Ellen Burstyn to make London debut

Multi-Oscar nominee Ellen Burstyn to join Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss in The Children’s Hour

Further casting has been announced for The Children’s Hour, previewing at the Comedy Theatre from 22 January 2011.

Joining Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss in Ian Rickson’s new production of Lillian Hellman’s classic, controversial play is American actress Ellen Burstyn, who will make her London stage debut in the production.

Other cast will include well-known US stage and screen star Carol Kane, Bryony Hannah, Tobias Menzies, Nancy Crane, Amy Dawson and Isabel Ellison.

Academy, Tony and BAFTA award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn will play Amelia in the drama. Her long and successful movie and stage career includes six Oscar nominations for movies that include The Exorcist, Same Time Next Year and Requiem for a Dream.

Carol Kane will feature as Lily, and is best known for her appearance in US sitcom Taxi and has enjoyed multiple TV and movie roles, along with high-profile stage performances including Madam Morrible in Wicked on Broadway and in Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore.

Elisabeth Moss, who plays ambitious young copywriter Peggy Olson in the hit AMC series Mad Men will play Martha Dobie in the play, alongside Keira Knightley as Karen Wright. Elisabeth Moss has performed on stage in the 2008 Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed The Plow. Keira Knightley will make a return to the West End after her success in The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre earlier this year.

Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play The Children’s Hour, will see Moss and Knightley play two schoolmistresses who run a girl’s boarding school in the 1930s. When a schoolgirl’s whisper spreads, it triggers a chain of events with extraordinary consequences.

The last London production of The Children’s Hour was at the National Theatre in 1994 starring Clare Higgins and Harriet Walter. Movie director William Wyler produced two films based on the play, the first in 1936 which had to adapt the story into a heterosexual love triangle, and again in 1961 starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner.

Ex-Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson will direct The Children’s Hour, following his huge hit with Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem in 2009. The play will be produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Landis and is widely tipped to transfer to Broadway following its West End run.

Book tickets to The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre in London

CAST CREDITS

Ellen Burstyn

Nominated six times for an Oscar for her roles in The Last Picture Show, The Exorcist, Same Time Next Year, Resurrection and Requiem for a Dream, Ellen’s many film credits include Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore for which she won the Best Actress BAFTA as well as the Academy Award. Her more recent film credits include Olivier Stone’s W. in which she played Barbara Bush, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain and Neil LaBute’s remake of The Wicker Man. She can be seen on screen in the forthcoming The Mighty Macs and Main Street. Her many US theatre credits include Same Time Next Year for which she won the Tony Award, 84 Charing Cross Road, Shirley Valentine and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s production of The Little Flower of East Orange for the Public Theater and LAByrinth Theater Company. Burstyn’s television credits include the title role in The People vs. Jean Harris and Pack of Lies, for both which she was Emmy nominated, That’s Life, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The Book of Daniel.

Carol Kane

Carol Kane is best known on television for playing Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, wife of Latka Gravas, in the hugely popular US sitcom Taxi for which she won two Emmy awards. Her other television credits include regular roles in the American sitcoms All is Forgiven and American Dreamer as well as guest appearances in Chicago Hope, Seinfeld, Pearl, Two and a Half Men and Ugly Betty. Her film roles include Gitl in Hester Street for which she was Academy award-nominated, Allison Portchnik in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Dog Day Afternoon, The Princess Bride, Scrooged, Addams Family Values, The Pacifier and My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend. She began her professional theatre career in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and has more recently played Madam Morrible in Wicked on Broadway, on tour in the US and in Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Her other theatre credits include The Tempest and Macbeth at the Lincoln Centre Theater and earlier this year she was seen off Broadway in Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore.

Nancy Crane

Nancy is currently featuring in Design for Living at the Old Vic. Her other theatre credits include Love the Sinner and Angels in America for the National Theatre, Now or Later, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, Our Late Night and The Strip for the Royal Court, Chains of Dew and Trifles at the Orange Tree, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl and Six Degrees of Separation for Sheffield Theatres and Habitat for Manchester Royal Exchange. On television her credits include Law & Order, Cambridge Spies, Strike Force, The Last Days of Patton and 92 Grosvenor Street. Her film credits include The Special Relationship, The Dark Knight, The Road to Guantanamo, The Machinist and The Fourth Protocol.

