Category Archives: Theatre

The Mousetrap: Agatha Christie’s West End hit to make Broadway debut after 70 years

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Whodunnit running in the West End since 1952, interrupted only by Covid, will open in New York in 2023

The world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap, is to finally make its Broadway debut. The announcement was made on Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of the London production of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit.

The only surviving piece of the original set from 1952, a mantelpiece clock, will be lent from London for the run in New York when it opens in 2023. The play will be co-produced by The Mousetrap’s UK producer, Adam Spiegel, and US producer Kevin McCollum, whose credits include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights and the Broadway outings of the British am-dram spoof The Play That Goes Wrong and the musical Six.

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Fleabag producer brings Berlusconi musical to London stage

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‘Fierce, feminist’ show from Francesca Moody is written by former Grange Hill actors Ricky Simmonds and Simon Vaughan and tells an ‘almost true’ story

A musical about Silvio Berlusconi that is described as “Evita on acid”, written by two former Grange Hill stars and features a song called My Weekend With Vladimir is to be staged in London next year.

Entitled Berlusconi, it is billed as an “almost true story” and produced by Francesca Moody who is best known for her success with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. The musical depicts the three-time former Italian PM on the eve of the verdict in his trial for tax fraud as he looks back on his rise and fall and resolves to write an autobiographical opera. His story is then told through the eyes of three women: Ilda Boccassini, the Milan magistrate known as Ilda the Red who investigated him; Berlusconi’s second wife, the actor Veronica Lario, who left him in 2009 after nearly 20 years of marriage; and the character of a journalist who is based on real people. “It places a fierce feminist lens on him,” said Moody of the musical. “These women are telling their story.”

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Theatre group pulls play from Sheffield venue staging Miss Saigon

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New Earth Theatre said ‘damaging tropes, misogyny and racism’ in show contradict its values

A touring theatre company has pulled a play from the Sheffield Crucible because of the venue’s decision to also stage Miss Saigon, a musical often criticised for its portrayal of the Vietnam war and Vietnamese people.

In a statement, New Earth Theatre, a company of British east and south-east Asian (BESEA) artists and co-producers Storyhouse said: “Miss Saigon remains a very contentious musical since its release over 30 years ago … The damaging tropes, misogyny and racism inherent in the show completely contradict [our] values and beliefs.”

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RSC to stage play about plague death of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet

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Adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel will premiere at Swan theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in April

A stage production of a poignant novel about the death of William Shakespeare’s son from plague is to have its world premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon next April.

Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell, was published in March 2020, just as the world locked down in response to the Covid pandemic. It tells the story of a family racked by grief at the loss of the 11-year-old, focusing on everyday domestic detail while never naming the boy’s father.

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Vardy v Rooney: ‘Wagatha Christie’ play to hit West End stage

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Producer says trial asked questions about boundaries between privacy and celebrity and what it is to be a Wag

A play about the “Wagatha Christie” trial is to be staged in the West End by the producers behind Agatha Christie’s seminal drama Witness for the Prosecution.

Vardy v Rooney: the Wagatha Christie Trial, adapted from the original high court transcripts by Liv Hennessy and directed by Lisa Spirling, brings the legal battle between Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney to life for one night only this autumn.

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Sydney festival 2023: Town Hall to be filled with 26 tonnes of sand for program showpiece

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The heritage building’s floor will become an indoor beach for an award-winning opera – one of a few architectural landmarks that will get a new life this summer

Twenty-six tonnes of sand will be shipped into Sydney town hall as part of the 2023 Sydney festival, with the heritage-listed building transformed into a faux beach for an award-winning opera starring 79 people and a dog.

The program for the annual festival, announced today, will amplify stories from Indigenous and female-identifying creatives next year. Led by artistic director Olivia Ansell for the second time, it will champion climate action, marginalised voices and the rediscovery of underused spaces in the city – including Harry Seidler’s mushroom-shaped building in Martin Place, which will be turned into a 1970s-themed bar and live music hub, with audiences invited to stay in the retro hotel rooms above.

