Janie Dee – The Theatre Playbook

Producer Cameron Mackintosh has unveiled the full cast for Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, which is coming to the Gielgud Theatre.

Haydn Gwynne, Damian Humbley, Bradley Jaden, Gavin Lee and Jason Pennycooke have joined a line-up that includes Broadway legends Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga alongside Christine Allado, Janie Dee, Bonnie Langford, Joanna Riding, Jeremy Secomb, Jac Yarrow, Marley Fenton and Beatrice Penny-Touré.

The company will also include Harry Apps, Bella Brown and Monique Young.

Devised and produced by Mackintosh, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends celebrates the life and work of the great Stephen Sondheim.

It is directed by Matthew Bourne, side by side with Julia McKenzie, with choreography by Stephen Mear, the Sondheim Orchestra conducted by Alfonso Casado Trigo, musical supervision is by Stephen Brooker, musical arrangements by Stephen Metcalfe, set design by Matt Kinley, projection design by George Reeve, costume design by Jill Parker, lighting design by Warren Letton and sound design by Mick Potter.

Mackintosh said: “To have gathered so many West End stars, as well as two legendary Broadway performers together for a new show such as this is rare outside a gala. Only the sublime talents of Sondheim could make this happen.

“Steve was always a Broadway Baby at heart, so I’m thrilled that this last show he and I started putting together during Covid is having a life beyond its triumphant gala. Featuring 39 of the greatest songs ever written for the musical theatre, performed by an incredible cast, staged by the incomparable Matthew Bourne, side-by-side with Julia McKenzie and choreographer Stephen Mear, audiences are in for a musical evening they will never forget in one great big Broadway show.”

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends will run at the Gielgud Theatre for 16 weeks only from September 16, 2023 – January 6, 2024.

Tickets are on sale now at sondheimoldfriends.com

Johnny Flynn, Mark Gatiss, Tuppence Middleton and Janie Dee are in rehearsals for The Motive and the Cue, a new play directed by Sam Mendes for the National Theatre.

Opening in the Lyttelton Theatre on April 20, it is inspired by the making of Burton and Gielgud’s Hamlet. Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title in an experimental new production of Hamlet under John Gielgud’s exacting direction. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.

The cast also includes Aaron Anthony, Tom Babbage, Allan Corduner, Elena Delia, Ryan Ellsworth, Phoebe Horn, Aysha Kala, Luke Norris, Huw Parmenter, David Ricardo-Pearce, David Tarkenter, Kate Tydman, Laurence Ubong Williams and Michael Walters.

The Motive and the Cue was originally commissioned by Neal Street Productions and has been developed and coproduced by the National Theatre and Neal Street Productions. Set design is by Es Devlin, costume designer is Katrina Lindsay, lighting designer is Jon Clark, composer is Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, sound designer is Paul Arditti, video designer is Luke Halls, casting by Alastair Coomer and Naomi Downham and associate director is Zoé Ford Burnett.

The Motive and the Cue is at the National Theatre from April 20 to July 15.