Category: News

Royal Court hosts Wynter’s Black Superhero

Pose and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story star Dyllón Burnside will make his London debut as the star of Black Superhero.

Danny Lee Wynter’s new play will run at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from March 14-April 29.

Directed by co-artistic director designate of the RSC Daniel Evans, the cast also includes Ben Allen, Dominic Holmes, Eloka Ivo, Danny Lee Wynter, Ako Mitchel and Rochenda Sandall.

Wynter’s debut play is described as a brutal, unflinching and funny portrait of one man’s life spiraling out of control, in an age where our idols are Kings and our superheroes Gods.

Wynter said: “I feel lucky to have this extraordinarily accomplished group of artists come together to tell this story about a messy, funny, complicated, often savage group of queer friends who drive a man towards his own journey of healing and self acceptance. I wanted to write a big, epic story that asks difficult questions about who and where we are.

“Black Superhero is a love letter to the theatre. A subversion of the historical notion that a black, gay man – both in art and the world – is merely an adjunct, a side-note, an unserious man or a source only of amusement. He can, of course, be fun, but he’s also many other things; things the world has made him; things he has learnt to be for his own survival. I wanted to place him front and centre at the heart of the kind of narrative that many of us brown boys who like men have, for the most part, been culturally starved of since we entered the world. I have tried to present his myriad flaws, his fears, his sensuality, his intimate desires. To celebrate him, and those like him, by ultimately allowing him to own all of it; by becoming the hero of his own story.”

Richmond welcomes Home, I’m Darling

Doc Martin’s Jessica Ransom will lead the cast of Home, I’m Darling when it arrives at Richmond Theatre this April.

Ransom will star as Judy alongside Diane Keen (Doctors) as Sylvia and Neil McDermott (EastEnders) as Johnny.

Home, I’m Darling comes to Richmond as part of a national tour following acclaimed seasons at the National Theatre and in the West End

Written by Laura Wade, the comedy is about one woman’s quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife.

It received its world premiere at Theatr Clwyd in 2018, before playing at the National Theatre and then transferring to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End, winning the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

This production reunites the entire original creative team, led by Theatr Clwyd artistic director and co-director designate of the Royal
Shakespeare Company, Tamara Harvey. It is co-directed by Hannah Noone, with design by Olivier award-winner Anna Fleischle, lighting by Lucy Carter, sound design by Tom Gibbons and choreography by Charlotte Broom.

Hampstead invites Sea Creatures, Biscuits for Breakfast and Stumped downstairs

Hampstead Theatre has unveiled three new plays for its Downstairs space for spring 2023.

Sea Creatures, running from March 24-April 29, marks the world premiere of Cordelia Lynn’s play, directed by James Macdonald.

  • 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. 
  • Lynn is an award-winning playwright whose other work includes Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse), Three Sisters (Almeida) and One for Sorrow (Royal Court).

A second world premiere is Biscuits for Breakfast by Gareth Farr, directed by Tessa Walker. It will run from May 5-April 29.

  • A tender story of dreams and survival, Joanne and Paul 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. 
  • Farr’s play Britannia Waves the Rules (Royal Exchange Manchester) won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2011. 

Stumped, by Shomit Dutta and directed by Guy Unsworth, will have its stage premiere 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 at Hampstead Theatre coincides with the Ashes test match at Lord’s, a stone’s throw from the theatre.

Full creative teams and cast for all three plays will be announced in due course. 

Poirot returns as David Suchet heads to Hampstead

David Suchet is bringing his show Poirot and More, A Retrospective to Hampstead Theatre on the back of its West End run.

A limited run of just 18 performances will offer audiences an insight into Suchet’s career as he discusses some of his most acclaimed performances.

Poirot and More, A Retrospective is described as a celebration of Suchet’s stage and screen career spanning five decades and an array of roles. He is best known as playing Agatha Christie’s elegant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot for more than 25 years.

However, the Emmy-winning actor has been celebrated for playing iconic roles such as Lady Bracknell, Cardinal Benelli and Sigmund Freud. Around the world, he has also brought the literary greats to life, including Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Edward Albee.

