5 January 2012
The Phantom of the Opera UK Tour – back to London?
Will Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brand new 25th anniversary tour of The Phantom of the Opera make it’s way back to London?
The Phantom of the Opera UK Tour
Cameron Mackintosh pulled off a hat trick for the Les Miserables 25th anniversary by featuring the original London production, the new UK touring production AND a special O2 Arena concert version in London all at the same time.
If the Phantom tour, directed by the Les Mis tour director Laurence Connor rather than the show’s original director Hal Prince, is successful, then maybe Mackintosh, who is the producer of Phantom, will be tempted to bring it in to town.
The Phantom tour kicks off at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in March 2012.
LINKS
Book tickets to The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London
The Phantom of the Opera UK tour website
Ann Reinking signs up for Kander & Ebb charity gala
Tony award winning choreographer Ann Reinking has been confirmed to star in a major charity gala celebrating the work of legendary songwriters Kander & Ebb, in London this April.
Reinking, who won a Tony Award for her choreography for Kander and Ebb’s Chicago, will join names including Marvin Hamlisch, Janie Dee, Maria Friedman and Billy Stritch at the event.
The current production of Chicago is one of the most successful musical revivals ever. It is now in its 15th year on Broadway and has recently returned to the West End’s Garrick Theatre starring Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera.
The all-star gala is being produced by veteran promoter and producer Barry Mishon in collaboration with Kander, and will be in aid of the Ovarian Cancer Action charity.
John Kander and Fred Ebb are two of the most successful musical theatre songwriting partnerships of all time, with their work including Cabaret, Chicago, Zorba, The Rink and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Fred Ebb passed away in 2004.
Musical directors for the event will be Gareth Valentine and Donald Pippin.
Tickets will go on sale soon.
LINKS
SPECIAL OFFER: Book tickets to Chicago at the Garrick Theatre in London
STAGE SPY CHECK-LIST
- Show: Kander & Ebb Charity Gala
- Theatre: West End venue TBC
- Musical Directors: Gareth Valentine, Donald Pippin
- Stars: Ann Reinking, Maria Friedman, further names to be announced
- Opens: April 2012
Ann Reinking in Chicago
Sweeney Todd starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton to play West End in March
The acclaimed production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which has been playing in Chichester to packed houses, will transfer into the West End in March 2012.
Starring Michael Ball as Sweeney Todd and Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett, the show will play at the Adelphi Theatre from 10 March 2012.
The show is directed by Jonathan Kent and designed by Anthony Ward.
LINKS
SIGN UP to our News Alerts service to be the first to hear about London theatre news and offers
STAGE SPY CHECK-LIST
- Show: Sweeney Todd
- Author: Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler
- Theatre: Adelphi Theatre
- Director: Jonathan Kent
- Stars: Michael Ball, Imelda Staunton
- Opens: 10 March 2012
- Original production: Chichester Festival Theatre, 24 September 2011
Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball in Sweeney Todd. Photo: Roy Tan
Emma Bunton talks new Spice Girls musical Viva Forever!
Emma Bunton returned to Heart FM last week following the birth of her second child. In an interview with Tobi Anstis she talks briefly about the new Spice Girls musical Viva Forever!
The new show, which has been written by Jennifer Saunders and will be directed by War Horse’s Marianne Elliott, is based on the songs of the Spice Girls and promises to be a modern fable of camaraderie, love and loyalty.
VIDEO
LINKS
SIGN UP to our News Alerts service to be the first to hear about London theatre news and offers
Joanna Lumley to return to the West End in The Lion in Winter?
Trevor Nunn will round-off his first year as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket with a new production of James Goldman’s 1966 play The Lion in Winter.
Joanna Lumley will star as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the period production, alongside Robert Lindsay as Henry II.
Joanna Lumley was last seen in the West End in 2010 starring in La Bete, which transferred to Broadway and earned her a Tony award nomination. Robert Lindsay starred in Onassis at the Novello Theatre in 2010.
Nunn’s current production at the Haymarket is the Chichester transfer of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, playing until 20 August and then followed by Ralph Fiennes as Prospero in The Tempest.
Set during Christmas 1183 at Henry II’s château, the last major production of The Lion in Winter was on Broadway in 1999 starring Laurence Fishburne as Henry and Stockard Channing as Eleanor. There have been two major film adaptations of the play including the 1968 version starring Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn and a 2003 re-make starring Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close.
The play is well-known as an almost guaranteed crowd pleaser and an award-maker for the two leads.
LINKS
Book tickets to The Lion In Winter at the Theatre Royal Haymarket
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: The Lion in Winter
- Author: James Goldman
- Theatre: Theatre Royal Haymarket
- Director: Trevor Nunn
- Stars: Joanna Lumley, Robert Lindsay
- Opens: November 2011
- Original production: Ambassador Theatre New York, 3 March 1966
Source: Daily Mail (01/07/11)
Joanna Lumley in La Bete
Love Never Dies to close at the Adelphi Theatre
Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s multi-million pound sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, has announced its closure in the West End.
Rumours have circulated for some time that the show, which is produced by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and is housed in one of the company’s theatres, jointly owned with the Nederlanders, was losing a significant amount of money and would struggle to continue unless it saw a sharp rise in box-office receipts.
The National Theatre’s hit new show One Man, Two Guvnors starring Gavin and Stacey’s James Corden will move in to the venue from mid-November 2011.
It is unclear whether Love Never Dies will continue with its international roll-out, including a production in Toronto and a Broadway opening.
The show did open last month in Melbourne to fair reviews, with the Herald Sun giving the show four stars but saying that, “While Love Never Dies sets a visual design standard that will be difficult to surpass, it is disappointing that the narrative and music fail to reach the same lofty heights”. Australian National newspaper The Age said that, “An inspired, often ravishing production for sure, though of a sequel that doesn’t make a strong enough musical or narrative argument for its own existence.”
