What are they doing?

Index

Dateline 15th April, 2001

Regent's Park summer programme
The summer programme for the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent's Park has been announced:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream - in rep from 4th June to 25th August
• Love's Labour's Lost - in rep from 6th June to 22nd August
• Where's Charley? (musical by Frank Loesser) - in rep from 24th July to 16th August
• The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert and Sullivan) - in rep from 27th August to 8th September
• Pinocchio in the Park (Michael Rosen: children's play) - in rep from 1st to 31st August

Chichester summer programme
The Chichester Festival Theatre has announced its summer programme for the season which runs from 23rd May to 29th September:

• On the Razzle (Tom Stoppard) - in rep from 29th May (previews from 23rd) to 14th July. David Bamber and Desmond Barrit star.
• The Winslow Boy (Terrence Rattigan) - in rep from 12th June (previews from 6th) to 4th August. Polly Adams and Edward Hardwicks star.
• My One and Only (musical by George Gershwin, based on Funny Face) - in rep from 24th July (previews from 19th) to 22nd September. Janie Dee stars.
• The Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov) - in rep from 28th August (previews from 22nd) to 29th September. Cast includes Janie Dee, Hermione Gulliford, Christopher Staines and Sophie Ward.

Two Ayckbourn premieres at SJT
In May Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre will premiere the 58th and 59th plays from its artistic director Alan Ayckbourn. The two plays, written to be performed by the same cast, have the collective title Damsels in Distress. The two - GamePlan and FlatSpin use the same cast and set, but are totally separate stories.

GamePlan runs from 29th May (previews from 24th) to 25th August, and FlatSpin from 3rd July (previews from 28th June) to 8th September.

Casting for Closer to Heaven announced
Frances Barber and Paul Keating will head the cast of the musical Closer to Heaven, the joint creation of pop band the Pet Shop Boys and Jonathan Harvey. The show will open at the Arts Theatre on 31st May (previews from 15th).

Nobody's Perfect on tour
Simon Williams' new play Nobody's Perfect, starring Williams himself and Stephanie Beacham begins an eleven-venue tour on 30th April at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. The tour will end on 4th August after visiting Malvern, Swansea, Peterborough, Lincoln, Blackpool, Cardiff, Eastbourne, Bradford, Richmond and Canterbury. No arrangements for a West End run have been announced.

Bath's Butler to tour
The Theatre Royal, Bath, production of Orton's What the Butler Saw is to tour this summer, with Jane Asher and Michael Penningotn playing the leads.

Willets for Cats
Dave Willets, who was the first to play the leads in both Phantom and Les Mis, is to play Old Deuteronomy in Cats (New London) from 30th April.

Shepard at the Donmar
Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind opens at the Donmar on 4th July (previews from 28th June). It will follow Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood, which runs from 19th April to 23rd June.

1984 in Derby
Newcastle company Northern Stage brings its multi-media production of Orwell's 1984 to the Derby Playhouse from 19th April to 5th May.

NYC loves Pinter
This July New York's Lincoln Centre (Center) is to present a season of plays and films by Harold Pinter to celebrate his seventieth birthday. The Almeida company will perform The Room (1958) and Celebration (1999), and among the films to be shown are The Go-Between and The French Lieutenant's Woman.

His Caretaker, directed by Patrick Marber and starring Michael Gambon, is expected to transfer to Broadway later this year.

Lady for NYC?
It is rumoured that Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Vna will also transfer to Broadway later this year, probably with Maggie Smith reprising her role as the eponymous lady.