Joe Mcfadden And Dianne Pilkington In She Loves Me
March 29, 2011
9 MAY – 18 JUNE, MINERVA THEATRE, CHICHESTER
Director and Choreographer STEPHEN MEAR
Book by JOE MASTEROFF
Music by JERRY BOCK
Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK
Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo
Originally directed on Broadway by Harold Prince
Originally produced on Broadway by Harold Prince
In association with Lawrence N Kasha and Philip C McKenna
A witty and warm-hearted musical about two lovelorn shop assistants launches Festival 2011 at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
She Loves Me is the delightful story of Georg and Amalia, who work in a 1930s parfumerie. Adversaries by day, at night they write ardent love letters to their anonymous sweethearts. They both fall in love with their mystery pen pals, unaware that each is the other’s secret correspondent.
The cast features Joe McFadden as Georg. Last at Chichester in Festival 05’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, his other credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Rent on stage and Heartbeat, Casualty and Cranford on television.
Dianne Pilkington plays Amalia. Her stage credits include The 39 Steps, Wicked, The Wolf Man, Taboo, Tonight’s The Night, The Beautiful Game and Les Misérables.
The musical will be directed and choreographed by Chichester Festival Theatre Associate Stephen Mear. His productions for Chichester include The Music Man and Funny Girl. Other credits include the forthcoming West End production of Betty Blue Eyes, Shoes, Mary Poppins, for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Choreography, together with Matthew Bourne, and Hello, Dolly! for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer. He has also featured as a judge on BBC 1’s So You Think You Can Dance, returning for a new series in March.
The production is designed by Anthony Ward whose previous credits include ENRON (Festival 2010 and 09), Macbeth (Festival 07), Posh at the Royal Court, as well as West End productions of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Oliver! and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He has won a Tony Award for Costume Design for Mary Stuart, and Olivier Awards for the Set Design of Oklahoma! and the Costume Design of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Grande Magia and The Way of the World.
Lighting design is by Chris Davey, musical direction is by Phil Bateman whose work includes Chichester Festival Youth Theatre’s production of Peter Pan, and West End credits Billy Elliott and Our House, sound design is by Matt McKenzie and orchestration is by Steven Edis.
This rare musical gem is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie, which was reworked to become the 1940 film The Shop Around The Corner starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, followed by the 1949 musical version In the Good Old Summertime featuring Judy Garland. The story also provided the inspiration for the 1998 rom-com You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
It was first staged as She Loves Me on Broadway in 1963. Both the original productions and the Broadway and West End revivals received rave reviews and numerous awards.
Writer Joe Masteroff was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award for She Loves Me. He won the 1967 Tony Award as author of the book of the Best Musical for Cabaret. Composer
Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick forged a successful partnership on a number of productions including the 1964 production of Fiddler on the Roof, for which they received a Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist. Harnick’s other credits include lyrics for the English language stage adaptation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
She Loves Me is at the Minerva Theatre 9 May – 18 June, evenings 7.45pm except for the press night on Monday 16 May at 7pm, matinees 2.30pm. Tickets £23.50 (previews/press night) or £29.50 (evenings/matinee) are available online at www.cft.org.uk or from the Box Office on 01243 781312.
Stephen Mear, the director and choreographer of She Loves Me, will give a free pre-show talk about the challenges of turning his choreographic craft into direction on Friday 13 May at 6.00pm in the Steven Pimlott Building. Tickets should be booked in advance from the Box Office.
After Words – a free post-show discussion with some of the She Loves Me cast and creative team – will be held on Thursday 16 June.
There will be also be a talk entitled Songs of Love and Longing, on Saturday 9 July at 11.00am in the Steven Pimlott Building when Ben Hall, Head of Music at the University of Chichester listens closely to the musical connections between Singin’ in the Rain, She Loves Me and Sweeney Todd. Tickets £5, Friends and concessions £3, available from the Box Office.
