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LONDON’S NEW HIT MUSICAL EXTENDS INTO 2018

TICKETS NOW ON SALE TO 27 JANUARY 2018

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

Exquisite production opens to an incredible 28 five-star reviews

AnAmericanInParisTheMusical.co.uk

Christopher Wheeldon’s stunning reinvention of the Oscar® winning film An American in Parishas been ecstatically received by audiences and critics since opening at the beautifully restored Dominion Theatre on 21 March 2017. The smash hit production has now extended booking, with tickets on sale until Saturday 27 January 2018.

The sumptuous new musical about following your heart and living your dreams is written by Craig Lucas and features the timeless music and lyrics of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, including I Got Rhythm, ‘S Wonderful, I’ll Build a Stairway To Paradise and They Can’t Take That Away from Me, together with George Gershwin’s sweeping compositions including ‘Concerto in F’ and ‘An American in Paris’.

Jerry Mulligan is an American GI pursuing his dream to make it as a painter in a city suddenly bursting with hope and possibility. Following a chance encounter with a beautiful young dancer named Lise, the streets of Paris become the backdrop to a sensuous, modern romance of art, friendship and love in the aftermath of war…

The cast is headed by the original, award-winning Broadway stars Robert Fairchild (as Jerry Mulligan) and Leanne Cope (as Lise Dassin), together with Haydn Oakley as Henri Baurel, Zoë Rainey as Milo Davenport, David Seadon-Young as Adam Hochberg and Jane Asher as Madame Baurel. Ashley Day is the alternate Jerry Mulligan (and he will assume the role from Monday 19 June 2017). The company also features Julian Forsyth and Ashley Andrews, Sophie Apollonia, Zoe Arshamian, Sarah Bakker, James Barton, Alicia Beck, Chrissy Brooke, James Butcher, Jonathan Caguioa, Jennifer Davison, Katie Deacon, Rebecca Fennelly, Sebastian Goffin, Alyn Hawke, Nicky Henshall, Genevieve Heron, Amy Hollins, Frankie Jenna, Justin-Lee Jones, Robin Kent, Kristen McGarrity, Julia J. Nagle, Daniela Norman, Pippa Raine, Aaron Smyth, Todd Talbot, Max Westwell, Jack Wilcox, Carrie Willis, Stuart Winter and Liam Wrate.

The new musical An American in Paris premiered in 2014 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to ecstatic reviews before transferring to the Palace Theatre on Broadway, where it became the most awarded musical of the 2015/16 season, including four Tony® Awards. A major North American tour is currently playing.

With music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and a new book by Craig Lucas, the new musical An American in Paris is directed and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon with set and costumes designs by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound byJon Weston and projection designs by 59 Productions. The musical score is adapted, arranged and supervised by Rob Fisher with orchestrations by Christopher Austin and Bill Elliott, dance arrangements by Sam Davis and musical supervision by Todd Ellison. The UK Musical Director is John Rigby.

An American in Paris is produced in London by Stuart Oken, Van Kaplan, Roy Furman, Michael McCabe and Joshua Andrews.

Robert Fairchild is appearing with the support of UK Equity, incorporating the Variety Artistes’ Federation, pursuant to an exchange program between American Equity and UK Equity.

A Frantic Assembly and State Theatre Company South Australia production

Originally produced in collaboration with Warwick Arts Centre in association with Chichester Festival Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE

• FRANTIC ASSEMBLY ANNOUNCES A SECOND UK TOUR OF ITS HIT 2016 PLAY THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE
• WRITTEN BY ANDREW BOVELL AND CO-DIRECTED BY SCOTT GRAHAM AND GEORDIE BROOKMAN
• THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE WILL OPEN IN OXFORD ON 27 SEPTEMBER 2017 BEFORE TOURING TO SALFORD, LEICESTER, COLCHESTER, YORK, CHESTER, SOUTHAMPTON, POOLE AND LONDON’S LYRIC HAMMERSMITH
  Following a hugely successful 2016 Australian and UK tour, Frantic Assembly and State Theatre Company South Australia’s critically acclaimed Things I Know To Be True returns to delight audiences in the UK from 27 September 2017. Andrew Bovell’s new play will tour to Oxford Playhouse, The Lowry in Salford, Leicester Curve, Mercury Theatre in Colchester, York Theatre Royal, Chester Storyhouse, Southampton’s Nuffield, Poole Lighthouse and London’s Lyric Hammersmith.

