Jez Butterworth’s Multi Award Winning Jerusalem Returns To London For Strictly Limited 14 Week Season

MARK RYLANCE TO REPRISE CELEBRATED ROLE OF JOHNNY “ROOSTER” BYRON DIRECTED BY IAN RICKSON

Ian Rickson’s Royal Court Theatre production of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem will return to London’s West End for a strictly limited 14 week engagement hot on the heels of a triumphant Broadway run. Mark Rylance will reprise his Olivier and Tony award-wining performance as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, directed by Ian Rickson. Previewing at the Apollo Theatre from 8 October 2011, with press night on 17 October, Jerusalem is booking until 14 January 2012. Designs are by Ultz, with lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph and music by Stephen Warbeck. Jerusalem is produced in the West End by Royal Court Theatre Productions and by Sonia Friedman Productions.

Jerusalem is a comic, contemporary vision of life in our green and pleasant land. On St George’s Day, the morning of the local county fair, Johnny Byron is a wanted man. The Council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants his dad to take him to the fair and Troy Whitworth wants to give him a serious kicking.

Jez Butterworth’s award-winning play returns to the West End following record-breaking sold-out runs at the Royal Court and the Apollo Theatres in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Jerusalem is currently enjoying a critically acclaimed extended run at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway where it plays until 21 August 2011. Jerusalem has now won over ten theatre awards internationally, culminating in the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Play going to Mark Rylance earlier this year.

The 2011 West End cast includes Mark Rylance (Johnny “Rooster” Byron) and Mackenzie Crook (Ginger) as well as Max Baker (Wesley), Alan David (The Professor), Aimeé-Ffion Edwards (Phaedra), Johnny Flynn (Lee), Geraldine Hughes (Dawn), Danny Kirrane (Davey), Charlotte Mills (Tanya), Sarah Moyle (Ms Fawcett) and Harvey Robinson (Mr Parsons).

Jerusalem will offer 20 best price seats at £10 each, which will go on sale from the Box Office, in person only, from 10am on the day of each performance.

Multi award-winning actor Mark Rylance was last in the West End playing Valere in La Bête at the Comedy Theatre, a role he reprised on Broadway. Before the West End run of Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre, he was recently on stage playing Hamm in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Duchess Theatre and Robert in Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre and on Broadway where he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. His other theatre work includes many productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Glasgow Citizens as well as True West for the Donmar Warehouse, Bloody Poetry for the Royal Court and The Maids for Shared Experience and Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing directed by Matthew Warchus, for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre his work as an actor included the title roles in Henry V and Hamlet as well as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Olivia in Twelfth Night. His film and television work includes The Other Boleyn Girl, Prospero’s Books, Angels and Insects, Leonardo and David Kelly in C4’s The Government Inspector for which he won the BAFTA Best Actor Award.

Jez Butterworth’s first play Mojo opened at the Royal Court in 1995 and subsequently won five drama awards including the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright and the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. He returned to the Royal Court in 2002 with The Night Heron and The Winterling in 2006. His films Mojo, starring Harold Pinter, and Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman, were both shown at the Venice Film Festival prior to general release. In 2007 he received the E.M. Forster Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2009 his play Parlour Song received its British premiere at the Almeida Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. 2010 saw the international release of his feature film Fair Game starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.

Ian Rickson’s most recent West End credits include Harold Pinter’s Betrayal which completes its run at the Comedy Theatre on 20 August and Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour. He was Artistic Director of the Royal Court from 1998-2006 where his many productions included Krapp’s Last Tape which he also directed for BBC4, Fallout which he also directed as a film for Channel 4 and The Weir and Mojo both of which transferred to the West End and Broadway. He has directed Jez Butterworth’s The Winterling, The Night Heron, Mojo and Parlour Song as well as Jerusalem. For the National Theatre he has directed The Hothouse and The Day I Stood Still.

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Book tickets to Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre starring Mark Rylance

MARK RYLANCE in Jerusalem

Fresh from his Tony Awards success, Mark Rylance brings Johnny back to London for one last time.

Life must feel pretty good for Mark Rylance.  Over a long and distinguished career he has moved with some grace and lots of eccentric style from accomplished actor, writer, director and artistic director to veritable national treasure.

And his performance as Johnny “Rooster” Byron in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem has proved nothing short of a theatrical revelation, with audiences and critics queuing up to praise him on both sides of the Atlantic, and awards ceremonies falling over themselves to hand over their honours (Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle awards – and now Tony Awards – included).

And following his Broadway run in Jerusalem, Rylance is bringing the play back to London for one last time.

Most recently Rylance scored a hit with David Hirson’s comedy La Bete in the West End and on Broadway, starring alongside Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley.