Suchet said: “Following the success of my one man show in the West End and on Tour last year, and in the light of the 100% cut in Arts Council funding which Hampstead Theatre is having to navigate, I wanted to show my support by bringing my show to this wonderful intimate theatre for a strictly limited season. I was last on stage at Hampstead Theatre in 1987 in Separation, directed by Mike Attenborough, so I think it’s about time!”

Poirot and More, A Retrospective is at Hampstead Theatre from 11 – 29 March. Tickets are now on sale for priority bookers and on general sale from 10.30am on Thursday 9 February at hampsteadtheatre.com.

Dirty Dancing back at the Dominion

Rehearsals are underway for Dirty Dancing, the smash hit musical based on this film of the same name.

Boasting heart-pounding music, breathtaking emotion and sensationally sexy dancing, the classic story follows Baby and Johnny, two fiercely independent young spirits from different worlds, who come together in what will be the most challenging and triumphant summer of their lives

The show also features a dazzling 35 songs, including Hungry Eyes, Hey Baby, Do You Love Me? and the iconic (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.

The cast includes Michael O’Reilly as Johnny Castle, Kira Malou as Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, Charlotte Gooch as Penny Johnson, Lynden Edwards as Dr Jake Houseman and Jackie Morrison as Majorie Houseman, as well as Georgina Castle, Danny Colligan, Colin Charles, Alastair Crosswell, Michael Remick, Lydia Sterling, Tony Stansfield, Chrissy Brooke, Inez Budd, Lily Laight, Hollie-Ann Lowe, Callum Fitzgerald, Nathan Ryles, Joel Benjamin, Shaquille Brush, Charlitte Coggin, Carly Miles, Sophia Mcavoy, Lee Nicholson, Ben Middleton and Ayden Morgan.

Kellerman’s Band features Richard John, Miles Russel, Tom Parsons, Morgan Burgess, Christopher Fry and Tom Mussell.

Dirty Dancing is at the Dominion Theatre from January 21-April 29, 2023.

Cast announced for Women, Beware the Devil

Rehersals have started for Women, Beware the Devil, which debuts at the Almeida Theatre next month.

Written by Lulu Raczka (Antigone) and directed by Rupert Goold (Tammy Faye), the cast includes Leo Bill (The Duchess of Malfi), Carly-Sophia Davies (Spring Awakening), Aurora Dawson-Hunte (Sex Education), Ioanna Kimbook (Daddy), Nathan Laryea (Spring Awakening), Lydia Leonard (Wolf Hall), Alison Oliver (Conversations with Friends) and Lola Shalam, in her professional debut.

Set in England, 1640, a war is brewing, rumours are flying, a household is in crisis… and the Devil’s having some fun.

For Lady Elizabeth nothing is more important than protecting her family’s legacy and their ancestral home. When that comes under threat, she elicits the help of Agnes, a young servant suspected of witchcraft. But Agnes has dark dreams of her own for this house.

The creative team also includes set designer Miriam Buether, costume designer Evie Gurney, lighting designer Tim Lutkin, sound designer and composer Adam Cork, casting director Amy Ball, costume supervisor Peter Todd and assistant director Dubheasa Lanipekun.

Women, Beware the Devil runs at the Almeida Theatre from February 11-25.

Donmar welcomes Trouble in Butetown

The Donmar Warehouse will host the world premiere of Trouble in Butetown, with Sarah Parish taking the lead in a show written by Diana Nneka Atuona (Liberian Girl).

In her illegal boarding house in Butetown, Cardiff, Gwyneth Mbanefo (Parish) toils tirelessly to keep afloat. It’s a port town during the war; home to souls from every corner of the globe. When Nate, an African American GI, escapes his barracks and discovers this new world without segregation, can he find safe harbour in Tiger Bay? And with danger on every corner, who can he trust?              

Directed by Tinuke Craig (Jitney), the cast also includes Samuel Adewunmi (You Don’t Know Me), Rita Bernard-Shaw (Catherine Called Birdy), Ifan Huw Dafydd (The Crown), Rosie Ekenna (Inside Number 9), Zaqi Ismail (Baptiste), Gareth Kennerley (Othello), Bethan Mary-James (The Meaning of Zong), Nathan Nolan (The Boys in the Band), Ellie-Mae Siame (The Drifters Girl) and Zephryn Taitte (Call the Midwife).

