News – Page 12 – The Theatre Playbook

Donmar goes to War with Stephen Campbell Moore, Adrian Scarborough

Jack Thorne’s new play, When Winston Went To War With The Wireless, has secured its leads ahead of its launch at Donmar Warehouse.

Stephen Campbell Moore will play John Reith and Adrian Scarborough will play Winston Churchill in this world premiere by Bafta and Olivier Award-winning Thorne. The play is directed by Katy Rudd (Ocean at the End of the Lane, Eureka Day).

In May 1926, Britain grinds to a halt, as workers down tools for The General Strike. With the printing presses shut down, the only sources of news are the government’s The British Gazette, edited by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, and the independent, fledgling British Broadcasting Company, led by John Reith. What follows is a fierce battle for control of the news and who gets to define the truth.

Campbell Moore’s theatre credits include Berenice at the Donmar, Consent, Clybourne Park, Chimerica, All My Sons and The History Boys. On TV he’s recently appeared in Litvinenko, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, War of the Worlds and The Child in Time.

Scarborough won an Olivier for his performance in Leopoldstadt. His prolific stage career includes Accidental Death of an Anarchist and To the Green Fields Beyond at the Donmar, as well as productions at the National Theatre including After the Dance, The Habit of Art, King Lear and Henry IV Parts I & II. His TV appearances include Bloods, Gavin and Stacey, Sanditon and Killing Eve. Films include Vera Drake and Gosford Park.

The creative team also includes designer Laura Hopkins (Rockets and Blue Lights), sound designers Ben and Max Ringham (Blindness, Prima Facie), lighting designer Howard Hudson (& Juliet, Orlando), movement director Scott Graham (Frantic Assembly, Olivier Award winner for The Curious Incident…), composer Gary Yershon (Art, The God of Carnage) and casting director Anna Cooper.

Fleabag takes encore for National Theatre Live

Fleabag will return to the big screen as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s oversexed, emotionally unfiltered and self-obsessed character heads back to cinemas this June.

Written and performed by Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) and directed by Vicky Jones (Run), Fleabag is described as a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life. As with family and friendships under strain and a guinea pig café struggling to keep afloat, Fleabag suddenly finds herself with nothing to lose.

The production is presented by DryWrite, Soho Theatre and Annapurna Theatre, with set design by Holly Pigott, lighting design by Elliot Griggs and sound design by Isobel Waller-Bridge.

Fleabag started its life on-stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, winning a Fringe First award that encourages new work. The award-winning play later inspired the BBC’s hit TV series of the same name, and was captured live on stage from London’s West End in 2019.

Fleabag will be broadcast in selected cinemas worldwide from June 15, 2023.

Guys & Dolls storm Bridge Theatre

Bridge Theatre has welcomed its first ever musical in explosive fashion – and here’s the trailer to prove it.

Guys & Dolls, one of the greatest musicals of all time, is currently being performed in a new immersive experience that will transport audiences to the streets of Manhattan and the bars of Havana. It runs until September 2, 2023.

The ensemble cast includes Simon Anthony, Lydia Bannister, Kathryn Barnes, Callum Bell, Cindy Belliot, Jordan Castle, Cornelius Clarke, Petrelle Dias, Ike Fallon, Leslie Garcia Bowman, George Ioannides, Cameron Johnson, Daniel Mays, Robbie McMillan, Cedric Neal, Perry O’Dea, Anthony O’Donnell, Mark Oxtoby, Andrew Richardson, Ryan Pidgen, Celinde Schoenmaker, Charlotte Scott, Katy Secombe, Tinovimbanashe Sibanda, Isabel Snaas, Marisha Wallace, Sasha Wareham and Dale White.

Based on the story and characters by Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, the book is by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.

It is directed by Nicholas Hynter, with choreography by Arlene Phillips with James Cousins. Tom Brady is musical supervisor and arranger, Bunny Christie is the set designer, and Christie and Deborah Andrews are costume designers.

My Neighbour Totoro, Jodie Comer and Paul Mescal triumph at Olivier Awards

My Neighbour Totoro was the the big winner at the 2023 Olivier Awards.