As beautifully touching as it is funny and bold, Things I Know To Be True tells the story of a family and marriage through the eyes of four grown siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents’ love and expectations.

Parents Bob and Fran have worked their fingers to the bone and with their four children grown and ready to fly the nest it might be time to relax and enjoy the roses. But the changing seasons bring home some shattering truths.

Andrew Bovell said:

“The only reason to write a play is for it to reach an audience and for it to mean something to them when it does. I’m thrilled that UK audiences will have another chance to see this wonderful production.”

Scott Graham (Artistic Director, Frantic Assembly) said:

“I am immensely proud of this collaboration. It melted hearts on its first Australian and UK tours and I am looking forward to new audiences engaging with this beautiful play.”

Geordie Brookman (Artistic Director, State Theatre Company) said:

“We are tremendously proud of the way this gem of an Australian play has connected with U.K. audiences and feel blessed that, alongside our friends at Frantic Assembly, we can take the production to an even wider audience.”

Featuring Frantic Assembly’s celebrated physicality, and co-directed by Frantic Assembly’s Tony and Olivier Award nominated Artistic Director Scott Graham and State Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Geordie Brookman, Things I Know To Be True is a complex and intense study of the mechanics of a family that is both poetic and brutally frank.

Andrew Bovell is regarded as one of Australia’s greatest storytellers, for critically acclaimed plays including When The Rain Stops Falling, Speaking In Tongues and an adaptation of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, as well as screen work including Lantana and A Most Wanted Man.

Casting for Things I Know To Be True will be announced in due course.
 

LISTINGS

27 – 30 September
Oxford Playhouse
On sale from Thursday 27 April
11-12 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2LW
01865 305 305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com

3 – 7 October
The Lowry (Quays Theatre)
On sale from Thursday 27 April
Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
0843 208 6000
www.thelowry.com

10 – 14 October
Leicester Curve
Members on sale for members from Thursday 11 May 
General on sale from Monday 15 May
60 Rutland St, Leicester LE1 1SB
0116 242 3595
www.curveonline.co.uk

17 – 21 October
Mercury Theatre, Colchester
On sale from Thursday 27 April
Colchester CO1 1PT
01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk

31 October – 4 November
York Theatre Royal
On sale from Thursday 27 April
St Leonard’s Pl, York YO1 7HD
01904 623568
www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

7 – 11 November
Chester Storyhouse
Tickets on sale now
Hunter St, Chester CH1 2AR
01244 409113
www.storyhouse.com

14 – 18 November
Nuffield Southampton
On sale from Thursday 27 April
University Rd, Southampton SO17 1TR
023 8067 1771
www.nstheatres.co.uk

21 – 25 November
The Lighthouse, Poole
On sale from Thursday 27 April
21 Kingland Rd, Poole BH15 1UG
01202 280000
www.lighthousepoole.co.uk

11 January – 3 February
Lyric Hammersmith
On sale from Thursday 27 April
Lyric Square, King Street, London, W6 0QL
020 8741 6850
www.lyric.co.uk

Running time approx 2 hours, including an interval
Contains strong language
Suitable for ages 14+

LONDON TRANSFER ANNOUNCED FOR THE

HIGHLY ACCLAIMED WAR-TIME LOVE STORY

YANK! to open at Charing Cross Theatre, Monday 3 July

YANK!, the widely acclaimed musical production which recently received its UK première at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester, is to transfer to London this summer. The moving, war-time gay love story will run at Charing Cross Theatre from Monday 3 July – Saturday 19 August 2017

Based on the true, hidden history of gay soldiers during World War, YANK! focuses on the life of Stu, a scared Midwestern youngster who is called up to serve in the forces in 1943 and becomes a reporter for Yank Magazine, the journal ‘for and by the servicemen’. Telling the stories of the men in Charlie Company, the musical explores what it means to be a man, and what it is to fall in love and struggle to survive in a time and place where the odds are stacked against you.