Trouble in Butetown runs from February 10-March 25, 2023, following Lillian Hellman’s thriller Watch on the Rhine, which is currently playing until February 4.

Here’s an introduction to Trouble in Butetown from writer Diana Nneka Atuona…

Rehearsals underway for The Old Vic’s Sylvia

Beverly Knight and the cast of Sylvia are now in rehearsals ahead of the musical’s launch at The Old Vic next month.

Previews begin on January 27 for the show, which will tell the story of Sylvia Pankhurst – feminist, activist, pacifist, socialist and rebel – the lesser-known Pankhurst at the heart of the Suffragette movement who changed the lives of working women and men across the world.

Sylvia debuted as a work-in-progress back in 2018 and now returns to The Old Vic, blending dance, hip hop, funk and soul with original music by Josh Cohen and DJ Wade.

A ZooNation production, Knight heads the cast as Emmeline Pankhurst alongside Sharon Rose as Sylvia Pankhurst and Kelly Agbowu, Verity Blyth, Bradley Charles, Kimmy Edwards, Alex Gaumond, Jade Hackett, Sweeney Holdsworth, Stevie Hutchinson, Kate Ivory Jordan, Hannah Khemoh, Sinead Long, Jaye Marshall, Kandaka Moore, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Razak Osman, Jay Perry, Kirstie Skivington, Ellena Vincent and Malachi Welch.

Hampstead lines up Linck & Mülhahn

Hampstead Theatre will see the world premiere of Linck & Mülhahn, a new play written by Ruby Thomas and directed by Owen Horsley.

Inspired by the real life of an 18th century gender pioneer, the story takes place in 1759 Prussia, where dashing musketeer and skilled seducer Anastasius Linck has no intention of falling in love. But when he meets passionate young Catharina Mülhahn, so strong is the attraction that the match becomes inevitable.

As the couple strive to build a radical kind of marriage, Catharina’s mother becomes obsessed with her mysterious son-in-law and sets out to uncover his secret – a secret that, if revealed, threatens to engulf them all.

Maggie Bain (Man to Man) stars as Anastasius Linck, with Helena Wilson (Jack Absolute Flies Again) as Catharina Mülhahn. Lucy Black (The Durrells) plays Mother, with the cast also including Daniel Abbott, David Carr, Marty Cruikshank, Kammy Darweish, Qasim Mahmood, Leigh Quinn and Timothy Speyer.

Linck & Mülhahn follows Thomas’ two sold-out plays for Hampstead Downstairs: The Animal Kingdom, and Either. The show also marks the first Hampstead project for Horsley, whose credits include Rebellion and War of the Roses for the RSC.

The show is designed by Simon Wells with lighting design by Matt Daw, sound design by Max Pappenheim and assistant direction by Dewi Johnson. The fight and intimacy direction is by Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper Brown.

Linck & Mülhahn will run at Hampstead Theatre from January 27-March 4, 2023.

Harriet Thorpe joins Steel Magnolias

The Brittas Empire and Absolutely Fabulous star Harriet Thorpe is set to star in Steel Magnolias, which arrives at Richmond Theatre next month.

Harriet Thorpe

Based on a true story, which scored a film adaptation starring Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts in 1989, Thorpe will join Laura Main (Call the Midwife), Diana Vickers (Dial M For Murder) and Lucy Speed (EastEnders) in the ensemble cast.

Also appearing are Caroline Harker (A Touch of Frost) and Elizabeth Ayodele (Playboy of the West Indies).

Based on an original script by Robert Harding, the show begins its UK and Ireland tour in January and tells the story of six women who come together in a small-town beauty salon in the American South, proving that female friendship conquers all. Faced with the highs and lows of love and life, and amongst the chaos of work, marriage and children, they unite to gossip, unwind and set the world to rights. 

Steel Magnolias plays Richmond Theatre from January 24-28, 2023.