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Julia Gillard: one-woman play starring Play School’s Justine Clarke to debut in 2023

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Sydney Theatre Company’s announcement of the work, written by Joanna Murray-Smith, aligns with 10-year anniversary of former PM’s misogyny speech

A new one-woman play focusing on the life of Australia’s first and only female prime minister, Julia Gillard, will debut on stage next year.

The play Julia, written by Joanna Murray-Smith, one of the country’s most prominent playwrights, has been billed as a highlight of the Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) 2023 season, and will feature actor and Play School presenter Justine Clarke in the eponymous role.

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New RSC co-artistic directors ready to ‘shake up’ Shakespeare

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Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey – the first woman to be appointed permanently in the role – take up their posts in June

Michael Billington: An inspired duo to lead the RSC – with an immense task

The Royal Shakespeare Company has appointed two people to be co-artistic directors for the first time in four decades.

Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey – the first woman to be permanently appointed artistic director at the RSC – will take up their post in June next year.

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The Phantom of the Opera to close on Broadway after 35 years

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Broadway’s longest-running musical never fully recovered from the pandemic shutdown and will close next February

The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, is scheduled to close in February 2023.

The musical – a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts – will play its final performance on Broadway on 18 February, a spokesperson said on Friday. The closure will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

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James Rado, co-creator of Broadway hit Hair, dies at 90

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The award-winning writer, whose hit musical originally opened on Broadway in the late 60s, died in New York City of cardiorespiratory arrest

James Rado, the award-winning co-creator of Hair, has died at the age of 90.

The writer, whose hit musical launched songs such as Aquarius and Let the Sunshine In, died peacefully in New York City surrounded by family. The cause of death was cardiorespiratory arrest, as confirmed by longtime friend, publicist Merle Frimark.

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Tony awards 2022: Company and The Lehman Trilogy lead big night for Brits

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Broadway transfers of West End shows were out in front at this year’s celebration of the best of New York theatre

Broadway transfers of West End adaptations of The Lehman Trilogy and Company have dominated this year’s Tony awards, which were seen as a return to relative normal after Covid-impacted ceremonies.

It was a big night for British talent in New York, with the Broadway transfer of The Lehman Trilogy winning best play, best director and best actor in a play. “This play was written as a hymn to the city of New York but, like the Lehman brothers themselves, our show started thousands of miles away,” said playwright Ben Power, who adapted the show from Italian novelist and playwright Stefano Massini. His version made its debut at London’s National Theatre in 2018.

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Queen’s A Night at the Opera inspires Japanese take on Romeo and Juliet

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A Night at the Kabuki, which shifts the star-crossed lovers to 12th-century Japan, will visit London on an international tour

A Night at the Opera, the classic rock album by Queen, has inspired a Japanese theatre production that will visit London this autumn as part of an international tour.

Created by Hideki Noda, A Night at the Kabuki includes songs from the British band’s 1975 album which is best known for its singles Bohemian Rhapsody and You’re My Best Friend. The master tapes from the studio recording of the album are used in the show, which has a storyline set in 12th-century Japan and is inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

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Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cinderella to close in the West End

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Shock news that show will end in June at London’s Gillian Lynne theatre brings heartache for company and those who had been due to join cast

The curtain is to come down on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new West End musical Cinderella, just under a year after opening, with its final performance set for 12 June.

In a statement released on Sunday by Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, the composer said “mounting a new show in the midst of Covid” had been an “unbelievable challenge” and that a new production of Cinderella would open on Broadway in 2023.

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Theatres need more plus-sized black actors, says Broadway and West End star

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Marisha Wallace wants to inspire young girls and call out lack of diversity as she takes on role in Oklahoma!

A professional career in theatre was not always on the cards for Marisha Wallace. The Broadway and West End star, who was born and raised on a pig farm in North Carolina, rarely saw people that looked like her on stage.

As she takes on the coveted role of Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma! at London’s Young Vic theatre, Wallace is on a singular mission to call out the lack of plus-sized black actors on stage and to inspire young girls just like her.

