Onassis

West End Star Watch: Update

Our regular round-up of theatre names hitting town or making the news. This issue includes Alison Steadman, Jenny Galloway, Catherine Zeta-Jones, David Haid, Robert Lindsay and Anthony Sher.

ALISON STEADMAN

Director of the moment Thea Sharrock, who enjoyed rave notices last week for her new production of Terrence Rattigan’s After the Dance at the National Theatre, will turn to Noel Coward later this year.

A new production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit will materialise at the Theatre Royal Bath and then transfer to the Apollo Theatre from 2 March 2011 starring award-winning actress Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacey) as Madame Arcati.

No stranger to Blithe Spirit, Sharrock directed a 2004 production of the play at the Savoy Theatre starring Penelope Keith. The Noel Coward classic has had numerous UK revivals in the last few years. The director told Baz in the Daily Mail that, “You cannot really mess with those old boys  -  the structure is so particular”. Indeed.

The only question is, will Rupert Everett reprise his recent Broadway performance as Charles Condomine for the production?

JENNY GALLOWAY

Amongst many standout performances in Thea Sharrock’s production of After the Dance is that of Jenny Galloway as Miss Potter, an actress who is s one of the most accomplished stars you’ve (probably) never heard of. She has recently been cast in Cameron Mackintosh’s enormous 25th anniversary concert version of Les Miserables at the O2 Arena on 3 October playing Madame Thénardier, a role she played in the London and New York productions.

Galloway’s career spans musicals and plays including two Olivier Award winning performances – as Rosie in Mamma Mia! (2000) and Luce in The Boys from Syracuse (1992). She also originated the role of Mrs Brill in Mackintosh’s production of Mary Poppins – in London and Broadway – and recently appeared in the Donmar in the West End’s production of Madame De Sade with Judi Dench.

DAVID HAIG

The great migration of classic TV shows to stage (see Porridge, Inspector Morse, Dad’s Army etc) shows no sign of abating. Jenny Galloway’s fellow Mary Poppins cast mate David Haig, who originated the role of Mr Banks in the show, will be back in London this Autumn in a stage production of TV classic Yes, Prime Minister.

Haig plays Prime Minister Jim Hacker in the Chichester production that will run at the Gielgud Theatre from 17 September, penned by the show’s original TV writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. The comedy will also star Henry Goodman as Sir Humphrey Appleby.

ANTHONY SHER

A big name he may be, but Anthony Sher is not averse to playing the odd small venue: he will debut in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass at the Tricycle Theatre from 30 September, directed by Iqbal Khan. Let’s hope it also transfers to the West End to follow the current Arthur Miller success in town – All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre starring David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker.

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES

Anthony Sher’s cousin, Ronald Harwood, received a knighthood this week in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his enormous contribution to stage and screen writing, including classic theatrical play The Dresser. Congrats also go to Catherine Zeta-Jones who has been appointed a CBE. Currently wowing them on Broadway in A Little Night Music, here’s hoping this week proves a double-success for Mrs Michael Douglas and she wins a Tony award tonight for her performance in the show.

ROBERT LINDSAY

The Novello Theatre will see out Tap Dogs in September and follow with Onassis on 30 September starring Robert Lindsay. He will resurrect his performance as Aristotle Onassis in Martin Sherman’s play Onassis following a run in Derby. Based on the last years of the controversial Greek tycoon, the play was originally produced as Aristo at Chichester to mixed reviews but with glowing praise for Lindsay’s performance. Sherman and director Nancy Meckler have subsequently rewritten the piece.

The cast will also include Tom Austen, Liz Crowther, Ben Grove, Robert Hastie, John Hodgkinson, Sue Kelvin, Graeme Taylor and Gawn Grainger.

Tap Dogs – Save £17.50

Save £17.50 on tickets to Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre in London

Valid Tuesday to Thursday evenings until the 1st July

Adam Garcia returns to the London stage in the Australian dance spectacular Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre.

Tap Dogs is a worldwide hit that combines the strength and power of workmen with the precision and talent of tap dancing. The adrenalin-pumped cast of this award-winning show inject raw passion and power into the ultimate visual dance spectacular.

Adam Garcia started his career in 1992 in the Australian tour of Hot Shoe Shuffle – which transferred to the West End – and went on to perform in Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Wicked and as a judge on Sky 1 entertainment show Got To Dance.

