UPDATED: Jamie Lloyd to direct Shakespeare’s The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver & Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane – READ MORE >

Acclaimed, award-winning director Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard, Romeo & Juliet) is rumoured to have plans for a major new season of Shakespeare’s plays at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.

According to theatre industry newspaper The Stage, the Olivier Award-winning director is planning a season of Shakespeare at one of the West End’s largest playhouses.

The 400 year old, 2,154-seater Theatre Royal Drury Lane is owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber through his LW Theatres company.

Jamie Lloyd is no stranger to Shakespeare, having directed productions including Richard III and Macbeth in the West End; and current smash-hit, Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London starring Tom Holland.

His critically acclaimed revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard caused a sensation in London earlier this year starring Nicole Scherzinger; with the production transferring to Broadway’s St James’s Theatre in September 2024.

Up until recently Jamie Lloyd and his The Jamie Lloyd Company production outfit had a co-production deal with ATG, one of the UK’s largest theatre owners, but broke off the arrangement earlier this year in order to take full control of his productions.

Lloyd Webber completely refurbished the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in a two year, £60 million redevelopment, re-opening with Frozen in 2021. The redevelopment won a 2023 RIBS architecture award.

Architects Haworth Tompkins who led the restoration, redesigned the Drury Lane auditorium to allow it to be arranged in different configurations, including projecting the stage out into the stalls to enable in-the-round staging.

Video: The flexible auditorium of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Theatre Royal Drury Lane Restoration – The flexible auditorium. Video copyright LW Theatres. Watch the full video

Lloyd Webber has a well-known ambition to see Shakespeare performed again at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Sir John Gielgud starred in Shakespeare’s The Tempest at The Lane in 1957 and 1958, the last Shakespeare performance at the venue. Gielgud broke Prospero’s staff during the run, claiming that Shakespeare would never happen again in The Lane.

Lloyd Webber has rebuked that, telling the Art Newspaper when Drury Lane reopened that, “He [Gielgud] said Shakespeare would never happen again in the Lane. I want to prove him wrong.”

A young Eileen Atkins and Julian Glover were also in unnamed parts in the seven week season at Drury Lane. Gielgud was said to be clearly heard – without amplification – in every of the 2,000 seats; and Ralph Richardson called the production “the best Shakespearian acting I have seen in my life.”

Lloyd Weber also commissioned American artist Maria Kreyn to create 8 new paintings for the venue’s foyers, depicting scenes from 8 Shakespeare plays including Macbeth, Hamlet and The Tempest.

Currently playing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is Disney’s musical Frozen, until 8 September 2024. There are then no productions currently scheduled until Disney take the theatre again in 2025, for their production of Hercules.

More about tickets to The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane London

More about tickets to Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane London

Book tickets to Romeo & Juliet at the Duke of York’s Theatre London

Book tickets to Frozen at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane London

UPDTES: First published 21 July 2024; Updated 30 July 2024 with news of the two productions

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Main photo: Jamie Lloyd (Photo Marc Brenner) and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (Photo copyright Haworth Tompkins)

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