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York Theatre Royal- until September 18 2021

Reviewed by Katie Goldsbrough

4****

Mugabe, My Dad and Me tells Tonderai Munyevu’s story. Tonderai, a gay man, from Zimbabwe, living in the UK has grown up knowing only one president, Robert Mugabe, one of the more controversial leaders of recent years. 

In 1980 Zimbabwe became its own country after gaining independence from Britain and Robert Mugabe became president. We learn of the rise and fall of Mugabe from the point of view of people who were there, their stories told by Tonderai.  He focuses on his and his father’s stories having spent many years living apart after he moved to the UK and his father remained in Zimbabwe. Tonderai tells us how this affected his family and potentially other families in Zimbabwe using Mugabes speeches to assist the narrative. 

Despite being a one man show Tonderai is not alone on stage for long, introducing us to Millie Chapanda early on, who plays live music throughout and teaches us more about how the Mbira (a musical instrument) is used in Zimbabwean culture. This is a fascinating story which gives an insight into life and the culture of Zimbabwe you wouldn’t get from someone who had not experienced it like Tonderai. 

He is excellent at switching from telling jokes and making the audience laugh to talking about something very serious and heart wrenching. The set is cleverly designed to embrace Zimbawean and British culture. In the 1hr 25 minutes you are in the theatre you will learn a great deal about Zimbabwe and their culture and the impact Mugabe had on so many people’s lives. This is an excellent, entertaining way to learn more about recent history and the impact it had on Tonderai and his family and how Britain played a part in what has become of Zimbabwe now.

Kiln Theatre, London – until 9 October 2021

Reviewed by Alun Hood

4****

This is community theatre in the truest sense. The Kiln is right in the heart of North West London, and it’s autumn offering is a trio of short plays set in the immediate vicinity, albeit at two different points in modern history. Educational and richly entertaining, NW Trilogy emerges, in Taio Lawson and Susie McKenna’s vibrant production as a sparky, moving valentine to what is traditionally one of the capital’s most diverse neighbourhoods. 

Given that not only are there two directors but a trio of writers (Moira Buffini, Roy Williams and Suhayla El-Bushra) involved in the project, it is remarkable how consistent the tone of the entire evening is. Although each short piece is discrete from the others, the overall sense of shared history and cumulative experience, across history, race and gender, is superbly done, the whole company sweeping on to effect scene changes, or act as supernumeraries. Certain themes echo and weave tantalisingly through each text: the commonality of music, the breakdown in communication between men and women, the struggle immigrants have often had to receive acceptance in London, the way an act of unfathomable kindness or cruelty can have a transformative effect on individual lives…. This is powerful, thought-provoking stuff that may occasionally teeter on the brink of sentimentality but is, for the most part, a riveting couple of hours, shot through with some genuine belly laughs and more than a few tears.

The opener, Moira Buffini’s delicate but tough ‘Dance Floor’, set out-of-hours in a 1950s Irish dance hall, is a real beauty. Two women, the older one authoritative but not unkind (Aoife McMahon, perfection) and the younger newly arrived from Donegal, deeply homesick and in trouble (exquisite work by Claire Keenan, who also has the most ethereally lovely singing voice), clean up after the preceding night’s revelry. It’s impossible to describe the plot without spoilers but suffice it to say that it’ll leave you with a real lump in your throat, and includes a terrific turn by Emmet Byrne as one of the guests who imbibed well but not wisely the night before. Vastly more ambitious than it initially appears, ‘Dance Floor’ packs more joy and gentle devastation into it’s brief running time than many plays four times its length can manage.

Roy Williams’s ‘Life of Riley’ flashes forward to 1976 and depicts an edgy meeting between mixed race Paulette and her successful reggae musician father, who left the family home when she was three. Paulette is repelled by her father’s selfishness and resents his abandonment of her as a mixed race child in an intolerant city, but is drawn despite herself to his talent and the perceived glamour of his connections (“I knew Bob Marley before he was Bob Marley!”) Williams’s writing is fresh and salty, with a lot to say about the race relations and sexual politics of the time, and Harmony Rose Bremner and Chris Tummings mine it for all it’s pain and humour. When they sing together it’s authentically magical. Again, here is a short, but far from small, play that is completely satisfying.