Release issued by: Chichester Festival Theatre
LINKS
Chichester Festival Theatre website
Ralph Fiennes cast in Trevor Nunn’s The Tempest at the Haymarket
March 25, 2011
Trevor Nunn has cast stage and screen actor Ralph Fiennes as Prospero in his new production of The Tempest.
Ralph Fiennes to star in The Tempest at the Haymarket
The play will run as part of Nunn’s first season as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket, which launched with his acclaimed new production of Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path starring Sienna Miller, Sheridan Smith and James Purefoy.
The Tempest will run from 27 August 2011 for ten weeks. Preceding this will be a transfer of the Chichester Festival Theatre’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (16 June – 20 August 2011), also directed by Nunn. Tom Stoppard’s play will feature two of the stars of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys – Samuel Barnett, who stars in sitcom Beautiful People, and Jamie Parker (Valkyrie), along with stage and screen actor Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) as the Player King.
Fiennes was last seen on the London stage in 2008 in Oedipus at the National Theatre. His other stage credits include Hamlet at the Hackney Empire and on Broadway and Julius Caesar at the Barbican. His extensive film work includes starring and directing Coriolanus, Oscar nominations for The English Patient and Schindler’s List, and BAFTA nominations for The Constant Gardener and The End of the Affair. He also plays Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise and will shortly start filming the new James Bond movie, directed by Sam Mendes.
TICKETS
Book tickets to The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket starring Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes: Stage Timeline
- 1985: Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ring Round The Moon at the Open Air Theatre
- 1986: Night and Day and See How They Run at Theatr Clwyd; Me Mam Sez, Don Quixote and Cloud Nine at the Oldham Coliseum; Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Open Air Theatre
- 1987-1988: Six Characters in Search of an Author, Fathers and Sons and Ting Tang Mine at the National Theatre
- 1988 – 1991: The Plantagenets, Much Ado about Nothing, King John, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Playing with Trains, Troilus and Cressida, King Lear and Love’s Labour’s Lost at the RSC
- 1995: Hamlet at the Hackney Empire and on Broadway, for which he won a Tony Award
- 1997: Ivanov at the Almeida
- 2000: Coriolanus and Richard II at the Gainsborough Film Studios and in New York
- 2001: The Play What I Wrote at the Wyndham’s Theatre
- 2003: Brand at the RSC; The Talking Cure at the National Theatre
- 2005: Julius Caesar at the Barbican
- 2006: Faith Healer at the Gate Theatre Dublin and Broadway
- 2007: First Love at the Sydney Festival
- 2008: Oedipus at the National Theatre; God of Carnage at the Gielgud Theatre
Diana Rigg joins Rupert Everett in Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre
March 25, 2011
Dame Diana Rigg is to join Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon in the Chichester transfer of Pygmalion.
Dame Diana Rigg
The Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2010 revival of Pygmalion, directed by Philip Prowse, is transferring to the Garrick Theatre this Spring (12 May to 3 September 2011).
Revisiting the part of Professor Henry Higgins will be stage and screen star Rupert Everett, joined by Strictly Come Dancing winner and former EastEnders actress Kara Tointon as Eliza Doolittle. George Bernard Shaw’s famous play was turned into the successful1956 musical My Fair Lady.
The play will also star Peter Eyre as Colonel Pickering, alongside Rigg as Mrs Higgins.
Diana Rigg’s credits include Hay Fever and The Cherry Orchard at Chichester, Honour, Suddenly Last Summer, Follies, All About My Mother, Mother Courage and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She won a Tony award on Broadway for her performance in the Almeida production of Medea.
Book tickets to Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre in London
Suranne Jones a Top Girl at Chichester
March 10, 2011
Former Coronation Street actress Suranne Jones has been cast in Max Stafford-Clark’s revival of Top Girls in Chichester this summer. Playing hard-nosed businesswoman Marlene, she joins a cast that also includes Catherine McCormack, Stella Gonet, Lucy Briers and Olivia Poulet.