YANK! is based on the Off-Broadway hit production from 2010, with book and lyrics by American writer David Zellnik, with his brother Joseph Zellnik’s musical score paying homage to the timeless music of the 1940s. The musical is directed by James Baker, and is produced by Katy Lipson for Aria Entertainment, Hope Mill Theatre, Ben Millerman with Jim Kierstead and Guy James.

Completing the creative team are James Cleeve as musical director; choreographer Chris Cuming; designer Victoria Hinton; lighting designer Aaron J. Dootson; sound designer Chris Bogg; and casting director Benjamin Newsome.

YANK! is the latest collaboration between leading London-based theatre production company Aria Entertainment and one of Manchester’s newest and leading arts venues, the award-winning Hope Mill Theatre. They first joined forces in January 2016 to spearhead the arts venue as a platform to showcase, revive and bring new musical theatre to the north of England. The transfer to Charing Cross Theatre is helmed by the three producers of the original production at Hope Mill, who are now joined by Jim Kierstead and Guy James.

Capturing the imagination of audiences, the creative collaboration between Aria and Hope Mill has previously garnered rave reviews for productions of the Tony Award-winning Parade and the cult classic Hair, which transfers to The Vaults this autumn for the 50th anniversary production.

Full casting for YANK! is to be announced.

Tara Finney Productions presents

the 20th anniversary production of Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh

Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY

Wednesday 12th July – Saturday 19th August 2017

Marking the 20th anniversary of its explosive British debut, Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs comes to Trafalgar Studios starring Evanna Lynch (Harry Potter; My Name is Emily) and Colin Campbell (Dublin by Lamplight; Through A Glass Darkly).

When Walsh’s breathtaking breakthrough play premiered, the Guardian commented that it didn’t so much debut at the 1997 Edinburgh Fringe as erupt there. It was awarded both the George Devine Award and the Stewart Parker Award.

Born at the same time on the same day in the same hospital, Pig and Runt have been inseparable ever since. They speak in their own language, play by their own rules, and create a world for themselves in which boundaries blur between truth and illusion. Until, on their seventeenth birthday, they discover something more. As night falls, and the disco and drink take hold, they spiral violently out of control.

As we follow these two extraordinary teenagers through the streets of Cork City, drinking and dancing their way into the night, we witness with startling clarity how the nature of friendship can be changed forever. Endlessly playing with their own unique language, it’s impossible not to be swept along by their sense of youthful abandon. Desperate for a world beyond their mundane, everyday existence – amidst the bright lights of the Palace Disco – they draw us into their orbit, refusing to let us go

Enda Walsh comments, It seems shocking that Disco Pigs is 20 years old – but I trust that Evanna Lynch and Colin Campbell under the stewardship of John Haidar – will brilliantly send Pig and Runt crashing through their chaotic joint birthday.

Enda’s other accolades include the Caméra d’Or for his screenplay for Hunger and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Once.

Life of Galileo 

Marcia Gay Harden and Brian J. Smith in

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH by Tennessee Williams

2 – 24 June, Festival Theatre

Full casting has been announced for Tennessee Williams’ SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, directed byJonathan Kent, running at Chichester Festival Theatre from 2 – 24 June, with a press night on Friday 9 June.

The company is headed by two of America’s leading stage and screen actors: celebrated Oscar and Tony Award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden makes her UK theatre debut as Alexandra, and Brian J. Smith plays Chance. Joining them are: Emma Amos, Hester Arden, Matthew Barker, Victoria Bewick, Alex Bhat, Ray Emmet Brown, Graham Butler, Richard Cordery (as ‘Boss’ Finley),Ingrid Craigie, Joy Cruickshank, Tim Francis, Kurt Kansley, Rob Ostlere, Sam Phillips, Daniel Tuite and Ewart James Walters.