If Suhayla El-Bushra’s final section ‘Waking/Walking’ is less impressive than It’s companions, that is because it’s the only part of the trilogy that really feels as though it ought to be a full length piece. Inspired by the Grunwick dispute, it filters the turbulent tale of female East African Asian workers striking for better working conditions in the late 1970s, through a domestic comedy drama that seems a little hemmed-in but still repeatedly and pleasingly confounds expectations in terms of character and plot development. The lurch from the nicely observed, often very funny, family tragi-comedy of the first scene to an impassioned, increasingly disillusioned monologue for the family matriarch (delivered with excoriating emotional dexterity by Natasha Jayetileke), forced by financial circumstances to defy the strike and return to work (“These were the women who cried for me when I could no longer cry myself”), is dramaturgically clumsy, although it paves the way for a rabble rousing final tableau that fairly yanks the audience out of their seats.

All of the acting is first rate, and directors Lawson and McKenna skilfully balance the ferocity and vitality of the texts with genuinely poignant moments – note the way Tummings’s hard-bitten Riley gently reaches out to touch his daughter’s hair while she is otherwise engaged writing her phone number on his inner arm – and the whole night moves at a cracking pace. Designer Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey ingeniously makes the extended Kiln stage look simultaneously immense yet claustrophobic, and Richard Howell’s lighting is very successful, evoking a past bathed one moment in a nostalgic glow and in the next, in a harsh, uncompromising reality. 

NW Trilogy is steeped in the stories and energy of North West London, but it is worth travelling from any postcode for. A magnificent evening. 

Grand Opera House York – until 18 September 2021

Reviewed by Marcus Richardson

5*****

The Woman in Black is a story most of us are familiar with, after studying the book by Susan Hill at school or watching the film starring Daniel Radcliffe. The play of the same tale has been a modern theatre staple and the most iconic piece of horror within theatre.

The play heralded the return of the Grand Opera House in York, which is later than some in the reopening of theatres across the UK, once lockdown restrictions were lifted. There was a sense of joy about the theatre, a buzz in the air, even though what we were about to watch was frightfully fearsome.

The play, which is set as a rehearsal between a haunted Arthur Kipps (Robert Goodall), who doesn’t want to perform but merely tell his tale, in the hopes that he can leave the ghosts of Eel Marsh House in the past, and The Actor (Antony Eden), who has come to help Mr. Kipps in delivering his story. Goodall opens the play with an awfully drab and internal reading of his story. As the tale is told, which starts out pretty innocuous, turns out to what we do get, a spine-chilling story.

Eden, as well as appearing as The Actor, takes on the role of the young Arthur Kipps and Goodall plays all the other characters in the story. Eden takes the horror and gives us horror and takes the comedy and gives us comedy. He does a good job of delivering the fear with the audience experiencing it with him. Goodall works in a much more understated way, but the arch of being a flat performer to then taking on multiple roles with such vigour is pleasing to watch. Some characters made us laugh and some made us anxious, with the tales of the Woman in Black.

The comical aspect of the play really stood out in this performance. I really loved this as one moment you were laughing and the next you would be jumping in your seat, as the woman haunts the stage. Constantly switching between being immersed into the dark story and then being back into the rehearsal, worked well, as the actors did a good job of shifting between the two. It goes without mentioning that the two did such a terror-iffic job of working the stage with just the 2(?) of them and performing the two-hour play.

I love horror and I love theatre, bringing the two together always makes a beautiful relationship, The Woman in Black is a perfect marriage of the two. I believe that every theatregoer should go and see this show.

It is at the Grand Opera House in York until the 18th of September. With a huge welcome back to the stage for the theatre, it’s great to another live theatre venue in York.

Debbie Chazen to star in the World Premiere of The Child In The Snow – at Wilton’s Music Hall this Christmas

Opens 26^th November until 31^st December

Wilton’s Music Hall today announces that Debbie Chazen will star in its Christmas production The Child In The Snow, a thrilling, eerie and ultimately uplifting new adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian ghost story ‘The Old Nurse’s Tale’ brimming with festive magic and mystery, created by award-winning author Piers Torday.

