Joanna Vanderham will join the previously announced Andrew Scott and David Dawson to complete the cast of The Dazzle, producers have announced today.

Vanderham, whose previous theatre credits include Othello (RSC) and The Promise (Donmar Warehouse), will play Milly in the UK premiere of Tony Award-winner Richard Greenberg’s play.

According to press materials, the play – which won an Outer Critics Circle Award when it opened in New York in 2000 – takes place in New York City at the beginning of the 20th Century. “Two brothers sit in their home surrounded by 136 tons of hoarded junk. When a beautiful guest arrives, everybody’s lives are thrown into sharp focus.”

The production – directed by Simon Evans – opens at FOUND111 on 15 December for a strictly limited season until 30 January 2016.

The Dazzle is a co-production between Michael Grandage Company and Emily Dobbs Productions and continues Grandage’s tradition of offering affordable access to his productions, with £10 ticket will be available for all performances.

FOUND111 is a new venture at ‪111 Charing Cross Road – the original site of the Central St Martins School of Art – launched by Emily Dobbs Productions and Rachel Edwards for Tooting Arts Club, whose production of Barbarians is currently running at the venue until 7 November.

The Dazzle opens at FOUND111 on 10 December.

Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds is to make its West End debut at the Dominion Theatre for a limited run from 8 February 2016.

The new production, produced by Bill Kenwright, features the iconic score played live and conducted on stage by Jeff Wayne. According to press materials the show will include ‘new music, star cast, and a full supporting company of performers – as well as video walls, the iconic Martian Fighting Machine, special effects and in 3D holography Liam Neeson as The Journalist.’

The show – based on HG Wells’ novel, first published in 1898 – played a national arena tour in 2014 starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, Jason Donovan, Brian McFadden and Shayne Ward. Casting for the Dominion production is yet to be announced.

CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR ‘FORGET ME NOT’ BY TOM HOLLOWAY

• Eleanor Bron returns to the stage after more than a decade, alongside Russell Floyd, Sarah Ridgeway and Sargon Yelda
• New play about the transport of British orphans to Australia in the 1940s, 50s and 60s

The cast for the UK premiere production of FORGET ME NOT by Tom Holloway is announced today, the complete cast is Eleanor Bron, Russell Floyd, Sarah Ridgeway and Sargon Yelda.

The production, directed by HighTide Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Steven Atkinson, previews from 08 December (press night 11 December).

FORGET ME NOT (8 December 2015 – 16 January 2016) by Tom Holloway is a co-production between the Bush Theatre and HighTide Festival Theatre.

Under an agreement between the British and Australian Governments, between 1945 and 1968, over three thousand British children were told they were orphans and sent to Australia on a promise of warmth, fresh air, abundant food and boundless opportunity. Instead they arrived to deprived institutions where neglect and abuse were the norm.

Tom Holloway’s tender new play unearths a secret buried by time that, in turn, exposes a world of historical injustices currently in the limelight. This European premiere reunites the Bush Theatre with HighTide Festival Theatre (Incognito by Nick Payne, 2014) and is directed by HighTide’s Artistic Director, Steven Atkinson.

Russell Floyd plays Gerry, Eleanor Bron plays Mary, Sarah Ridgeway plays Sally and Sargon Yelda plays Mark.

Eleanor Bron is well known for being the voice of Carol Tregorran in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers. Her major film credits include Ken Russell’s Women In Love, the children’s classic A Little Princess and the 2012 costume drama Hyde Park on Hudson. She has worked extensively in television and theatre. On stage she has appeared in The Late Middle Classes (Donmar Warehouse),  All About My Mother (Old Vic), The Miser, The White Devil, The Duchess of Malfiand The Cherry Orchard (all National Theatre).

Russell Floyd is best known to television viewers as Michael Rose in EastEnders and as D.C. Ken Drummond in The Bill. His theatre credits include Sir Courtly Nice (RSC), Going To A Party(National Theatre), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Oxford Playhouse), Privates On Parade(Westcliff Palace Theatre), Dracula (Hull Truck), Up And Under (Swansea Theatre Royal), Fit And Proper People (Soho Theatre), the title role in Hangman (Tristan Bates) and, most recently,Happy Birthday Sunita (Watford Palace Theatre and UK / International Tour). Other television credits include London’s Burning, Casualty, Doctors, Dream Team, Frank Stubbs Presents andThe Fridge.

