Design for Living – Ticket Offer Save £15

Sexy, stylish new production of Noel Coward’s Design for Living at the Old Vic

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

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

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

The West End stage in September 1994

A snapshot of what was playing in the West End in September 1994, including Sunset Boulevard, Crazy for You, Copacabana, Design for Living starring Clive Owen, Imogen Stubbs in Saint Joan and Ruthie Henshall in She Loves Me.

Ticket prices in 1994: Average top price tickets were £30 for a musical and £20 for a play.

Adelphi: Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Albery: Lady Windermere’s Fan, starring Francesca Annis

Aldwych: An Inspector Calls, directed by Stephen Daldry

Ambassadors: 900 Oneonta, written and directed by David Beaird

Apollo: Neville’s Island, starring Tony Slattery

Apollo Victoria: Starlight Express, directed by Trevor Nunn

Coliseum: Tosca, The Mikado

Comedy: The Official Tribute to the Blues Brothers

Dominion: Grease, starring Shane Ritchie and Sonia

Donmar Warehouse: Design for Living, starring Clive Owen, Paul Rhys and Rachel Weisz

Drury Lane: Miss Saigon, directed by Nicholas Hytner

Duchess: Don’t Dress for Dinner starring Royce Mills

Duke of York’s: Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey

Fortune: The Woman in Black, starring Mark Curry and Jeffry Wickham

Globe: The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan

Haymarket: Arcadia, starring Joanne Pearce and Roger Allam

Her Majesty’s: The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince

Island Theatre at the Royalty: Once on this Island

London Palladium: Oliver!, starring Jonathan Pryce

Lyric: Five Guys Named Moe by Clarke Peters

National Theatre: Racing Demon, The Devil’s Disciple, The Seagull, The Children’s Hour, Sweet Bird of Youth, Broken Glass, Two Weeks with the Queen, Le Cid, Rutherford & Son

New London: Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Old Vic: The Sisters Rosensweig, starring Maureen Lipman, Janet Suzman and Lynda Bellingham

Palace: Les Miserables, directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird

Phoenix: Blood Brothers, starring Stephanie Lawrence

Piccadilly: Only the Lonely

Prince Edward: Crazy for You

Prince of Wales: Copacabana, starring Gary Wilmot

Queen’s: What a Performance, starring David Suchet

Royal Court: Babies by Jonathan Harvey

Royal Opera House: Turandot, Le Cenerentola

RSC at the Barbican Theatre: The Tempest, The Hostage, The Venetian Twins, The Country Wife, Moby Dick

Sadler’s Wells: Cumbre Flamenca

St Martin’s: The Mousetrap, now in its 42nd year

Savoy: She Loves Me, starring Ruthie Henshall and John Gordon Sinclair

Shaftesbury: Out of the Blue

Strand: Saint Joan, starring Imogen Stubbs

Vaudeville: Dead Funny, starring Zoe Wanamaker

Victoria Palace: Buddy

Wyndham’s: The Miracle Worker, starring Jenny Seagrove

Design for Living

Anthony Page directs Tom Burke, Lisa Dillon and Andrew Scott in Noël Coward’s wickedly witty, romantic comedy Design for Living. From 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels…

New Old Vic season launched

Kevin Spacey pulls out the stops for his 7th year at the Old Vic with three heavy-weight directors

Hollywood actor and Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey has announced a new season of plays at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

Now in his seventh year at the theatre, Spacey revealed that he has attracted three of Britain’s leading directors to helm three revivals during 2010 and 2011.

Anthony Page, whose credits include last year’s Waiting for Godot on Broadway, will direct Noël Coward’s Design For Living, playing at the theatre from 3 September to 27 November 2010. The play will star Tom Burke (Telstar), Andrew Scott (Lennon Naked) and Lisa Dillon (Cranford). Written in 1932, the comedy concerns the complicated three-way relationship between two men and a woman.

Richard Eyre, who recently directed Kim Cattrall in Private Lives at the Vaudeville Theatre, will direct Georges Feydeau’s 1907 French farce A Flea In Her Ear, in a version by John Mortimer, from 4 December 2010 to 5 March 2011. The production will star Tom Hollander (In The Loop) and Lisa Dillon.

Finally, Thea Sharrock, who has enjoyed enormous success for her current National Theatre staging of Terence Rattigan’s After The Dance, will return to the playwright in his centenary year with a revival of his final play, Cause Célèbre, from 17 March to 11 June 2011.

Sharrock will also direct Alison Steadman in a new production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, coming to the Apollo Theatre from March 2011.

Spacey commented on the new season: “These are three great plays that all rather brilliantly explore the attitudes of their time and offer wonderful roles to actors.”

Current shows at the Old Vic and the Old Vic in the West End:

Book tickets to Design For Living at the Old Vic Theatre

Book tickets to A Flea In Her Ear at the Old Vic Theatre

Book tickets to Cause Célèbre at the Old Vic Theatre

Book tickets to The Tempest at the Old Vic Theatre

Book tickets to As You Like It at the Old Vic Theatre

Book tickets to see The Prisoner of Second Avenue at the Vaudeville Theatre