Edward Baker News

Producers Tom O'Connell and James Seabright are pleased to announce further casting for the first class revival of Mart Crowley's ground-breaking play, THE BOYS IN THE BAND, opening at Park Theatre in London this autumn, then touring to The Lowry, Theatre Royal Brighton and West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Following the success of their first three productions, Macbeth, She Called Me Mother, and The Diary of a Hounslow Girl, Black Theatre Live in association with Watford Palace Theatre and Stratford Circus Arts Centre are touring Hamlet around the UK with an all-black cast and creative team. Inaugural winner of the Roland Rees Bursary Mark Norfolk's adaptation casts Hamlet as a studious young black man who's forced to face the realities of his social identity, and rages against the injustice of his position.

Following Open Court in 2013, when the writers had the keys, this time the Royal Court has handed the keys of the building to the theatre's Youth Board and 10 young writers aged 15 - 24. Over the next three weeks they are in charge and they will be tackling the issues that matter to them through theatre, music, installations, talks and workshops.

Last night the international hit musical The Bodyguard celebrated Beverley Knight reprising the role of Oscar-nominated superstar Rachel Marron. Knight plays opposite Ben Richards as Frank Farmer, Marron's bodyguard.

The Play That Goes Wrong, the West End's Olivier Award winning box office hit, announces a major national tour for 2017. Opening at Theatre Royal Bath on 10 January, the production will visit 30 venues nationwide until the end of July 2017, including Newcastle Theatre Royal, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, The Mercury Theatre Colchester, Cambridge Arts Theatre and Mayflower Theatre Southampton (full list of tour dates to be confirmed). The West End production also announces a new booking period, with tickets going on sale until 10 September 2017 at the Duchess Theatre, London.

Join Antony Costa and Lola Saunders on a trip through the music and magic of the early sixties with SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME. Following the story of two teenage girls going on holiday without their parents for the very first time, this spectacular show will transport you back to music's golden era. 

Celebrating 45 years since Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's seminal musical first hit the stage, Jesus Christ Superstar is directed by Artistic Director Timothy Sheader. With a legendary score which includes I Don't Know How to Love Him, Gethsemane and Superstar, musical direction is by Tom Deering (Wonder.land, In the Heights and The Color Purple), design by Tom Scutt (Constellations, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and King Charles III, for which he has received a Tony Award nomination) and choreography by Drew McOnie (Jekyll & Hyde, The Lorax and In The Heights, for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography).

Rachael Williams will join Park Theatre on 3 October 2016 as the theatre's new Executive Director, to work alongside Artistic Director Jez Bond and the rest of the team, including Dawn James, who recently joined as Sales & Marketing Manager from the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn.

Furthering its aim to help new and emerging theatre companies to stage their work in a supportive and cost effective environment on the London Fringe scene, the Drayton Arms Theatre has launched the Drayton Arms Eddies - a new award for shows performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, with a top prize of a three-week London transfer at the Drayton Arms with technical support and generous marketing thrown in and 100% of the box office for the winning company.

The sell-out Beastie Boys show Licensed To Ill will tour the UK in October before a Christmas run in London. The production, which won over Beastie Boys fans and cynics alike during an extended run at Camden People's Theatre last year, will play at The Dancehouse, Manchester, The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol, and finally Southwark Playhouse. 

Based on Truman Capote's beloved masterwork, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S is set in New York in 1943. Fred, a young writer from Louisiana, meets Holly Golightly, a charming, vivacious and utterly elusive good-time girl. Everyone falls in love with Holly - including Fred. However Fred is poor, and Holly's other suitors include a playboy millionaire and the future president of Brazil. As war rages on in Europe, Holly begins to fall in love with Fred - just as her past catches up with her.

Jim Davidson OBE is set to celebrate four decades in show business with a brand new stage play. 40 Years On opens on Thursday 27 October and will play 22 dates across the country.

On Wednesday 6th July, Dance Umbrella hosted a debate on gender inequality in choreography, supported by Big Dance and held at City Hall. The evening was introduced by Emma Gladstone, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Dance Umbrella and chaired by Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Sadler's Wells. The panel members were Tamzin Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, 2Faced Dance, Vicki Igbokwe, Choreographer, Uchenna Dance and Lucy Kerble, Director, Tonic Theatre

SOME GIRL(S) opens tomorrow night at the PARK Theatre. The production stars Roxanne Pallett, Carley Stenson, Carolyn Backhouse, Elly Condron and Charles Dorfman. Some Girl(s) is written by iconiclasic American playwright Neil LaBute and is the darkly funny story of Guy (Charles Dorfman) who travels across America to make amends with his four ex-girlfriends.

Grimeborn is back for its 10th anniversary year. Sixteen innovative new versions of classic operas, unknown, rarely-seen and long-forgotten works, brand new pieces from the most exciting up-and-coming composers, musicians and companies. Since 2007, Grimeborn has introduced new audiences to opera and given emerging artists the platform to showcase and develop their talent. It has consistently challenged the perception that opera is inaccessible and elitist.

Zoe Cooper's layered and thoughtful new play about finding your place in the world. Following its run at the Orange Tree it will also tour to 11 venues: Live Theatre Newcastle, Watford Palace, and with house, a project managed by Farnham Maltings, to venues in Havant, Canterbury, Norwich, Sheringham, Colchester, Harlow, Didcot, Petersfield and to Farnham Maltings.

Stage Door Records are pleased to make available a 'first listen' of the complete track 'I've Always Had A Dream' from the forthcoming album 'Lost West End 2'. The song is from the 1977 musical 'Drake's Dream' which opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on December 7th 1977 and ran for 82 performances. The track is performed by leading actor / singer (and former lead vocalist of Manfred Mann) Paul Jones.

Wyvern Theatre has announced today that Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas will make his pantomime debut in the role of Prince Charming in this year's spectacular family pantomime, Cinderella which opens on Saturday 10 December for four weeks.

The Theatre Royal Bath is delighted to announce the cast for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, the final production in the theatre's highly acclaimed summer season featuring Phill Jupitus in his first ever Shakespeare role, and directed by Laurence Boswell. You are invited to attend the press night on Wednesday 10th August.

The first images have been released of Gary Tushaw as Joseph Taylor, Jr in the eagerly awaited professional European premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ALLEGRO.