Sarah Ridgeway’s theatre credits include: A Taste of Honey (Salisbury Playhouse), Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe), Days of Significance, Titus Andronicus, Candide and A Mad World,My Masters (RSC), You Can’t Take it With You and The Acrington Pals (The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester), Sucker Punch (The Royal Court), Twelfth Night (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), The Cherry Orchard (The Young Vic and Harrogate for HighTide Festival Theatre). Television credits include: Miss Marple, The Crimson Petal and The White, The Suspicions of Mister Whicher, Satisfaction, Call the Midwife, Dark Matters, The Making of a Lady and Holby City.

Sargon Yelda’s credits include Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and Dara (National Theatre),Teh Internet is Serious Business (Royal Court), Incognito (HighTide Festival Theatre/ Live Theatre/ Bush Theatre), Moby Dick & The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Simple 8/ Arcola Theatre),The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Emperor  & Galilean (RNT), Mother Courage and Her Children (RNT), When the Rain Stops Falling (Almeida), Stovepipe (RNT/Bush Theatre/Hightide) and Salt Meets Wound (Theatre  503).

Tom Holloway is an award-winning Australian playwright. Plays include Beyond the Neck(Performing Lines, Tasmania, 2008 – winner of the Australian Writers’ Guild award for Writing For The Stage), Don’t Say the Words (Griffin Theatre Company and Tasmania Theatre, 2008),Red Sky Morning (Red Stitch Actors Theatre, 2008 – Green Room Award for Best New Australian Play), And No More Shall We Part (In Australia, Griffin Theatre Company, 2011 Winner of the Australian Writers’ Guild for Writing for the Stage and the Louis Esson Victorian Premier’s Award for Literature, in the UK, Hampstead Theatre London and Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, 2012) and Love Me Tender (Company B Belvoir St/ Griffin Theatre Company and Thin Ice, 2009 & 2010), Gambling (Soho Theatre/ Eleanor Lloyd Productions, London 2010), Fatherland (The Gate Theatre, London 2011 and Munich Yung Og Radikal Festival), Forget Me Not (Co-commissioned by Liverpool Everyman and Belvoir Street Theatre and produced by Belvoir, 2013).

Steven Atkinson is the co-founder and Artistic Director of HighTide Festival Theatre. His directing for HighTide includes Lampedusa (Soho Theatre/HighTide Festival), peddling (Arcola Theatre/Off-Broadway/HighTide Festival), Pussy Riot: Hunger Strike (Bush Theatre/Southbank Centre), Neighbors (Nuffield Theatre/HighTide Festival), Bottleneck (Soho Theatre/UK tour), Clockwork, (HighTide Festival), Bethany (HighTide Festival/Public Theater, New York), Incoming (Latitude Festival/HighTide Festival), Dusk Rings A Bell (Watford Palace Theatre/HighTide Festival), Lidless (Trafalgar Studios/HighTide Festival), Muhmah (HighTide Festival), The Pitch (Latitude Festival). His other direction includes Three Card Trick (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse), The Afghan and the Penguin (BBC Radio 4), Freedom Trilogy (Hull Truck Theatre) and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Edinburgh Festival).

RADAR, the Bush’s festival of new writing, runs from 11-26 November. FORGET ME NOT will be followed by PINK MIST, the acclaimed Bristol Old Vic Production (21 January – 13 February 2016).

 

 

The cast of the hit West End musical, The Jersey Boys are the latest performers to join the line-up in The Magic of Christmas  at the London Palladium at 7:30 pm on Sunday 29th November.

This evening features artists performing their classic hits and  favourite Christmas songs. The Magic of Christmas will be hosted by Boyzone’s Ronan Keating  with Best Male Brit Award winner James Morrison who returns following a four year hiatus, singer and West End leading lady Beverley Knight (who is currently starring in Cats the Musical as Grizabella) , 80’s pop singer Kim Wilde, British country duo The Shires, London born singer Andreya Triana and Britain’s Got Talent finalists Jack Pack.  All will be accompanied by a 12 piece band.

The title role in The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo will be voiced by Nicholas Le Prevost in an immersive experience which will be audio described throughout, connecting the audience to the two blind characters in the play. Nicholas Le Prevost is best known for his film work, including Shakespeare in Love and A Very British Sex Scandal, his Olivier nominated performance in the Drury Lane production of My Fair Lady, and his numerous other stage credits, including Man and Superman opposite Ralph Fiennes at the National Theatre. Catherine Cusack will play the lead role in Judith: A Parting from the Body. Her previous roles include Carmel in Coronation Street, Frankie Sullivan in Ballykissangel, Sarah inFinding Neverland, and her stage credits include Dancing at Lughnasa and The Crucible at the Lyric Belfast, Trevor Nunn’s production of All That Fall on Broadway and in the West End, and Bingo at the Young Vic and Chichester Festival Theatre. The other actors have been announced as Liam Smith, Kristin Hutchinson and Emily Loomes.