1956, a hotel on the Gulf of Mexico. Alexandra del Lago, a fading Hollywood legend, has fled the ridicule that greeted the premiere of her come-back movie. Desperate for anonymity and forgetfulness, she is holed up in a small seaside town on the Gulf of Mexico. With her is Chance Wayne – a young hustler, trying to lend his wasted, disreputable life some meaning and now returning home to reclaim his childhood love from her ruthless father, the corrupt politician ‘Boss’ Finley.

In perhaps his most searing and personal of plays, Tennessee Williams examines failed ambition, lost youth and love, and the corruption and bigotry that lurks beneath the American Dream. As the present-day United States faces uncertainty and momentous change, Sweet Bird of Youth is a portrayal of the degradation of American values and the corrosive lure of celebrity.

Academy and Tony Award-winning actor Marcia Gay Harden, whose work embraces independent and studio films, television and theatre, plays Alexandra. Her many film roles include the artist Lee Krasner in Pollock, for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress; Celeste in Mystic River, for which she received another Oscar nomination; Miller’s Crossing, The First Wives Club, Meet Joe Black, Mona Lisa Smile, The Hoax, Used People, Grandma, Into the Wild, American Gun, Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker. She stars in the CBS drama Code Black, while earlier television work includes The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler and Law and Order: SVU, for both of which she received Emmy Award nominations, and the critically acclaimed HBO series The Newsroom.

Marcia Gay Harden made her Broadway debut in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, for which she received a Tony Award nomination as well as Drama Desk and Theatre World awards. She won the Tony Award and Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actress in 2009 for Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, a role she reprised in Los Angeles in 2011 with the original Broadway cast.

Brian J. Smith, who plays Chance, earned Olivier and Tony Award nominations for his role as the Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, a role he first played on Broadway and is currently reprising in the West End. His screen work includes Trey in the independent filmHate Crime; Matthew Scott in the TV series Stargate Universe; and Will Gorski in Netflix’s Sense8, of which a new series starts in May.

Director Jonathan Kent returns to Chichester following his hugely successful productions of theYoung Chekhov Trilogy (Evening Standard Award for Best Revival), Gypsy and Sweeney Todd (both of which won Olivier Awards for Best Musical Revival) and Private Lives, all of which transferred to London. He was Joint Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre from  1990 – 2002.

The production will be designed by Anthony Ward, with lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Debbie Wiseman, sound by Paul Groothuis and video by Andrzej Goulding.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH  is sponsored by Covers Timber & Builders Merchants and Harwoods Group.

EVENTS

Pre-Show Talk with Jonathan Kent           Wednesday 7 June, 5.45pm

Free but booking essential.

Late with Kate & Marcia Gay Harden         Thursday 15 June, Post-Show

Marcia Gay Harden joins Kate Mosse to talk about her extraordinary film career and Tony Award-winning work in theatre.  Free.

Post-Show Talk                                            Monday 19 June

Stay after the performance to ask questions, meet company members and discover more. Free.

The Trump Effect                             Saturday 24 June, 11am, Steven Pimlott Building

Alongside Caroline, Or Change and Sweet Bird of Youth, a panel of history students and academics from the University of Chichester examine some of the most dramatic periods in American history – times of political and social change. Tickets £5.

Digital Drafts                                     Saturday 15 July – Saturday 12 August

Listen to a series of new short plays through sound installation boxes in the Festival Theatre Foyer. Using themes from Sweet Bird of Youth as a stimulus, young playwrights will work together to craft their short pieces, which will be recorded in radio play style by members of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. Free.

BOOKING INFORMATION

Box Office 01243 781312

Online cft.org.uk

Tickets from £10. Prologue tickets for 16 – 25 year olds for £5.

Lazarus Theatre presents

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

Tuesday 18 July to Saturday 5 August 2017

I see a woman may be made a fool If she had not a spirit to resist.

