STUNNING NEW IMAGES RELEASED OF BRAND NEW BOULEVARD THEATRE
THE NEW BOULEVARD THEATRE IS NOW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WITH PERFORMANCES OF DAVE MALLOY’S GHOST QUARTET, DIRECTED BY BILL BUCKHURST, RUNNING ALONGSIDE A VIBRANT LATE NIGHT AND SUNDAY PROGRAMME. THE BOULEVARD’S RESTAURANT AND BAR ARE ALSO OPEN TO THE PUBLIC DAILY FROM 8AM
RECENTLY ANNOUNCED 2020 SEASON INCLUDES WORK FROM KATHY BURKE, LUCY PREBBLE AND YAËL FARBER, AMONG MANY OTHERS
Stunning new images of the Boulevard theatre have today been released days after the theatre opened its doors to the public for the first time for the London premiere of Dave Malloy’s Ghost Quartet, directed by Bill Buckhurst. The restaurant is also now open from 8am daily. Alongside this is a vibrant late night and Sunday programme including a wide range of jazz, comedy, poetry, and more.
The Boulevard Theatre is located in the heart of Soho in Walker’s Court. Architects SODA studio, in collaboration with theatre specialists Charcoalblue, have designed an innovative new flexible space which features Europe’s most advanced revolving theatre and a two-floor glass bridge leading to a restaurant and bar area.
The Boulevard Theatre’s inaugural production Ghost Quartet will run alongside a packed roster of late-night and Sunday performances. These will include the West End’s newest female-led improv night THE YES QUEENS curated by Julie Clare with guest performers such as Pippa Evans and Ruth Bratt. Award-winning comics Kiri Pritchard-Mclean and Nina Conti present the best in established and emerging comedy talent with LATE NIGHT SCENE. New music night SOHO SOUNDS: JAZZ, curated by the Copasetic Foundation, will feature performers including David McAlmont, China Moses and Vimala Rowe. Curated by Nadim Naaman, FINALE will feature West End stars such as Natasha Barnes, Fra Fee and Sabrina Aloueche performing stripped back show tunes. The Black Cat Cabaret will present AFTER DARK, a new cabaret night hosted by Dusty Limits. SUNDAY SERVICE: CONCERTS will see an eclectic music programme, curated by Katy Hamilton and Benjamin Cox, including iyatraQuartet, the Hermes Experiment and The London Klezmer Quartet. Artists confirmed so far for SUNDAY SERVICE: POETRY include Inua Ellams, Helen Mort and Richard Scott. SUNDAY SERVICE: PODCASTS takes the freshest voices out of your headphones and into our auditorium, and will feature popular titles such as Standard Issue, Freelance Pod and The Showstopper! Podcast.
For up to date listings for the Late Night and Sunday programme at the Boulevard Theatre please see www.boulevardtheatre.co.uk/whats-on/
THE NEW SEASON
GHOST QUARTET – LONDON PREMIERE
24 October 2019 – 4 January 2020
by Dave Malloy
Directed by Bill Buckhurst
The premiere season of the Boulevard Theatre opens with Ghost Quartet by three-time Tony Award-nominated writer Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Octet and Preludes). Bill Buckhurst directs and reunites the creative team behind his sell-out production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, which transferred from a pie shop in Tooting, to the West End, and eventually to a sell-out New York run.
Ghost Quartet is an intoxicating musical of love, loss and spirits – of both the spectral and alcoholic kind. Wildly inventive, Malloy’s piece draws inspiration from a rich tapestry of work from Arabian Nights and Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, Grimms’ fairy-tales, Stephen Sondheim and Frozen, woven together by jazz, gospel, honky-tonk, folk ballads, electro-pop and jazz. Starring Carly Bawden, Niccolò Curradi, Maimuna Memon and 2019 Olivier Award nominee Zubin Varla.
THE SUNSET LIMITED – LONDON PREMIERE
16 January 2020 – 14 March 2020
by Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Terry Johnson
The 2020 season at the Boulevard Theatre begins with the London premiere of multi award-winning writer Cormac McCarthy‘s gripping play about redemption, faith and free will. The Sunset Limited will be directed by Olivier and Tony Award-winner Terry Johnson (Mrs Henderson Presents, La Cage aux Folles and The Graduate.) Cormac McCarthy’s other celebrated works include The Road, All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men.
Two men meet on a subway platform; the chance encounter instantly changing the trajectory of both their lives. Thrown together, their conversation quickly turns to the most essential and existential questions facing humanity. While their beliefs seem irreconcilable, the answers they seek could mean the difference between life and death.
THE EFFECT
19 March 2020 – 30 May 2020
Press night: 25 March 2020
by Lucy Prebble
Directed by Anthony Neilson
The first London revival of The Effect, by award-winning Lucy Prebble (A Very Expensive Poison, ENRON, The Sugar Syndrome), will be directed by Anthony Neilson (The Tell-Tale Heart, National Theatre; The Prudes and Unreachable, Royal Court).
The Effect won the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play when it opened at the National Theatre in 2012. Award-winning writer Lucy Prebble places modern medicine under the microscope, examining the fallout from a collision between love and science.
Connie and Tristan meet; symptoms develop. Racing hearts. Lost appetites. Erratic emotions. Is this the frenzy of falling in love, or simply side effects from the new anti-depressant drug they’re testing? Addiction comes hard and fast. But have the clinicians running the trial lost control?
HELLO AND GOODBYE
4 June 2020 – 25 July 2020
by Athol Fugard
Directed by Yaël Farber
From Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard, Hello and Goodbye is a searing exploration of the claustrophobic hold the past can have on the present. Directed by multi award-winning director Yaël Farber (Blood Wedding, Young Vic; The Crucible, Old Vic; Mies Julie, Riverside Studios).
It’s been fifteen years since Johnny and Hester Smit have seen one another – not since the day Hester fled to Johannesburg in search of a different life. While Hester’s world has expanded – not always for the better – Johnny’s life has been reduced to the four walls of the rundown family home, and his role caring for their infirm father.
Suddenly Hester returns one night to claim the inheritance she believes to be rightfully hers. What begins as the siblings’ search for their legacy quickly becomes a desperate pursuit for truth, understanding and a future free from the shackles of their shared heritage.
THE CAVALCADERS
16 September 2020 – 21 November 2020
by Billy Roche
Directed by Kathy Burke
Celebrated actor and director Kathy Burke (Lady Windermere’s Fan, West End; Blue/Orange, Sheffield Crucible) directs this bittersweet story of music, memories and moving on by acclaimed writer Billy Roche (Wexford Trilogy).
All his life, cobbler Terry has spent his days tending to his neighbour’s soles. It’s now time for his apprentice to take over, and Terry finds himself handing down two types of keys… In the corner of the shop sits a piano, and come closing time the workers transform into The Cavalcaders – legendary local barbershop quartet.
While the group may be pitch-perfect onstage, they often seem to find themselves tone-deaf when it comes to relationships. In a close-knit Irish community, lives, loves and longings overlap as easily as the Cavalcaders’ melodies, and private lives have never stayed private for long.
THE BOULEVARD THEATRE RESTAURANT
Open 8am to 1am daily, the Boulevard’s restaurant and bar will cater to all tastes and budgets, from lunchtime light bites and grazing boards, to indulgent à la carte dining. Vibrant, sensory and un-fussy: the menus, created by head chef Greg Hillier, will focus on quality ingredients treated well with a conscious lean towards plant-based cookery. Audiences will be able to enhance their evening with a pre-show fixed price menu that will draw inspiration from the current production onstage, whilst enjoying a carefully curated range of drinks promoting top-quality local suppliers and artisan producers