Nigels Lindsay and Harman join Shrek

Producers of the big-budget new production of Shrek The Musical, which is in pre-production for its West End launch in June 2011, have announced two further additions to the cast.

Nigel Lindsay will play the title role of Shrek in the much-anticipated West End stage production of the hit DreamWorks movie. Lindsay’s credits include movie Four Lions , the original National Theatre production of Dealer’s Choice and Nathan Detroit in Michael Grandage’s 1995 production of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Another Nigel, TV and stage star Nigel Harman, has been cast as Lord Farquaad. Best known for playing Dennis in EastEnders, his numerous stage credits include Sky Masterson alongside Nigel Lindsay in Guys and Dolls, Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker, Three Days of Rain at the Apollo Theatre and True West at the Sheffield Crucible.

They will join Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden as Princess Fiona and Richard Blackwood as the Donkey.

The forthcoming DreamWorks production of Shrek The Musical®, based on the Oscar-winning film, opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London on 7 June 2011.

Shrek The Musical originally opened on Broadway in December 2008 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. It closed in January this year after a relatively short run, although is now on a major tour of the USA. A number of changes have been made to the touring – and forthcoming London version – of the show, including a new opening, new songs, improved magic and illusions, a newly styled dragon and more emphasis on giving the show “heart”.

The London stage musical is based on the irreverent fairy tale from William Steig’s book Shrek and the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film. The creative team includes directors Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises), with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Olivier Award winner Jeanine Tesori, scenic, costume and puppet design by Tim Hatley, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Peter Hylenski and choreography by Josh Prince.

The show is the first stage venture for DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical arm and was originally initiated as a project by award-winning director Sam Mendes. The musical will be produced in London by DreamWorks Theatricals’ Bill Damaschke and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions under Caro Newling.

Drury Lane is currently home to Oliver!, which will close at the theatre on 8 January 2011.

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Amanda Holden to star in Shrek

Britain’s Got Talent judge to star as Princess Fiona in new stage adaptation of Shrek

Amanda Holden, the TV and stage actress and judge on ITV’s variety show Britain’s Got Talent, has secured a lead role in the forthcoming DreamWorks production of Shrek The Musical®, based on the Oscar-winning film.

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Playing Princess Fiona, the down-to-earth and independent heroine of the show, Shrek The Musical opens at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London on 7 June 2011.

Holden has a theatrical background, having trained at Mountview Theatre School and appeared in stage roles including Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Mille at the Shaftsbury Theatre and Liesl Von Trapp in a touring production of The Sound of Music. Her numerous TV credits include Suspicious Circumstances opposite Edward Woodward, Eastenders, Mel in Kiss Me Kate, The Grimleys, Wild At Heart, Cutting It  and Big Top.

Shrek The Musical originally opened on Broadway in December 2008 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. It closed in January this year after a relatively short run, although is now on a major tour of the USA. A number of changes have been made to the touring – and forthcoming London version – of the show, including a new opening, new songs, improved magic and illusions, a newly styled dragon and more emphasis on giving the show “heart”.

This has been confirmed by reviews of the US touring show, which opened this month at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago starring Eric Petersen. The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones said that the show had, “finally discovered a human scale. Or, to put it another way, “Shrek the Musical” has belatedly found more of a heart”.

Other casting confirmed for the London production includes Richard Blackwood, who will play the Donkey. Blackwood is a comedian, singer and TV and radio presenter and is also step-brother to model Naomi Campbell. Recent stage appearances include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre alongside James Earl Jones and Adrian Lester.

The London stage musical is based on the irreverent fairy tale from William Steig’s book Shrek and the Oscar-winning Dreamworks Animation film. The creative team includes directors Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises), with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Olivier Award winner Jeanine Tesori, scenic, costume and puppet design by Tim Hatley, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Peter Hylenski and choreography by Josh Prince.

The show is the first stage venture for DreamWorks Animation’s theatrical arm and was originally initiated as a project by award-winning director Sam Mendes. The musical will be produced in London by DreamWorks Theatricals’ Bill Damaschke and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions under Caro Newling.

Neal Street Productions is also behind a number of high-profile new London theatre projects including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Current shows include the Mendes’-directed As You Like It and The Tempest at the Old Vic Theatre.

Official casting information will be released soon. Drury Lane is currently home to Oliver!, which will close at the theatre on 8 January 2011.

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Oliver!

Cameron Mackintosh presents his triumphant new staging of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Oliver! is one of the most beloved British musicals, vividly bringing to life Dickens’ timeless characters with its ever popular story of the boy who asked for more.

