General

Director Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard will transfer to Broadway this year, with Nicole Scherzinger to reprise her much-lauded lead performance.

Scherzinger, who plays Norma Desmond, will be joined by her London co-stars Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett-Young and David Thaxton when the production heads to its as-yet-undisclosed New York venue.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is currently running at London’s Savoy Theatre, where it is set to conclude its 16-week run on January 6.

Featuring book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, and based on the 1950 black comedy, the musical has yet to reveal its dates and additional casting for its New York transfer.

Its creative team includes set and costume design by Soutra Gilmour; choreography by Fabian Aloise; music supervision and direction by Alan Williams; lighting design by Jack Knowles and sound design by Adam Fisher.

Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom provide video design and cinematography, with US casting by Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger, UK casting by Stuart Burt and general management provided by 101 Productions Ltd.

Sunset Boulevard is produced by the Jamie Lloyd Company, Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and Gavin Kalin Productions by arrangement with The Really Useful Group Ltd. It is based on the original Paramount film by Billy Wilder.

For further information visit sunsetblvdbroadway.com

London’s The Old Vic will present the world premiere of Just For One Day, a new musical written by John O’Farrell (Mrs. Doubtfire, Something Rotten!) and directed by Luke Sheppard (& Juliet, The Little Big Things). Running January 26-March 30, 2024, the new musical will officially open February 13.

Featuring the songs of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, The Police, Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Pretenders, The Cars, Status Quo, Paul Weller, Sade, The Boomtown Rats, Bryan Adams, Diana Ross, Ultravox, and more, Just For One Day tells the story of Live Aid, when 70 artists performed, for free, in front of an audience of 1.5 billion in a ‘global jukebox’ at Wembley Stadium, London, and John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, to raise $127 million for famine relief. Just For One Day is produced with permission of The Band Aid Charitable Trust.

Said Matthew Warchus, the Artistic Director of The Old Vic, “I had the pleasure of working with Luke Sheppard on Matilda The Musical and I have always admired the witty brilliance of John O’Farrell’s writing—I am thrilled to have these two great forces uniting on The Old Vic stage alongside an excellently talented company. For those of us who were around in the ‘80s, Saturday July 13, 1985, I’m sure will be one of those days that is forever etched in our memories. We all remember where we watched Live Aid, who we watched it with, and the pure amazement at the feat that was unfolding before our eyes. It’s these memories and individual stories that are the beating heart of Just For One Day, and I can’t wait for audiences to share in a moment that galvanised the globe once again.”

The cast will include Julie Atherton, Ashley Campbell, Jackie Clune, Craige Els, James Hameed, Naomi Katiyo, Hope Kenna, Freddie Love, Emily Ooi, and Rhys Wilkinson, with additional casting to be announced.

The creative team, in addition to O’Farrell and Sheppard, will include music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator Matthew Brind, choreographer Ebony Molina, set designer Soutra Gilmour, costume designer Fay Fullerton, lighting designer Howard Hudson, sound designer Gareth Owen, video and animation designer Andrzej Goulding, and casting director Stuart Burt.

A portion of the sale of every ticket will be donated to The Band Aid Charitable Trust to support their ongoing global relief efforts. Additionally, The Old Vic will work with 79 different school and community groups to offer free tickets and workshops through their education and community programmes.

Just For One Day is supported by Jamie Wilson Productions, Kevin McCollum, Sonia Friedman Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Kenny Wax Ltd, and the Ambassador Theatre Group.

For more information, visit OldVicTheatre.com

Following a sold-out Broadway run last season, the revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, starring two-time Tony winner Matthew Broderick and two-time Emmy winner Sarah Jessica Parker, will transfer to the West End’s Savoy Theatre. Performances begin January 15, 2024 for a limited engagement through March 31.

Real-life couple Broderick and Parker play three different twosomes each spending an evening in the famed Plaza Hotel: one couple dealing with difficulties in their marriage on their 24th anniversary, a pair of high-school sweethearts reuniting after many years apart, and the frenzied parents of a jittery bride on her wedding day.

Broderick has previously been seen in the West End in the 2019 production of The Starry Messenger. Plaza Suite will mark Parker’s West End debut.

John Benjamin Hickey directs, reuniting the creative team from the 2022 Broadway production. Set design is by Tony winner John Lee Beatty, costumes by Tony winner Jane Greenwood, lighting by Tony winner Brian MacDevitt, sound design by Tony winner Scott Lehrer, and incidental music by Tony winner Marc Shaiman. Casting is by Jim Carnahan.

The 2022 Broadway revival opened at the Hudson Theatre March 28 and ran through July 10, 2022. Previews began February 25. It was the first Broadway revival of Simon’s 1968 comedy.

