Opening this week in London

It’s a busy week for London theatre as comedy, Shakespeare, showgirls and Ben Barnes hit the West End stage.

OPENING THIS WEEK

Monday 27 September

Yes, Prime Minister opens at the Gielgud Theatre. Following a sell-out season at Chichester Festival Theatre, the original writers of the BBC series, Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn, have reunited for this 30th anniversary production of Yes, Prime Minister starring Henry Goodman and David Haig. BOOK TICKETS

Tuesday 28 September

Birdsong opens at the Comedy Theatre. A new stage adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ acclaimed novel Birdsong, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring the Chronicles of Narnia’s Ben Barnes, Nicholas Farrell, Iain Mitchell, Genevieve O’Reilly and Lee Ross. BOOK TICKETS

Wednesday 29 September

Caroline O’Connor – The Showgirl Within opens at the Garrick Theatre. The international award-winning musicals star Caroline O’Connor is back in London with a new one-woman show following sell-out seasons in New York and Sydney. BOOK TICKETS

Traces opens at the Peacock Theatre. After a sell-out run in 2009, The 7 Fingers return to London with their fresh, urban and seriously high-energy smash-hit circus show Traces. Circus with a distinctly 21st century edge. BOOK TICKETS

Thursday 30 September

Hamlet starts previews at the National Theatre. Following his celebrated performances at the National in Burnt by the Sun , The Revenger’s Tragedy , Philistines and The Man of Mode, Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet, joined by Clare Higgins as Gertrude, Patrick Malahide as Claudius and David Calder as Polonius.

Pam Ann – Flying High opens at the Vaudeville Theatre. The fabulous Pam Ann will be winging her way into the Vaudeville Theatre featuring the glamorous Australian viper-tongued airline hostess from hell in an hilarious new show co-written by Pam Ann creator Caroline Reid. BOOK TICKETS

SHOWS CLOSING

Saturday 2 October

All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre. Howard Davies’ powerful production of Arthur Miller’s classic play comes to an end at the Apollo, starring David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker.

Les Miserables at the Barbican Theatre. 

Les Miserables at the Barbican – Reviews Round-up

Les Miserables at the Barbican Theatre – Reviews Round-up

The critics were on a state of humble-pie alert when reviewing the new, 25th anniversary touring production of Les Miserables. The show has come back to where it all began, the Barbican theatre in London, for a celebratory hurrah. The first time they reviewed it, a number of critics gave it a good mauling, but 25 years and millions of pounds in box office takings later, they were gathered again, this time to rave and appreciate the success of the world’s longest running musical. They also celebrated the slimmed down new production, with new direction, sets (out with the revolve, in with projections) and costumes, despite the criticism of original directors Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

Read extracts from Les Miserables reviews below, including The Times, The Telegraph, The Stage and The Guardian.

Opening This Week in the West End

It’s an eclectic mix of shows that are opening this week in the West End, as the autumn season of new productions begins apace. From Wonder Woman to Michael Gambon via Noel Coward and Sebastian Faulks, there’s something for everyone.

On Tuesday 14 September, Les Miserables returns to the Barbican Theatre, where it all began 25 years ago. A brand new production of Boublil and Schonberg’s legendary musical has been touring the UK to celebrate its 25th anniversary and completes its run at the Barbican – but for only 22 performances. The show features a dynamic young cast including Gareth Gates.

Noel Coward is never far from the West End, and Wednesday 15 September sees the opening night of Design for Living at the Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo. Anthony Page directs Coward’s 1932 comedy about the complicated three-way relationship between two men and a woman. The play stars Tom Burke (Telstar), Andrew Scott (Lennon Naked) and Lisa Dillon (Cranford) and runs until 27 November.

On the same day Krapp’s Last Tape starts previews at the Duchess Theatre starring one of Britain’s most accomplished actors, Michael Gambon. The Dublin Gate Theatre transfer of Samuel Beckett’s classic enjoyed rave reviews at the Gate directed by Michael Colgan. The 50 minute show is playing two shows a night, keeping Mr Gambon nicely occupied.

On Friday 17 September  the fabulous Lynda Carter, aka Wonder Women, pops to town for two shows of her Lynda Carter: At Last solo sing-fest. Best known to millions as TV superhero Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter: At Last is a musical evening to celebrate her recent solo album. Following dates in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, Lynda Carter will appear in London on 17 and 18 September 2010 at the Garrick Theatre.

