Marianka Swain - Page 31

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and where better to get into the festive spirit than at Wilton's Music Hall, where panto is back with a bang this year as Roy Hudd presents the mother of all pantos: MOTHER GOOSE. After making their spectacular Wilton's debut last year with Dick Whittington, the same creative team are back, laden with glitz, goodies, baddies and laughs galore, with a few surprises along the way…

Leon Lopez has had an unusual career trajectory, from pop group A:M and TV soaps like Brookside and EastEnders to musical theatre (including Rent and We Will Rock You) and directing independent films. He's currently working with the RSC, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Swan Theatre with productions of plays that were performed there in 1986: The Two Noble Kinsmen, playing now, and The Rover, opening tomorrow.

Rehearsals started this week for AMADEUS, which begins previews in the Olivier Theatre from 16 October (press night 26 October). This autumn, Peter Shaffer's classic play Amadeus makes a long-awaited return to the National Theatre after 37 years.

Education, education, education - it's an inescapable topic in theatre. Recent years have seen Future Conditional (kicking off Matthew Warchus's Old Vic tenure), Matilda the Musical, The Brink, Kin, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, and, of course, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. To celebrate back to school week, here are 10 of the best plays set in school. Get studying!

Lauren Samuels (Bend it Like Beckham, BBC's Over the Rainbow, Grease), Ashleigh Gray (Wicked, Cool Rider) and Lizzy Connolly (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Xanadu) star in the European debut of VANITIES, a classic American story. This brand new production features never before seen material with all new direction and choreography from Racky Plews (Footloose, American Idiot), and has its press night at Trafalgar Studios tonight. It plays until 1 October.

Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, a BBC Learning virtual reality (VR) experience, is available for the public in a free installation at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Lounge from today. Available until Saturday 22 October, the experience - jointly created by BBC Learning, Crossover Labs and VRTOV, two pioneering companies in the field of VR - is watched using an Oculus Rift headset.

Sion Lloyd joins the 30th anniversary cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera in the role of Monsieur Firmin, beginning tonight. His past credits include Titanic (Charing Cross Theatre), Miss Atomic Bomb (St James Theatre), The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre), Avenue Q (Noel Coward Theatre) and the touring production of The Bodyguard.

Ahead of celebrations for its fifth birthday in the West End this autumn and Roald Dahl's centenary on 13 September, the Royal Shakespeare Company's multi award-winning production of Matilda The Musical has announced that Sara Sheen and Abbie Vena will join Zaris-Angel Hator and Clara Read in the title role from 13 September 2016. Tickets for the new booking period, which includes performances at the Cambridge theatre between 30 May and 15 October 2017, will go on sale on the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth, 13 September.

In the immortal (and slightly edited) words of Green Day, it's time to 'Wake Up Before September Ends' to catch the smash hit UK production of American Idiot at the Arts Theatre, before it closes on 25 September 2016. 

Paul Roseby, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) has today announced the initial line-up of alumni who will join current members on stage in London's West End on 18th September for the company's Diamond Anniversary Gala.  Taking to the stage at the Shaftesbury Theatre in celebration of the company's 60th birthday will be former members including: Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Daisy Lewis (Downton Abbey), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Twenty Twelve, W1A), Timothy Dalton (James Bond), Jessica Hynes (Twenty Twelve, W1A) and Gina McKee (Our Friends in the North). More names are still to be announced.

United Theatrical, Aria Entertainment and Music & Lyrics Limited are delighted to present, in association with the Festival Theatre Edinburgh, the UK & Irish premiere of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, a musical comedy, with book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, the creators of multi award-winning Jersey Boys, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, based on the characters created by Charles Addams. The UK & Ireland Tour, which will open at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh on 20 April 2017, will be directed by Matthew White.

Scarlett Strallen will return to the Menier Chocolate Factory to lead the company of SHE LOVES ME this Christmas. The production reunites Strallen with director Matthew White, following their previous collaboration at the Menier on Candide. The production opens on 7 December, with previews from 25 November, and runs until 5 March 2017.

I hope there's a time when we don't feel like Alice Birch's bold, blackly funny, uncompromising battle cry of a play is a necessary intervention. A time when we're not reeling from sexist Olympics commentary, relentless online attacks on women who dare to enter political debate, or the news that American swimmer Brock Turner served only three months in prison after raping an unconscious girl. A time when the play's explosive anger and bone-deep sadness isn't met by our own.

Ruth Wilson takes the title role in HEDDA GABLER in a new version by Patrick Marber, directed by Ivo van Hove, in the new National Theatre season. The production previews from 5 December.

The show must go on. And on. Even for the understudies trapped in theatrical purgatory, forever waiting for their chance to perform. So far so Beckett? That's the premise of American playwright Dave Hanson's affectionate absurdist parody, offering a lighter take on the master's existential philosophising.

Natasha J Barnes who will play the title role of Cinderella, Suzie Chard and Wendy Sommerville who will play The Wicked Stepsisters complete the casting for the London Palladium Pantomime this Christmas. They join the previously announced Paul O'Grady (The Wicked Stepmother), Julian Clary (Dandini), Amanda Holden (The Fairy Godmother), Lee Mead (Prince Charming), Paul Zerdin (Buttons), Nigel Havers (Lord Chamberlain) and Count Arthur Strong (Baron Hardup).

THE KITE RUNNER, Khaled Hosseini's international bestselling novel and film, is a powerful story of friendship spanning cultures and continents, following one man's journey to find redemption.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, officially opens Tara Theatre, a new state of the art home in South London for the acclaimed Tara Arts, the oldest diverse multicultural theatre company in the UK, today, Thursday 1 September 2016.

Following a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, TRAVESTY, the debut play by Liam Williams, will make its premiere London run at New Diorama Theatre next week.

There's a warming winter line-up at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre this year, including a brand new play by Alan Ayckbourn and the Scarborough directorial debut of the theatre's new Artistic Director, Paul Robinson.