Tap Dogs has been enjoyed by over 11 million people worldwide and has won 11 major awards including an Oliver Award for best choreography.

BOOK NOW: Save £17.50 on tickets to Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre in London

Valid Tuesday to Thursday evenings until the 1st July

Hot new shows in June

June is proving to be a busy month for West End Theatre with a number of high-profile openings, including work from big name directors such as Sam Mendes, Richard Eyre and Matthew Warchus.

At the National Theatre, a revival of Terence Rattigan’s After The Dance starts previews from 1 June 2010 featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, and Richard Eye directs Moira Buffini’s new play Welcome to Thebes from 15 June. Also starting on the 15th is Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre, which returns to London starring hot song and dance man Adam Garcia.

Wartime land girls play Lilies on the Land begins previews at the Arts Theatre from 8 June, and at the Almeida Ruth Wilson stars in a stage version of Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly from 10 June.

The Old Vic sees the next of its Bridge Project plays start on 12 June, in a new Sam Mendes production of As You Like It starring Stephen Dillane and Juliet Rylance.

Sticking with the Shakespeare theme, the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park starts previews of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors on 24 June, and the following day the Lyric Hammersmith transfers its sell-out fright-night chiller Ghost Stories to the Duke of York’s Theatre.

Finally, all-star, Broadway-bound comedy La Bete opens at the Comedy Theatre from 26 June starring Joanna Lumley, Mark Rylance and David Hyde Pierce.

MORE INFORMATION AND BOOKING

AFTER THE DANCE

National Theatre, from 1 June 2010

With next year’s centenary of playwright Terence Rattigan fast approaching, expect to see a number of high-profile revivals of his work – both on stage and screen.

This new production of his 1939 play After the Dance is directed for the National by Thea Sharrock (The Misanthrope, Equus) and is a subtle expose of the hedonistic 1920s generation, dealing with themes of repression and love.

As the world races towards catastrophe, a crowd of Mayfair socialites party their way to oblivion. At its centre is David, who idles away his sober moments researching a futile book until the beautiful Helen decides to save him, shattering his marriage and learning too late the depth of both David’s indolence and his wife’s undeclared love. But with finances about to crash and humanity on the brink of global conflict, the drink keeps flowing and the revellers dance on.

Book tickets to After the Dance at the National Theatre in London

LILIES ON THE LAND

Arts Theatre, from 8 June 2010

Lilies On The Land is moving and funny portrait of some of Britain’s pluckiest, unsung heroes. This charming, gripping tale celebrates the Women’s Land Army during World War II – an extraordinary episode in Britain’s history. This play charts the personal journeys of four women who sign up to become Land Girls, determined to work backbreaking hours on the land in a bid to do their bit for the war effort.

Based on letters and interviews with the original Land Girls, these women, who are all from different backgrounds and torn from their families, must survive the hardships of farming and the pressures of war. The cast of this compelling play features Rosalind Cressy, Sarah Finch, Dorothy Lawrence and Kali Peacock.

Book tickets to Lilies on the Land at the Arts Theatre in London

AS YOU LIKE IT

The Old Vic, from 12 June

Part of the successful Bridge Project – a transatlantic collaboration between the Old Vic in London and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York – this year sees Oscar winning director Sam Mendes direct Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Tempest.

The company is led by Stephan Dillane, Christian Camargo, Ron Cephas Jones and Juliet Rylance.

As You Like It is Shakespeare’s pastoral romantic comedy that features Juliet Rylance and Michelle Beck as the heroines Rosalind and Celia, and Christian Camargo and Thomas Sadoski as Orlando and Touchstone.

Young British actress Rylance, the daughter of acclaimed actor Mark Rylance, has appeared on stage both in New York and London, including Shakespeare’s Globe. Dillane, who plays Jacques in As You Like It, returns to the stage for the first time since winning a Tony Award for Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing.

Books tickets to As You Like It at the Old Vic Theatre in London

TAP DOGS

Novello Theatre, from 15 June 2010

Adam Garcia will return to the London stage this June in the Australian dance show Tap Dogs.

Tap Dogs is a worldwide hit that combines the strength and power of workmen with the precision and talent of tap dancing. The adrenalin-pumped cast of this award-winning show inject raw passion and power into the ultimate visual dance spectacular.