Lazarus Theatre’s Season of Legacy continues with Shakespeare’s feisty The Taming of the Shrew. Kate talks too much; at least, that’s what the men of Padua think. So they persuade Petruchio to marry her and bring his wilful wife to heel. Part farce, and part tragedy, The Taming of the Shrew dramatises society’s attempt to control and one woman’s bid to resist. Shakespeare’s witty play hits the stage in an all-new gusty and energetic ensemble production. Using text, movement and a contemporary score, this is a Shrew not to be missed.

Listings Information

Venue: Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

410 Brockley Road, London, SE4 2DH

Box office: www.brockleyjack.co.uk

or 0333 666 3366 (£1.50 fee for phone bookings only)

Dates: Tuesday 18 July to Saturday 5 August 2017

Performances at 7.45pm

Tickets: £15, £12 concessions (suitable for 12+)

Theatre website: www.brockleyjack.co.uk

Press for previous Lazarus productions:

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is an exciting and engrossing piece of theatre… The overall effect is amazing ★★★★★ The Upcoming on The Chalk Circle

Electrifyingly staged…a striking and rewarding climax… staged by the London fringe masters of the classics. ★★★★ Entertainment Focus on Dido Queen of Carthage

Excellent…This is cutting-edge Shakespeare, don’t miss it. Lazarus’ work epitomises the spirit of fringe theatre. ★★★★ Everything Theatre on Troilus and Cressida

The Taming of the Shrew

Social Media

Twitter: @BrocJackTheatre

Facebook: /brocjacktheatre

Twitter: @LazarusTheatre Facebook: /LazarusTheatre

Rotterdam by Jon Brittain

Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB

Wednesday 21st June – Saturday 15th July 2017

After its triumphant win at the 2017 Olivier Awards for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, Donnacadh O’Briain’s critically acclaimed production of Rotterdam by Jon Brittain will be returning to London following a highly successful run at Trafalgar Studios and at 59E59 Theater’s Brits Off Broadway in New York.

Anna Martine Freeman (The Nether), Alice McCarthy (Boris: World King), Ed Eales-White (Strap In – It’s Clever Peter) and Ellie Morris (Peter Pan Goes Wrong) reprise their roles in this poignant and highly comic production.

Alice wants to come out as a lesbian. Her girlfriend Fiona wants to start living as a man. It’s New Year in Rotterdam, and Alice has finally plucked up the courage to email her parents and tell them she’s gay. But before she can hit send, Fiona reveals that he has always identified as male and now wants to start living as a man named Adrian. Now, as Adrian confronts the reality of his transition, Alice faces a question she never thought she’d ask… does this mean she’s straight?

Rotterdam is a bittersweet comedy about gender, sexuality and being a long way from home by acclaimed writer Jon Brittain, co-creator of Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho, and writer of What Would Spock Do? and A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad).

Director Donnacadh O’Briain comments, Rotterdam made me laugh-out-loud and well up with tears from the first time I picked it out of a pile of scripts, and it continues to do that every time I see it. It’s an honour and a joy to share that with the theatre capital of the world.

Jon Brittain was inspired to write Rotterdam after a couple of his friends transitioned in the late 2000s. He became aware of the absence of transgender stories in pop culture and wanted to address this on the stage. Through writing this show, he researched and consulted widely including talking to trans people and their partners, conducting a reading for members of the trans communities and discussing the show with various organisations, including Trans Media Watch who then endorsed Rotterdam, and the charity Gendered Intelligence, who the company dedicated their Olivier award to.

Brittain has written four wonderful characters, the central couple giving McCarthy and Martine the chance to put in two powerful performances. (Time Out).

While the themes are gay and transgender – and quite cutting edge, as the subject is relatively rare in theatre – it is a piece that is universally human. (The Upcoming)

Brittain handles complex issues with great honesty and thoughtfulness, but also with a refreshing amount of wit. (Evening Standard)

BRAND NEW MUSICAL HEAVEN ON EARTH ANNOUNCES UK ARENA TOUR 2017 – 2018

STARRING KERRY ELLIS, HUGH MAYNARD

FEATURING THE VOICE OF RUSSELL WATSON