Other acting success for Rylance includes Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Duchess Theatre and his Tony award-winning role in Boeing-Boeing in the West End and on Broadway. He was Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for ten years and his work as an actor included the title roles in Henry V and Hamlet as well as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Olivia in Twelfth Night.  Other work includes a number of RSC and the National Theatre productions as well as roles at the Donmar Warehouse and the Royal Court.  In the West End he played Benedict in Much Ado about Nothing directed by Matthew Warchus, for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor.  Film and TV work includes The Other Boleyn Girl, Prospero’s Books and The Government Inspector for which he won the BAFTA Best Actor Award for his role as David Kelly.

Ian Rickson, director of Jerusalem, said of Rylance that he is, “steeped in symbolism, imagination and ritual. There are very few actors who are able to be male and also have a poetic dimension.”

Rylance will star in Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre in London, alongside Mackenzie Crook, from 8 October 2011 to 14 January 2012.

Book tickets to Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre starring Mark Rylance

Tony Award Winners: War Horse, Book of Mormon sweep Tony Awards; Mark Rylance named Best Actor

At a star-studded ceremony last night, Sunday 12 June 2011, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the American Theatre Wing’s 65th annual Tony Awards were announced. British play War Horse triumphed at the awards winning 5 gongs, including Best Play. British actor Mark Rylance won a Best Actor awards for his performance in the Royal Court’s Jerusalem.

The Book of Mormon, which has proved an unlikely smash-hit on Broadway, swept the awards with 9 wins out of its 14 nominations, including Best New Musical, and Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for its authors Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, and Robert Lopez.

Neil Patrick Harris hosted a fun and unusually irreverent night, which opened with a tongue-in-cheek “did they really say that?” song-and-dance number, arguing that the range of Broadway shows on offer meant that the Great White Way was no longer “just for gays”.

The National Theatre’s production of War Horse, which is currently running at the New London Theatre in London and also at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York, won 5 awards including Best Play for author Nick Stafford, Best Direction of a Play for Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, Best Scenic Design of a Play for Rae Smith, Best Lighting Design of a Play for Paule Constable and Best Sound Design of a Play for Christopher Shutt. A special Tony Award was also given to the Handspring Puppet Company, who have produced the life-size horse puppets for the show.

Other big winners last night included two revivals, Anything Goes, which won 3 awards including Best Revival of a Musical and Larry Kramer’s 1985 hit The Normal Heart, which also won 3 awards including Best Revival of a Play.

Big name stars who brought home awards included our very own Mark Rylance, who beat Al Pacino for the Best Actor in a Play award for his bravado performance in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, his second Tony awards following his 2008 win for Boeing-Boeing, Ellen Barkin in The Normal Heart, and Frances McDormand winning Best Actress in a Play for Good People.

The most impassioned acceptance speech of the night came from AIDS activist Larry Kramer, whose play The Normal Heart scooped 3 awards and who said: “I could not have written it had not so many of us so needlessly died.. Learn from it, and carry on the fight. Let them know that we are a very special people, an exceptional people. And that our day will come.”

Brits who were nominated but missed out on awards this year included Jerusalem author Jez Butterworth, Joanna Lumley and costume designer Mark Thompson for La Bete, Kneehigh’s production of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter and its leading lady Hannah Yelland, Vanessa Redgrave for Driving Miss Daisy, Adam Godley for Anything Goes, Brian Bedford for The Importance of Being Earnest and Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia.

The awards were broadcast live by CBS in the States.

See the full list of 2011 Tony Award winners here.

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Tony Award winners 2011
Tony Award nominations 2011
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Tony Award Nominations Announced: War Horse and Jerusalem compete for Best Play

The American Theatre Wing’s 2011 Tony Award nominations were announced today, Tuesday 3 May 2011. The nominations were presented by Matthew Broderick and Anika Noni Rose from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at Lincoln Center in New York.

A number of high-profile UK shows or London transfers did well in the nominations with the National Theatre’s War Horse and the Royal Court’s Jerusalem both running for Best Play.

Jerusalem was also nominated for six other awards including Mark Rylance for leading actor in a play, Mackenzie Crook for featured actor in a play, lighting design, scenic design and sound design.

Author of the play, Jez Butterworth, said: “I’m so thrilled that it’s working so well in the States. The Music Box Theatre is the most beautiful space I’ve been in. Being on Broadway is totally new experience for me, and I love that the atmosphere is so intimate.”

War Horse also received nominations for direction, scenic design, lighting design and sound design, and the creators of the puppets for the show, Handspring Puppet Company, will also receive a Special Tony Award.