This new production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is even more spectacular than ever before, starring Russ Abbot as Fagin, Kerry Ellis as Nancy and a cast and orchestra of over one hundred. The sensational score is full of Lionel Bart’s irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

‘Oliver! Sets the West End alight’ Sunday Telegraph.

Book tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

Shrek The Musical to open in London

Everyone’s favourite ogre will be brought to life next year when SHREK THE MUSICAL®, based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks film, hits the London stage.

Produced by DreamWorks Theatricals and Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Productions, the show will open at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in May 2011. Drury Lane is currently home to Oliver!, which will close at the theatre on 8 January 2011.

Shrek The Musical originally opened on Broadway in December 2008 and was nominated for eight Tony Awards. It closed in January this year after a relatively short run, although is about to start a major tour of the USA, starting at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago on 13 July starring Eric Petersen, Haven Burton and Alan Mingo, Jr.

A number of changes will be made to the London version of the show including a new opening, new songs, improved magic and illusions, a newly styled dragon and more emphasis on giving the show “heart”.

The London stage musical is based on the irreverent fairy tale from William Steig’s book Shrek and the Oscar-winning Dreamworks Animation film. The creative team includes directors Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and Rob Ashford (Promises, Promises), with book and lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Olivier Award winner Jeanine Tesori, scenic, costume and puppet design by Tim Hatley, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Peter Hylenski and choreography by Josh Prince.

The show is the first stage venture for Dreamworks Animation’s theatrical arm and was originally initiated as a project by award-winning director Sam Mendes. The musical will be produced in London by DreamWorks Theatricals’ Bill Damaschke and Mendes’ Neal Street Productions under Caro Newling.

Neal Street Productions is also behind a number of high-profile new London theatre projects including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Current shows include the Mendes’-directed As You Like It and The Tempest at the Old Vic Theatre.

Official casting information will be released soon.

MORE ABOUT THE SHOW:

Shrek The Musical is about a swamp-dwelling ogre in a faraway kingdom, who embarks on a life-changing adventure in order to reclaim the deed to his land. This unlikely hero is joined on his quest by a wise-cracking donkey who won’t shut up, and has to fight a fearsome dragon, rescue feisty Princess Fiona and learn that real friendship and true love aren’t only found in fairy tales.

The final Shrek feature film in the series, Shrek Forever After, is on general release in the UK from today.

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Oliver! sets date to close

Cameron Mackintosh’s big-budget production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane will close on 8 January 2011.

The show, which originally cast Jodie Prenger in the lead role of Nancy through BBC talent show I’d Do Anything, premiered on 14 January 2009 at the venue. This month the show’s fourth Fagin started work, with Russ Abbot stepping into Griff Rhys Jones’s beard and hat to take on the role. Rowan Atkinson originated the part in the current production.

Lionel Bart’s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel Oliver Twist first premiered in London in 1960. The current production is directed by Rupert Goold (Enron), based on Sam Mendes 1994 production.

Other cast include Kerry Ellis (Wicked) as Nancy, Steven Hartley as Bill Sikes and Stephen Moore as Mr Brownlow.

Large-scale shows hovering as possible replacements for Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane include a rumoured Broadway transfer of Disney show Shrek.

Special offer: Save £21 on tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

Oliver! – Save £23 on top price seats

Save £23 on top price tickets to see Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London

Valid Monday to Friday performances until the 12th June Excludes School Holidays

Oliver! is one of the most popular shows in the West End. Starring Griff Rhys Jones as Fagin and Broadway & West End Star Kerry Ellis as Nancy (from 29th March), Oliver! is one of Britain’s best-loved musicals, bringing Dickens’ timeless characters vividly to life.

Cameron Mackontosh presents this triumphant new staging of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece, featuring a cast and orchestra of over 100 and Lionel Bart’s sensational score of songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

Rupert Goold (Best Director, 2008 Olivier Awards), has restaged Sam Mendes’ acclaimed production, and along with Tony award winning director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, uses every inch of London’s greatest musical stage with even more sensational sets by Anthony Ward.

Oliver! – Save £11 on tickets

Ticket offer on Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Save £11 on tickets to see this spectacular show

Valid Monday to Thursday until the 27th May Excludes School Holidays

Enjoy a special discount on tickets to see Cameron Mackintosh’s triumphant production of Lionel Bart’s classic musical Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

This new production is the most spectacular ever staged and stars Griff Rhys Jones as Fagin, Jodie Prenger (winner of the BBC’s I’d Do Anything) and a cast and orchestra of over one hundred. The sensational score is full of Lionel Bart’s irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

‘Oliver! Sets the West End alight’ Sunday Telegraph.

