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Dateline:
14th March, 2004
Spacey Seeks Hollywood
Star for Philadelphia Story
According to a report in the Daily Mail, Kevin Spacey is hoping to bring
a major Hollywood actress to the Old Vic for his first season as artistic
director. He intends to include The Philadelphia Story in this
season and already Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz have been suggested
as possible leads, playing the part originally written for Katherine
Hepburn.
Also in the planning stage, says the Mail, is a pantomime, Aladdin,
with Sir Ian KcKellen playing Widow Twankey, a part which he has said
he would love to play.
Thetre will be four plays in Spacey's first season, the first of which
will open in September. If The Philadelphia Story does go ahead,
it would be early in 2005.
York to Star in New
End World Premiere
Susannah York will star in the world premiere of DMW Greer’s Alice
Virginia, set in the 1950s in America's deep south. Co-starring
Amanda Boxer and Andrew Halliday, it opens at the New End Theatre on
15th March and runs until 10th April.
Witt to Star in LaBute
West End Premiere
Hollywood actress Alicia Witt will star in the West End premiere of
Neil LaBute's 2001 play The Shape of Things when it transfers
to the New Ambassadors on 17th May (previews from 6th), after runs at
the Theatre Royal Plymouth (25th March to 3rd April) and the Theatre
Royal Brighton (6th to 10th April).
Also in the cast are Enzo Cilenti, James Murray and Sienna Guillory.
Wales Theatre Company
Plans
In a piece written for the Theatre
in Wales website, Michael Bogdanov has announced planned productions
for the Wales Theatre Company for the next eighteen months:
- Twelfth Night, Cymbeline and The Merchant of Venice
in Autumn 2004
- A new musical (music by Mal Pope, book by Gary Owen) based on the
1904 Evan Roberts Welsh Revival Movement, to be part of the International
Festival of Music Theatre in Cardiff (spring 2005)
- A "back-to-back" production of Hamlet in English
and Welsh (Welsh version by Gareth Miles) in a co-production with
Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru (autumn 2005)
Kidman to Star in Narnia
Film
Nicole Kidman will be one of the stars of the first Narnia film, The
Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which starts filing in New Zealand
next year.
His Dark Materials
- "Shameless Blasphemy"
The National Theatre is to revive the sold-out production of Philip
Pullman's His Dark Materials in November. It will run from 20th
November to 2nd April, 2005. The cast of the revival has not yet been
announced. Tickets are already on sale.
The current run (which ends on 27th March) has proved the subject of
controversy. Although Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
feels that the play provokes “the kind of discussion that I think
the drama ought to provoke”, Rupert Kaye, of the Association of
Christian Teachers, describes it as "shameless blasphemy"
and the Catholic Herald says that the trology is “fit for the bonfire”.
Extending/Closing
The Rod Stewart musical Tonight's the Night (Victoria Palace)
has extended its booking period to 2nd October.
The Dice House (Arts Theatre) is to close on 27th March.
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