Suranne Jones to star in Top Girls
Caryl Churchill’s ground-breaking play first premiered at the Royal Court in 1982, also directed by Stafford-Clark. The play is a co-production between the director’s Out of Joint theatre company and Chichester. It will play in the Minerva Theatre from 23 June to 16 July.
The play is set during Thatcher’s reign, and tough businesswoman Marlene is hosting a dinner party to celebrate her promotion to MD of the Top Girls Employment Agency. Her guests – all powerful women from myth and history – create an extraordinary gathering. A provocative study of powerful women in Thatcher’s Britain, the play examines the compromises made by women in the quest for success, and what happens to those left behind.
Top Girls forms part of a strong new season for Chichester, which will include three major musical revivals – She Loves Me, Singin’ in the Rain and Sweeney Todd starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, plus a season of work by Terence Rattigan, and Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington in The Syndicate.
LINKS
Chichester Festival Theatre website
Chichester Festival Theatre: Top Girls casting announcement
March 10, 2011
Suranne Jones, Catherine McCormack, Stella Gonet, Lucy Briers and Olivia Poulet have been confirmed to appear in the Festival 2011 and Out of Joint co-production of Top Girls at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
Suranne Jones will play businesswoman Marlene. Jones is best known for her performance as Karen McDonald in Coronation Street. Since then she has featured in numerous television dramas including Vincent, Unforgiven, Five Days and Single Father. Her stage credits include A Few Good Men in the West End, and the touring production of Terms of Endearment.
Catherine McCormack will play Lady Nijo/Win. McCormack’s notable screen credits include Braveheart, Spy Game and 28 Weeks Later. Her theatre credits include an Olivier Award nominated performance in All My Sons, Dinner (both at the National Theatre) and the West End production of The 39 Steps.
Stella Gonet will play Isabella Bird/Joyce/Mrs Kidd. Her television credits include the drama series’ The House of Eliott and Holby City. Theatre credits include Racing Demon, Skylight, Hamlet and The Voysey Inheritance (National Theatre), and RSC productions of Measure For Measure, Three Sisters and The Revenger’s Tragedy.
Lucy Briers will play Pope Joan/Louise. Her theatre credits include West End productions of Some Kind of Bliss and Ivanov. Television appearances include the role of Mary Bennet in the adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which also featured Oscar Award winner Colin Firth.
Olivia Poulet will play Dull Gret/Angie/Jeanine. Her credits include recent roles in the television comedy The Thick of It, as well as the film In The Loop.
One of the boldest and most original plays of the 1980s, Top Girls remains equally relevant today. It’s Thatcher’s England and hard-nosed businesswoman Marlene is hosting a dinner party to celebrate her promotion to MD of the Top Girls Employment Agency. Her guests – all powerful women from myth and history – create an extraordinary gathering. A provocative study of powerful women in Thatcher’s Britain, the play examines the compromises made by women in the quest for success, and what happens to those left behind.
Caryl Churchill’s plays include Cloud Nine, Serious Money, for which she received the Evening Standard Award for Best New Comedy and the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Far Away and A Number.
Max Stafford-Clark returns to Top Girls, having directed its premiere at the Royal Court in 1982. He was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 1979 – 1993 and of the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh from 1968 – 1970. He co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Group in 1974 and Out of Joint in 1993. Among his directing credits are regular collaborations with writer Caryl Churchill, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine, Serious Money and Blue Heart.
Top Girls is a co-production with Out of Joint.
Contains adult themes and strong language.
Top Girls is at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, from 23 June – 16 July, 7.45pm, (except Press Night, Thursday 30 June at 7pm), matinees 2.30pm.
Top Girls is sponsored by Graylingwell Park.
Release issued by: Chichester Festival Theatre
LINKS
Chichester Festival Theatre website
KARA TOINTON in Pygmalion
March 9, 2011
Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara takes to the West End stage as Eliza Doolittle
Kara Tointon. Photo: © Roy Tan
British actress Kara Tointon is on the fast-track to fame. She beat stiff competition last year on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing to be crowned the winner, and this year takes to the West End stage to play Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s classic play Pygmalion, alongside stage and screen star Rupert Everett as Henry Higgins.
