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Dateline:
29th June, 2003
Whitehall to Close
The Whitehall Theatre is to close indefinitely when the current run
of Abigail's Party finishes on 12th July, owners the Ambassador
Theatre Group have announced. There are no plans to sell the theatre
and ATG have been quick to say that the closure does not imply that
the company is in any kind of financial trouble. There will be six redundancies
at the 650-seater theatre.
ATG also owns the New Ambassadors, Duke of York's, Phoenix, Piccadilly,
Comedy, Donmar Warehouse, and Fortune Theatres, and runs the Playhouse,
Albery and Wyndham's. The leases of the last to will revert back to
Cameron Mackintosh in 2005. It is the second largest theatre operator
in the UK, after Clear Channel Entertainment which owns or runs thirty
theatres from Torquay to Edinburgh.
Two weeks ago ATG announced that it is close to finalising a deal to
take over the Wimbledon Theatre.
Shakespearean Records
Broken in Glasgow
In its first week of performances, Glasgow's Bard in the Botanics
season - outdoor performances of Shakespeare plays in the city's Kibble
Palace - is already breaking records and could be looking at a sell-out.
The first production, A Midsummer Night's Dream, is already sold
out, and tickets of the other productions - Measure for Measure,
Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra and Henry
(based on Henry V) - are already selling fast.
Duck
on Tour
Out of Joint has announced details of the tour of Stella Feehily's new
play Duck. It will open at Bury St Edunds of 24th July and will
then head to Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre for the whole of the Fringe,
after which it will go on to Lichfield, Manchester, Bath, Birmingham,
Leeds, Dublin, Plymouth, Warwick, Brighton and Tunbridge. At the end
of the tour, it will run at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs from 25th
November to 10th January.
Complicité
Returns
Experimental company Théâtre de Complicité have
opened their new production, The Elephant Vanishes, (see Philip
Fisher's review) at the Barbican
this week, and it will run until 6th July as part of BITE:03. Based
on short stories by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, the production
(which is directed by the company's artistic director, Simon McBurney)
is in Japanese with English surtitles.
Wilmot to Replace Ball
Gary Wilmot is to replace Michael Ball as Caractacus Potts in Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang on 21st July. Ball, who has been with the show
since it opened, will be leaving because his contract will run out on
that date.
Scales and Bond
Join Woman
Prunella Scales and Samantha Bond are the latest additions to the cast
of Adrian Noble's production of Wilde's A Woman of No Importance
(Theatre Royal Haymarket from 16th September, previews from 11th). The
casting of Rupert Graves and Rachel Stirling has already been announced.
The Jailhouse Is Going
to Rock in the West End
Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson, the creators of Buddy, are to bring
Jailhouse Rock to the West End later this year (and to Broadway
in 2004).The new musical will be based on the Elvis Presley film but,
Bettinson says, "The musical will tell a much bigger story. Using
hit songs from the era, it will also unfold the birth of rock and roll
- pinpointing its roots in the black music of the time and showing how
singers like Presley and those who were writing for artists like him
crossed those influences over into the American teenage mainstream."
The producers hope to have the show running in the West End in October
or November.
Bomb-Itty
to Close, then Tour
Hip-hop Shakespeare-based musical The
Bomb-Itty of Errors is to close at the end of its current booking
period (12th July). The show, which is currently playing at the New
Ambassadors, will start a fifteen week national tour next February.
It will be replaced at the New Ambassadors on 14th July by Stones
in His Pockets, which is returning to the theatre after a spell
at the Duke of York's.
Sherwood Forest Goes
to Wales
Theatre company Full House are to take Secrets of Sherwood -
"an outdoor theatre extravaganza for the whole family, complete
with songs and music, devised and presented by a full cast of merry
men and women, with the obligatory sprinkling of baddies" - to
four Welsh castles. The dates are
- Friday 1st August at 7.30pm at Caerleon Amphitheatre
- Saturday 2nd August at 7.30pm at Raglan Castle
- Sunday 3rd August at 8pm at Caldicot Castle
- Monday 4th August at 8pm at Skenfrith Castle
Golden Girl at the
Savoy
Bea Arthur, one the stars of the US TV sitcom The Golden Girls,
is to bring her one-woman show to the Savoy on 15th September. She will
be 80 when the show opens.
Dundee to Celebrate
Peter Pan's 100th Birthday
Dundee Rep will celebrate the 100th birthday of JM Barrie's Peter
Pan with a Christmas production, part of the first season of the
new artistic team of James Brining and Dominic Hill. The new season
also inlcudes Twelfth Night and Flora the Red Menace,
by the creators of Chicago and Cabaret, Kander and Ebb.
Extending
The following have announced extensionsto their booking periods:
- Fallout by Roy Williams
(Royal Court) has extended by one week to 19th July
- Absolutely! (perhaps)
by Pirandello (Wyndham's), which stars (among others) Joan Plowright,
has extended by three weeks to 13th September.
News
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