The spine-chilling festive production will see actor of stage and screen Debbie Chazen take on the role of Estelle Leanord; known for both her appearances in some of the UK’s favourite TV shows such as Holby City, The Smoking Room and Doctors and her West End and nationwide theatre performances including in The Girls at the Phoenix Theatre, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination.

Wilton’s rather ghostly version of this tale will be set in 1918 when a young nurse, back from the front line, engages in a séance recalling strange memories of a lonely childhood Christmas on the Northumbrian moors. It will unearth a dark secret that refuses to remain in the past. A classic festive ghost story – not suitable for those of nervous disposition.

The Child In The Snow has been created by the same creative team who have sustained Wilton’s’ tradition of producing exceptional, original Christmas stories and bringing festive magic to the East London stage; in 2017 and 2018 the critically acclaimed The Box of Delights delighted audiences, followed by a wonderful adaptation of A Christmas Carol featuring a female Scrooge that was named as A Sunday Times Best Selling Show of 2019.  

Award-winning children’s author Piers Torday (winner of The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and Children’s Book of the Year in The Times) has again turned his hand to adapting a classic, this time drawn to the incredible era of female Victorian writers of ghost stories and in particular Elizabeth Gaskell. Probably best known for her novels Cranford, Wives and Daughters and North and South, all of which have been screened by the BBC.

Tordayreunites with director Justin Audibert, alongside designer Tom Piper, and composer, Ed Lewis. Joining this stellar team are lighting designer Jess Bernberg, video designer Hayley Egan and magicians Morgan and West, no strangers to Wilton’s, will be magic consultants.

Writer Piers Torday says ‘The Victorian age gave rise to the classic ghost story, yet shamefully few of the many great supernatural tales by women authors of the period have been anthologised, never mind adapted. I’m delighted to be correcting that in some way by bringing this ferociously and typically brilliant story by Elizabeth Gaskell to the stage. “The Old Nurse’s Tale” is a stone cold classic of the genre: a deserted country house on the snowbound Northumbrian moors, a horrific family secret, and a girl who won’t stop asking questions. What is not to love? The idea of telling a ghost story at the magically atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall over Christmas was irresistible, especially when I knew that Justin Audibert and the creative team behind The Box of Delights would be bringing it all to spooky life…’

The most festive venue in London, the Hall’sbrand-new customised seats and enhanced acoustics in the auditorium mean that the audience experience is better than ever before.

Further cast to be announced soon.

www.theglassmenageriewestend.com

 @SecondHalfProds | #TheGlassMenagerie

Second Half Productions presents
THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Written by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Jeremy Herrin

• AMY ADAMS TO MAKE WEST END DEBUT AS AMANDA WINGFIELD IN A NEW PRODUCTION DIRECTED BY JEREMY HERRIN

• PAUL HILTON, TOM GLYNN-CARNEY, LIZZIE ANNIS AND VICTOR ALLI WILL ALSO STAR

• THE GLASS MENAGERIE IS THE DEBUT PRODUCTION FROM SECOND HALF PRODUCTIONS CO-FOUNDED BY JEREMY HERRIN, ALAN STACEY AND ROB O’RAHILLY

• THE GLASS MENAGERIE WILL PREVIEW AT THE DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE FROM 23 MAY 2022 

• TICKETS WILL GO ON GENERAL SALE AT 12PM ON 14 SEPTEMBER WITH 10,000 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT £20 AND UNDER ACROSS THE RUN 

Second Half Productions has today announced that six time Academy Award nominated actress Amy Adams will make her West End debut in a new production of Tennessee Williams’s celebrated memory play, The Glass Menagerie directed by Jeremy Herrin (Wolf Hall Trilogy, People Places and Things, This House). Paul Hilton (The Inheritance, Lady Macbeth, A Very British Scandal), Tom Glynn-Carney (The Ferryman, Dunkirk), Lizzie Annis and Victor Alli complete the cast.

The production will run for 14 weeks at The Duke of York’s Theatre from 23 May 2022 with Opening Night on 31 May 2022. Tickets will go on general sale from 14 September, with 10,000 available at £20 and under available across the run. 