Kara’s career to date includes some early stage work in The Sound of Music and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but has been dominated by TV acting, including parts in Teachers, Dinotopia, Mile High, Dream Team and four years playing Dawn Swann in EastEnders.
The Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2010 revival of Pygmalion, directed by Philip Prowse, will transfer to the Garrick Theatre this Spring (12 May to 3 September 2011).
George Bernard Shaw’s famous play was turned into the successful1956 musical My Fair Lady.
Book tickets to Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre in London
RUPERT EVERETT in Pygmalion
March 9, 2011
Rupert Everett revisits Henry Higgins in Chichester transfer of Pygmalion
The Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2010 revival of Pygmalion, directed by Philip Prowse, will transfer to the Garrick Theatre this Spring (12 May to 3 September 2011).
Revisiting the part of Professor Henry Higgins will be stage and screen star Rupert Everett, joined by Strictly Come Dancing winner and former EastEnders actress Kara Tointon as Eliza Doolittle. George Bernard Shaw’s famous play was turned into the successful1956 musical My Fair Lady.
Rupert Everett has had a long and eventful showbiz career that encompasses theatre, film, TV and writing novels and autobiographies.
His stage work includes Waste of Time (Citizens Theatre Glasgow), Don Juan (Glasgow and London), Chinchilla (Glasgow and London), Another Country (Greenwich Theatre and Queen’s Theatre in the West End), Mass Appeal (Lyric Hammersmith), Heartbreak House (Citizens Theatre Glasgow), The Vortex (Citizens Theatre Glasgow and Garrick), The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (Glasgow and London), Some Sunny Day (London), and most recently playing Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit on Broadway.
Rupert’s TV work includes The Far Pavilions, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, and films range from his first break-out hit, Another Country alongside Colin Firth in 1984, to Dance with a Stranger, Arthur the King, Duet for One The Comfort of Strangers, Pret-à-Porter 1994, The Madness of King George, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shakespeare in Love, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest, the Shrek movies and Stardust. He is currently working on Hysteria alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jonathan Pryce.
Book tickets to Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre in London
Chichester Festival announces new season
February 17, 2011
The Chichester Festival Theatre has announced its new 2011 season, including a major celebration of the work of Terence Rattigan and three new productions of classic musicals.
High-profile directors include Trevor Nunn, Max Stafford-Clark, Jonathan Church, Philip Franks and Sean Mathias.
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton to star in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
Sir Ian McKellen returns to Chichester to star alongside Michael Pennington in The Syndicate.
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton to star in Sweeney Todd
Chichester Festival Theatre has announced its new 2011 season, starting on 9 May. Artistic Director Jonathan Church has put together an impressive slate of new productions, attracting major directors and stellar acting talent to cover both drama and musicals.
Three big musicals will be revived this year, following Chichester’s 2010 stage version of famous film weepy Love Story, which is currently playing at the Duchess Theatre in London. The season kicks off with Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s She Loves Me (from 9 May), starring Joe McFadden and Dianne Pilkington, and directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear. The show was last seen in the West End in 1994 starring Ruthie Henshall, John Gordon Sinclair and Tracie Bennett.
From 27 June, MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain gets a brand new production by Jonathan Church, starring Adam Cooper, Daniel Crossley and Scarlett Strallen. The musical trio is completed at the end of the season by the much talked-about and anticipated new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (from 24 September), directed by Jonathan Kent and starring Michael Ball in the title role and Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett.
Max Stafford Clark returns to Top Girls
The festival will also celebrate the work of Terence Rattigan with a mini season of productions, timed to coincide with the playwright’s centenary year in 2011. Shows include The Deep Blue Sea (from 13 July) directed by Philip Franks; and The Browning Version (from 2 September) directed by Angus Jackson, alongside the world premiere of a new one-act play by David Hare, South Downs, directed by Jeremy Herrin and commissioned by the Rattigan Trust as a response to The Browning Version. Also Nicholas Wright’s new play Rattigan’s Nijinsky, based on a screenplay by Rattigan, will get a world premiere from 19 July directed by Philip Franks; and from 31 July the festival will hold a series of rehearsed readings of some of Rattigan’s lesser-known plays, including First Episode, Adventure Story, Variation On A Theme, Heart To Heart and Harlequinade, plus In Praise Of Rattigan, devised by Jack Tinker and Martin Tickner and directed and featuring Penelope Keith.