Amy Dawson

Amy’s stage credits include That Face for Sheffield Theatres, Edmond for the Theatre Royal Haymarket, I’ll Leave It To You for Pentameters Theatre and Accidental Heroes and School Journey to the Centre of the Early both for the Lyric Hammersmith.

Isabel Ellison

Isabel trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has recently been seen in Red Bud at the Royal Court Theatre.

Bryony Hannah

Theatre credits for the National Theatre include Earthquakes in London, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, The Pillowman and War Horse. Her other theatre credits include Breathing Irregular for the Gate Theatre, The Winter’s Tale for Headlong, The Crucible for Sheffield Theatres, The 24 Hour Plays for the Old Vic and The Black Sheep at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh. On screen her credits include Cemetery Junction and Reversals.

Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley recently starred on stage in Thea Sharrock’s acclaimed production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre in 2009. Her many film credits include Never Let Me Go which opened the 2010 London Film Festival, Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually, The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, King Arthur, The Jacket, Pride and Prejudice, Domino, Silk, Atonement, The Edge of Love, The Duchess, Last Night and the forthcoming London Boulevard and A Dangerous Method. Her television credits include the critically-acclaimed remake of Doctor Zhivago, Oliver and Coming Home.

Tobias Menzies

Tobias is best known for playing Brutus in BBC and HBO’s Rome. On stage his many credits include Edgar in King Lear at the Young Vic, Cloud Nine and Platonov for the Almeida Theatre, The Cherry Orchard for Sheffield Theatres, The History Boys for the National Theatre, the title role in Rupert Goold’s production of Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Northampton and Michael Blakemore’s production of Three Sisters at the Playhouse Theatre. His film credits include Atonement, Pierrepoint, Casino Royale and Anton Chekhov’s The Duel. His further television credits include Spooks, The Deep, Pulling and Persuasion.

Elisabeth Moss

Elisabeth is best known for playing the role of Peggy Olson in the ongoing award-winning television series Mad Men, for which she has received both Emmy Award and SAG Award nominations, as well as for the role of Zoe Bartlett in The West Wing. Moss made her Broadway stage debut in David Mamet’s Speed- the-Plow in 2008. Her film credits include Get Him to the Greek, Did you Hear About the Morgans? and Girl, Interrupted, as well as the forthcoming On the Road and Darling Companion.

Book tickets to The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre in London

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY in The Children’s Hour

Keira Knightley joins Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss for The Children’s Hour

It seems that Keira Knightley enjoyed her first experience of the West End stage last year, playing Jennifer alongside Damian Lewis’s Alceste in The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre.

So much so that she has agreed to return to theatre next year, to star in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s controversial classic The Children’s Hour. Knightley will be joined in the play by Elisabeth Moss, who plays ambitious young copywriter Peggy Olson in hit US series Mad Men.

The Children’s Hour will open at the end of January in the West End, produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Landis and directed by ex-Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson (Jerusalem).

Keira Knightley, 25, comes from a theatrical family: her mother is the playwright Sharman Macdonald and her father is the actor Will Knightley. She started acting at seven years old, but her first professional role came in the love story A Village Affair in 1995 when she was 10.

Lots of TV work followed including Coming Home alongside Peter O’Toole, Alan Bleasdale’s Oliver Twist, Princess of Thieves in 2001 – her first title role, and then in 2002 her first break-out movie, Bend It Like Beckham. She was then cast by ITV’s Andy Harries in his big-budget TV adaptation of Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, playing Larisa, and followed this with Love Actually in 2003.

Later in 2003 came her casting in Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and the start of her starring role in this enormously successful film franchise. 2005 saw her film Pride & Prejudice and enjoy considerable critical acclaim – including her first Academy Award nomination. In 2007 she filmed Atonement playing Cecilia Tallis, followed by films including The Edge Of Love, with a screenplay by her mother Sharman Macdonald, The Duchess, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go alongside Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield.

Movies coming up include London Boulevard with Colin Farrell, new David Cronenberg movie A Dangerous Method and comedy The Emperor’s Children with Richard Gere.

Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play The Children’s Hour, will see Moss and Knightley play two schoolmistresses who run a girl’s boarding school in the 1930s. When a disgruntled student accuses the teachers of having a lesbian affair, a series of dramatic events unfold that destroys both their lives.