A dynamic team of emerging creatives bring to life two thrilling plays by Howard Barker, “England’s greatest living dramatist” (The Times) at the Arcola, in a production colliding love, truth, sex and war. This Double Bill celebrates Barker’s characteristic poetic language and vivid imagination, uniting the timely revival of Judith: A Parting From The Body with the English premiere of tragicomedy The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo, which will be an immersive experience of the blindness that is described by the characters in the play. Creatives include director Robyn Winfield-Smith, who was Assistant Director to Erica Whyman on the RSC’s Hecuba and who received multiple Off-West End nominations for her critically acclaimed UK premiere production of Barker’s Lot and His God (2012), and designer Rosanna Vize, a finalist for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design (2013) and a graduate of the RSC’s resident assistant designer scheme.

With an immersive sound concept designed to connect the audience to the two blind characters, The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo is a battle of wits played out between the aged Isonzo and his youthful bride, Tenna, receiving its London premiere in the centennial year of the first battle of the Isonzo in WWI. Isonzo, witty and roguishly mischievous, is 100, and has outlived 11 wives. Tenna, beautiful and wise beyond her years, is 17, and has never been married before. And so commences the twelfth ‘battle’ of Isonzo, set within a sightless world on the day of their wedding, in which bride and groom each discover that the other is far more of a match than they had bargained for. Nicholas Le Prevost, the Olivier Award nominated actor who returns to the Arcola following his critically acclaimed performance in last year’s The Rivals, will voice the part of Isonzo.

Isonzo, a fearlessly imaginative and controversial one-act play, is the motivating force behind an access programme including the Arcola’s first ever touch tour and audio described theatre performance, along with participatory events reaching out to people with little or no experience of theatre, or who may face obstacles in accessing theatre opportunities.

Robyn Winfield-Smith said, “Isonzo, which features two blind characters, has long been the motivating force for our attached access programme. We have now extended this idea into the heart of our creative vision for the production: in order to fully explore the literal and metaphorical blindnesses experienced by the characters onstage, we are combining live action with an immersive three-dimensional soundscape to present a thrilling performance in which the audience will pass through different degrees of sightedness during the volatile battle of wits between the characters.”

“Brilliantly, this means that Nicholas Le Prevost, who has been with this project since its inception in 2012, will be able to star as Isonzo in this gripping two-hander, whilst simultaneously performing live on the RSC’s Swan stage in Stratford! These two plays are by turns light, dark, wickedly entertaining and breathtakingly resonant with global events. The playfully imaginative and seductively charming unreality of Isonzo makes for a thrilling contrast to the all-too-grim reality of Judith, set in a Middle Eastern battlefield and brimming with political potency.”

Judith: A Parting from the Body radically reimagines the mythic tale of Judith and Holofernes with searing political topicality in the wake of the ongoing violence and instability in the middle east. Judith, an Israeli widow, infiltrates the enemy camp alongside her apparently back-chatting Servant to seduce and kill the Assyrian general, Holofernes, and save her country from invasion. But nothing is as it seems, and soon we become entangled in a gripping double-seduction: a web of truth and lies between a man who has chosen murder, and a woman who has chosen love, culminating in the transformation of Judith into the very thing she has set out to destroy.

World renowned playwright Howard Barker is one of the key players in modern theatre, notorious for his challenging, unsettling and exposing writing style. Considered the enfant terrible of the theatre scene, his extensive career stretches from 1970 when his first play Cheek was staged at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. His works have been staged at the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Open Space Theatre, Sheffield Crucible, the Almeida, the National Theatre, which staged a 5-star, extended run of Scenes from an Execution (2012) and the Print Room which staged Robyn Winfield-Smith’s critically acclaimed UK premiere of Lot and his God. Winfield’s-Smith’s workshop production of Judith (2011) was described by Barker as ‘dynamic, intensely-imagined and chilling’. He is currently Artistic Director of The Wrestling School, formed in 1992, a company established to disseminate his works and develop his ‘Theatre of Catastrophe’ theory. A widely celebrated dramatist, he has written more than 80 plays, with 27 of his works staged in six languages in 17 countries as diverse as Canada, New Zealand and Slovenia in the last three years. He is the author of plays for marionettes, two works of theory, and five volumes of poetry and has written three librettos for opera. He is also an admired painter with works held in national collections at the V&A, London and in Europe.

