What’s to look forward
to in theatre in 2013?
It’s only early January but the calendar for many West End
theatres already seems to be full, not only with actual productions that are
certain to go ahead but also with plenty of rumours.
Seeing as the Wyndham’s Theatre seemed to be quiet at the end
of last year, I shall start by plugging their full year. The Christmas filler Dreamboats and Petticoats closes on 19th
January, before previews commence for the revival production of Simon Gray’s Quartermaine’s Terms on 23rd January for a limited 12-week
run. It is directed by Richard Eyre and produced by Michael Codron along with
the Theatre Royals in Bath and Brighton and will mark Rowan Atkinson’s return
to the West End since playing Fagin in 2009. Following that, there will be a
limited run of Doktor Glas which will
star Swedish actor Krister Henriksson and have English surtitles, prior to
welcoming Lindsay Posner’s production of Alan Aykbourn’s Relatively Speaking with Felicity Kendal, Jonathan Coy and Kara
Tointon for the summer. Seeing out the year will be what has been billed as a
new and diabolically funny comedy by Clive Exton, Barking in Essex, which will star Lee Evans and Sheila Hancock.
2013 will also see Helen Mirren return to her role of
Elizabeth II in The Audience at the
Gielgud next month as well as seeing Kristen Scott Thomas return to the Harold
Pinter Theatre in another Harold Pinter play, Old Times. Similar to Betrayal,
Old Times is another memory play and
three-hander. Interestingly, Scott Thomas and Lia Williams will alternate roles
and at some performances, the toss of a coin will decide who plays which role
with Rufus Sewell only finding out who is in which role only when they are on
stage.
The Duke of York’s will shortly be home to the Hampstead
Theatre’s production of The Judas Kiss with
Rupert Everett reprising his role as Oscar Wilde and then house the West End
revival of Passion Play, starring Zoe
Wanamaker. Furthermore, Michael Grandage continues his season with John Logan’s
new play Peter and Alice starring
Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw.
The National Theatre continue their success with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time transferring to the Apollo in March as well as a possible West
End transfer of the Alan Bennett shorts Hymn
and Cocktail Sticks. If this does happen, I imagine it will go into the
Duchess Theatre. The NT also celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer
and there are rumours that a revival of Gypsy
starring Imelda Staunton could be on the cards.
There are rumours of the Royal Court’s production of Jez
Butterworth’s The River transferring
to the West End as well as Chichester’s production of Private Lives. Outside of the West End, the Rose Theatre,
Kingston-Upon-Thames is putting on Coward’s The
Vortex starring James Dreyfus and there’s an exciting season at the Old Vic
in which to look forward. Along with the highly publicised Mark Rylance
production of Much Ado About Nothing with
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones towards the end of the year, there is
also Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of
Youth with Kim Cattrall and Terrence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy (will this star Kevin Spacey?) as well as a touring
production of the highly acclaimed Noises
Off.
Other highlights include the Donmar Warehouse’s revival of
Conor McPherson’s intimate play The Weir and
Lindsay Posner is back with the stage adaption of The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida. No doubt I have missed things
out, but these are just a few.
Moving on to musicals, Shrek
the Musical will soon make way for Sam Mendes’ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Douglas Hodge at Drury
Lane and Broadway biggies, The Book of
Mormon and Once will also start
their West End runs – both of which have no doubt done well in advanced sales.
2013 will also be the year where we find out how successful Viva Forever will be – despite the bad
reviews I can imagine it seeing out its run until July but am weary as to whether
it will extend or not. It will also be interesting to see if other musicals
which didn’t receive brilliant reviews such as Let It Be (soon to be transferring to the Savoy) and The Bodyguard (at the Adelphi) will end
or extend their runs this year. What with Rock
of Ages transferring to the smaller Garrick Theatre later this month and
rumours of Billy Elliott the Musical being
on its way out at the Vitoria Palace, there could be many new shows coming into
Theatreland.
Could it be that the Crucible’s My Fair Lady will transfer and if it does, will Dominic West still
be able to do The River? I wouldn’t
be surprised if the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along gets a commercial
life and the same goes with Gypsy if
that does go ahead. There are also reports of Damian Lewis being interested in Me and My Girl and it looks as if
Chichester could well be reviving Barnum.
Fittingly, this could be produced in their temporary ‘tent-like’ auditorium
whilst their theatre gets refurbished. Seeing as I forgot to mention this in my
last post, I will also say how their production of Goodnight Mister Tom will leave the Phoenix on 26th
January.
Regionally, Curve is producing the first production of Piaf since the playwright Pam Gems’
death as well as housing the 25th anniversary production of Hot Stuff and they will most likely
announce their Christmas show soon as well. Con O’Neill returns to a Willy
Russell piece of work with One for the
Road at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton next month and I’m sure there
will also be exciting seasons from The Crucible and Chichester.
There will be touring productions of Blood Brothers (with Maureen Nolan and Marti Pellow), Ghost, The Lion King, Wicked, War Horse, Hairspray (with Mark Bennett), The Woman in Black, The Mousetrap, The Pitmen
Painters, Evita and many more.
What are you looking forward to in 2013? You can now follow
us on Twitter @nobillington
No comments:
Post a Comment