Plaza Suite is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hal Luftig, with James L. Nederlander, Douglas L. Meyer, Elizabeth Armstrong, Hunter Arnold, Caitlin Clements, Eilene Davidson Productions, Jeffrey Finn, Terry Schnuck, Smith and Brant Theatricals, Sherry and Kirk Wright, and Mike Isaacson.

For ticketing information, visit PlazaSuiteUK.com

Robert Icke is to direct Ian McKellen as Falstaff in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2.

Called Player Kings, the plays have been adapted by Icke. The production will run at the Noël Coward Theatre from April 1 to June 22, 2024, with previews at New Wimbledon Theatre, from March 1 to 9 and Manchester Opera House, from March 14 to 23.

McKellen stars as John Falstaff, with further casting to be announced.

Icke said: “It’s a genuine honour to work with one of our greatest Shakespearean actors, Ian McKellen, especially as he tackles one of the most iconic Shakespearean roles – and one he’s previously never turned his hand to. It’s an exciting challenge to bring together two of Shakespeare’s plays into one production, and I’m so excited to share Player Kings with audiences in the West End and across the country.”

McKellen added: “I decided to become a professional actor at Cambridge in 1959, when I was in John Barton’s undergraduate production of Henry IV. Derek Jacobi played Prince Hal and I was the ancient Justice Shallow. Ever since, the plays have been among my favourite Shakespeares, although through the years I’ve resisted offers to play John Falstaff. Robert Icke’s ingenious adaptation was irresistible.”

Across the three venues there will be 8,000 tickets at £30 for under 30s – with at least 60 tickets available for every performance located across all levels of the auditorium.

The show is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions and No Guarantees.

Tickets are available to book via www.playerkingstheplay.co.uk

Husband-and-wife showbiz duo Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker will return to Broadway together, headlining a revival of Neil Simon’s comedy Plaza Suite. John Benjamin Hickey will direct the production, which will first play the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston (an early home to the original 1968 staging) in February 5–22, 2020, before beginning previews at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre March 13. Opening night is set for April 13.

The two previously appeared on Broadway together in the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, when Parker (Sex and the City, Divorce) took over for Megan Mullally as Rosemary Pillkington. Though they did not star in it together, the two share another stage credit: A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia; Parker originated the title canine in the 1995 Off-Broadway premiere, and Tony winner Broderick led a 2015 Broadway production alongside Annaleigh Ashford.

Broderick is no stranger to Simon’s work, earning his first of two Tony Awards for the late playwright’s Brighton Beach Memoirs before going on to star in its sequel, Biloxi Blues, as well as a revival of The Odd Couple with his The Producers co-star Nathan Lane. This will mark the first Broadway production of a Simon play since his death at the age of 91 last year.

Plaza Suite, about three couples taking up a suite in the famed New York City hotel, marks Tony winner Hickey’s Broadway directorial debut, as well as his second play in the 2019–2020 season. This fall, the actor will star in Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, reprising his performance from the two-part play’s London premiere. He will take a brief hiatus from the play in the spring as Plaza Suite enters rehearsals and subsequently return to the Lopez drama.

The creative Ambassador Theatre Group, which operates both the Colonial and the Hudson, will produce, alongside Gavin Kalin Productions and Hal Luftig.

Visit plazasuitebroadway.com for more details.

Following a smash-hit extended run on London’s West End earlier this year, Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton and Charlie Cox will make their Broadway debuts, reprising their roles in a New York transfer of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal.

The artful 1978 adultery drama, which uses reverse chronology to explore the seven-year evolution of a troubled love triangle between a publisher, his art gallery curator wife and his best friend, a literary agent, is considered among the Nobel Prize-winning playwright’s major works, directly inspired by his own clandestine extramarital affair.

The production is directed by Jamie Lloyd and in London served as the culmination of his company’s acclaimed Pinter at the Pinter season, staged in the West End theater that bears the playwright’s name.

Reviewing Betrayal in London for The Hollywood Reporter, Demetrios Matheou called it, “a brave, sexy, at times emotionally intense, bravura production.

The Broadway transfer will be produced by The Jamie Lloyd Company, Ambassador Theatre Group, Ben Lowry Productions, Glass Half Full Productions and Gavin Kalin Productions. Previews begin Aug. 14 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in a strictly limited 17-week engagement that officially opens Sept. 5.

“Watching this remarkable cast bring new life to Harold Pinter’s greatest work has been one of the most gratifying and exciting experiences of my life in the theater,” Lloyd said Thursday in a statement. “I am thrilled that American audiences will have the chance to witness their stunning performances.”

The London creative team of set and costume designer Soutra Gilmour, lighting designer Jon Clark and composer and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham remain on board the production.

Hiddleston’s extensive London theater credits include Hamlet, Coriolanus, Ivanov, Othello, Cymbelineand The Changeling. He was most recently seen onscreen as god of mischief Loki in Avengers: Endgame, and will reprise that role in a TV series being developed by Marvel for Disney+.