Other London transfers nominated for awards include La Bete, which picked up nominations for Joanna Lumley and costume designer Mark Thompson, Kneehigh’s production of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter, with two nominations including best performance by an actress in a leading role for Hannah Yelland, and Sister Act the Musical, which had its world premiere in London, and received five nominations including best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical for Patina Miller.

Other Brits up for awards include Vanessa Redgrave for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy, Adam Godley for Anything Goes, Brian Bedford for The Importance of Being Earnest and Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia is competing in the best revival of a play category. He told BroadwayWorld that, “I feel pretty remarkable… The nomination for Best Revival is a deserved compliment to David Leveaux who directed Arcadia and to an exceptional company of actors.”

Daniel Radcliffe failed to secure a nomination for his starring role in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, although the revival did get eight nods including best revival of a musical, best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical for John Larroquette and actress for Tammy Blanchard, plus best direction and choreography nods for Rob Ashford, who is currently busy directing the London production of Shrek The Musical.

Big winners in the nominations were new musical The Book of Mormon by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which received 14 nominations, the most of any show, The Scottsboro Boys with 12 nods and Anything Goes with nine nominations.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert received two nominations including Sydney and London star of the show Tony Sheldon for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. He said: “It’s extraordinary and so nice. I’ve been from the show since the first workshop, building the character. I’ve had so much input onto the show and my character and I feel so emotionally invested in the production”.

The awards will be presented on Sunday 12 June in a three hour live ceremony broadcast by CBS in the States.

LINKS

Tony Award nominations 2011
New York Times Tony nominations analysis
Book tickets to Broadway shows

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners

Best New Comedy

2010 The Priory
2009 God of Carnage
2008 Rafta Rafta
2007 John Buchan’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
2006 Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras translated by Tom Stoppard

Best Comedy

2003 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2002 The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben
2001 Stones In His Pockets by Marie Jones
2000 The Memory Of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
1999 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick by Terry Johnson
1998 Popcorn by Ben Elton
1997 Art by Yasmina Reza
1996 Mojo by Jez Butterworth
1995 My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot
1994 Hysteria by Terry Johnson
1993 The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
1992 La Bête by David Hirson
1991 Out Of Order by Ray Cooney
1989/90 Single Spies by Alan Bennett
1988 Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
1987 Three Men On A Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott
1986 When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley
1985 A Chorus Of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn
1984 Up’N’Under by John Godber
1983 Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan
1982 Noises Off by Michael Frayn
1981 Steaming by Nell Dunn
1980 Educating Rita by Willy Russell
1979 Middle Age Spread by Roger Hall
1978 Filumena by Eduardo de Filippo, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
1977 Privates On Parade by Peter Nichols
1976 Donkey’s Years by Michael Frayn

Best Comedy Performance

1995 Niall Buggy for Dead Funny
1994 Griff Rhys Jones for An Absolute Turkey
1993 Simon Cadell for Travels With My Aunt
1992 Desmond Barrit for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Alan Cumming for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
1989/90 Michael Gambon for Man Of The Moment
1988 Alex Jennings for Too Clever By Half
1987 John Woodvine for The Henrys
1986 Bill Fraser for When We Are Married
1985 Michael Gambon for A Chorus Of Disapproval
1984 Maureen Lipman for See How They Run
1983 Griff Rhys Jones for Charley’s Aunt
1982 Geoffrey Hutchings for Poppy
1981 Rowan Atkinson for Rowan Atkinson in Revue
1980 Beryl Reid for Born In The Gardens
1979 Barry Humphries for A Night With Dame Edna
1978 Ian McKellen for The Alchemist
1977 Denis Quilley for Privates On Parade
1976 Penelope Keith for Donkey’s Years

Evening Standard Theatre Awards

Last night at a star-studded ceremony at the Royal Opera House, the 55^th annual Evening Standard Theatre Awards recognised a host of London theatre productions and talent.

This was the first year that new guidelines for the awards have ruled out West End commercial theatres, leading to recognition for a range of smaller venues, including an impressive four gongs for the Royal Court Theatre.

Rachel Weisz took the top acting honour for her performance as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse. The prize was renamed the Natasha Richardson Best Actress Award in honour of the actress who died in March, and was presented by her mother Vanessa Redgrave.

Also Ian McKellen was presented with a special award for his outstanding contribution to British theatre over the last half a century. The award will sit alongside two other Evening Standard Best Actor awards he has won, as well as Olivier awards and a Tony.

The Royal Court’s production of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem was named Best Play, and its star Mark Rylance was named Best Actor in the role of Johnny “Rooster” Byron. The play will shortly transfer to the Apollo Theatre in the West End.