The RSC production, an adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s 1989 coming-of-age anime film, won six of the nine categories it was nominated in, including the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director awarded to Phelim McDermott, and the Noël Coward Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.

The productions other wins included Tony Gayle for Best Sound Design, Jessica Hun Hang Yun for the Best Lighting Design, Kimie Nakano for Best Costume Design and Tom Pye for Best Set Design.

The Almeida Theatre was the most victorious venue on the night, with six awards across three productions.

Will Keen won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Patriots, and Tammy Faye landed two awards in acting categories – Katie Brayben for Best Actress in a Musical and Zubin Varla for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical.

The final multi-winning show at the Almeida Theatre was Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Paul Mescal won Best Actor for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski and Best Actress in a Supporting Role was awarded to Anjana Vasan for playing Stella. The play also won the esteemed Cunard Best Revival award.

Best Actress went to Jodie Comer, for her performance in solo drama Prima Facie, which won the Best New Play award. The filmed production was seen by hundreds of thousands of people, making it the highest-grossing Event Cinema ever released in the UK and Ireland.

The recipients of both the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, Mescal and Comer, were nominated for their West End debuts, and 16 of the 18 named winners were receiving their first ever Olivier Award.

Best New Musical was awarded to Standing At The Sky’s Edge. Set in a council estate in Sheffield, where it debuted in 2019, the musical transferred to the National Theatre this year. Richard Hawley & Tom Deering also took home the award for Best Original Score or New Orchestrations for this production.

Beverley Knight picked up the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her performance as Emmeline Pankhurst in the musical retelling of her daughter Sylvia’s lesser-known story.

Dickson Mbi won Outstanding Achievement in Dance for his choreography of Enowate, and Traplord by Ivan Michael Blackstock won Best New Dance Production.

In the opera categories, Will Kentridge won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, for his conception and direction of Sibyl and the TAIT Award for Best New Opera Production went to Alcina. Both productions were staged at the Royal Opera House.

For the second year in a row, the Bush Theatre was home to the winner of Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre (representing smaller London venues). The winning show was The P Word, the tale of two very different gay Pakistani men navigating modern Britain.

Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, which sees beloved animated character Duggee brought to life, won Best Family Show.

The ceremony, hosted by Hannah Waddingham at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrated Sir Derek Jacobi, who was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to theatre throughout his career.

Choreographer Matt Cole won the Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer for Disney’s Newsies.

The show culminated in a tribute to Special Award recipient Dame Arlene Phillips, with a performance from Grease The Musical – a production she famously choreographed.

Dancing begins at National Theatre

Rehearsals are underway for Dancing at Lughnasa, Josie Rourke’s revival of Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning play that opens at the National Theatre next month.

The starry cast includes Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls), Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted), Alison Oliver (Conversations with Friends) and Louisa Harland (Derry Girls), alongside Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Bláithín Mac Gabhann, Justine Mitchell and Tom Riley.

Set during harvest time in County Donegal, 1936, outside the village of Ballybeg, the five Mundy sisters battle poverty to raise seven-year-old Michael and care for their Uncle Jack. During the Festival of Lughnasa, Pagan and Christian meet and collide. The sisters fight, love, dance, yearn and survive, in this astonishing evocation of a family’s world on the brink of change.

Director Rourke said: “In my time as artistic director of the Donmar, we staged four works by Brian Friel. During those years, I was lucky enough to meet Brian and it was a joyous honour to be near this great man and his plays, which are defining works of the theatre. It’s a privilege to be the director of this revival for the National Theatre. It was on the South Bank that the seed of the play was planted with Friel and it was always his intention that this play be produced by the NT. I’m so happy to be working with this glorious cast and creative team to bring it to the Olivier stage.”

Sean Donegan, Lauren Farrell, George Turner and Caitríona Williams also join the company.

Set and costume design is by Robert Jones, the lighting designer is Mark Henderson, the choreographer is Wayne McGregor, the composer is Hannah Peel, the sound designer is Emma Laxton, the video designer is Douglas O’Connell and the casting director is Alastair Coomer.