Adam Garcia started his career in 1992 in the Australian tour of Hot Shoe Shuffle – which transferred to the West End – and went on to perform in Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Wicked and as a judge on Sky 1 entertainment show Got To Dance.

Book tickets to Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre in London

GHOST STORIES

Duke of York’s Theatre, from 25 June 2010

A truly terrifying theatrical experience written and directed by The League of Gentlemen’s master of the macabre, Jeremy Dyson, and Andy Nyman, co-creator and director of Derren Brown’s television and stage shows and star of Dead Set and Severance.

As three men gather together, each has an uncanny, chilling tale to tell. Ghost Stories played a hugely successful run at the Lyric Hammersmith before transferring to the Duke of York’s theatre in the West End. The show stars Nicholas Burns, David Cardy, Ryan Gage and Andy Nyman.

Strictly for theatregoers aged 16 and older.

“Brilliant and deeply unsettling” The Telegraph
“A pant-wetter of a night. It’s terrifying” Daily Mail
“Yes, I gulped and others screeched” The Times
“Hugely entertaining piece of theatre” The Stage

Book tickets to Ghost Stories at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London

LA BETE

Comedy Theatre, from 26 June 2010

American playwright David Hirson’s rollicking 1991 play, La Bete is a comic tour de force about Elomire (David Hyde Pierce – “Frasier”), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theatre, and Valere (Mark Rylance – “Jerusalem”), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley – “Absolutely Fabulous”) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.

Other cast include Stephen Ouimette, Lisa Joyce, Greta Lee, Robert Lonsdale, Michael Milligan, Liza Sadovy and Sally Wingert. The play will be directed by Matthew Warchus and run for a limited season at the Comedy Theatre before heading to Broadway.

Book tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London

OUT OF TOWN: Chichester, Sheffield

New productions at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, and the Derby Theatre

CHICHESTER:

Much excitement at westendtheatre.com at the casting of Chichester’s new production of 42nd Street (21 June – 28 August, Festival Theatre). Directed by the Leicester Curve’s Paul Kerryson, the show will feature the fabulous Kathryn Evans (Sunset Boulevard), dishy leading man Steven Houghton and the uber-talented Tim Flavin (Crazy for You).

SHEFFIELD:

On a retro-musicals note, Me and My Girl will resurface in Sheffield this Christmas (from 9 December, Sheffield Crucible). It’s been a whopping 17 years since the Leicester Haymarket Theatre’s all new, Stephen Fry-revised production left the Adelphi Theatre in London after 8 years, 3,303 performances and lots of Lambeth walking by the likes of Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson. The production made a lot of money for all concerned so it’s a canny Daniel Evans, Sheffield’s artistic director, who’s resurrecting it. The show will be directed by Anna Mackmin, who’s enjoying big success at the Old Vic at the moment with her production of The Real Thing starring Toby Stephens. Choreography will be by Stephen Mear and design by Peter McKintosh.

If we begged him, do you think Daniel Evans would take the lead?

DERBY:

Having mentioned Robert Lindsay, he will resurrect his performance as Aristotle Onassis in Martin Sherman’s play Onassis (Derby Theatre,  from 10 September). Based on the last years of the controversial Greek tycoon, the play was originally produced as Aristo at Chichester to mixed reviews but with glowing praise for Lindsay’s performance. Sherman and director Nancy Meckler have subsequently rewritten the piece.

The production will then transfer to the Novello Theatre in London in late September.

ADAM GARCIA in Tap Dogs

Hot Aussie actor to return to the West End in TAP DOGS

Adam Garcia will return to the London stage this June in the Australian dance show Tap Dogs.

Adam was born in Australia and started his career in 1992 in the Australian tour of Hot Shoe Shuffle – which transferred to the West End.

He went on to perform in Grease at the Dominion Theatre (1995) and then the lead role in Saturday Night Fever at the London Palladium. In 2000 he starred in movie Bootmen, about the dance troupe Tap Dogs, and followed this with roles in Coyote Ugly, Riding In Cars With Boys and Teenage Drama Queen .

In 2006 he played the role of Fiyero in Wicked (currently starring Lee Mead), opposite Idina Menzel. This year he has been a judge on Sky 1 entertainment show Got To Dance.

Tap Dogs is a worldwide hit that combines the strength and power of workmen with the precision and talent of tap dancing.