‘Blast away all those recession cobwebs. Anyone who needs cheering up should get along to Drury Lane sharpish and catch this humdinger of a night’ Daily Mail.

‘Uplifting stuff. Jodie Prenger is terrific, great, earthy and warm. You’ll love it’ Sunday Times.

Ticket offer on Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Save £11 on tickets to see this spectacular show

Valid Monday to Thursday until the 27th May Excludes School Holidays

West End box-office boost

A recession may still be playing out in Britain’s economy, but the West End seems to be doing just fine.

Two West End productions have just announced record takings for their shows: Mamma Mia! recently took £511,145 in the week ending October 31- its highest ever box office at either its current home the Prince of Wales or former venue the Prince Edward Theatre; and in the same week Oliver! took £829,383 – the highest recorded by any production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

This news comes following Ambassador Theatre Group’s recent announcement that it is expanding its portfolio of 23 London and regional theatres. Husband and wife team Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire who run ATG, now dwarf the theatre empires of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Cameron Mackintosh having spent £90 million on buying theatres currently owned by Live Nation.

The deal boosts their total playhouses to 39, making them the largest theatre owner in Britain, rivalling past, great theatre-owners such as Apollo Leisure or Stoll Moss Theatres. The expanded theatre group is now valued at £150 million with their theatres ranging from the barn-like Lyceum theatre where The Lion King has been playing for 10 years, to the intimate Donmar Warehouse and Trafalgar Studios.

West End box office takings are predicted to be up by 4 per cent so far this year, with advance sales approaching the £50 million mark. Even long running hits such as The Phantom of the Opera, which opened in 1986, currently has an advance of £2 million, audiences for Les Misérables are 20 per cent up on 2008 and its advance is £1.5 million and The Lion King, which has already been seen by eight million people, still reaches 93 per cent capacity at the Lyceum’s 2,000 seats, and takes a weekly average of £500,000 at the box office.

And the run of success is not confined to just musicals. Even new plays, a territory usually about art more than money, is doing good business. Enron, Lucy Prebble’s play about the US financial scandal, enjoyed sell-out audiences in Chichester and the Royal Court, and has already taken £750,000 at the Noël Coward theatre in the run up to its opening there in January.

But West End producers aren’t taking any chances, and are peppering a host of productions with big name stars this winter. Kim Cattrall will star in a new production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives at the Vaudeville Theatre from February, Keira Knightley and Damian Lewis will star in a revival of Molière’s Misanthrope at the Comedy theatre next month, and Rupert Friend and Gemma Arterton star in The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick Theatre from January.

Paul Raven.

Griff Rhys Jones to star in Oliver!

Comedy appears to be a key factor in casting the role of Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh’s multi-million pound production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

First Rowan Atkinson was cast in the lead role when the show opened at the Theatre Royal in January this year, followed by current Fagin, Iranian comedian Omid Djalili. And now the producers have announced that TV and stage star Griff Rhys Jones has landed the part of Dickens’ greatest villain.

Griff shot to fame in the late seventies on satirical TV show Not The Nine O’Clock News alongside Rowan Atkinson. No stranger to theatre, he has won Laurence Olivier best comedy awards for his performances in Charley’s Aunt and An Absolute Turkey and has enjoyed great success on stage and TV.

Producer of Oliver! Cameron Mackintosh said, “I’ve wanted to work with Griff for years so I’m delighted that the marvellous role of Fagin has tempted him back to the stage this Christmas. Griff is an actor with an amazing array of successful talents, all of which will undoubtedly be poured into his unique and entertaining interpretation of one of Dickens’ most famous and beloved creations. I can’t wait!”

Griff joins the cast of the Rupert Goold directed show alongside BBC “I’d Do Anything” winner Jodie Prenger, as Nancy and performs from 14 December until June 2010.

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Oliver! Reviews – Press Round-up

A round-up of Oliver! reviews

• The Telegraph: 4/5
  
• The Guardian: 3/5
• The Times: 4/5
• The Independent: 3/5

ON THE MATERIAL

Telegraph: “It’s a travesty of Dickens. It’s absolutely fantastic showbiz.”

Guardian: “Not even the expertise of the staging and a handful of fine performances can disguise the essential thinness of this piece of deodorised musical Dickens…. But although this is sanitised Dickens, Bart manages to write some thumping good tunes and provide scope for individual actors.”

BN: “Bart’s songs may be unsophisticated and the rhymes sometimes feeble (“where oh where is love, does it fall from skies above?”), but they’re so tuneful and put over such elan that last night’s audience rightly cheered Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two and several others.”