Other new productions include Trevor Nunn following his spring production of Rattigan’s Flare Path in the West End, by directing Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (from 20 May); Max Stafford-Clark and his Out of Joint theatre company join forces with Chichester to revisit Caryl Churchill’s 1982 play Top Girls (from 23 June); and Sir Ian McKellen stars in a new version of Eduardo De Filippo’s The Syndicate (from 21 July), also starring Michael Pennington and directed by Sean Mathias.
LINKS
Chichester Festival Theatre website
Video: Sweeney Todd – Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton on The Michael Ball Show
Chichester Festival Theatre Announces Festival 2011
February 17, 2011
At the heart of the sixth season from Artistic Director Jonathan Church and Executive Director Alan Finch will be ‘a Festival within a Festival’ celebrating the achievements of playwright Terence Rattigan in the centenary year of his birth. There will be productions of two of his finest plays, The Deep Blue Sea and The Browning Version, both of which will play in conjunction with the world premiere of a connected piece, Rattigan’s Nijinsky by Nicholas Wright and South Downs by David Hare. There will also be a series of Rattigan-themed rehearsed readings, discussions and talks. For the first time, the season also features three musicals, She Loves Me, Singin’ in the Rain and Sweeney Todd, which will form the beginning, middle and end of the Festival. Vastly different in style and content, these three productions reflect the diversity and range of musical theatre itself.
SHE LOVES ME
Book by Joe Masteroff
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
9 May – 18 June, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Monday 16 May 7.00pm)
Director & Choreographer: Stephen Mear
Designer: Anthony Ward
Lighting Designer: Chris Davey
Musical Director: Phil Bateman
Sound Designer: Matt McKenzie
Orchestrator: Steven Edis
A witty and warm-hearted musical gem – later reworked for the big screen as The Shop Around the Corner and You’ve Got Mail – this is the delightful story of Georg and Amalia, two lovelorn assistants in a 1930s parfumerie. They squabble by day but at night write anonymous love letters, both unaware that they are each other’s secret correspondent.
The cast features Joe McFadden. Last at Chichester in Festival 05’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, his other credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Rent on stage and Heartbeat, Casualty and Cranford on television.
Dianne Pilkington plays Amalia. Her stage credits include The 39 Steps, Wicked, The Wolf Man, Taboo, Tonight’s The Night, The Beautiful Game and Les Misérables.
The musical will be directed and choreographed by Chichester Festival Theatre Associate Stephen Mear.
His productions for Chichester include The Music Man and Funny Girl. Other credits include the forthcoming West End production of Betty Blue Eyes, Shoes, Mary Poppins, for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Choreography, together with Matthew Bourne, and Hello, Dolly! for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.
TOM STOPPARD’S ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD
20 May – 11 June, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Tuesday 31 May 7.00pm)
Director: Trevor Nunn
Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell
This richly inventive play retells Hamlet through the eyes of two of its minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who inhabit a world completely beyond their grasp and control.
Tom Stoppard’s plays include The Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers, Travesties, The Real Thing, Arcadia and Rock ‘n’ Roll, while his screenplays include Shakespeare in Love for which he was awarded an Oscar for Best Screenplay, together with co-writer Marc Norman.
Trevor Nunn directed Cyrano de Bergerac for Festival 09. He has been Artistic Director of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, and his credits include the forthcoming West End production of Flare Path, as well as Birdsong, A Little Night Music, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Hamlet, King Lear, The Seagull and Porgy and Bess.