Performances begin in the Olivier theatre on April 6 and run until May 27. nationaltheatre.org.uk.

Hampstead Downstairs sets spring casts

Hampstead Theatre has confirmed the casts for three shows set to play in its Downstairs venue.

The world premiere of Sea Creatures, by Cordelia Lynn and directed by James Macdonald, will feature Geraldine Alexander, Pearl Chanda, Thusitha Jayasundera, Tom Mothersdale, Grace Saif, Tony Turner and June Watson. It runs from March 24-April 29.

Set in a cottage by the sea, four women live in a house made for five. Meals are prepared, stories are shared and the tide breaks on the shore. When only one of their two guests arrive for the summer, it isn’t quite the reunion they were all hoping for.

Another world premiere, Biscuits for Breakfast, by Gareth Farr and directed by Tessa Walker, will feature Boadicea Ricketts and Ben Castle-Gibb. It runs from May 5-June 10.

A tender story of dreams and survival, it introduces Joanne and Paul, who aren’t an obvious match – she is spiky, defensive and a survivor, while he is quiet, considered and hiding profound grief for his father. The pleasure Paul takes in cooking – and the astonishing food he prepares – creates a bond between them. When the hotel where they both work closes and they start to spiral into poverty, it throws everything up in the air – first the dreams of a cookbook and a restaurant, and, eventually, even the dreams of a future together.

Finally, Stumped, by Shomit Dutta and directed by Guy Unsworth, will feature Stephen Tompkinson and Andrew Lancel. It plays from June 16-July 22.

Before Samuel Beckett became the playwright universally known for Waiting for Godot, he was a cricketer. He is still the only Nobel prize-winner to feature in the pages of Wisden as a first-class player. His friend and fellow Nobel prize-winner, Harold Pinter, whose best-known works include The Birthday Party and Betrayal, described cricket as ‘the greatest thing that God created on Earth’. Exploring what the friendship between these two playwrights may have looked like, Stumped, was first streamed online as a digital only production in 2022. Now, Dutta has extended it into a full-length play and its stage premiere production at Hampstead Theatre coincides with the Ashes test match at Lord’s, a stone’s throw from the theatre.

Richard E Grant books second night at Richmond

Richard E Grant has confirmed a second night at Richmond Theatre with his show An Evening with Richard E Grant.

Since his breakout role in cult classic film Withnail and I in 1987, Grant has starred in series such as Doctor Who, Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones, and films including Star Wars, Spice World and his Oscar-nominated turn in 2018’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?

On stage, he will now tell stories from his life, entwining tales from his extraordinary time in showbiz with uplifting reflections on love and loss, to celebrate the publication of his new book, A Pocketful of Happiness.

Live on stage, Richard will consider the inspiration behind the book – how, when his beloved wife Joan died in 2021 after almost 40 years together, she set him a challenge: to find a pocketful of happiness in every day. He found the instruction to be profoundly powerful, and this new book, drawing on both contemporary stories and recollections of his remarkable life and glittering career, is Richard’s way of honouring that challenge.

An Evening with Richard E Grant will be staged at Richmond Theatre on May 30-31.

Sadlers Wells accepts Seeta Patel’s Rite of Spring

A cast of 10 dancers will take to the stage at Sadlers Wells to perform a fresh interpretation of The Rite of Spring, from award-winning choreography and dancer Seeta Patel.

Using the classical South Indian dance form of bharatanatyam, this ensemble piece is accompanied by Stravinsky’s score performed live by the full Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under its Chief Conductor, Kirill Karabits.

Unusually for The Rite of Spring, this version subverts tradition by choosing a male as The Chosen One, elevating him to a deity to whom all sacrifice themselves. This production is an expanded, full version of Patel’s acclaimed 2019 piece for five dancers.

Patel opens the evening with a solo performance accompanied by South Indian musicians. Showcasing bharatanatyam as it is often presented in a solo format, this takes the audience on the journey of Mother Earth from birth to destruction, until Her deliverance through The Rite of Spring.