Book tickets to Tap Dogs at the Novello Theatre in London

OPENING: Tap Dogs returns to the West End starring Adam Garcia

Tap Dogs, the Australian all-male dance show, will return to London from 15 June for a strictly limited season. The show stars Adam Garcia (Wicked) and will run at the Novello Theatre.

Book tickets to Tap Dogs

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof – Novello Theatre – Review

Review of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at Novello Theatre in London

Debbie Allen’s all-black production of Tennessee Williams’ great play Cat On A Hot Tin Roof could, conceivably, be the first in a series of all-black stagings of the great poet-dramatist’s work. There’s already talk of his greatest play, A Streetcar Named Desire, being revived on Broadway with Halle Berry as Blanche du Bois.

And why not? Cat works its powerful theatrical magic regardless of the colour of its protagonists’ skins. One minute into the play and you forget about the unorthodox casting completely. True, it’s been updated from 1955 to sometime in the eighties, and an occasional word or phrase has been added to give the current casting more authenticity, but the play remains the emotional power-house it always was.

Despite its initial Broadway success, and regardless of all the prizes and plaudits it originally garnered, Williams continued tinkering with it throughout the rest of his life. He considered it his best, most personal play and wanted it to be as perfect as he could make it.

The text used in this production melds together several versions, most notably in the third act, which Cat’s original director, Elia Kazan, asked Williams to re-work for the Broadway premiere. And which Williams reluctantly did. Revivals in the mid seventies saw the ‘f’ word liberally sprinkled throughout Big Daddy’s already colourful dialogue.

The Big Daddy in Debbie Allen’s revival is James Earl-Jones, a powerhouse presence with a booming bass voice to match. A successful plantation owner in America’s Deep South, Big Daddy is dying of cancer. When the play opens, however, he and his put-upon, long-suffering wife, Big Mama (Phylicia Rashad) have been told the only thing wrong with him is a spastic colon.

But his sons Brick (Adrian Lester) and Gooper (Peter de Jersey) and their wives Maggie (Sanaa Lathan) and Mae (Nina Sosanya) know the truth. Gooper and Mae have five children with a sixth on the way; Maggie and Brick are childless. One of the issues that fuels the narrative is: who will inherit ‘28,000 acres of the richest land this side of the Valley Nine.’

Gooper, who’s a lawyer, is the older son and with all those grandchildren he has given Big Daddy (‘no-neck monsters’ as Maggie calls them) feels the inheritance should rightfully be his. Trouble is Big Daddy hates him, his wife and his screaming kids. Brick is his favourite, but he’s got a serious drink problem. Once a professional football player and now a sports commentator, he refuses to sleep with his wife, hobbles around his bedroom on a crutch as a result of a sprained ankle, and is seeking oblivion in whisky because of an incident that resulted in the death of his best friend Skipper. Both father and son are dying in their respective ways.

The theme at the heart of this quintessential family confrontation is the mendacious way people lead their lives, concealing the truth from one another and refusing to face reality. In a play turbo-charged with highspots, it is the great confrontation scene between Big Daddy and a hitherto taciturn Brick in which the emotional sluice gates are opened and the secrets and evasions come spewing out.

Though Adrian Lester’s Brick looks more like a golfer than a football jock, this great scene in the middle of the second act brings out the best in him. The fireworks, however, come from James Earl-Jones who, after a rather hesitant entrance in which bluster substituted for authority, settles in to a beautifully nuanced performance, very powerful and very moving.

Impressive, too, is Sanaa Lathan’s perfectly cast Maggie. Stunningly beautiful, outrageously sexy and with the vocal range demanded by the virtual monologue Williams entrusts to her in the play’s first half-hour, she’s far and away the best stage Maggie I’ve seen.

I was less convinced by Phylicia Rashad’s Big Mama, especially her opening scene which was all over the place and failed to establish a believable presence. The performance improved, but it isn’t ideal casting. The rest of the company do no more and no less than their roles demand.

Designer Morgan Large’s Mississippi Delta bed-sitting room cleverly uses slats for walls to underline the lack of privacy in the household in general and, in particular, where Maggie and Brick are concerned.

Allen’s workmanlike production redefines the play in terms of colour, but its overall impact could be more powerful.

CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.

Book tickets to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London

An Inspector Calls

Round-up of An Inspector Calls reviews at the Novello Theatre, London:

Telegraph: 5/5

Evening Standard: 3/5

Times: 4/5

OPENING THOUGHTS

Times: More than 15 years after its first appearance at the National Theatre in 1992, it’s still heart-thumpingly thrilling.