TOP GIRLS by Caryl Churchill
23 June – 16 July, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 30 June 7.00pm)
Director: Max Stafford-Clark
Designer: Tim Shortall
Lighting Designer: Jason Taylor
One of the boldest and most original plays of the 1980s, Top Girls remains equally relevant today. A provocative study of powerful women in Thatcher’s Britain, the play examines the compromises made by women in the quest for success, and what happens to those left behind.
Caryl Churchill’s plays include Cloud Nine, Serious Money, for which she received the Evening Standard Award for Best New Comedy and the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Far Away and A Number.
Max Stafford-Clark returns to Top Girls, having directed its premiere at the Royal Court in 1982. He was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 1979 – 1993 and of the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh from 1968 – 1970. He co-founded the Joint Stock Theatre Group in 1974 and Out of Joint in 1993. Among his directing credits are regular collaborations with writer Caryl Churchill, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine and Serious Money.
Top Girls is a co-production with Out of Joint.
Contains adult themes and strong language.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Based on the MGM film
Screenplay and adaptation by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
27 June – 10 September, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Tuesday 5 July 7.00pm)
Director: Jonathan Church
Designer: Simon Higlett
Choreographer: Andrew Wright
Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell
Musical Director: Robert Scott
Sound Designer: Matt McKenzie
This classic musical evokes the era when the silver screen was changed forever by the emergence of talking pictures. The glorious score features Make ‘em Laugh, Good Morning, Moses Supposes and Singin’ in the Rain.
Adam Cooper, whose credits include On Your Toes and Guys and Dolls, plays silent movies star Don Lockwood. The cast also features Daniel Crossley, whose credits include Hello Dolly!, Chicago, Fosse and Mary Poppins, and Scarlett Strallen, who has appeared in The Music Man (Festival 08), Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Jonathan Church is Chichester’s Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director. His credits for Chichester include The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Grapes of Wrath, Pravda, Hobson’s Choice, The Circle and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. His credits also include Master Class and the Olivier Award-nominated Of Mice and Men.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Terence Rattigan
13 July – 3 September, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Monday 25 July 2.15pm)
Director: Philip Franks
Music: Matthew Scott
With his trademark empathy and sensitivity, Rattigan explores the driving force of desire and its devastating consequences through his depiction of Hester Collyer, torn between her love for a callow younger man, and the security of a lifeless marriage.
Terence Rattigan’s plays include Separate Tables, In Praise of Love, The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version which will also be staged during Festival 2011. The Deep Blue Sea will be partnered by the world premiere of Rattigan’s Nijinsky (see below) which will be performed by the same company of actors. Both productions form part of the ‘festival within a Festival’ taking place to mark the centenary of Rattigan’s birth.
RATTIGAN’S NIJINSKY by Nicholas Wright WORLD PREMIERE
Based on a screenplay by Terence Rattigan
19 July – 3 September, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Monday 25 July, 7.00pm)
Director: Philip Franks
Music: Matthew Scott
This production marks the staging of two world premieres in one. In 1974 Terence Rattigan wrote a television script for the BBC about Diaghilev, the impresario behind the Ballet Russes and Nijinsky, the most renowned dancer of all time. The screenplay was later withdrawn in mysterious circumstances by Rattigan himself and neither produced nor published.
Now, in his new play, Nicholas Wright imagines why. The dying Rattigan meets Nijinsky’s elderly widow, Romola, to fight over his play. Meanwhile, in the same room, Diaghilev and the young Romola fight over the tormented Nijinsky.
Nicholas Wright’s work includes Mrs Klein, Vincent in Brixton, the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and The Reporter.
Philip Franks directs both The Deep Blue Sea and Rattigan’s Nijinsky. His productions for Chichester include The Master Builder, Separate Tables, Twelfth Night and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
THE SYNDICATE (Il Sindaco Del Rione Sanità) by Eduardo De Filippo
In a new version by Mike Poulton
WORLD PREMIERE
21 July – 20 August, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Tuesday 2 August 7.00pm)
Director: Sean Mathias
Ian McKellen returns to Chichester for the first time in several decades to play Don Antonio, the Godfather making someone an offer they can’t refuse in this witty dark comedy set in 1960s Naples. McKellen’s distinguished career includes theatre credits for Macbeth, Waiting for Godot and King Lear. His film credits include The Lord of the Rings, Gods and Monsters, Richard III, Dance of Death and X Men.
