Broadway Hair to London

The Tony award-winning Broadway production of Hair will transfer to London next year.

Plans are afoot for New York’s Public Theatre production of the show to move to the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in April. Cameron Macktintosh, owner of the Gielgud, is involved in helping the creative team transfer the show.

Currently playing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York, the musical has proved a big hit on Broadway, directed by Diane Paulus and created by James Rado and Galt MacDermot.

With a score including songs such as”Let the Sun Shine In”, “Aquarius”, “Hair” and “Good Morning Starshine”, the show depicts the birth of a cultural movement in the ’60s as told through a tribe of hopeful hippies living in New York City while war rages in Vietnam. The young cast of 26 brings the show an energy and exuberance that promises to shake up the West End.

Negotiations are under way to bring the entire US cast to London for the show, with the aim of then introducing UK actors as the run progresses.

BOOK TICKETS TO HAIR AT THE GIELGUD THEATRE IN LONDON

Friend comes out for West End

Hollywood heart-throb Rupert Friend will star in new Tony award-winning comedy The Little Dog Laughed, at the Garrick Theatre in London from 8 January 2010. He will be joined by film and TV stars Gemma Arterton and Tamsin Grieg.

The play by Douglas Carter Beane is about Hollywood film actor Mitch, played by Friend, who is determined to come out of the closet against the wishes of his lean, mean, brash and crass agent (Greig). A love triangle ensues when Mitch falls for a rent boy who has a girlfriend (Arterton).

Gemma Arterton makes her West End stage debut in the play after a heady few years of high-profile film and TV parts including Quantum of Solace, The Boat That Rocked and St Trinian’s.

Rupert Friend has also become one of the UK’s highest profile young stars with a number of choice film roles including The Young Victoria and Cheri.

Tamsin Grieg is best known for TV comedies Green Wing and Love Soup, and has also appeared in numerous film, TV and stage roles.

The play opened in January 2006 off-Broadway and the UK premiere will be directed by Jamie Lloyd, who is experienced at star vehicles having recently directed James McAvoy in Three Days of Rain.

The New York Times said of the comedy that it’s, “the tastiest homegrown comedy of manners to hit New York since, well, Mr. Beane’s “As Bees in Honey Drown.”

SPECIAL OFFER: Save £12 on tickets to The Little Dog Laughed at the Garrick Theatre London (valid Monday to Thursdays until 21 January)