Award-winning director Jeremy Herrin’s bold new staging explores the fragility and fallibility of memory in Williams’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece. Six-time Academy Award nominated and two-time Golden Globe winning actress Amy Adams takes on the role of one of Williams’s most iconic matriarchs Amanda Wingfield, a former Southern Belle living precariously with her two children, Tom and Laura, in a space between past and present. Tony award-nominee Paul Hilton and Tom Glynn-Carney will both play Tom – at different stages of the character’s life –  with newcomers Lizzie Annis and Victor Alli as Laura and The Gentleman Caller.

The Glass Menagerie is designed by Vicki Mortimer with lighting design by Paule Constable and video design by Ash J Woodward. 

Amy Adams says: “I am so honored and excited to be a part of bringing The Glass Menagerie to the stage in the West End! I have always felt a strong pull towards the work of Tennessee Williams and to this deeply personal story. I am so grateful to be working with the brilliant Jeremy Herrin and with all of the talented cast and creative team. I look forward to the shared experience of theater. See you in 2022!”

Jeremy Herrin, Co-Director of Second Half Productions says: “I can’t wait to work with such a talented cast led by the brilliantly transformative Amy Adams on one of the best plays ever written. Tennesse Williams’ masterpiece is a delicate work of genius and I look forward to working with a world class creative team including Vicki Mortimer, Paule Constable and Ash J Woodward to allow the play to resonate in a fresh and exciting way. I’m grateful to the Williams’ estate who have allowed me to split the role of Tom Wingfield – and thrilled to have cast Paul Hilton to play him, and Tom Glynn-Carney to play his younger self. And it is a privilege for Second Half Productions to give West End debuts to the wonderful talent of Lizzie Annis and Victor Alli as Laura Wingfield and Jim O’Connor respectively.”

Amy Adams has won two Golden Globes and has been nominated for six Academy Awards.

Amy is appearing in the film adaptation of the Tony Award winning musical, Dear Evan Hansen, alongside Ben Platt. Universal will release the film on September 24, 2021. Amy is currently in production on Disenchanted, the sequel to her 2007 blockbuster hit, Enchanted, for Disney+. She is reprising her role of Giselle and also executive producing the film. It is expected to be released in 2022.

Amy’s recent credits include: Woman in the Window; Hillbilly Elegy (SAG nomination); Vice (Golden Globe, SAG, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, Academy Award nominations); Sharp Objects (“Best Actress in Limited Series or Movie Made for Television” Critic’s Choice award and Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy nominations); Arrival (named Best Actress by the National Board of Review and Critics’ Choice award, SAG and Golden Globe nominations); Justice League; Nocturnal Animals, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Additional film credits include; Big Eyes (“Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy” Golden Globe and BAFTA nomination); American Hustle (“Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy” Golden Globe; “Best Actress in a Comedy” Critics’ Choice Award and “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture” SAG Award and BAFTA nomination); Her; The Master (Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations); The Fighter (Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations); Julie and Julia; Doubt (Academy Award nominations); Enchanted (Golden Globe nominated); Junebug (Independent Spirit Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, San Francisco Film Critics Society Award, Breakthrough Gotham Award, Special Jury Prize for Acting, Sundance Film Festival and Academy-Award and SAG nominations).

Adams’ other film credits include: Trouble with the Curve; On The Road; The Muppets; Night At The Museum 2: Battle at The Smithsonian; Sunshine Cleaning; Charlie Wilson’s War; Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and Catch Me If You Can.

In early 2019, Amy announced the development of her production company, Bond Group Entertainment. The company signed a first look deal with HBO and are currently developing a multitude of projects including for television: Willa of the Wood; The Most Fun We Ever Had; The Kings of America; Nightbitch and Outlawed. They recently won the rights to Suzanne Simard’s NYT best-selling memoir, Finding the Mother Tree. They will produce it alongside Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories and Amy will star. Bond Group Entertainment are executive producers on The Glass Menagerie.