The cast also features Michael Pennington as Dr Fabio. His credits include The Master Builder (Festival 2010), Collaboration and Taking Sides (Festivals 08 and 09), The Iron Lady and Love is My Sin, as well as extensive work with the RSC and his English Shakespeare Company.
Eduardo De Filippo’s plays include Napoli Milionaria, Filumena and Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Mike Poulton’s adaptations include Wallenstein (Festival 09), The Cherry Orchard, The Father, Fortune’s Fool and Uncle Vanya.
Sean Mathias’ stage credits include Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Little Night Music and the award-winning film Bent.
SOUTH DOWNS by David Hare WORLD PREMIERE
THE BROWNING VERSION by Terence Rattigan
2 September – 8 October, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Wednesday 14 September 7pm)
South Downs
Director: Jeremy Herrin
David Hare’s new one-act play, written at the invitation of the Rattigan Trust as a response to The Browning Version, concerns a lonely boy at a public school on the South Downs. It is a meditation on learning, faith and teenage friendship set against the backdrop of a Britain still striving to maintain the established order.
David Hare’s plays include The Power of Yes, Stuff Happens, Gethsemane, The Vertical Hour, Amy’s View, Racing Demons, which received an Olivier Award for Best New Play, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War, Pravda (with Howard Brenton) which received an Evening Standard Award for Best Play and Skylight; his screenplays include The Reader and The Hours.
Jeremy Herrin is Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court where he has directed David Hare’s The Vertical Hour, That Face and The Heretic. He has also directed The Family Reunion at the Donmar and Statement of Regret at the National Theatre.
The Browning Version
Director: Angus Jackson
Classics master Andrew Crocker-Harris, brilliant scholar turned unpopular teacher is retiring from a public school to teach in a crammer. His years of self-loathing, buttoned-up disappointment and humiliation are released by a small gesture of unexpected kindness from one of his pupils in this poignant one-act play.
Associate Director Angus Jackson’s credits for Chichester include Goodnight Mister Tom (currently touring), Bingo, Wallenstein, Funny Girl, The Waltz of the Toreadors and Carousel. His other stage credits include Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Rocket to the Moon and David Hare’s The Power of Yes, all for the National Theatre.
SWEENEY TODD
The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
From an adaptation by Christopher Bond
24 September – 5 November, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 6 October 7pm)
Director: Jonathan Kent
Designer: Anthony Ward
Choreographer: Denni Sayers
Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson
Musical Director: Nicholas Skilbeck
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Acclaimed musical theatre actor Michael Ball takes the title role in this dark and witty portrayal of corruption and revenge, generally acknowledged as Sondheim’s masterpiece. Combining elements of horror with English music hall, the musical depicts Sweeney Todd’s return to nineteenth century London following years of false imprisonment.
Stephen Sondheim’s musicals include Follies, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George and Passion.
Michael Ball’s stage credits include originating the role of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, for which he won Laurence Olivier and Whatsonstage Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. He will be reprising the role on tour this Spring. Other stage credits include Les Misérables, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Phantom of the Opera, Passion and The Woman in White. Last year he co-produced the West End production of Love Story following its Chichester premiere during Festival 2010.
Award-winning actress Imelda Staunton plays Sweeney Todd’s accomplice, the pie-shop owner Mrs Lovett. Staunton’s film credits include Vera Drake for which she received the BAFTA Best Actress Award and an Oscar nomination, Another Year, the Harry Potter series and Shakespeare in Love. Her stage credits include Entertaining Mr Sloane, Guys and Dolls and Into The Woods. On television she has featured in Cranford and Psychoville.