The last London production of The Children’s Hour was at the National Theatre in 1994 starring Clare Higgins and Harriet Walter. Movie director William Wyler produced two films based on the play, the first in 1936 which had to adapt the story into a heterosexual love triangle, and again in 1961 starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner.

Book tickets to The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre in London

ELISABETH MOSS in The Children’s Hour

As the world goes Mad Men mad, Elisabeth Moss is to make her West End debut

AMC’s 60′s-set drama Mad Men has proved nothing short of a TV phenomenon. And at its heart is the compelling relationship between ad man Don Draper and his protegee Peggy Olson.

Peggy is played by Elisabeth Moss, who will make her London theatre debut next year alongside Keira Knightley in a starry revival of Lillian Hellman’s controversial classic The Children’s Hour.

Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play The Children’s Hour, will see Moss and Knightley play two schoolmistresses who run a girl’s boarding school in the 1930s. When a disgruntled student accuses the teachers of having a lesbian affair, a series of dramatic events unfold that destroys both their lives.

Elisabeth Moss, 28, is no stranger to theatre having appeared in the 2008 Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed The Plow. However, like Knightley, it is for her movie and TV work that she is best known. She played President Bartlett’s daughter in The West Wing, and won plaudits in 2003 for her lead role in Virgin about a young girl who believes that she is carrying the child of God. She has also been nominated twice for Emmy awards for her role as Peggy in Mad Men.

Forthcoming projects include a big screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road alongside Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst and Garrett Hedlund.

The last London production of The Children’s Hour was at the National Theatre in 1994 starring Clare Higgins and Harriet Walter. Movie director William Wyler produced two films based on the play, the first in 1936 which had to adapt the story into a heterosexual love triangle, and again in 1961 starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner.

The Children’s Hour will open at the end of January in the West End, produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Landis and directed by ex-Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson (Jerusalem).

Book tickets to The Children’s Hour at the Comedy Theatre in London

Mad Men’s Peggy to play West End

The West End is jumping on the worldwide craze for AMC’s hit Sixties-set drama Mad Men.

Elisabeth Moss, who plays ambitious young copywriter Peggy Olson in the series, is set to join Keira Knightley in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s controversial classic The Children’s Hour.

Moss and Knightley will start rehearsals in London next month for the play, which will open at the end of January in the West End. Ex-Royal Court artistic director Ian Rickson will direct, following his huge hit with Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem in 2009.

Elisabeth Moss has performed on stage in the 2008 Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed The Plow. Keira Knightley will make a return to the West End after her success in The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre earlier this year.

Lillian Hellman’s 1934 play The Children’s Hour, will see Moss and Knightley play two schoolmistresses who run a girl’s boarding school in the 1930s. When a disgruntled student accuses the teachers of having a lesbian affair, a series of dramatic events unfold that destroys both their lives.

The last London production of The Children’s Hour was at the National Theatre in 1994 starring Clare Higgins and Harriet Walter. Movie director William Wyler produced two films based on the play, the first in 1936 which had to adapt the story into a heterosexual love triangle, and again in 1961 starring Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner.

Ian Rickson told the Daily Mail yesterday that the play’s relevance for today is less about lesbianism than the culture of suing and litigation, “you go to any school and put your hand on a child’s arm and you’re reported”, he said.

Sheridan Stays Blonde, Van Outen joins

Legally Blonde star Sheridan Smith to stay with the hit show, plus a new cast joins from 25 October including Denise Van Outen, Siobhan Dillon and Carley Stenson.

The gorgeous, multi-talented star of Legally Blonde, has decided to extend her run in the show at the Savoy Theatre in London.

Sheridan Smith had originally announced her departure from the Broadway musical on Twitter and was scheduled to leave on 23 October 2010, but will now continue in the lead role until 9 January 2011.

Sheridan Smith said in a statement that, “I absolutely love playing Elle Woods, it’s been one of the highlights of my career so far, and I’m thrilled that the audiences love the show as much as I do.  When (producer) Sonia Friedman asked me to stay for a little bit longer, I couldn’t resist the thought of a pink, chihuahua filled Christmas!”