@RENDproduction | #BarkerDoubleBill | www.facebook.com/HowardBarkerDoubleBill
@arcola theatre | #ArcolaWinter | www.arcolatheatre.com/
Running Time: 120 minutes plus 15-minute interval | Suitable for ages 16+
Company Information
Directed by Robyn Winfield-Smith Written by Howard Barker
Produced by Rosalyn Newbery Designed by Rosanna Vize
Lighting by Christopher Nairne Sound by Iain Armstrong
Musical direction by Gregory Batsleer Movement Director Lawrence Carmichael

Cast
The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo
Isonzo (voice) Nicholas Le Prevost Tenna Emily Loomes Stage Directions read by Liam Smith
Judith: A Parting from the Body
Judith – Catherine Cusack, Holofernes – Liam Smith, The Servant – Kristin Hutchinson

Listings information
Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London, E8 3DL
November 25th 2015 – December 19th 2015
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/

Winner of three Olivier Awards including ‘Best New Musical’, Legally Blonde The Musical is an all-singing, all-dancing romantic comedy. The show follows the story of sorority president Elle Woods as she crosses the country on a mission to find love at Harvard Law School.

Reviving the role of Paulette is JODIE JACOBS whose West End credits include Regina in the original cast of ROCK OF AGES and who recently appeared in the Kilworth House production of LEGALLY BLONDE.

Recent graduate ABBIE CHAMBERS will be playing the lead role of Elle.

Playing Warner is ROBERT COLVIN who has just completed a UK tour of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOUR DREAMCOAT. Emmett will be played by ROSS BARNES who was Leo Frank in the London Theatre Workshop production of PARADE; and taking on the role of Professor Callahan is HUGH OSBORNE who has recently returned from playing Max in the international tour of THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Also in the cast are SUZIE ARIES, AIMEE BARRETT, ADAM CROSSLEY, LILY DE-LA-HAYE, CHRIS DURTNAL, EMMA INGRAM, and SCOTT NORTON.

Director – John Plews
Musical Director – Matt Abrams
Choreographer – Anthony Whiteman
Lighting Designer – Sam Waddington
Designer – Isobel Power Smith
Costume Supervisor – Yasmin Kaberry
Sound Designer – Jon Raper
Casting – Harry Blumenau

PRODUCED by KATIE PLEWS for OVATION

Listings Information
Upstairs At The Gatehouse
HIGHGATE VILLAGE, LONDON N6 4BD
Box Office: 020 8340 3488
http://www.upstairsatthegatehouse.com/

Performances:
Tuesday – Saturdays at 7.30pm
Sunday Matinees at 4.00pm
Extra Performances:
Mon 21st December – 7.30pm
Mon 28th December – 7.30pm
Tue 29th December – 3.00pm
Wed 30th December – 3.00pm
Thur31st December – 3.00pm
Sat 2nd January – 3.00pm
No shows Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Mondays in January

New video footage for the London premiere of ELF The Musical, ahead of tonight’s Gala performance in aid of Alzheimer’s Society at the Dominion Theatre London.

The lastest production images for the London premiere of ELF starring Ben Forster, Kimberley Walsh, Joe McGann and Jessica Martin which is running at the Dominion Theatre until 2nd January, 2016. The Gala Opening Night is on Thursday 5th November which is in aid of Alzheimer’s Society. ELF is based on the 2003 New Line Cinema hit starring Will Ferrell and features a book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin, with songs by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
24 October 2015 to 2 January 2016
Dominion Theatre
268-269 Tottenham Court Road
London W1T 7AQ

 

Performances: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm*, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm**
*7.00pm on Thursday 5 November, no evening performance Thursday 24, Friday 25, Saturday 26, Thursday 31 December & Friday 1 January
**extra 2.30pm matinees on Thursday 29 October, and, in December, on Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd, Thursday 24th, Monday 28th, Tuesday 29th & Thursday 31st
www.elfthemusical.co.uk / www.dominiontheatre.com
Running Time: 2 hours 25 minutes (including interval)

NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL 2016 FIRST PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENTS

• NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES UK  AND WORLD PREMIERES FOR 2016

• 2016 FESTIVAL RUNS FROM FRIDAY 13 – SUNDAY 29 MAY WITH PUBLIC  BOOKING OPEN FROM WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER

Norfolk & Norwich Festival, one of the biggest arts festivals in the UK, has today announced the first shows of its 2016 Festival. With more to be announced, highlights for 2016 so far include: a ground-breaking UK Premiere from contemporary circus cabaret troupe Race Horse Company; the World Premiere of a major new commission from one of the UK’s foremost young composers – Kemal Yusuf; excerpts from electro-acoustic polymath Max Richter’s intensive investigation in the power of the human brain – Sleep; Aurélien Bory’s industrial robot’s dance with acrobats Sans Objet; Twenty Feet From Stardom’s Lisa Fischer’s first ever solo UK concert; an epic staging of Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand by Norwich Philharmonic and a revival of Rona Munro’s critically acclaimed The James Plays. The festival runs 13 – 29 May 2016 with full line up still to be announced.