Lloyd Webber wanted to the show to be completely revisited for the Melbourne opening, recruiting New Zealand director Simon Phillips to work on the show. The hope was that a good production in Melbourne could act as the template for future international productions.
Love Never Dies got off to a decidedly shaky start in the UK, with creative differences between the director Jack O’Brien and Lord Lloyd Webber, prompting the composer to close the show for four days in November 2010 to allow friend and producer Bill Kenwright to make a number of changes.
It had been rumoured that the show would close again for two weeks in September 2011, when the current cast was to change, to incorporate some of the changes made by Simon Phillips from the Melbourne production.
In May, Baz Bamigboye reported in the Daily Mail that Really Useful Group were struggling with £4 million loses from the show despite significant cost cutting.
Other shows that had been thought to be lining up for the Adelphi included a Robert Lindsay-led revival of Camelot directed by David Leveaux.
LINKS
SPECIAL OFFER: Book tickets to Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre in London
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: Love Never Dies
- Theatre: Adelphi Theatre
- Date closing: 27 August 2011
- Stars: Ramin Karimloo, Celia Graham, David Thaxton
- Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Director: Jack O’Brien / Bill Kenwright
Source: Daily Mail (17/06/11)
Driving Miss Daisy starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones to open in London
London transfer for Broadway’s Driving Miss Daisy.
As previously tipped, recent Tony Award nominee Vanessa Redgrave will return home to London this October, bringing her successful Broadway performance in Driving Miss Daisy to the West End for a 12 week run.
The play will run at the Wyndham’s Theatre from 26 September to 17 December 2011.
Her New York colleagues, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines, will join her in London before a US tour of the show in Autumn 2012.
Driving Miss Daisy, which is directed by David Esbjornson, was written by Alfred Uhry and the 1989 movie version starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy and Dan Aykroyd won four Oscars.
James Earl Jones was last seen in the West End in 2009 in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre.
LINKS
Book tickets to Driving Miss Daisy at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: Driving Miss Daisy
- Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Boyd Gaines
- Writer: Alfred Uhry
- Director: David Esbjornson
- Theatre: Wyndham’s
- Date: 26 September 2011
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in the Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy
West End transfer for Singin’ in the Rain?
A heavy-weight cast has been announced for the Chichester Festival Theatre’s new production of Singin’ in the Rain.
Jonathan Church is directing the classic MGM musical with a cast that includes Adam Cooper (Guys and Dolls), Daniel Crossley (Hello, Dolly!), Scarlett Strallen (Passion), Michael Brandon (Jerry Springer The Opera), Sandra Dickinson (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and Katherine Kingsley (Aspects of Love).
Given the quality of the cast and the buzz surrounding the show, our transfer-o-meter has been running wild on rumours that the show may get a West End run.
The show runs at Chichester from 27 June to 10 September.
LINKS
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: Singin’ in the Rain
- Director: Jonathan Church
- Premiere: Chichester
- Casting: Adam Cooper, Daniel Crossley and Scarlett Strallen
- London Dates: ?
Douglas Hodge to follow La Cage Aux Folles by starring in Barnum?
In a live US radio interview with On Broadway’s Seth Rudetsky, our very own Douglas Hodge revealed that he is in talks to star in a revival of Barnum.
Douglas Hodge is currently wowing New York with his “An Evening with Doug Hodge” cabaret show at Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan (can we have this in London next please Mr Hodge?). He then makes his way back to the West End later this year to star in the Donmar’s revival of John Osbourne’s Inadmissible Evidence (from 13 October 2011), directed by Jamie Lloyd.
Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart’s musical Barnum saw Michael Crawford score a huge hit with the show in London in the early 1980s. Prior to that Jim Dale launched the show on Broadway in 1980.
Over the last few years impresario Cameron Mackintosh has talked of wanting to revive the show, and various names have been attached to the project including John Barrowman, Michael Ball – and on Broadway, Neil Patrick Harris.
Hodge has enjoyed great success with La Cage Aux Folles, winning an Olivier and Tony award for his star turn in the Menier Chocolate Factory production which transferred to Playhouse Theatre in London before heading to Broadway.
LINKS
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Show: Barnum
- Writers: book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, music by Cy Coleman
- Director: ?
- Starring: Douglas Hodge?
- Theatre: ?
- Date: 2012?
Source: SiriusXM’s On Broadway (16/03/11)
Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer in La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway
King’s Speech director Tom Hooper close to signing up for Les Miserables movie?
Following our report a few weeks ago, it now seems that Universal Pictures has convinced Cameron Mackintosh and Working Title to sign-up The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper to the forthcoming Les Miserables movie.
Apparently intense negotiations are now underway through Hooper’s agent, ICM, to agree the deal terms and get the movie into production by the end of the year.
Shooting somewhere in Europe, the movie musical will be a big-budget film adaptation of the hugely successful stage show. The movie will be produced by the show’s theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh along with Four Weddings and Bridget Jones producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner from Working Title.
The screenwriter of the project is Oscar nominated writer Bill Nicholson, who wrote the screenplays for Gladiator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Shadowlands amongst others.
The question now is, who gets to play the leads? There is much internet speculation that Hugh Jackman may be cast in the movie. Other front-runners include Nick Jonas, who briefly starred in the UK production of Les Mis at the Queen’s Theatre last year and at the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2.
RUMOUR CHECK-LIST
- Movie: Les Miserables
- Director: Tom Hooper
- Distributor: Universal Pictures
- Producer: Working Title, Cameron Mackintosh
- Script: William Nicholson
- Date of release: 2012
Source: Deadline (24/03/11)
Tom Hooper collects his Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech
