LINKS

More News on West End Live

Book tickets to Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theatre

Book tickets to Million Dollar Quartet at the Noel Coward Theatre

Book tickets to Shrek The Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Book tickets to We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre

View West End Live photos of Rock of Ages and Betty Blue Eyes

View West End Live photos of The Wizard of Oz and Crazy For You

View West End Live photos of Ghost The Musical, Wicked and Jersey Boys

View West End Live photos of Legally Blonde and Lend Me A Tenor

View West End Live photos of Billy Elliot and Love Never Dies

View West End Live photos of Chicago, The Lion King, Priscilla Queen of the Desert

LINKS

More News on West End Live

Book tickets to Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre

Book tickets to The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre

Book tickets to Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre

View West End Live photos of Rock of Ages and Betty Blue Eyes

View West End Live photos of The Wizard of Oz and Crazy For You

View West End Live photos of Ghost The Musical, Wicked and Jersey Boys

View West End Live photos of Legally Blonde and Lend Me A Tenor

View West End Live photos of Billy Elliot and Love Never Dies

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £15 on tickets to Design for Living at the Old Vic

Design for Living at the Old Vic Theatre

If you are feeling spontaneous this week you can save £15 on Noel Coward’s Design for Living at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Anthony Page directs Coward’s 1932 comedy about the complicated three-way relationship between two men and a woman, starring Tom Burke (Telstar), Andrew Scott (Lennon Naked) and Lisa Dillon (Cranford).

The show enjoyed terrific reviews last week, with The Times and The Sunday Times both giving the show 5 STARS.

BUT HURRY – the offer is only valid for performances this week, until Saturday 25 September.

BOOK NOW: Save £15 on tickets to Design for Living at the Old Vic

Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles in The Rivals

Sheridan’s classic comedy The Rivals is set for a new revival this autumn as Sir Peter Hall directs the play at the Theatre Royal Bath before it transfers into the West End.

The show will see the pairing of Penelope Keith, 70, and Peter Bowles, 73, who starred opposite each other in the hit 1979 BBC comedy To The Manor Born.

The play will mark the first time that the veteran actors have appeared together on stage, and will also be the first production in the newly refurbished auditorium of the theatre.

Director Peter Hall will celebrate his 80th birthday on 22 November this year, and has presented a summer season in Bath for the past seven years. In November he will direct a production of Twelfth Night at the National Theatre, where he was director from 1973 to 1988, starring his daughter Rebecca Hall as Viola.

He told the Independent in March that he has no plans to quit directing and hopes to die in the rehearsal room: “I’ll fall over. I hope. I love the job. I spend most of my time in a rehearsal room. To be paid money to spend six weeks of your life in Chekhov’s head is not bad. The theatre is the only place that tells the truth.”

The Rivals will play at the Theatre Royal Bath from 7 to 18 September.

Book tickets to THE RIVALS at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London

Simon Russell Beale as Sidney Bruhl

The high-profile revival of Ira Levin’s comic murder thriller stars acclaimed actor Simon Russell Beale as best-selling author Sidney Bruhl, alongside Jonathan Groff (Glee) as Clifford and Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) as his wife Myra. The cast also includes legendary American actress Estelle Parsons (Bonnie & Clyde) as Helga.

The play is directed by Matthew Warchus, who won a Tony award last year for his production of God of Carnage, and has recently directed La Bete at the Comedy Theatre.

The producers of Deathtrap have gone all out to garner attention for the show, with a groundbreaking promotional video released that brings a big-screen suspense feel to the campaign (watch the trailer here).

There has also been much pre-opening hype about the shocking nature of the production, with people fainting in early previews, suggesting that Warchus is playing up the thriller elements of the show as much as the comedy (terrifying audiences is definitely the in thing, with Ghost Stories doing good business a few blocks further down St Martin’s Lane).

The 1978 thriller, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, sees good-looking young author Clifford turn up at Bruhl’s Connecticut home with a brilliant new stage thriller, at a time with Bruhl’s career has hit the skids. Much hilarious twisting and turning ensues.

Jonathan Groff as Clifford

Its author Ira Levin has written a number of celebrated screenplays and plays including The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil and A Kiss Before Dying.

Deathtrap is produced by David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers, producers of Brief Encounter, Equus and recent success Calendar Girls.

Book tickets to Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre in London

Shrek The Musical

Nigel Lindsay will play the title role of Shrek in the much-anticipated West End stage production of the hit DreamWorks movie. Lindsay’s credits include movie Four Lions , the original National Theatre production of Dealer’s Choice and Nathan Detroit in Michael Grandage’s 1995 production of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Another Nigel, TV and stage star Nigel Harman, has been cast as Lord Farquaad. Best known for playing Dennis in EastEnders, his numerous stage credits include Sky Masterson alongside Nigel Lindsay in Guys and Dolls, Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, Three Days of Rain at the Apollo Theatre and True West at the Sheffield Crucible.

They will join Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona and Richard Blackwood as the Donkey.

The forthcoming DreamWorks production of Shrek The Musical®, based on the Oscar-winning film, opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London on 7 June 2011.

Shrek The Musical originally opened on Broadway in December 2008 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. It closed in January this year after a relatively short run, although is now on a major tour of the USA. A number of changes have been made to the touring – and forthcoming London version – of the show, including a new opening, new songs, improved magic and illusions, a newly styled dragon and more emphasis on giving the show “heart”.

The London stage musical is based on the irreverent fairy tale from William Steig’s book Shrek and the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film. The creative team includes directors Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises), with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Olivier Award winner Jeanine Tesori, scenic, costume and puppet design by Tim Hatley, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Peter Hylenski and choreography by Josh Prince.

The show is the first stage venture for DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical arm and was originally initiated as a project by award-winning director Sam Mendes. The musical will be produced in London by DreamWorks Theatricals’ Bill Damaschke and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions under Caro Newling.

Drury Lane is currently home to Oliver!, which will close at the theatre on 8 January 2011.

Book tickets to SHREK THE MUSICAL at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Felicity Jones to star in Luise Miller

Michael Grandage, artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, has announced the venue’s new 2011 season.

Tony-award winning Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will open at the London venue on 11 February 2011.The hit show, about six teenagers competing in an American spelling competition, has a book by Rachel Sheinkin and music and lyrics by William Finn. The musical will be directed by Jamie Lloyd, who opens his new production of Sondheim’s Passion this week at the Donmar, starring Elena Roger.

The new season will also feature Harold Pinter’s 1993 play about a dysfunctional family, Moonlight, which will receive its first major London revival, directed by Bijan Sheibani (7 April to 28, May 2011).

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Finally, the season ends with up-and-coming actress Felicity Jones, who recently starred in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s movie Cemetery Junction, in a new version of Schiller’s Luise Miller, from 8 June. The play will be directed by Michael Grandage and adapted by Mike Poulton. No stranger to the Donmar, Felicity appeared in their acclaimed 2008 production of The Chalk Garden.

Also, as previously announced, the new season will open with Derek Jacobi giving his King Lear, following his hugely successful Donmar West End performance as Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009. The production will also star Gina McKee.

Jemima Rooper

Jemima Rooper will star as Sally and Daniel Crossley as Bill in the new version of Noel Gay’s classic show, alongside Miriam Margolyes as the Duchess.

Anna Mackmin, who recently directed Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at the Old Vic, will be directing her first musical. She is working with scriptwriter Stephen Russell to give the book of the show, which was rewritten by Stephen Fry for the successful 1980s West End production, a bit more sparkle. Choreography will be by Stephen Mear and design by Peter McKintosh.

Jemima Rooper came to prominence in Channel Four drama As If and has had numerous screen and stage roles including her current performance in All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre alongside Zoe Wanamaker and David Suchet.

Daniel Crossley in Hello Dolly!

Daniel Crossley, who is the partner of Sheffield artistic director Daniel Evans, is an accomplished musicals actor having appeared in high-profile shows including Mary Poppins, Chicago, Fosse and last summer’s Hello Dolly! at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park.

The show is widely tipped to head to the West End after its Sheffield run given that it has been 17 years since the Leicester Haymarket Theatre’s production left the Adelphi Theatre in London after 8 years, 3,303 performances and lots of Lambeth walking by the likes of Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson. The production made a lot of money for all concerned so it’s a canny Daniel Evans, Sheffield’s artistic director, who’s resurrecting it.

LINKS

Me and My Girl – Sheffield Theatres

CREDITS

Daniel Crossley: theatre credits include Bert in Mary Poppins (UK tour), A Chours Line (Sheffield Crucible) Anything Goes and Love’s Labour’s Lost (National Theatre) Twelfth Night (West Yorkshire Playhouse) Chicago (Adelphi Theatre) Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hull Truck) and at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Hello Dolly, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oh What a Lovely War.

Miriam Margolyes: stage credits include Madame Morrible in both the London & Broadway productions of Wicked, Blithe Spirit (Melbourne Theatre Company) The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal and US tour), The Vagina Monologues, Sir Peter Hall’s Los Angeles production of Romeo & Juliet and The Killing of Sister George and The Threepenny Opera .  Most recently, she starred in Theatre du Complicite’s West End production of Beckett’s Endgame, playing Nell, for which she won the Whatsonstage.com  award for Best Supporting Actress for the second time.  As well as her famed cameos in the Blackadder series, her television work includes Inconceivable, Wallis & Edward and Fall of the House of Windsor; and for film, The Age of Innocence (for which she won a Bafta for best supporting actress),  How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  (she will reprise the role of Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Ladies in Lavender, Being Julia, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and James and the Giant Peach.

Jemima Rooper: currently performing in All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre on the West End.  Her other theatre credits include The Power of Yes and Her Naked Skin (National Theatre), We Live (Royal Court) Now is the Time (Tricycle Theatre).  For television Lost in Austen, Silent Witness, The Railway Children and as series regular in As I, she is also about to star in new ITV drama A Bouquet of Barbed Wire.  For film, her credits include Black Dahlia, Kinky Boots and A Sound of Thunder.

Anna Mackmin, director: Mackmin was previously an Associate Director for the company, where her credits included Cloud Nine, The Crucible, Iphigenia, Teeth ‘n’ Smiles and The Arbor.  She also formed and ran the literary department at Sheffield Theatres during her tenure. Mackmin’s production of The Real Thing opened recently at The Old Vic to critical acclaim. Her other directing credits include Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Old Vic), Hedda Gabler (Gate Theatre, Dublin), Under the Blue Sky, In Celebration (Duke of York’s Theatre), Intolerance – Shoot Get Treasure Repeat, Citizenship/Chatroom/Burn (National Theatre, national & international tour) and Dying for It (Almeida Theatre). Mackmin has also worked for theatre companies including The Gate, Donmar Warehouse, The Bush, Young Vic, Royal Court and Battersea Arts Centre.