A new stage adaptation of blockbuster movie Shakespeare in Love is set to hit the West End next year.
Oscar-winning movie Shakespeare in Love, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush and Tom Wilkinson, will get a new stage adaptation in Summer 2014.
Adapted for the stage by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall based on the original screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare in Love will be staged by the Cheek by Jowl creative team of director Declan Donellan and designer Nick Ormerod.
The play will open at the Noel Coward Theatre in London in early July 2014.
Based on the acclaimed film that won seven Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay, the new stage production will feature a cast of over 26 actors and musicians.
For the past year Michael Grandage has been staging his first season of plays as the Michael Grandage Company at the Noel Coward Theatre, which ends with Henry V starring Jude Law. It is not clear if and where a second season of plays will run.
Shakespeare in Love will be produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.
Shakespeare in Love the movie was famously produced by Miramax under the Weinstein brothers, before they sold their company to Disney. Harvey Weinstein has recently produced his first musical, Finding Neverland, which is set for a major overhaul before its rumoured West End opening next year, including new songs by Gary Barlow. The Weinstein brothers recently tried to buy back their Miramax company from Disney but were thwarted by Filmyard Holdings led by Ron Tutor. However, they have now forged an agreement to work with Filmyard on a number of sequels to Miramax titles including Shakespeare in Love.
Disney Theatrical Productions currently have a slate of new productions in the pipeline to join shows such as The Lion King in London and around the world, and Newsies on Broadway, including new musical productions of The Princess Bride and Aladdin.
Booking will open in February 2014. Casting is to be announced.
CREDITS
Lee Hall, who has worked as a writer across theatre, TV, radio and film, won the 2009 Tony Award® for Best Book for his stage adaptation of Billy Elliot. The musical, which also won the Olivier Award for Best Musical in 2006, was based on his screenplay for the film of the same name which saw him nominated for an Academy Award®. In 2008, Hall won the London Evening Standard Award, Best Play for The Pitman Painters. Hall has been writer in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre and his screenplay for War Horse was directed by Steven Spielberg in 2011. Other theatre credits include Cooking With Elvis at Live Theatre in Newcastle, Spoonface Steinberg at the Ambassadors Theatre the West End (adapted also for TV and Radio) and Two’s Company at Live Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.
Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod formed Cheek by Jowl in 1981 and have since directed and designed over 30 productions for the company which have been performed in over 300 cities in 40 countries all over the world. With Cheek by Jowl, Donnellan and Ormerod have reimagined many of Shakespeare’s texts including the all male As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida and Othello. Cheek by Jowl is an associate company of the Barbican in London and in 1989 Donnellan was made Associate Director of the National Theatre where productions have included Fuente Ovejuna, Sweeney Todd, The Mandate and both parts of Tony Kushner’s Angels In America. Additional theatre credits include ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Changeling, Great Expectations and British premiers of Outcry, Homebody/Kabul, Sara and Lady Betty (written by Donnellan). In 2000, Donnellan formed Moscow-based company The Chekhov Festival whose productions have included Boris Godunov and Three Sisters, and recently the pair co-directed feature film Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Uma Thurman. His book, The Actor and The Target, originally published in Russian (2001), has since appeared in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Romanian and Mandarin.
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