The Rite of Spring will run at Sadlers Wells on March 13-14.

Cast confirmed for Richmond’s Blood Brothers run

Niki Colwell Evans and Sean Jones have been confirmed in the lead roles of Blood Brothers, when it returns to Richmond Theatre this month.

They will continue in the roles of Mrs Johnstone and Mickey Johnstone, respectively, in Bill Kenwright’s legendary production of the musical.

The full cast for the 2023 tour includes Richard Munday (Narrator), Joe Sleight (Eddie), Paula Tappenden (Mrs Lyons), Olivia Sloyan (Linda), Timothy Lucas (Sammy), Tim Churchill (Mr Lyons), Nick Wilkes (Policeman/Teacher), Gemma Brodrick (Donna Marie/Miss Jones), Connor Bannister (Perkins), Josh Capper (Neighbour), Amy Murphy (Brenda) and Jacob Yolland (Bus Conductor).

Written playwright Willy Russell, Kenwright’s production passed the 10,000 performance mark in London’s West End, one of only three musicals ever to achieve that milestone.

Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on the opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences.

When Mrs Johnstone, a young mother, is deserted by her husband and left to her own devices to provide for seven hungry children, she takes a job as a housekeeper in order to make ends meet. It is not long before her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers herself to be pregnant yet again – this time with twins! In a moment of weakness and desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer which leads inexorably to the show’s shattering climax.

Evans first rose to fame in 2007 when she reached the semi-final of season four of The X Factor UK mentored by Louis Walsh. She played Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre between 2008-2009 and in 2010. She has also appeared in Kinky Boots as Trish (UK Tour 2018/21) and as Paulette in the musical adaptation of Legally Blonde (UK Tour 2012).

Jones’ stage credits include Macbeth (UK Tour and Singapore) and Jacqueline’s Wilson’s world premiere of Wave Me Goodbye (Theatr Clwyd).

Blood Brothers will run at Richmond Theatre from February 21-25, 2023.

Carroll’s The Misandrist plays to the Arcola

The Arcola Theatre will host the debut run of Lisa Carroll’s The Misandrist.

Prickly freelancer Rachel is at the beginning of an existential crisis. It’s 2018, Brexit looms large yet never “gets done”. Rachel prays for a second referendum that will never come. The economy continues its slow decline, jobs are being squeezed. Nothing feels safe or secure. Nothing feels like it’s progressing. Maybe this existential limbo is Rachel’s punishment for stealing Tupperware at the office Christmas party. But that wasn’t her fault. It was the really good kind.

Then Rachel meets engaging go-getter Sule. Two second-generation immigrants, who meet at a sticky-floored bar in Piccadilly and share an Uber home. Sule intrigues Rachel, and she hasn’t had sex in two years, so when one thing leads to another, she sleeps with him. A few late nights and a few “what u doin?’’ messages later, they’ve fallen into a causal relationship. Over the next few months, around the contract extension and Brexit negotiations, they realise they’ve begun to offer each other something that neither can find elsewhere; in the middle of a lot of meaninglessness, they’ve found a genuine connection.

Adrift, isolated, and insecure, they scramble for new ways to connect. Somewhere along the line, they decide to explore flipping the narrative. Metaphorically, and very, very literally. Can some playful, passionate pegging provide a pathway through the pitfalls of modern relationships and present the possibility of a deeper bond?

Rachel starts to really like Sule. Sule starts to really like Rachel. And Rachel doesn’t know how to be liked. So self-sabotage seems like the best plan. Memories get twisted, who did what to whom, who f*cked who, literally and metaphorically, gets muddled. And somehow Brexit is still happening. There are two very different sides to this story, yet somehow, you’re rooting for everyone to come out OK. But of course, nobody ever wins.

The Misandrist was longlisted for the Womens’ Playwriting Prize and reached the final 40 scripts in the Verity Bargate Award . It also reached the final 40 for the BBC Writers Academy and final 30 scripts of the BBC Comedy Room among nearly 3,500 applications. This is its debut run.

The play will run at the Arcola Theatre from May 10–June 10, 2023.