Also on Friday, the Chichester Festival Theatre’s sell-out production of Yes, Prime Minister starts previews at the Gielgud Theatre starring Henry Goodman and David Haig. The original writers of the BBC series, Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn, have reunited for this hilarious 30th anniversary production, promising much topical wit and political spin-doctoring: Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey Appleby are back and this time to face the country in financial meltdown!

The following day, Saturday 18 September, Trevor Nunn is back in the West End directing Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of the best-selling Sebastian Faulks novel Birdsong. The play starts previews at the Comedy Theatre starring British movie star Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia), Nicholas Farrell, Iain Mitchell, Genevieve O’Reilly and Lee Ross, and tells the moving story of one man’s journey through an all consuming love affair and into the horror of the First World War.

BOOKING INFO

Book tickets to Design for Living at the Old Vic Theatre

Books tickets to Les Miserables 25th anniversary production at the Barbican Theatre

Book tickets to Krapp’s Last Tape at the Duchess Theatre

Book tickets to Yes, Prime Minister at the Gielgud Theatre

Book tickets to Birdsong at the Comedy Theatre

Book tickets to Lynda Carter: At Last at the Garrick Theatre

Les Miserables – Barbican Theatre

Cameron Mackintosh presents a brand new 25th anniversary production of Boublil and Schonberg’s legendary musical, at the Barbican for only 22 performances. Stars Gareth Gates.

Cameron Mackintosh talks Betty Blue Eyes

Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London

Theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh talked to Michael Ball today about his new musical project, Betty Blue Eyes.

Speaking on The Michael Ball Show on ITV1, Mackintosh revealed that it will be his next musical. The new show, which is written by Mackintosh protégés George Stiles and Anthony Drewe (Mary Poppins, Just So), is based on Alan Bennett’s screenplay A Private Function.

The original 1984 film starred Michael Palin and Maggie Smith and is set in a small Northern town shortly after the war, when rations were still biting hard. A group of local businessmen plan to hold a patriotic party to celebrate the impending royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, and decide to illegally raise a pig for the occasion. But hen-pecked chiropodist Gilbert Chilvers (Michael Palin) and his wife Joyce (Maggie Smith) have other plans…

Late last year Mackintosh told the Daily Mail: “The title (of the show) is in honour of our lovely Queen. Well, they are both catalysts of the story. We have the marriage of Elizabeth and Philip – and our heroine, the pig, is Betty Blue Eyes. I haven’t checked the Queen’s eye colour recently, but they’re rumoured to be blue.”

The musical is slated to begin rehearsals early next year, trying out at the West Yorkshire Playhouse before coming to the West End at Easter. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee begins the following year in 2012.

Mackintosh also talked about the 25th anniversary celebrations planned for Les Miserables, and said that the show is, “doing better than it has for 15 years”.

He was at pains to emphasise that the new touring production had “new costumes, new sets and new direction” following a recent public spat with original directors of the musical Trevor Nunn and John Caird, who were not invited to work on the 25th anniversary tour, which will play its original home at the Barbican Theatre in September. Gareth Gates, who is starring in the touring production, joined Mackintosh on the show, to sing Empty Chairs At Empty Tables from Les Mis.

Mackintosh also spoke to Michael Ball about the current resurgence in musical theatre: “Ten years ago if you said you were in the theatre you’d duck” he said, but now it’s trendy, with people “fed up with just sitting looking at a computer”. Despite popular TV talent shows, such as BBC1′s Over The Rainbow, finding new a new generation of musicals stars, Mackintosh said that  “if you have a raw talent and you have a platform then you can make a career” but that few people have the staying power to make a career out of the theatre.

Cameron Mackintosh, producer of some of the world’s most successful shows including Miss Saigon, Cats, Mary Poppins and current West End musicals Oliver!, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Avenue Q and Hair!, also revealed that his favourite musical of all time is My Fair Lady.

LINKS

Book tickets to Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello Theatre in London

Book tickets to Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre, the O2 Arena and the Barbican Theatre

Stiles and Drew official site

Listen to a song from Betty Blue Eyes

Les Miserables – Half Price Tickets

Enjoy 50% off tickets to Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre in London

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £29.50 on tickets to Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre in London

Offer valid 2 October at 10.30am. Also save £18 on Mon-Thu evenings and Wed matinees.

Les Miserables in gearing up for its 25th anniversary with a series of special events and concerts – including a major concert at the O2 Arena in London and the 25th anniversary touring production starring Gareth Gates coming back to the Barbican Theatre – where it all began in 1985.

As the excitement mounts, a special 10.30am early matinee of the show will be performed on Saturday 2 October. Westendtheatre.com readers can now enjoy 50% off top price tickets to see this special performance.

Produced by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, Les Miserables is the world’s longest-running musical having played in 42 countries to over 55 million people worldwide.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £29.50 on tickets to Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre in London

Offer valid 2 October at 10.30am. Also save £18 on Mon-Thu evenings and Wed matinees.

Les Miserables at the O2 Arena

This October the legendary musical Les Miserables will celebrate its 25th birthday. To mark the occasion, the show’s producer Cameron Mackintosh is staging an extraordinary one-off concert at the O2 Arena in London on Sunday 3 October.

The concert will see stars from the original London cast come together with current casts and major celebrities to celebrate the birthday, including Nick Jonas, Alfie Boe, Norm Lewis, Matt Lucas, Lea Salonga, Jenny Galloway, Camilla Kerslake and 300 performers and musicians.

Les Miserables will also make theatrical history with three different productions running simultaneously in London: the original production at the Queen’s Theatre, the new 25th anniversary UK tour which will come to the Barbican for a short season, and the exclusive concert at the O2.

In October this year, the legendary musical LES MISÉRABLES will celebrate its 25th birthday by making theatrical history with an international first – three different productions in London at the same time. The Original Production at the Queen’s Theatre, the New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican, London and now, stars in their multitudes will gather for a celebratory concert at The O2 on Sunday 3rd October, when all three productions and many of the shows original cast will come together to celebrate this momentous occasion.

The 25th Anniversary concert at The O2 will host a company of over 300 actors and musicians, including Alfie Boe as ‘Jean Valjean’, Nick Jonas as ‘Marius’, Norm Lewis as ‘Javert’, Matt Lucas as ‘Thénardier’, Lea Salonga as ‘Fantine’, Jenny Galloway as ‘Madame Thénardier’, Camilla Kerslake as ‘Cosette’ and the casts of the Original Production at the Queen’s Theatre, the New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican, London and members of the Original 1985 London cast.

Heading The O2 Concert cast is Alfie Boe, one of the country’s leading tenors and best selling recording artists. Alfie shot to fame while starring in Baz Luhrmann’s “La Boheme” on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for his performance. His other credits include a nomination for a Classical Brit Award for his album “Onward” and a sell-out production of “The Merry Widow” at the London Coliseum. His future opera engagements will see Alfie return to the English National Opera to sing ‘Nadir’ in a new production of “The Pearl Fishers” and also his return to the Royal Opera House in Gounod’s”Roméo et Juliette”.

Matt Lucas is one of Britain’s most successful comic actors and writers. His TV credits include the multi award-winning “Little Britain”, “Shooting Stars”, BBC’s “Wind in the Willows” and most recently Tim Burton’s film of “Alice in Wonderland”. Jenny Galloway is regarded as a legendary ‘Madame Thénardier’, and has played the part many times, including the 10th Anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall. She has also created the roles of ‘Rosie’ in “Mamma Mia!” for which she won an Olivier Award, and ‘Mrs Brill’ in “Mary Poppins” both in the West End and on Broadway.

Lea Salonga will fly in from Manilla to play ‘Fantine’. No stranger to “Les Miz”, Lea has played ‘Eponine’ in London and ‘Fantine’ on Broadway. She became an international star by creating the role of ‘Kim’ in the original production of “Miss Saigon” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and subsequently on Broadway. Lea won a multitude of awards for this role, including the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World Awards. Lea will join her former “Les Miz” co-star Norm Lewis, who has just received rave reviews for “Sondheim on Sondheim” at Studio 54 in New York. Norm played ‘Javert’ in the Broadway production of “Les Misérables” and his other Broadway credits include ‘John’ in “Miss Saigon” and ‘King Triton’ in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”.

Nick Jonas is one third of the phenomenally successful pop music artists, the Jonas Brothers. Worldwide they have sold over 8 million albums, played to millions of fans on three continents, earned dozens of international awards and have garnered 36 gold and platinum album certificates. No stranger to “Les Miz”, Nick played the part of ‘Gavroche’ for the final nine months of the show’s original Broadway run. Camilla Kerslake is an English classical crossover singer who became the first signing to Gary Barlow’s new record label. Her debut album shot to number 4 in the Classical Album Charts and has been nominated for a Classical Brit Award. Camilla also sings the Christian hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing?” in the 2009 Waitrose supermarket Christmas advert. Nick will also appear in the London production of Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre for three weeks only from 21 June 2010. Book tickets now.