A new cast will also join the show from 25 October, including Denise Van Outen taking over from Jill Halfpenny as hairdresser Paulette, and Siobhan Dillon and Hollyoaks star Carley Stenson.

Van Outen, who is married to Lee Mead (Wicked), has appeared in numerous musicals including Tell Me on a Sunday, Rent: Remixed, Chicago and Les Miserables.

Siobhan Dillon, who will play Vivienne, came to prominence after appearing in TV talent show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, and has performed in Grease in the West End. Carley Stenson will star as Margot, and is best known for playing Steph Cunningham in Hollyoaks. This will be her West End stage debut.

The comedy musical, which opened in January this year, is based on the movie starring Reese Witherspoon about college sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods (Sheridan Smith), who goes all out to prove to her ex-boyfriend Warner (Richard Fleeshman) that she’s more than just a dumb blonde – by joining him at Harvard Law School.

Sheridan Smith is best known for her award-winning TV roles including Two Pints of Lager & A Packet of Crisps, Grown Ups, Love Soup, Benidorm and Gavin and Stacey. Stage roles include Into the Woods at the Donmar Warehouse, Audrey in the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of Little Shop of Horrors and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew at the Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park.

Sheridan recently performed in a workshop version of a new musical based on Helen Fielding’s book Bridget Jones’s Diary, with music by Lily Allen, fuelling rumours that she may be up for a role in the show. Stephen Daldry, director of the film and stage version of  Billy Elliot, will helm the project if it goes ahead. The show would also reunite Daldry with producers of the Bridget Jones and Billy Elliot films and stage shows Working Title Films, plus choreographer Peter Darling.

Other cast starting in the show from 25 October include Stephane Anelli (Padamadan, Nikos), Emma Bateman (Stenographer), Thomas Camilleri (Carlos), Chris Ellis-Stanton (Grandmaster Chad, Dewey, Kyle), Kimmy Edwards (Judge, Saleswoman), Ibinabo Jack (Pilar), Suzie McAdam (Enid), Andy Mace (Dad, Winthrop, Reporter), Susan McFadden (Serena), Sorelle Marsh (Courtney, Mom, Whitney), Aoife Mulholland (Brooke), Sean Mulligan (Pforzheimer), Dawn Sievewright (Kate, Chutney), Robbie Towns (Aaron), Dominic Tribuzio (Kiki), Tamara Wall (District Attorney) and Stephen Webb (Lowell), as well as Jonathan Mawson, Jane McMurtrie, Lucy Miller, Ruthie Stephenson and Gregor Stewart as swings.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £14 on tickets to Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in London

LEGALLY BLONDE CAST RECORDING

The London cast recording of Legally Blonde The Musical, which was recorded live at the Savoy Theatre, was released last week by First Night Records and is doing brisk business.

Buy the London cast recording of Legally Blonde

Power couple top Stage poll

The Stage 100, the entertainment newspaper’s annual list of the 100 most powerful people in UK theatre, has placed Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire, joint chief executives of Ambassador Theatre Group, in first place.

The couple, who are both professional and personal partners, have topped both Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber in the list of the UK’s most senior arts professionals.

Their climb to first place follows their company’s acquisition in 2009 of Live Nation’s UK theatres, which they purchased for £90 million. The deal has made their ATG Group the largest theatre operator in both the West End and across the UK – with almost five times as many seats in their control as rivals.

The poll is usually dominated by Cameron Mackintosh (Les Miserables, Oliver!) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies) who have continually vied for top place, and come in this year at numbers two and three respectively. Other theatre producers in the list include Bill Kenwright (Blood Brothers, Dreamboats and Petticoats) in eighth place, Sonia Friedman (A Little Night Music, La Cage Aux Folles) in 12^th and David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers (Calendar Girls) in 13^th place.

Also in the top 20 of the poll are theatre performers Mark Rylance (Jerusalem) and John Barrowman (la Cage Aux Folles), artistic directors Dominic Cooke of the Royal Court, who rises six places to number seven, Kevin Spacey of the Old Vic at number 10,   Michael Grandage of the Donmar Warehouse,  recent New Year’s Honours List beneficiary Nicholas Hytner of the National Theatre and  Michael Boyd of the RSC.