Paul Hilton most recently shot Slow Horses for Apple, and played the lead in Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s BFI/Film4 feature Earwig, which will premiere at Toronto and San Sebastian this Autumn. Before the pandemic he performed on Broadway in the transfer of Young Vic hit show, The Inheritance, for which he was Tony nominated. Recent television includes Stephen Frears’ A Very English Scandal and The Crown. Film work includes Craig Roberts’ film Eternal Beauty, Lady Macbeth, London Road and Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights. Other recent theatre work includes Lucy Kirkwood’s Mosquitoes at the NT Dorfman, the title role in Sally Cookson’s Peter Pan (National Theatre Olivier) and Anatomy Of A Suicide (Royal Court).

Tom Glynn-Carney trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Winning the Best Newcomer Evening Standard Award and Best Featured Actor Drama Desk Award for his performance in Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman,Tom has had critical acclaim in the West End and on Broadway. His film credits include Dunkirk, The King, Tolkein and Rialto and his television credits include Domina, Doing Money and The Last Post.

Lizzie Annis is currently filming The Witcher: Blood Origin for Netflix. Lizzie, who has cerebral palsy, graduated from Oxford School of Drama in 2020, this will be her professional stage debut.

Victor Alli trained at RADA. Most recently, Victor was in rehearsals for The Browning Version (Riverside Studios) directed by Kenneth Branagh which sadly had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. His other theatre credits include Ghost House (The Vaults), Khadija is 18 (Finborough Theatre), Noise (National Theatre Studio), Scan Artists (The Yard Theatre), Timbuktu (Bush Theatre). His television work includes The Man Who Fell to Earth (Showtime/CBS) and Grantchester (ITV). Film credits include Belfast and Death on the Nile directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Jeremy Herrin, formerly Artistic Director of Headlong and Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court, is a Director of Second Half Productions. 

This autumn, Jeremy will direct the final instalment in the Wolf Hall Trilogy – The Mirror and The Light, adapted for stage by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles. Over two decades, Jeremy has directed a string of award winning hits that transferred to the West End and New York, including That Face by Polly Stenham (Royal Court and West  End), This House by James Graham (National Theatre and West End), Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (RSC, West End and  Broadway), The Nether by Jennifer Haley (Royal Court and West End), People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan  (National Theatre, West End and St Ann’s Warehouse, New York), Labour of Love by James Graham (West End). Earlier this year Jeremy directed the world premiere of After Life by Jack Thorne (National Theatre and his upcoming  shows include Best of Enemies by James Graham (Young Vic) and Almost Famous  the Musical (Broadway, autumn 2022). 

The Glass Menagerie is the debut production from Second Half Productions, a new entertainment company founded by Jeremy Herrin, Alan Stacey and Rob O’Rahilly, creating innovative work by world-leading artists for stage and screen, breathing new and unexpected life into classic stories and championing extraordinary writing from new and established voices.

 New Victoria Theatre, Woking  – until 18 September 2021

5***** 

Reviewed by Carly Burlinge  

Joshua Adams and Peter James Present Looking Good Dead. 

When Tom Bryce (Adam Woodyatt) finds a memory stick that has been left on the train by accident. He decides that if he can gain access, he will be able to return it to its rightful owner doing a good deed. But when he can’t get into the memory stick his son Max Bryce (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) decides to crack its code, the contents are not what they expect and they both witness a vicious murder! Now in a very ill position his family are in grave danger and are threatened with their lives. Tom and his son are warned never to access the site again or to go to the police but when his son Max can’t handle what position he is under, he then contacts Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (Harry Long) with information having more consequences and plunging his whole family in further peril!

Tom Bryce (Adam Woodyatt) and Kellie Bryce (Gaynor Faye) had a great connection on stage appearing as a middle-class family with many issues! Tom trying to be an entrepreneur but with his business failing miserably and Kellie as a typical housewife who loves her husband and son but has many issues of her own. Which consist of past alcohol issues and spending money like it’s going out of fashion. An issue that only causes more friction between them and their household. 

This production is full of deceit and dishonesty along with forgiveness. Full of gripping and unforeseen twisting turns, that will shock you to your stomach and will have you guessing all the way through keeping you in suspense whilst trying to work out the plot. 

The stage was executed extremely well, with the audience being able to look into the family home. A screen across the back changing into a torture chamber that gave the illusion you were watching it from a screen. The police office also appeared in a simple form and structure as it rolled out onto the stage darkening out everything else around it.  