The flagship arts organisation for the east of England, Norfolk & Norwich Festival showcases some of the world’s most renowned international artists alongside regional talent, drawing audiences from across the UK. On the 2016 programme the Festival’s Artistic Director William Galinsky said: “We are hugely excited to announce some of the first shows for the 2016 Festival. Next year’s programme continues our commitment to nurturing the best of local and national talent as well as bringing in the best new international work. 2016 is shaping up to be one of our most ambitious Festivals to date and I look forward to announcing the full programme for the Festival early next year.”

Full information on all Norfolk & Norwich Festival events at www.nnfestival.org.uk.

 

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Race Horse Company presents
WHITE NIGHTS
UK Premiere

Race Horse Company presents a sophisticated circus cabaret. White Nights is made of Race Horse blood; classy and edgy with an international cast.

Be led into the night by soulful and mesmerising New York City singer and host Sophia Urista, while Race Horse Company’s Finnish circus boys provide danger, fun and fury. Dancer and wild child Iona Kewney completes this ensemble of delicious performers.

***

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
FESTIVAL CHORUS
David Parry conductor
Savitri Grier violin
Jeni Bern soprano
Christopher Diffey tenor
Alexander Robin Baker baritone

Chausson                Poème Op. 25
Kemal Yusuf           Cain (World Premiere)
Franck                    Symphony in D minor

The World Premiere of an ambitious choral work is flanked by two masterpieces of nineteenth century Romanticism. From one of the foremost young composers today, Kemal Yusuf’s Cainrecounts the Biblical story of the first-born human in music of breathtaking scope and power. It contrasts exquisitely with Chausson’s rhapsodic Poème and Franck’s richly textured Symphony.

***

MAX RICHTER ENSEMBLE

Hailed as the most influential composer of his generation, British electro-acoustic artist Max Richter is inspired equally by Bach, punk rock and ambient electronica. Richter’s sonic world blends a formal classical training with modern technology, with work including scores for the award-winning films Waltz with Bashir and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.

Richter and his ensemble will perform selections from SLEEP, his landmark work scored for piano, strings, electronics and voice, which was broadcast as part of BBC Radio 3’s Why Music?. Described by Richter as his ‘personal lullaby for a frenetic world,’ don’t miss an astounding night from this leading contemporary classical artist.

***

Aurélien Bory presents
SANS OBJET

In the 1970s it made cars. Now transplanted from assembly line to stage, an industrial robot stars with acrobats Olivier Alenda and Olivier Boyer in a spectacular dance between man and machine. By turns friendly and frightening, the robot is the unlikely hero of a remarkable futurist fantasy.

***

LISA FISCHER

The star of the Oscar-winning Twenty Feet From Stardom, Lisa Fischer is best-known as the woman who sings her heart out with the Rolling Stones – the YouTube of her Gimme Shelterduet with Mick Jagger has had millions of hits.

***

National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre and Edinburgh International Festival present
THE JAMES PLAYS
By Rona Munro
Directed by Laurie Sansom

Exhilarating and vividly imagined, The James Plays trilogy brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland from 1406 to 1488. The productions include: James I: The Key Will Keep The Lock; James II: The Day Of The Innocents and James III: The True Mirror.

***

Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus present
MAHLER’S SYMPHONY OF A THOUSAND
Matthew Andrews conductor
Kirstin Sharpin soprano
Katherine Broderick soprano
Catherine May soprano
Anne Marie Gibbons alto
Anna Burford alto
Peter Wedd tenor
James Harrison baritone
Richard Wiegold bass

To celebrate its 175th Anniversary, the massed ranks of the Norwich Philharmonic are joined by eight outstanding soloists and several choirs from across Norfolk for a spectacular staging in the Norfolk Showground Arena of Mahler’s epic and rarely-performed Symphony of a Thousand.

***

LISTINGS

Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2016 will run from 13 – 29 May.

Tickets are on sale to the public from 9.30am on Wednesday 11 November with priority booking opening at 9.30am on Thursday 5 November.

Box Office 01603 766400, online www.nnfestival.org.uk or in person at Norwich Theatre Royal Box Office.

Concessions and Under 25s discounts available