Cornflake Girl Tori Amos is writing a new musical for the National Theatre, it was announced today. The American singer-songwriter, who had several hits in the 1990s, is teaming up with playwright Samuel Adamson and director Marianne Elliott for the project, which will open in the National’s Lyttelton theatre in April 2012.
The musical, revealed today by National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner, follows an exciting 2011 season which puts actors Keeley Hawes, Lesley Manville, Simon Russell Beale, Alex Jennings and Ian McDiarmid on the National Theatre’s three stages.
The season includes a new work by improvisational playwright/director Mike Leigh, new plays from Richard Bean, John Hodge and Conor McPherson, plus the NT directorial debut of Royal Court Artistic Director Dominic Cooke.
Reiterating his commitment not to play it safe in the face of approaching funding cuts, Hytner said the season contained “an element of roughing the place up.”
Travelex will continue to support the season in the Olivier theatre by making affordable tickets available for a ninth year, though that low price has now risen to £12 after eight seasons at £10.
Following the previously announced revival of The Cherry Orchard, starring Zoë Wanamaker and Conleth Hill, which opens the 2011 Travelex season in May, the Olivier will stage a new version of Ibsen’s little-known play about faith and politics, Emperor And Galilean. Jonathan Kent directs McDiarmid as Maximus and Andrew Scott (Design For Living, Cock) as the Emperor.
Thea Sharrock, who yesterday won Best Director at the Critics’ Circle Awards for her NT production of After The Dance last year, returns in September for an as-yet unconfirmed project. This is followed by a new production of Arnold Wesker’s The Kitchen, directed by Bijan Sheibani, which concludes the Travelex season in October.
Also in the Olivier this autumn, Jonathan Miller will direct nine performances of his St Matthew Passion as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations for the King James Bible. The production reunites the National with the Southbank Sinfonia, which previously collaborated on Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. Running concurrently, leading NT actors will give a series of early-evening Bible readings in the Olivier and Lyttelton theatres.
2011 in the Olivier ends with Cooke (Clybourne Park) directing a production of Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors over the Christmas period. Though not specifically for children, Hytner said the show would be aimed at the same audience as previous family shows War Horse and His Dark Materials.
In the Lyttelton, Hawes, known for her screen work in Ashes To Ashes, Spooks and the recent Upstairs Downstairs, returns to the stage in the already announced Rocket To The Moon. Joseph Millson, Jessica Raine and Nicholas Woodeson also star.
Further details were also revealed for Richard Bean’s new play based on the 18th century Italian comedy The Servant Of Two Masters. Renamed One Man, Two Guvnors and transplanted to 1960s Brighton, the play is an attempt to “find an English equivalent of commedia,” said Hytner. As previously announced, Bean’s play stars James Corden, returning to the National Theatre following The History Boys, who Hytner described as “a really accomplished comic actor with a vivid personality.”
The Lyttelton line-up is completed by regular NT director Katie Mitchell’s take on Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed With Kindness in July, a new untitled play by McPherson (The Seafarer) in October, and a co-production with Dublin’s Abbey theatre of Sean O’Casey’s Juno And The Paycock in September, starring Sinead Cusack and Ciaran Hinds.
Offerings in the Cottesloe theatre include a new play by Leigh, who returns to the NT following Two Thousand Years. He teams up with regular collaborator Lesley Manville – who starred in Leigh’s current film Another Year, among many others – along with young actress Ruby Bentall (The Miracle at the NT).
National Theatre regulars Jennings (The Habit Of Art) and Russell Beale (London Assurance) will appear in a new play entitled Collaborators by Trainspotting screenwriter Hodge. The play, which Hytner described as “wickedly funny”, imagines an encounter between Soviet dictator Stalin (Russell Beale) and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov (Jennings).
Before that, Rufus Norris (Cabaret, Vernon God Little) will direct ‘documentary musical’ London Road, a collaboration between playwright Alecky Blythe (The Girlfriend Experience) and musician Adam Cork, while Polly Findlay and Lyndsey Turner will direct four new one-act plays by emerging playwrights, in July.
Amos and Adamson’s musical takes the NT’s programming into 2012, as does a new production of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy The Way Of The World, scheduled for January 2012.
The new season unfolds following the current line-up, which includes Danny Boyle’s production of Frankenstein, climate change play Greenland and Ryan Craig’s The Holy Rosenbergs.
CB