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Dateline: 25th April, 2004 "Dame Ian" of the Old Vic Under new artistic director Kevin Spacey, the Old Vic will be producing a pantomime, Aladdin, this year, and starring will be Sir Ian McKellen, who will be fulfilling a long-held ambition to play Widow Twankey. The production will be directed by Sean Matthias, not Spacey himself who admits that he has never seen a panto "but it sounds fantatsic". However Spacey will directed Cloaca by Dutch writer Maria Goos, from 16th September to 11th December. Starring will be Neil Pearson and Stephen Tompkinson. The panto follows (17th December to 22nd January 2005). The third production in Spacey's first season with the theatre will be the UK premiere of Dennis McIntyre's 1988 play National Anthems, in which Spacey will star. "I performed this play in 1989 and felt so strongly about it I have held onto the rights ever since," he said. National Anthems will run from 1st February to 23rd April).
Finally he will also star in The Philadelphia Story (3rd May to 23rd July). Further casting will be announced in the middle of this year and he promised some "big names", although he does not, he said, intend to indulge in what he called "stunt casting", although he did add, “getting bums on seats is without question a duty that we have here." Subsequent seasons will include many classics, as he is “mindful of the historic traditions of this theatre." However he does feel that new writing is also a responsibility of theatres like the Old Vic. Looking further forward, he envisages "a full company and ensemble of actors" but does not anticipate appointing any associate directors. As far a pricing is concerned, the Old Vic will follow the West End pattern, with seats ranging from £10 to £40, although one hundred of the best seats for each performance will be available to under-25s for £12 and there will be two special reduced price performances for people in the local community for Aladdin. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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