ON THE CAST

Please note: The role of Fagin is now played by Omid Djalili.

The Stage: “Djalili might not appear to be the most obvious choice for Fagin, but any doubts that miscasting may have taken place are soon put aside. Djalili puts his stand-up comedy skills to great use in scenes where he appears to be ad-libbing, making jokes about politicians’ expenses and the banking crisis, and, as you might expect, he demonstrates perfect comic timing”

Telegraph:  “Rowan Atkinson is both sinister and hilarious as Fagin… Jodie Prenger, brings a warmth to the stage you could warm your hands by, and wrings every last ounce of emotion from that deeply dodgy celebration of wife beaters, As Long as He Needs Me.”

Guardian: “Rowan Atkinson turns in a sprightly, distinctive performance… Atkinson also plays up the character’s sexual ambiguity…. If this revival is worth catching, it is largely for Atkinson’s saturnine comic presence. The biggest fuss, of course, has been about the casting of Jodie Prenger as Nancy on the strength of TV’s I’d Do Anything competition. The good news is that she acquits herself extremely well.”

Independent: “He’s funniest when fingering his stolen gems, or kicking his legs above his head in a sideways exit. But he’s not a malevolent, gleeful, stage-hogging, dubiously paedophiliac monster that you long for and Lionel Bart wrote, even if Charles Dickens didn’t. The moment Prenger appears, I’m afraid, the heart sinks. She seems to be hiding from the audience. Her voice is okay, but she can’t act and she doesn’t have the depth of lung power to fill a plastic bag, let alone a West End theatre on a nightly basis.”

Times: “all credit to Atkinson for giving Fagin at least as much menace as Jonathan Pryce and Robert Lindsay, who were superlative in Sam Mendes’s revival of the musical 14 years ago….And did Jodie Prenger, who won the role of Nancy in one of those deplorably sadistic television contests, justify her choice? I must admit she did. Initially she struck me as parading, posturing, performing rather than acting, but she went on to prove herself a tough, coarse, credible presence with a big, robust voice — and that’s all that is needed. “

Mail: “Rowan Atkinson, playing that warped scout master Fagin, was the eyebrow-wriggling, funny-walking, laugh-wringing supremo of the show last night… Jodie Prenger, who won the part of the doomed, decent Nancy in a primetime BBC1 talent show, stands up to the test like a sturdy galleon.”

Mirror: “Jodie Prenger took to the West End stage last night and claimed the bright lights of the big city for her own… Rowan Atkinson brought a touch of Blackadder and Mr Bean to gangmaster Fagin.”

ON THE TECHNICAL

Telegraph:  “It seems even more polished this time, even more vigorously and inventively choreographed by Matthew Bourne, even more spectacularly designed. Anthony Ward’s beautiful, multi-level sets are both picturesque and brilliantly ingenious, whirling us round the handsome piazzas and dark alleys of London before taking us underground to Fagin’s lair.”

Guardian: “Goold stages it with fluent efficiency, and Anthony Ward’s sets, with their perspectives of St Paul’s and their sliding bridges, are handsome to look at.”

Independent: “Ward’s designs look better than they did in the Palladium.”

Times: “I can’t say that Rupert Goold, who is credited as the director, does much to reinvent Mendes’s production as I recall it, but he certainly gets plenty of energy out of his cast… [Anthony] Ward makes London a character in its own right: a looming St Pauls, swiftly moving and interlocking alleys, and a very Dickensian murk for Bill Sikes to run through.”

THE LAST WORD

Telegraph:  “As most of us get poorer in coming months, this production is going to make producer Cameron Mackintosh even richer. It’s so enjoyable however that I find it impossible to grudge him a penny.”

Guardian: “For the most part, however, this is Dickens as jolly family entertainment stripped of the sense of solitude that has roots in the author’s own experience and that makes Oliver Twist such a disturbing novel.”

Independent: “A masterpiece is restored, but not in its fullest glory.”

Times: “His [Bart's] Oliver! remains as good and revivable as anything he wrote.”

Mail: “It is pointless to say that Sir Cameron Mackintosh has a hit because advance ticket sales are already enormous, but last night’s opening showed that its commercial success is deserved artistically.”

Mirror: “Oliver! is the perfect musical for our credit crunch times, packed with unhealthy school dinners, growing poverty and kids drawn to gang culture and crime. It will steal your heart. Please sir, can I have some more?”

The critics:

Telegraph – Charles Spencer

Guardian – Michael Billington

Independent – Michael Coveney

Times – Benedict Nightingale

Daily Mail – Quentin Letts

Mirror – Alun Palmer

The Stage – Matthew Hemley

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