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RSC to stage adaptation of animated fantasy film My Neighbour Totoro

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Royal Shakespeare Company’s version of celebrated Studio Ghibli movie will be first opening ‘of this scale’ in nearly 40 years

The Royal Shakespeare Company is to stage an adaptation of the celebrated Japanese animation feature film, My Neighbour Totoro, in a production it promises will be ambitious and spectacular.

The 1988 film became a global success after Netflix acquired the rights to 21 movies from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation giant, in 2020. The world premiere of the stage adaptation, directed by Phelim McDermott and featuring puppets created by Basil Twist, will have a limited run of 15 weeks at the Barbican from October until January.

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Play about ‘great escape’ from German prison camp to be staged at Alexandra Palace

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The story of the real-life escape from Stalag Luft III in 1944 is to be told at the London venue used as an internment camp for ‘enemy aliens’ during the first world war

The story behind the audacious 1944 escape from the Luftwaffe’s Stalag Luft III prison camp is to be retold in a new play at London’s Alexandra Palace, which was itself used as an internment camp for German, Austrian and Hungarian “enemy aliens” during the first world war.

Tom, Dick and Harry will recount the breakout of 76 allied airmen from the camp at Sagan in Germany (now Żagań in Poland) which inspired the 1963 film The Great Escape, featuring an all-star cast and a thrilling though fictitious motorbike exploit for Steve McQueen. The play is written by Theresa Heskins, Andrew Pollard and Michael Hugo with Heskins also directing.

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Derry to mark 25 years of Good Friday agreement with John Hume musical

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Playhouse to stage Beyond Belief in 2023 to ‘say a proper goodbye’ to late SDLP leader who helped persuade IRA to give up arms

A musical drama about the life of John Hume, one of the main forces behind the Good Friday agreement, will be staged next year to mark the 25th anniversary of the historic deal that helped end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

Beyond Belief, written by Damian Gorman with music by Brian O’Doherty, is the second part of a “peace-building trilogy” at the Playhouse in Hume’s home town, Derry, after The White Handkerchief, a play about the events of Bloody Sunday, earlier this year.

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Watch the Ukrainian drama Bad Roads at the Royal Court

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The live stream of Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s acclaimed drama has ended but will be available to watch again from 2 April

The Royal Court theatre in London is presenting a day of solidarity with Ukraine that includes a reading on its main stage of Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s play Bad Roads, which explores the brutal effects of war on personal relationships. The reading, at 8pm on 1 April, will be livestreamed on the Guardian website – including in a captioned version – and available again on 2 April to watch for a week.

Bad Roads was first staged at the Royal Court in 2017 in a translation by Sasha Dugdale. Vorozhbit, an acclaimed Ukrainian playwright whose work has also been performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, wove documentary stories of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and Donbas into its impressionistic scenes. Bad Roads explores daily life under siege, hostage-taking, journalism on the frontline, PTSD and sex at a time of war.

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Women’s prize for playwriting won by 90th birthday drama in ‘house full of ghosts’

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Winner Karis Kelly, writer of Consumed, had previously been considering a ‘complete career change’ as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic

A playwright who was considering a “complete career change” because of the Covid-19 pandemic’s devastating impact on the arts has been announced as the winner of this year’s Women’s prize for playwriting.

Karis Kelly won the prize for Consumed, a drama about four generations of Northern Irish women at a 90th birthday party in a “house full of hungry ghosts”. Kelly, who has been writing plays since 2008, said “like many others in the arts, during the pandemic, I had a complete crisis of faith … So to go from that point to receiving recognition from such an amazing prize and panel of judges is genuinely a dream come true.”

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Lenny Henry to make playwright debut with Windrush drama

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Henry will also star in August in England, to be staged at London’s Bush theatre as part of 50th birthday celebrations

Lenny Henry is to make his debut as a playwright with a drama about the injustice of the Windrush scandal.

Henry will also star in the one-man show, August in England, which is to be staged at the Bush in west London in spring 2023 as part of the theatre’s 50th birthday celebrations. The play, he said, “is a story that needs to be told about the scandal, and the massive effect it had and continues to have on our community”.

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