WAR HORSE Now Seen by 5 Million Audience Members Worldwide

The National Theatre of Great Britain's epic War Horse, winner of five 2011 Tony Awards including Best Play, this week achieved the extraordinary milestone of welcoming its 5 millionth audience member worldwide. Additionally, the North American tour of War Horse, which debuted in June 2012 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, is now the highest grossing and most attended play ever to tour the US and Canada. Currently playing at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando, FL, the tour will next move to Miami, FL for an engagement at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. A full tour route is below. The tour continues through August 2014.

WAR HORSE becomes the highest grossing and most attended touring non-musical play with a cumulative gross of nearly $65 million and over one million attendees, to date. At the conclusion of the North American tour, War Horse will have visited 67 cities in the US and Canada and played 749 performances.

WAR HORSE has now been seen by over five million people worldwide and is currently playing in London's West End, Germany, on tour in the UK and Ireland, and on the North American Tour. The original West End production was being screened to cinemas in over 31 countries last night.

Michael Morpurgo's beloved novel, War Horse, is also the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's feature film of the same name, which earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

WAR HORSE is the powerful story of young Albert's beloved horse, Joey, who has been enlisted to fight for the English in World War I. In a tale the New York Daily News calls "spellbinding, by turns epic and intimate," Joey is caught in enemy crossfire and ends up serving both sides of the war before landing in no man's land. Albert, not old enough to enlist, embarks on a treacherous mission to find his horse and bring him home. What follows is a heartwarming tale of loyalty and friendship, filled with stirring music and songs and told with the some of the most innovative stagecraft of our time.

The tour of War Horse, which was adapted from the book by Morpurgo by Nick Stafford, is directed by Bijan Sheibani based on the original Tony Award-winning direction by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, and presented in association with Handspring Puppet Company. At the heart of the show are life-sized puppets, which bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage.

In addition to Best Play, War Horse received Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Play (Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris), Best Scenic Design of a Play (Rae Smith), Best Lighting Design of a Play (Paule Constable), and Best Sound Design of a Play (Christopher Shutt). A Special Tony Award was given to Handspring Puppet Company for their integral work on the production.

WAR HORSE received its World Premiere in a limited engagement at the National's Olivier Theatre in 2007. The play returned to the National Theatre for a second run playing from in 2008-2009 before transferring to the West End's New London Theatre in Spring 2009 where it continues to play an open-ended run. The American premiere was in spring 2011 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York's Lincoln Center.

The lead producers of the North American of War Horse are Bob Boyett and the National Theatre of Great Britain.