A stage adaptation of classic novel Lord Of The Flies and musical offerings The Beggar’s Opera and Crazy For You will feature in the 2011 season at the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre.
Unusually for a venue which normally stages several Shakespeare plays each summer, the theatre will present just one work by the bard next year, an adaptation of Pericles aimed at a family audience.
Regent’s Park Open Air theatre Artistic Director Timothy Sheader will direct both Nigel Williams’s adaptation of William Golding’s gripping desert island-set drama Lord Of The Flies – which opens the season on 19 May – and George and Ira Gershwin’s musical comedy Crazy For You, the final production of the season which plays from 28 July to 10 September.
Crazy For You, which won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1993 for its premiere production at the Prince Edward theatre, reunites the team behind the Open Air theatre’s 2009 hit musical Hello, Dolly!, including choreographer Stephen Mear who won one of the show’s three Laurence Olivier Awards.
Lucy Bailey, whose productions of Titus Andronicus and Timon Of Athens made an impact in another outdoor theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, will direct John Gay’s original 18th century text of satirical musical play The Beggar’s Opera (23 June to 23 July). Telling the story of highwayman Macheath’s life of wine and women, lies and deceit, the show will feature lewd songs and low ballads recreated from the original pastoral score and played on traditional instruments.
Continuing the Open Air theatre’s recent tradition of adapting Shakespeare plays for younger audiences, the story of the young prince Pericles’s quest to discover the world will be reimagined for theatregoers aged six and over. Pericles, which plays from 2 to 23 July, promises an odyssey adventure of shipwrecks, tournaments and love lost and found. It will be the first time the play has been presented at the venue since 1939.
The new season has a hard act to follow. This year’s 16-week summer season attracted a record 142,000 visitors, making it the most successful in the theatre’s history. Many were first time visitors to the venue; 72% of the audience for the venue’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible were first-timers.
Sheader, who has been Artistic Director of the theatre since 2008, commented: “We’re thrilled that 2010’s success confirms that our artistic ambition is in tune with our audience. Working with first class artists and knowing that our audience is up for the ride, I am confident that we can continue to set ourselves exciting challenges for 2011 and beyond.”
CB