This show was just amazing and definitely one not to be missed just fantastic. 

THE MORMONS ARE BACK!

CASTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE TONY®, OLIVIER® AND GRAMMY® AWARD-WINNING SHOW, BOTH IN LONDON AND ON TOUR

“The best musical of this century.”
Ben Brantley, The New York Times 

The Book of Mormon, the smash-hitmusical written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez, resumes its UK and European Tour at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on 12 October 2021, and will return to the Prince of Wales Theatre in London to continue its seven year sold out run from 15 November 2021. The full casts for both productions are announced today.

Additionally, to celebrate the reopening of theatreland and the return of The Book of Mormon to stages across the UK, cast from the production will perform for the first time at West End Live in Trafalgar Square, London on 18 September.

More information on tour dates and tickets for the Tony®, Olivier® and Grammy® award-winning show can be found at www.thebookofmormonmusical.com.

UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR

The The Book of Mormon tour will resume on 12 October 2021, opening at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff before dates in Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow, Norwich, Southampton, Amsterdam, Leeds, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham and Edinburgh.

The cast of The Book of Mormon on touris led by Robert Colvin as ‘Elder Price’, Conner Peirson as ‘Elder Cunningham’, Aviva Tulley as ‘Nabulungi’, Jordan Lee Davies, Ewen Cummins, Johnathan Tweedie and Thomas Vernal.

The full company on tour includes Loren Anderson, Jed Berry, David Brewis-Scott, Sanchia Amber Clarke, Tre Copeland-Williams, Tom Dickerson, Chanel Edwards-Frederick, Patrick George, Tad Hapaguti, Daniel Haswell, Evan James, Darren John, Michael Lewis, George Littell, Nicole Louise, Fergal McGoff, Ben Middleton, Sasha Monique, David Perkins, Rory Shafford, Chomba S. Taulo, Sharon Wattis and Jacob Yarlett.

LONDON

The London production The Book of Mormon will reopen at the Prince of Wales Theatre from 15 November 2021.

The cast of The Book of Mormon in London is led by Dom Simpson as ‘Elder Price’, Tom Xander as ‘Elder Cunningham’, Leanne Robinson as ‘Nabulungi’, Steven Webb, Richard Lloyd-King, Haydn Oakley and Edward Baruwa.

The full company in London includes Thomas Audibert, Philip Catchpole, Christopher Copeland, Joseph Davenport, Tanya Edwards, George Grayson, Myles Hart, Olivia Hibbert, Jed Hoyle, M-Jae Cleopatra Isaac, Georgia Iudica-Davies, Oliver Jacobson, Akmed Junior Khemalai, Ryan Kopel, David McMullan, Jack McNeill, Paige Miller, Sean Parkins, Kirk Patterson, Luke Redmore, Stephen Rolley, Fred Smiley, Patrick Sullivan, Ben Tyler, Anna Van Ruiten and Rebecca-Daisy Wellington.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the creators of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning television show,  South Park, now in its twenty-fifth season, and the feature films South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police.

Robert Lopez co-created the Broadway musical Avenue Q and co-wrote the songs for Disney’s Frozen and Coco. He is the first person ever to have become a double ‘EGOT’, winning at least two of each of the four major entertainment awards – Emmy®, Grammy®, Oscar® and Tony® Awards.

The Book of Mormon is co-directed and choreographed by the Tony®, Olivier®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle Award-winning Casey Nicholaw. His many other Broadway and West End credits include Disney’s Aladdin, Dreamgirls, Mean Girls, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Something Rotten!, Elf: The Musical, The Prom and The Drowsy Chaperone.

The Book of Mormon follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s a long way from their home in Salt Lake City.

Since making its world premiere in March 2011 at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theatre, where it won nine Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, The Book of Mormon has been performed on three continents and won over thirty international awards. The musical has smashed long-standing box office records in New York, London, Melbourne, Sydney and in cities across the U.S.

The London production opened in February 2013, winning four Olivier Awards® including Best New Musical, and breaking the record for the highest single day of sales in West End history. It sold out every one of its performances before closing alongside all theatreland in March 2020. The first ever UK and European tour launched in Manchester in June 2019, winning ‘Best Theatre Show’ at the Manchester Evening News City Life Awards before touring throughout the UK and Europe.

