& Juliet to reopen in the West End from 24 September
The pop-fuelled hit musical & Juliet have today announced that they’ll be reopening from 24 September at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
& Juliet is the hilarious and fun-loving new West End musical that asks: what if Juliet’s famous ending was really just her beginning? What if she decided to choose her own fate? This is Juliet’s story now. So don’t tell her how it ends…
Soaring with pop anthems including …Baby One More Time, Everybody (Backstreet’s Back), Love Me Like You Do and Can’t Feel My Face, & Juliet is a riotous blast of fun and glorious music that proves when it comes to love, there’s always life after Romeo…
Check out our video above for exclusive performances from the cast (Jordan Luke Gage, Miriam-Teak Lee, Cassidy Janson, Melanie La Barrie, Arun Blair-Mangat), a game with Oliver Tompsett and David Bedella led by Tim Mahendran and a Q&A too.
Book your tickets now and give yourself something to look forward to!
And if you’d like to find out what other West End shows you can book for this year, check out our roundup which includes all the latest!
Shakespeare’s Globe reveals plan to reopen outdoor theatre from 19 May
Shakespeare’s Globe (Photo credit: John Wildgoose)
Provided the conditions are met for Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap for cultural reopening, the Globe will be welcoming audiences in for socially distanced performances, having closed on 18 March 2020.
The summer season 2021 opens with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (19 May – 30 October), followed by Romeo & Juliet (26 June – 17 October) and Twelfth Night (29 July – 30 October). The Globe Touring Ensemble will perform As You Like It, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including some of the ever-popular Audience Choice performances. Metamorphoses, a new piece of theatre by the Globe’s writers-in-residence and inspired by Ovid’s Myths, will open in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 30 September.
The season includes: Jean Chan, Alfred Enoch, Jim Fortune, Sean Holmes, Sami Ibrahim, Ola Ince, Laura Lomas, Sabrina Mahfouz, Brendan O’Hea, Holly Race Roughan and Michelle Terry. For the first time productions will be live streamed from the Globe stage, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Metamorphoses.
The outdoor theatre is introducing protocols for a safe return to live theatre for audiences in line with the See It Safely campaign from UK Theatre and SOLT, including staggered arrival times, allocated entrances, no intervals, pre-ordered drinks, and for the initial period of opening there will be seating in the Yard. Despite reduced capacity there are still limited tickets available at £5.
Opening in 2022’s summer season will be the postponed 2021 production King Lear, with Kathryn Hunter reprising a performance that made history 24 years ago, in a new production with Helena Kaut-Howson returning to direct. The international team retelling this story for today also includes movement director Marcello Magni, designer Pawel Dobrzycki and composer Boleslaw Rawski.
Michelle Terry, Artistic Director, said: “To even be announcing a season means that we are inching ever closer to getting back to doing the thing that we love, the thing that the Globe was built for, and the thing that so many of us, artists and audience alike, have lost during this time: sharing time, space and story with as many people as is safe. This is a historic moment, and not to be underestimated; we have a long way to go as we emerge and heal from this, but theatre can help us get there: that’s what it’s for. To express the often inexpressible, bear the often unbearable, laugh, cry, be – safely – together. The readiness is all and Shakespeare’s Globe is ready.”
Public booking for Shakespeare’s Globe Summer season opens from Thursday 8 April at 10am on Shakespeare’s Globe’s website.
Lyric Hammersmith announces world premiere of Out West
The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre today announces the world premiere of Out West featuring works by three of the UK’s leading playwrights, Tanika Gupta (A Doll’s House), Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Roy Williams (Death Of England: Delroy), to reopen the venue.
The plays explore themes of race, identity, place and purpose and bring together a stellar creative team, co-directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan and Diane Page, with Set and Costume Design by Soutra Gilmour, Lighting Design by Jessica Hung Han Yun and Composition and Sound Design by Simon Slater.
Out West will run in the Main House from 18 June to 24 July, with opening night for press on Thursday 24 June. The show will operate with socially distanced seating for the entirety of the run. The show will also be filmed for audiences to watch at home and will be available for online streaming from 12 to 17 July. Casting for each of the one-person plays will be announced in due course.
Rachel O’Riordan, Artistic Director and CEO of the Lyric and Co-Director of Out West said: “Out West is the production that reopens our doors after the enforced closure due to the pandemic. The three writers, Tanika Gupta, Simon Stephens and Roy Williams, are some of the most exciting voices in British theatre and I am so proud that they are sharing our stage and bringing the Lyric back to life. All three plays speak to our current moment; questions of race, geography, identity, belonging and hope run through all three. Theatre has the power to move, to challenge and to entertain. It is also the medium through which, for centuries, human beings have attempted to understand each other and the world around us. I cannot think of a more necessary moment for theatre than now. I look forward, with co-director Diane Page, to sharing Out West with you. We are back. We are here.”
Diane Page, Co-Director, said: “Out West explores what it really means to belong in a shifting world. At a time when we have had cause to reflect on and analyse our values, beliefs and ideals – sometimes in uncomfortable and revealing conversations – each of these incredible plays proves to be ever more poignant.”
Alongside the Lyric’s production of Out West, West London writer and poet Zia Ahmed will lead a playwriting partnership to create new stories that are rooted in West London with students across six secondary schools in Hammersmith & Fulham. A selection of work will be filmed and presented in the Lyric’s Cinema, running in parallel with Out West during the summer.
Tickets are on sale today. Click here to find out more!