Telegraph: Daldry’s 1992 calling-card production hasn’t even begun to settle into some dusty, well-worn groove. In fact, not only is it ever-green fresh but it dawns on you that no other revival in this dying decade has come close to matching its breathtaking daring and faultless execution.

DIRECTION

Times: Stephen Daldry’s extraordinary reinvention of J. B. Priestley’s classic has lost none of its fierce pertinence

Telegraph: Daldry creates a running conversation between past and future, cause and effect, dream and reality. What could just be a soap-box for socialism becomes a multi-layered, mind-blowing box of tricks…. The fact that this Inspector has triumphed over time – and looks set to run and run – is rather apt since Daldry’s direction, which works hand in glove with Ian MacNeil’s exquisite expressionistic design, plays such ingenious games with temporal perspective.

ES: The real achievement of Daldry is to make something Wagnerian out of a play that is usually conceived in the idiom of Agatha Christie. It’s tempting to think of him as an alchemist, an instinctive master of how to fuse story and spectacle… Daldry’s feat is to reclaim Priestley as an experimental artist. He reimagines the play as a darkly psychological drama complete with brooding string music and sepulchral woodwind.

DESIGN

Times: Ian MacNeil’s design is as impressive as ever, and even if it no longer comes as a surprise to many, the cacophonous collapse of the Birling home as the family’s shameful secrets are exposed is a stunning coup de théâtre.

ES: The design, by Ian MacNeil, is the production’s star turn.

ACTING

Times: A faintly coarse note creeps into a couple of the performances, but the acting is mostly compelling.

Telegraph: Recently out of RADA, Robin Whiting impresses as the disturbed young Eric, as does Marianne Oldham as his equally stricken sister Sheila. Hats off first and last, though, to Nicholas Woodeson, superbly tense, tough and watchful as Goole.

ES: The action is neatly constructed… Nicholas Woodeson, in a suit he appears to have borrowed from a much larger man, is an appropriately beady-eyed Inspector. But he is mostly too self‑effacing – and then briefly stentorian, thundering out his moralistic criticism.Around him there are performances that are enjoyable yet far from subtle.

LAST WORD

Times: This is, though, outstanding theatre: a production of provocative, penetrating and exuberant brilliance.

Telegraph: Nicholas Woodeson [is] superbly tense, tough and watchful as Goole and powering the evening towards a conclusion that is as shattering as it is artistically satisfying.

ES: The production is entertaining but in the end a little too elaborately packaged.

Times: Sam Marlowe

Telegraph: Dominic Cavendish

Evening Standard:  Henry Hitchings

Book tickets to An Inspector Calls at the Novello Theatre, London and SAVE £13

Major shows to close on 30 May

Sunset Boulevard, Spring Awakening, Shout and Joseph to all close on 30 May.

A number of major West End shows are closing this month – with only days left for theatregoers to catch them.

Despite astonishing critical acclaim, Spring Awakening at the Novello Theatre is to close early on 30 May. Spring Awakening had its European premiere at Lyric Hammersmith earlier this year, where the mix of Frank Wedekind’s classic story about teenage sexual discovery fused with teen rock garnered numerous five star reviews. Stephen Daldry’s 1992 National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls will go into the Novello from 22 September.

Also on 30 May, the successful production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard at the Comedy theatre will close. Directed by Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood, the Watermill Theatre’s production stars Kathryn Evans and Dave Willetts.

Another Andrew Lloyd Webber show, Joseph, starring Gareth Gates at the Adelphi Theatre, will also close on 30 May. The production originally starred Lee Mead, winner of the BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do.

A day after these three shows close, Shout – the musical set in the swinging 60s starring Su Pollard – is closing at the Arts Theatre a month early on 31 May.

And finally, The Last Cigarette starring Felicity Kendal, Jasper Britton and Nicholas Le Prevost is to close early, with its final performance on 23 May. The show transferred from the Chichester Minerva theatre last month into the Trafalgar Studios.

Save £20 on discount tickets to Spring Awakening

Save £24.50 on discount tickets to Sunset Bouelvard

Save £15.25 on discount tickets to Joseph

Save £13 on discount tickets to Shout!

Save £20 on discount tickets to The Last Cigarette

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