Book, Music and Lyrics are by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.  Directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, The Book of Mormon has choreography by Casey Nicholaw, set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt, sound design by Brian Ronan, orchestrations by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus and music supervision and vocal arrangements by Stephen Oremus.

The Book of Mormon is produced by Anne Garefino, Important Musicals and Sonia Friedman Productions.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

www.thebookofmormonmusical.com | @bookofmormonuk

Casting announced for highly anticipated
new musical Vanara – The Legend
Friday 22nd – Sunday 31st October 2021
Hackney Empire, 291 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 1EJ

A fantastic ensemble of West End and international talent will come together to launch the
world premiere of Vanara – The Legend at Hackney Empire, including Matthew Croke (Aladdin, Prince Edward; Hair, London Palladium), Glenn Carter (Evita, UK tour; Jesus Christ Superstar, UK tour), Johnnie Fiori (The Sunshine Boys, Savoy Theatre/ Ahmanson Theatre, LA), Carole Stennett (Death of a Salesman, Piccadilly Theatre; The Bodyguard, UK tour), Cavin Cornwall (Jesus Christ Superstar, Barbican) and, phenomenal rising-star Emily Bautista (Les Misérables; Miss Saigon – Broadway), who will be making her London debut.

Further cast bringing Vanara – The Legend to life include Samantha Mercer (Les Misérables, West End; Jerry Springer the Opera, National Theatre), Kayleigh McKnight (Tina The Musical, West End; Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Joaquin Pedro Valdes (Heathers, West End; Miss Saigon, UK & International tour) and Shem Omari James (The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Leicester Curve). The production will play for a strictly limited London run before embarking on a UK-wide tour in 2022.

Highly anticipated following its lauded workshop performances and concept album, the groundbreaking production will be directed by Adam Lenson and Eleesha Drennan, who will also serve as Dramaturg and Choreographer respectively. Vanara – The Legend brings together an acclaimed international creative team, with a soaring score by Gianluca Cucchiara, lyrics by Andrew James Whelan, book by Michael Conley, conceived by Tony Cucchiara and produced and developed by Giovanna Romagnoli. Further creatives include set and costume design by Libby Todd, with orchestrations by Jen Green, musical direction by Tamara Saringer and casting by Harry Blumenau.

The production will also feature an incredible ensemble with Jemima Brown, Chris George, Yuki Abe, Olivia Jones, Ella Martine, HIcaro Nicolai, Prem Rai, and Ebby Sama.

With a prevailing message of hope and call for unity, the production resonates with the chaos of today’s society and the earth ravaged by natural disasters. This fiery phenomenon has gained cult status among fans throughout its development process. With its blend of theatre, contemporary dance, and technical innovation, Vanara – The Legend is crafting a new language for musical theatre. It is an excitingly modern musical like nothing before.

As disaster threatens to destroy the world they know, two tribes are locked in an age-old battle. One young woman must make a choice: protect the traditions of her people or challenge everything she has been taught. With total devastation bearing down on them, will the two tribes reunite before it’s too late?

Producer Giovanna Romagnoli comments, We’re thrilled to bring together this incredible
ensemble to premiere Vanara – The Legend in London. We can’t wait for audiences to witness the fantastic spectacle on stage, showcasing the talents of both the cast and creative team.

All tickets for the preview performance, Friday 22nd October, will be £20 (plus booking fee).

Daniel King announced as
Icon’s new Executive Director

Daniel King has been announced as the new Executive Director at Icon, a leading theatre company based at The Brook Theatre in Medway who are known for their work with communities across north and east Kent.

Icon bring together professional theatre artists and local communities to create large-scale, immersive, and site-specific performances, exploring the issues and stories that influence their lives. Most recently, The Chatham Witch explored the extraordinary history of women in Medway and featured 150 actors, dancers, and singers from the local community.

Icon also leads Medway and Sheppey’s flagship young people’s theatre programme Theatre31. Led by young people for young people, it is one of five Arts Council funded Youth Performance Partnerships in the country.