The full top twenty is as follows [last year’s position]:

1. Howard Panter/Rosemary Squire (ATG) [5]

2. Cameron Mackintosh (producer/ theatre owner)[1]

3. Andrew Lloyd Webber (producer/ theatre owner / composer) [2]

4. Michael Grandage (Donmar Warehouse) [3=]

5. Nicholas Hytner (National Theatre) [3=]

6. Nica Burns / Max Weitzenhoffer (Nimax)[7]

7. Dominic Cooke (Royal Court Theatre)[13]

8. Bill Kenwright (Bill Kenwright Ltd) [6]

9. Michael Boyd (RSC) [8]

10. Kevin Spacey/ Sally Greene (Old Vic Theatre) [11]

11. Nick Thomas / Jon Conway (Qdos Entertainment) [9]

12. Sonia Friedman (Sonia Friedman Productions) [12]

13. David Pugh / Dafydd Rogers (producers) [18]

14. David Babani (Menier Chocolate Factory) [New Entry]

15. Jonathan Church (Chichester Festival Theatre) [16]

16. Bill Taylor (Stage Entertainment) [15]

17. Rupert Goold (director)[14]

18. Alex Poots (Manchester International Festival)[19]

19. John Barrowman (entertainer)[New Entry]

20. Mark Rylance (actor) [New Entry]

New Entry denotes new entry into top 20, not Stage 100

And the rest, by category

N denotes New Entry. i.e. they were not in last year’s Stage 100. There were 38 new entrants in total.

Directors

Howard Davies, Marianne Elliott , Jeremy Herrin (N) Simon McBurney (N) Sam Mendes /Caro Newling (N), Katie Mitchell, Trevor Nunn, Ian Rickson (N) Max Stafford Clarke (N), Matthew Warchus

London venues

Michael Attenborough, Marcus Davey, Dominic Dromgoole, Mehmet Ergen & Leyla Nazli (N), Sean Holmes (N) David Jubb / David Micklem, Jude Kelly, Nicolas Kent (N), David Lan, Kerry Michael, Josie Rourke, Timothy Sheader (N), Graham Sheffield

Producers

Judy Craymer, Michael Harrison, David Ian, Richard Jordan, Michael McCabe (N), Kim Poster, Nick Salmon / Matthew Byam Shaw (N), James Seabright (N), Thomas Schumacher (N), Edward Snape, Paul Walden and Derek Nicol (N), Kenny Wax, Carole Winter / Michael Edwards (N)

Regional

Hedda Beeby, Gemma Bodinetz, Ian Brown, Vicky Featherstone / John Tiffany, Andy Field / Debbie Pearson (N), Peter Hall, Tania Harrison, Paul Kerryson, Danny Moar (N), Braham Murray / Greg Hersov / Sarah Frankcom, Laurie Sansom (N) John Stalker, Rachel Tackley (N)

Performers

Michael Ball, Rebecca Hall (N), Clare Higgins, Rory Kinnear (N), Jude Law (N), Adrian Lester (N), Ian McKellen (N), Clive Rowe (N), Simon Russell Beale, Rachel Weisz (N), Samuel West

Playwrights

Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett (N), Richard Bean, Jez Butterworth (N), Lee Hall, David Hare, Lucy Prebble (N), Polly Stenham, Simon Stephens (N), Roy Williams

Designers

Felix Barrett, Jon Bausor (N), Miriam Buether (N), Ultz (N)

Opera / Dance

Carlos Acosta (N), Matthew Bourne, Daniel Kramer (N), Antonio Pappano/ Monica Mason, Arlene Phillips (N), Alistair Spalding

http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/newsblog/2009/12/the-stage-100—in-full/index.html

Matt Lucas to star in Prick Up Your Ears

Little Britain’s MATT LUCAS is to go legit and star in a brand new adaptation of John Lahr’s biography PRICK UP YOUR EARS about 1960′s playwright Joe Orton.

Simon Bent’s new adaptation will see Matt Lucas play Orton’s lover Kenneth Halliwell opposite Chris New as Orton in the show, which takes its inspiration from John Lahr’s successful biography and Orton’s diaries rather than the 1987 film.

Directed by Daniel Kramer and produced by Sonia Friedman, Kim Poster and Lee Menzies, the play will open at the Comedy Theatre in September.

Save £10 on tickets to see Prick Up Your Ears at the Comedy Theatre, London.