Debbie Gilpin - Page 9

What do you get if you take a French film, a liberal portion of chocolate and a sprinkling of Emma Rice magic? The opening winter season production, Romantics Anonymous! This brand new musical, based on Les Emotifs Anonymes, plays for a limited time across the festive season and is Rice's final new work at Shakespeare's Globe.

After a successful run in 2015/16, leading to an Olivier Award nomination, David Greig's stage adaptation of the Dr. Seuss tale is back at the Old Vic for a three-week run prior to a North American tour. Music and lyrics come from singer-songwriter Charlie Fink (recently seen at the same theatre with his own show, Cover My Tracks), with direction from Max Webster and choreography from the irrepressible Drew McOnie.

With her most famous play, The Mousetrap, celebrating its 65th anniversary in London's West End, it only seems right for another of Agatha Christie's stage works to be brought back for a limited run. Based on the short story Traitor Hands, Christie adapted it into a play in the early 1950s - and it was recently seen on the small screen, as the BBC aired a television version over the last festive season.

David Ives's two-hander was first performed seven years ago Off-Broadway, before heading to Broadway and subsequently running in theatres around the world and being adapted to film by Polanski. Venus in Fur now has its West End premiere at Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by Patrick Marber and starring Natalie Dormer and David Oakes.

First performed in London in 1989 at the Piccadilly Theatre (with stars including the inimitable Brian Blessed), the musical version of Metropolis (by Joe Brooks and Dusty Hughes) has been revived for a short Off West End run at Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow.

Fifty years ago, The Beatles changed the face of pop music when they released the iconic Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Billed by many as the first concept album, it marked a shift in focus to the recording studio from the live performance arena, as the frustrated band simply wanted their music to be heard. This, of course, meant that they would never perform these songs live - something that Rain have decided to put right.

Transferring to London after debuting (rather appropriately) in Birmingham last year, Chris Hannan's play is based around Enoch Powell's 1968 'Rivers of blood' speech. Powell's speech famously criticised widespread immigration from the Commonwealth, using an example of a street in Wolverhampton where an elderly woman was the only white resident and could no longer attract lodgers for her spare rooms because of the immigrants in the surrounding houses.

This weekend, for the first time, a James Bond score was performed in its entirety, as the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra accompanied a screening of the 2006 film Casino Royale. This was Daniel Craig's first outing as the British secret agent; coincidentally he has recently confirmed he will be returning to the role in the future, following speculation that his appearance in Spectre would be his last.

Read all about it! Following a wildly successful run at the Almeida in the summer, James Graham's first of three new plays for 2017 has transferred to London's West End for a limited run at the Duke of York's Theatre. It will soon have Labour of Love as a close neighbour on St Martin's Lane, and Quiz will make its debut at Chichester later in the year.

The final production in this year's Summer of Love season is a brand new piece from Tristan Bernays, telling the story of the famous warrior queen. It may not fit quite so obviously into the summer's theme, but it is a welcome piece of fresh new writing that really blows any last remaining cobwebs away.

With Robert Icke's Andrew Scott-led Hamlet successfully transferring to the West End from the Almeida, and Tom Hiddleston about to get in on the action for Kenneth Branagh at RADA, it is potentially a very risky moment to stage a rather unique and stripped back version of the same Shakespeare play. This, however, is exactly what Park Theatre has done as a continuation of its current season.

Nancy Meckler makes her Globe debut with the penultimate show of the season, a well-known tragedy to contrast with recent comedies: King Lear. It casts a darker shadow over the Summer of Love, looking more at familial love and various struggles for power.

Continuing the resurgence of Tennessee Williams plays is the Young Vic's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This is the popular theatre's first production to make its debut in the West End, in contrast to some recent transfers, with the production running at Shaftesbury Avenue's Apollo Theatre for the next 12 weeks.

Matthew Dunster brings some desert sun to a so far patchy summer, with his Mexican inspired production of Much Ado About Nothing. It truly is the beating heart of the Summer of Love, running until the end of the season alongside first Twelfth Night, then King Lear and Boudica.

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' The opening line of Charles Dickens' classic novel seems quite apt in describing the current Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's season to date. With On the Town beset by injuries before it even started, its current production of A Tale of Two Cities looks to be under an equally unlucky star. With the first preview cancelled due to a lack of preparation time, and scenes having to be rejigged, it's a wonder it has opened on the planned date.

With this year's Pride still fresh in Londoners' minds, there couldn't be a more appropriate time for Joseph and David Zellnik's musical about gay US soldiers in World War Two to open in central London. It runs not far away from another high profile LGBT production, Rotterdam, which will finish its short run this weekend.

The world of musical theatre is being shaken up once again, as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz gets the Sh*t-faced Showtime treatment. The company's Shakespeare sibling is also in town over the summer with Much Ado About Nothing.

Shakespeare in the Squares returns after a successful introduction in 2016 with Much Ado About Nothing, this time taking on a tragedy that has been another popular choice this year - Daniel Kramer's controversial production has almost finished its run at Shakespeare's Globe, for one.

After exploring themes of vanity and corporate culture in Marius Von Mayerburg's The Ugly One, Park90 now turns its attentions towards science and the environment with Chuck Anderson's brand new play The View From Nowhere. With Brexit looming large, the economic and immigration issues have been headline news, but what effect will that have on the scientific community? Or is big business involved too much for it to matter?

Hot on the heels of the success of the reworked Half a Sixpence, Stiles & Drewe team up with Julian Fellowes once more to adapt a well-loved children's book for the stage. The Wind in the Willows has premiered at the end of last year in a short tour and now has a limited London season over the summer - just in time for the school holidays and Kids Go Free (now running for the entirety of August).