Best Director prize went to man of the moment Rupert Goold for Enron -which was another victory for the Royal Court and is also transferring into the West End – this time the Noel Coward theatre.

There were also awards for the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, with its acclaimed production of Hello Dolly! winning the Best Musical award, the Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright award went to Alia Bano for Shades, staged at the Royal Court as part of its young writers’ festival, and Best Design was awarded to Mamoru Iriguchi  for Mincemeat at Cordy House in Shoreditch.

The evening also proved special for comedian Lenny Henry, who has officially made the break from comedy to legit theatre by being named Best Newcomer for his lead performance in Othello at the Trafalgar Studios.

London Theatre – 2009 Preview

If theatre mirrors life then you would expect 2009 to be a bad year for the performing arts in London: economic downturns and credit crunches sound like gloomy news for our discretionary entertainment spending. But West End theatre box office figures have kept on going up in recent years, and the huge number of new productions sailing into town during 2009 could mean that Theatreland manages to buck the trend.

THE GREAT REVIVAL

The RSC, National Theatre, Donmar and Old Vic dominated straight drama in the West End in 2008, and they haven’t finished yet. Big hitters coming to town include Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike in the Donmar in the West End’s Madame de Sade at the Wyndhams; Jude Law offering us his, hopefully fighting fit, Hamlet; Gillian Anderson in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Rachel Weisz in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse; Helen Mirren making her return to the London stage in Phaedra at the National Theatre; and a number of crowd-pleasing revivals at the Old Vic, no more so than Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel’s hugely successful play starring Andrea Corr, and Sam Mendes directing Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, both featuring Ethan Hawke, Simon Russell Beale and Sinead Cusack.

STAR POWER

Other stars shimmying into town include Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket, Ken Stott and Hayley Atwell in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at the Duke of York’s, heavy-hitter Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear at the Young Vic, and Antony Sher giving us his Prospero in the RSC’s The Tempest. The Gavin and Stacey phenomenon continues to roll on, as we see Joe Orton’s delicious romp Entertaining Mr Sloane at the Trafalgar Studios starring Gavin himself, Matthew Horne, alongside Imelda Staunton; whilst Gavin’s onscreen Mum Alison Steadman plays a barking Leeds housewife in Alan Bennett’s Enjoy at the Gielgud Theatre.

NEW PLAYS

The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that all of these plays are revivals rather than new work, keeping audiences firmly in their comfort zones. That said, new plays may be thin on the ground but not absent all together, with the National offering up Richard Bean’s England People Very Nice, following two lovers across four centuries, and Samuel Adamson’s Mrs Affleck set in the 1950s. Jez Butterworth has two new plays in pre-production, with comedy Parlour Song at the Almeida and Jerusalem at the Royal Court. Also at the Royal Court, Mark Ravenhill will bring his new play Over There. Plus Hollywood man of the moment James McAvoy is to star in Richard Greenberg’s acclaimed play Three Days of Rain at the Apollo, and at The Old Vic Richard Dreyfuss headlines the world premiere of American playwright Joe Sutton’s new play Complicit, directed by Kevin Spacey.

“BASED ON A FILM”

In musical theatre, 2009 promises to be a year of great big fabulous and familiar shows, surely enough to see us through the dark times? And it’s no coincidence that many of them are based on hugely successful films.

Oliver! will be well and truly steaming ahead through 2009 at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal with Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger; La Cage Aux Folles will continue camping it up at the Playhouse but with Graham Norton taking over from Douglas Hodge; and at the Adelphi Theatre Lee Mead will bow out of Joseph to be replaced by Gareth Gates.

Jason Donovan will be donning the wigs and lip gloss to take us on an Australian power-mince in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Palace Theatre. And Sister Act at the London Palladium will be doing its best to recreate the fun of the film, helped along by Whoopi Goldberg as co-producer. And not quite a musical but as good as, Calendar Girls the stage play will up the naked flesh quotient in the West End, starring Patricia Hodge and Lynda Bellingham at the Noel Coward Theatre.

Also in musicals-land the power of reality TV continues to wield its power, with Gareth Gates going into Joseph at the Adelphi Theatre, the X-factor’s Niki Evans continuing in Blood Brothers at the Phoenix, Jodie Prenger in Oliver at the Drury Lane, and Ray Quinn and Danny Bayne in Grease – joined for a limited time by the legendary Jimmy Osmond.

KIDS RULE

Kids should also see a good year in 2009 with an enormous live theatrical production of Walking with Dinosaurs coming to a stadium near you, and War Horse transfers from its successful run at the National Theatre to the New London Theatre.

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