The O2 Concert will also feature the casts of the original London production (still playing to packed houses at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue), the cast of the acclaimed New 25th Anniversary Production and members of the original 1985 cast. The new production, which is breaking box office records all over the UK and opening in countries all over the world will play for 20 performances only (14 September – 2 October) at the Barbican, London where the show originally premiered.

The magnificent score of “LES MISÉRABLES” includes the songs, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, ‘On My Own’, ‘Stars’, ‘Bring Him Home’, ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’, ‘One Day More’, ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’, ‘Master Of The House’ and many more.

“LES MISÉRABLES” originally opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on 8 October 1985, transferred to the Palace Theatre on 4 December 1985 and moved to its current home at the Queen’s Theatre on 3 April 2004 where it continues to play to packed houses. When “LES MISÉRABLES” celebrated its 21st London birthday on 8 October 2006, it became the World’s Longest Running Musical, surpassing the record previously held by “Cats” in London’s West End. In January 2010, the West End production broke another record by celebrating an historic 10,000th performances.

Seen by over 56 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 21 languages, “LES MISÉRABLES” is undisputedly one of the world’s most popular musicals ever written, with new productions continually opening around the globe, with seven more currently scheduled. There have been 36 cast recordings of “LES MISÉRABLES”, including the multi-platinum London cast recording, the Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast and complete symphonic albums and the soon to be released live recording of the New 25th Anniversary production. The video of the 10th Anniversary Royal Albert Hall Gala Concert has sold millions of copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling musical videos ever in the UK. There are over 2,500 productions of the Les Misérables School’s Edition scheduled or being performed by over 125,000 school children in the UK, US and Australia, making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools. Cameron Mackintosh is currently developing a film of “LES MISÉRABLES” with Working Title and Universal.

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of “LES MISÉRABLES” is written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel and additional material by James Fenton. The original London 1985 production of “LES MISÉRABLES” was adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

The New 25th Anniversary production and the O2 Concert are directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell and designed by Matt Kinley. Original costumes by Andreane Neofitou, additional costumes by Christine Rowland, lighting by Patrick Woodroffe and Paule Constable and sound by Mick Potter.

Les Miserables at the O2 Arena – Cast

OTHER CAST INCLUDES:

Jenny Galloway as Madame Thénardier

The cast of the original London production at the Queen’s Theatre

The cast of the new 25th anniversary production at the Barbican London

Gareth Gates radio tribute to Les Mis

Gareth Gates, star of the current European tour of Les Miserables, will feature in a special edition of Radio 2 show Friday Night is Music Night.

The edition will pay homage to musical theatre and will include a segment celebrating the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables.

Gareth Gates plays Marius in the touring production of Les Miserables, which opened in Cardiff in December 2009. The tour will also play the Barbican Theatre in London, where it originally premiered in 1985, as part of the show’s 25th Anniversary celebrations.

The show will run for 22 performances only at the Barbican from 14 September – 2 October 2010. It will mark the first time anywhere in world that two productions of the same musical have played simultaneously in the same city.

Gates will be joined by fellow co-stars including John Owen Jones, Jacinta Whyte and Shona Lindsay along with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Mike Dixon.

The first half of the live show will feature a medley of musical hits, including Kander and Ebb classics Kiss of the Spider Woman and Cabaret, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, featuring Gareth Gates who starred in the recent West End production in 2009.

Friday Night is Music Night is the world’s longest-running live music programme on radio, featuring the BBC concert orchestra and broadcast from locations throughout the UK

The BBC Radio 2 show will be broadcast live at 8pm on May 21 from the Mermaid Theatre in London.

LINKS:

Friday Night is Music Night

Les Mis to make world history

West End – and world – history will be made this autumn as two productions of Les Miserables will run simultaneously in London.

As part of the show’s 25th anniversary celebrations, the current touring production of the world’s longest running musical will return home to the Barbican Theatre from 14 September to 2 October, the venue where the show originally premiered in 1985.

At the same time the show will continue to run at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue where it opened in 2004 after moving from the Palace Theatre.

The new touring production, which premiered in Cardiff in December 2009, is currently touring starring Gareth Gates and directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell.

The move is a courageous act by producer Cameron Mackintosh as it will be the first time that the same musical will run in the same city anywhere in the world.

Les Miserables has been seen by an impressive 56 million people around the world, and became the world’s longest running musical in October 2006.

Les Miserables special offer – Save £19.50 on tickets to see the hit show at the Queen’s Theatre in London

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