debut in the… Read More
Published: 22 May 2009
Trevor Nunn’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music has extended its run at the Garrick theatre until 5 September ahead of an intended Broadway transfer. The production originated… Read More
Philip Larkin may have said it most succinctly in This Be The Verse: “They f**k you up your Mum and Dad / they may not mean to but they do”.… Read More
Published: 21 May 2009
A new web-based event is offering budding young stage stars the chance to learn from professionals. Young Performer Week, held from 8 to 14 June, allows young people interested in… Read More
Matt Charman is fast developing into a playwright of some repute. The winner of the Verity Bargate Award in 2005, his third play, The Observer, balances huge political and philosophical… Read More
Published: 20 May 2009
A host of London’s hottest musicals will be bringing free entertainment to Leicester Square this summer as part of West End LIVE.The two-day event, which runs on 20 and 21… Read More
The former sitcom star talks to Matthew Amer about new show Amongst Friends and trying to change audiences’ perceptions of him. The power of television on perception really can’t be… Read More
Stage and screen star John Barrowman is to return to the West End this autumn, donning the stunning sparkling dresses of Albin in musical comedy La Cage Aux Folles.Barrowman will… Read More
Renowned circus performers Jean Baptiste Thierrée and Victoria Chaplin are to bring their cult show Le Cirque Invisible to the Southbank Centre this summer. Last performed in the UK in… Read More
Stephen Daldry’s 1992 National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls is to return to London this autumn for an eight-week season at the Novello theatre from 22 September… Read More
Shout!, the 60s jukebox musical currently playing at the Arts theatre, is to close on 31 May.The self-proclaimed ‘Grooviest Show In Town’, which stars Su Pollard, Tiffany Graves, Shona White… Read More
Swan Lake hits cinema screensThe Royal Ballet production of Swan Lake, which was staged at the Royal Opera House earlier this year, is to be screened in over 70 cinemas… Read More
Playwright Zinnie Harris could surely not have predicted the exquisite timing of her version of Ibsen’s famous play A Doll’s House. In setting the Norwegian playwright’s classic in an Edwardian… Read More
Published: 19 May 2009
The Young Vic has announced two new shows for its summer season; 2007 Edinburgh Festival hit immigration drama The Container and Alecky Blythe’s brothel-set docu-drama The Girlfriend Experience. The Container,… Read More
The boundaries between man and beast are explored in Wallace Shawn’s new surreal comedy Grasses Of A Thousand Colours, presented as the second of three plays in the Wallace Shawn… Read More
The Watermill Theatre’s successful production of Sunset Boulevard, which has been running at the Comedy theatre since December 2008, is to close on 30 May.The show, which had already extended… Read More
Published: 18 May 2009
The stage adaptation of Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall, is to play at the Hampstead theatre this summer following its world premiere at the Bristol Old… Read More
The 2009 Greenwich And Docklands International Festival, which comprises four days of free outdoor performance, is to feature a host of artists presenting work linked by a common theme, water.The… Read More
The National Theatre has announced more shows to join its NT Live scheme which will broadcast selected performances to cinemas in the UK and abroad. The previously announced Phèdre is… Read More
Published: 15 May 2009
Ross Noble and Dylan Moran are to continue the recent trend for Shaftesbury Avenue stand-up comedy when they bring their shows to the Apollo theatre this autumn. Noble’s current show… Read More
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which brought New Orleans to its knees in 2005, is to be thrown under the spotlight in a new piece of site-specific theatre to play… Read More
Laurence Olivier Award-winning cabaret show La Clique, which is forced to vacate its home at the Hippodrome on 27 June, is to return to London this Christmas with a nine-week… Read More
The Little Angel theatre is to celebrate all things puppet-related with its second annual summer party on 4 July for puppet fans of all ages. This one day festival takes… Read More
Director Thea Sharrock will return to the Almeida theatre this autumn to direct the first London revival of Nicholas Wright’s drama Mrs Klein.The new addition to the Almeida theatre’s autumn… Read More
Anna Friel will take on the iconic character Holly Golightly in a new stage adaptation of Breakfast At Tiffany’s at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 9 September (press night 29… Read More
Faced with living in a time of recession, climate change, hoodies and anti-social behaviour, Marcus Markou’s Ordinary Dreams explores just how the everyman should keep managing to get out of… Read More
Following last week’s The Last 5 Years, the Notes From New York season at the Duchess theatre continues with the late American composer Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical. Larson was only… Read More
Published: 14 May 2009
The Last Cigarette, the staged memoirs of writer Simon Gray, which stars Felicity Kendal, Jasper Britton and Nicholas Le Prevost, is to close earlier than expected on 23 May.The show,… Read More
English National Opera has collected the entire set of major opera awards available for its 2008 repertoire. Earlier this week it added the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Music Award for… Read More
At a time when it might be easy to programme known crowd-pleasers, the Young Vic continues to push boundaries and test itself, resisting any urge to slip unnoticed into presenting… Read More
Published: 13 May 2009
Soho theatre has announced a two-week season of short plays exploring the effects of the current economic climate. Everything Must Go, which runs from 23 June to 4 July, is… Read More
Billy Elliot The Musical celebrated its fourth birthday in the West End on 11 May by welcoming 12-year-old Oliver Gardner into the cast. Gardner, from Bath, becomes the 32nd young… Read More