Additionally, Icon runs mental health programmes, weekly classes in local community centres and issue-based workshops on housing estates, schools, and drop-in centres. Icon often works with people who have experienced significant socio-economic disadvantage and exclusion, including life in care, having experience of the criminal justice system, or holding refugee or asylum seeker status. Many of the young people Icon work with are at risk of educational exclusion, some have already been excluded and many remain not in education, employment, or training.

Daniel has previously worked at international dance house Sadler’s Wells leading the marketing for their Producing and Touring department, National Youth Dance Company and Breakin’ Convention. Before that, he was interim Executive Director at Camden People’s Theatre, and between 2015-18 ran a marketing and communications project management business with clients including Roundhouse, Donmar Warehouse, Dance to Health, Battersea Arts Centre, Soho Theatre and Dartington Hall amongst others.

He was part of the original team for Fun Palaces, a national campaign for cultural democracy, leading their marketing and communications strategy until 2021. He has held other roles at Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Albany and DreamWorks and is a trustee of Applause Rural Touring. He trained in theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama and studied Education at University of Cambridge.

Daniel comments, I’m delighted to be joining Icon at this exciting time of growth and development for the company. What drew me to Icon is their commitment to creating high quality and transformative theatre and arts opportunities for the diverse communities in Medway, from co-creating large-scale immersive theatre productions with professional theatre makers and local people, to the work they do leading Theatre 31, inspiring thousands of local young people. I’m looking forward to collaborating with artists and partners in Medway and beyond to develop opportunities.

Founder and Artistic Director Nancy Hirst comments, Icon Theatre is delighted to welcome
Daniel King as our new Executive Director at this exciting time. He brings a huge amount of skills and experience to the organisation and we’re really looking forward to working with him to engage more communities than ever before.

Operation Mincemeat is currently playing a sold out run in The Large originally set to finish this Saturday 18 September.

Tickets for the January/February dates are on sale now.

OPERATION MINCEMEAT
Written and composed by SpitLip.
SpitLip are David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoe Roberts.

Directed by Donnacadh O’Briain. Choreography by Jenny Arnold. Set and costume design by Helen Coyston. Lighting design by Sherry Coenen. Sound Design by Mike Walker.

Run: Friday, 14 January – Saturday, 19 February 2022

The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. 

Following sold-out runs at the New Diorama Theatre in 2019 and Southwark Playhouse in 2020 and September 2021, Operation Mincemeat is back. Having spent lockdown rewriting the show, weeping and eating biscuits, SpitLip are pleased to announce they are extending the run of this newer, bigger and (somehow) even better version from 14 January through to 19 February 2022.

Singin’ in the Rain meets Strangers on a Train, Noel Coward meets Noel Fielding, Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler? 

Operation Mincemeat won The Stage Debut award for Best Composer/Lyricist, the Off-West End award for Best Company Ensemble, and was listed in the Observer’s Top 10 shows of the year.  

Commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, co-commissioned by The Lowry. Supported by the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat Additional support from Avalon. 

Recent praise for Operation Mincemeat:

“Set firmly in the past, this is a little show with a very big future.” Variety

★★★★★ “There are some big, blowsy shows around in the West End, but this little belter is staging its own audacious invasion plan.” Financial Times

★★★★★ “An artisanal masterpiece” Daily Mail

★★★★★ “miraculous musical…extraordinary in every way” Daily Mirror

★★★★★ “Incredibly fun and funny… an absolute must-see” The Gay Times

“Currently killing it at Southwark Playhouse” Lyn Gardner, StageDoor

“This production has a heart of gold. West End impresarios should check it out immediately. It’s a contender.” The Spectator

★★★★★ Daily Express

Previous praise for Operation Mincemeat:

★★★★★ “Glows with theatrical invention and delivers laughs by the gallon. Unmissable.” WhatsOnStage 

★★★★★ “A masterclass of macabre musical comedy, masterfully performed.” The Stage 

★★★★ “Its whip-crack rhymes are fast and funny. The script is well-seasoned with smart, silly asides.” Time Out 

★★★★ “A finely varied score, and lyrics that shame most big musicals by their dexterousness and ingenuity.” The Observer