Ashton appeared opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Netflix’s Velvet Buzzsaw, while Cox is best known for the title role on Daredevil, also from Netflix. He made his New York stage debut in Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2016 off-Broadway production of the Nick Payne play Incognito.

Betrayal has had a starry history on Broadway. It premiered in 1980 in a Peter Hall production with Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner and Raul Julia. David Leveaux directed a 2000 revival that starred John Slattery, Juliette Binoche and Liev Schreiber; and the play returned in a 2013 blockbuster production directed by Mike Nichols and starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Rafe Spall.

A musical stage adaptation of Back to the Future will open in Manchester next year prior to a West End transfer.

The show is being brought to the stage by producer Colin Ingram alongside the creators of the original film, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.

The musical has music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, and a book by Gale.

It will star Olly Dobson as Marty McFly, with further casting to be announced. Dobson has previously appeared in West End show including Bat Out Of Hell and Matilda.

Gale said: “Bob Zemeckis and I have been trying to get this project off the ground for years, but good things take time and finally, the time is right. Our cast is outstanding, the songs are fantastic, and director John Rando is doing an amazing job ensuring the show truly captures the magic of the movie.

“We’re thrilled that we can retell our story on stage in a brand-new way, and we’re certain that Back to the Future fans all over the world will share our enthusiasm. ”

Back to the Future will open at Manchester’s Opera House on February 20, 2020, running until May 17. The producers said it will then transfer to the West End.

The show will have choreography by Chris Bailey, illusions by Paul Kieve and musical supervision and vocal arrangements by Nick Finlow. Design will be by Tim Hatley, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound by Gareth Owen and video by Finn Ross.

Orchestrations will be by Ethan Popp, with dance arrangements by David Chase.

It is produced by Ingram, Zemeckis, Gale, Donovan Mannato, Frankel/Viertel/Baruch/Routh Group, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hunter Arnold, Crush Music, CJ ENM, Teresa Tsai, Augury in association with Herman-Adelman, Kimberly Magarro, Robert L Hutt, Ricardo Marques, Glass Half Full Productions.

For more information visit backtothefuturemusical.com

Kiln Theatre ’s production of The Son is set to transfer to the West End this year.

Florian Zeller’s play, translated by Christopher Hampton, will open at the Duke of York’s Theatre on September 2.

Sherlock star Amanda Abbington, John Light, Laurie Kynaston and Amaka Okafor will reprise their roles in the play, directed by incoming Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Longhurst.

The Son follows a family in the midst of a breakdown and a teenage son who skips school, lies and grows ever more distant. The Standard’s Henry Hitchings called the production “a clear-sighted look at the pain and turbulence of mental health disorders”, praising Abbington and Light’s “sensitive” performances.

Longhurst’s production will have sound and composition by Isobel Waller-Bridge, design by Lizzie Clachan and lighting by Lee Curran.

It is the final part in a trilogy of plays by Zeller, following Olivier Award-winning The Father and The Mother, both of which ran at the Tricycle.

The Son runs at Duke of York’s Theatre from September 2-November 2, with previews from August 24, thesonwestend.com

The Son is produced in the West End by Fiery Angel and Gavin Kalin Productions.

White Christmas starring Danny Mac is to run at the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End this Christmas.

The Irving Berlin musical will run from November 15 to January 4, 2020, with press night on November 25.

Mac will star as Bob Wallace alongside Dan Burton as Phil Davis. Both reprise their roles following the show’s run at Leicester’s Curve. Further casting is to be announced.

White Christmas has music and lyrics by Berlin and a book by David Ives and Paul Blake.

It is directed by Curve artistic director Nikolai Foster and choreographed by Stephen Mear.

Set design is by Michael Taylor, with costume by Diego Pitarch, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Tom Marshall and musical supervision by Stephen Brooker.

White Christmas is produced by Jamie Wilson, Mark Goucher, Gavin Kalin and Kevin McCollum, with Jason Haigh-Ellery, Laurence Myers, Colin Ingram and Peter Kane for Intheatre Productions and Curve.

For more information, casting news and to purchase tickets visit whitechristmasthemusical.co.uk

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play SWEAT by Lynn Nottage is transferring to the West End’s Gielgud Theatre from 7 June to 20 July, following a sold-out run at The Donmar Warehouse.

Based on interviews with residents of the rustbelt town of Reading, Pennsylvania, Nottage’s play examines the lives of factory workers facing de-industrialisation. As friendships strain under fear, anger and racial tensions, a devastating outcome awaits the divided community.

Directed by Bush Theatre Artistic Director and former Donmar Resident Assistant Director Lynette Linton, the production will once again be led by Martha Plimpton.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.donmarwarehouse.com/production/7065/sweat-at-the-gielgud-theatre/