As Tara Fitzgerald prepares to return to the stage, she tells Caroline Bishop about revisiting Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and her renewed passion for her profession. Five years ago at… Read More
Following its Afghanistan festival, The Great Game, the Tricycle theatre embarks on another country-specific season this summer with the British premieres of work by South African playwrights Lara Foot Newton… Read More
Published: 12 May 2009
Spring Awakening, the hit new musical which received almost universal acclaim during its run at the Lyric Hammersmith and on its transfer to the West End, is to close earlier… Read More
The autumn season at Sadler’s Wells and its West End home the Peacock theatre boasts eight world premieres and five UK premieres in a schedule that includes a new two-week… Read More
Published: 11 May 2009
Mackenzie Crook has joined Mark Rylance in the cast of Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth’s new play which runs in the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from 10 July to 15 August… Read More
Published: 8 May 2009
Steve Waters presents his terrifying view of the future in The Contingency Plan, a double bill of plays that, rather than choosing to scare the audience with visions of dystopian… Read More
Eileen Atkins, Michael Sheen, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman and Sheila Hancock are just some of the actors who will pay tribute to Harold Pinter at a celebration of his work… Read More
The Duchess theatre might just be the perfect West End venue for The Last 5 Years, its intimate auditorium drawing the audience into the heart of Jason Robert Brown’s two-handed… Read More
Published: 7 May 2009
Families can get a taste of Kids Week in the West End with a free special event at the Southbank Centre on 26 May. The casts of Hairspray and Thriller… Read More
Stage and screen star Adrian Lester has been confirmed as the first British performer to join James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad in the transfer of Broadway hit Cat On… Read More
The National Theatre has confirmed dates and casting for Hanif Kureishi’s forthcoming stage adaptation of his novel The Black Album, which plays through the summer alongside several productions which have… Read More
Beckett’s most famous play has a habit of splitting opinion, the theatrical equivalent of Marmite. There are those who find it pointless and obtuse, two tramps loitering while nothing much… Read More
Published: 6 May 2009
As he returns to the London stage opposite Patrick Stewart in Waiting For Godot, Ian McKellen talks to Matthew Amer about a production that could be the most eagerly awaited… Read More
Rupert Goold’s National Theatre debut comes in the form of JB Priestley’s three-act play which asks unanswerable questions about the extent of our ability to control our own future. Priestley’s… Read More
Published: 5 May 2009
The Scoop at More London turns to classical mythology for its summer season of free theatre this year, with a production of Greek revenge drama Medea and a family musical… Read More
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who was due to direct Così Fan Tutte for the English National Opera later this month, will be unable to direct the production in London due… Read More
The Broadway production of Billy Elliot The Musical has picked up a total of 15 nominations for this year’s Tony Awards, leading a British-dominated field which also includes the transfers… Read More
Biographer Sir Michael Holroyd has won this year’s Sheridan Morley Prize for his book A Strange Eventful History. The Sheridan Morley Prize for Best Theatre Biography, named after the critic… Read More
Theatre Tokens, the nationwide theatre voucher scheme, celebrates 25 years of supporting theatre in 2009 and is offering money off restaurants, shops and hotel deals to celebrate.The theatre vouchers, which… Read More
Published: 1 May 2009
Shakespeare’s Globe opens its aptly named Young Hearts season with the Bard’s tragedy about first love, Romeo And Juliet.In Ellie Kendrick, director Dominic Dromgoole has found a Juliet who actually… Read More
Senior Savers, a new campaign running from 1 May to 12 June, is offering 50% off top price theatre tickets to anyone over the age of 60. Theatregoers who have… Read More
Published: 30 April 2009
The Unicorn theatre is to present a new piece by visionary performance artist Mark Storor that explores the experiences of children who undergo dialysis. For The Best, which runs at… Read More
Felicity Kendal, Nicholas Le Prevost and Jasper Britton were full of praise and admiration for writer Simon Gray following the press night of The Last Cigarette.“One does meet brave people,”… Read More
The Menier Chocolate Factory stage has become the interior of a wood-beamed country cottage, allowing all the door-slamming, hiding and eavesdropping necessary for this farce-by-numbers. For the uninitiated, Ben Travers… Read More
Sam Walton and Richard Linnell were yesterday revealed as the two boys to join Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup in the cast of Waiting For… Read More
You know where you stand with Su Pollard. The fabulously eccentric performer is nothing if not energetic and exuberant, which is probably exactly the style needed in a catalogue musical… Read More
Published: 29 April 2009
If laughter is the best medicine, Jemima Rooper might well be impervious to disease, finds Matthew Amer.The actress, star of Lost In Austen on screen and Her Naked Skin on… Read More
Three actors – dressed the same, using the same mannerisms – playing one man, writer Simon Gray, recounting his life and struggle against lung cancer. On paper, it is an… Read More
Published: 28 April 2009
Thriller – Live, the Michael Jackson tribute show currently playing at the Lyric theatre, has extended its run by a further three months to 3 January 2010, taking it into… Read More
Helen Baxendale is to return to the London stage in the premiere of April De Angelis’s new play Amongst Friends, which opens at the Hampstead theatre on 26 May. The… Read More
Matthew Dunster’s one man coming-of-age drama returns to the Young Vic after its sell-out debut last year, with William Ash reprising the role of confused teenage Adam, attempting to forge… Read More