Jonathan Kent directed A Month in the Country for Chichester’s Festival 2010. Other recent work includes the National Theatre production of Oepidus starring Ralph Fiennes and The Fairy Queen at Glyndebourne. He was Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre for 12 years where his work included When We Dead Awaken, All For Love, Medea, The School For Wives and Gangster No.1.
Age guideline: 12+
TERENCE RATTIGAN – A CELEBRATION
As part of this year’s celebration of the life and work of Terence Rattigan, there will be a series of rehearsed readings of some of his lesser-known plays with members of the Festival Company and special guests.
FIRST EPISODE (1933)
Sunday 31 July, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm
Directed by Philip Franks
Written with Philip Heimann while Rattigan was still at Oxford, this play depicts the devastating impact of a visiting actress upon a group of undergraduates.
IN PRAISE OF RATTIGAN
Sunday 7 August, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm
Directed by and featuring Penelope Keith
An entertainment devised by Jack Tinker and Martin Tickner.
ADVENTURE STORY (1949)
Sunday 14 August, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm
Directed by Tim Hoare
One of Rattigan’s own favourite plays – never been produced since its premiere – this sweeping historical drama is the story of Alexander the Great, who conquers the world and loses his soul.
VARIATION ON A THEME (1958)
Sunday 21 August, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm
Directed by Michael Oakley
Rattigan’s retelling of the story of Camille, in which Marguerite Gaultier falls hopelessly in love with a bisexual dancer much younger than herself.
HEART TO HEART (1962)
Sunday 4 September, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm
Directed by Philip Franks
During the course of a live interview, an eminent politician is forced to reveal the truth about his political and personal life. This prophetic play is based on the infamous television interview programme Face to Face hosted by John Freeman from 1959 – 1962.
HARLEQUINADE (1949)
Sunday 25 September, Minerva Theatre 6.00pm
Directed by Angus Jackson
This humourous caricature of post-war theatre life was originally performed in a double bill with The Browning Version, which plays this season in the Minerva Theatre.
There will also be various other events, pre- and post-show talks, Saturday shorts and workshops related to Festival 2011 productions. Full details are in the Festival brochure, pages 25 – 27, or online at www.cft.org.uk/takingpart
Priority Booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre opens on Thursday 17 February at 10.00am. To become a Friend of the Theatre and benefit from priority booking and discounted tickets, call 01243 781312 or join online at www.cft.org.uk/friends.
Online public booking opens for everyone on Monday 28 February at 10.00am. Telephone and counter booking opens for everyone on Thursday 3 March. Tickets £10 – £38 available online at www.cft.org.uk or contact the Box Office on 01243 781312.
Chichester Festival Theatre is working in partnership with The University of Chichester to offer reduced price tickets for the first three performances of all productions in the Festival Theatre. To book for The University of Chichester Festival Theatre Previews, visit www.cft.org.uk or call the Box Office on 01243 781312.
Release issued by: Chichester Festival Theatre press office
LINKS
Chichester Festival Theatre website
Love Story to Close at Duchess Theatre
February 1, 2011
The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Love Story will close as scheduled at the Duchess Theatre on 26 February 2011.
Emma Williams and Michael Xavier in Love Story
The new musical, based on Eric Segal’s best-selling book and the acclaimed film, is the first producing venture for musicals star Michael Ball, along with The Mousetrap producer Stephen Waley-Cohen, and Hairspray and Sister Act producer Adam Spiegel.
The show is set to go on a UK tour after it closes in the West End.
The West End cast features Emma Williams, Michael Xavier and Peter Polycarpou, with direction by Rachel Kavanaugh, music by Howard Goodall, book by Stephen Clark and lyrics by Stephen Clark and Howard Goodall.
Other cast in the show include Richard Cordery, Jan Hartley, Gary Milner, Paul Kemble, Julie Stark, Lillie Flynn, Christopher Killik, Jamie Muscato and Rebecca Trehearn.
LINKS
SPECIAL OFFER: Save £22.50 on tickets to Love Story at the Duchess Theatre in London
Interview with Love Story producer Michael Ball
