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Tom Cairns

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Productions

 
[West End, 2016] [Replacement]
Director-Designer[Replacement]
 
[West End, 1990]
Production

Awards and Nominations

Olivier Awards - 1995 - Outstanding Achievement in Opera

Tom CairnsKing Priam

Olivier Awards - 1991 - Best Costume Designer

Tom Cairns, Sunday In The Park With George

Videos

News


New Muhammad Ali Musical ALI Will Have its World Premiere In Louisville in Fall 2024

The World Premiere of ALI will be presented in Ali's hometown of Louisville, at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, in Fall 2024. Learn more about the show here!
Wake Up With BWW 7/1: Cabello, Menzel, and Porter in CINDERELLA Trailer, and More!

Today's top stories: watch an all new Cinderella trailer starring Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, & Idina Menzel, Trevor the Musical announced a virtual casting call, and more!
Virtual Theatre This Week: June 28- July 4, 2021- with Josh Gad, Jenn Colella, and More!

This week (June 28- July 4) in live streaming: Emma Kingston and Josh Gad visit Backstage Live, Tovah Feldshuh in Becoming Dr. Ruth, a Jenn Colella Masterclass, and so much more!
Virtual Theatre This Week: June 21-27, 2021- with Kate Reinders, Amanda Kloots, and More!

This week (June 21-28) in live streaming: Kate Reinders, Amanda Kloots and Jennifer Nettles visit Backstage Live, Fredi Walker-Browne shares Ten Minute Tidbits, a Kerry Butler masterclass, Tovah Feldshuh in Becoming Dr. Ruth, and so much more!
BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR at Home Computer Screens

On Saturday, we see Los Angeles Opera’s online stream of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. Stravinsky based Oedipus on Sophocles’ Greek tragedy and his 1927 opera is a highly stylized, ritualistic work. A narrator describes the action throughout the course of the opera. Although the opera is in Latin, narration is spoken in the language of the audience.
Met Announces Three-Week Schedule For Nightly Met Opera Streams

The Met has announced themed lineups for three weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, the company's ongoing series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on its website during the Covid-19 closure. The schedule begins with a week, leading up to Father's Day on June 20, comprising a selection of operas featuring themes of fatherhood.
BWW Review: THE GLASS MENAGERIE at The Gate Theatre

Tennessee Williams in his essay 'The Catastrophe of Success' paints a poignant picture of his life following the startling success of his play The Glass Menagerie. He confides: “I was not aware of how much vital energy had gone into this struggle until the struggle was removed.” Seven decades later Williams' masterpiece remains a staple in American schools and continues to profoundly move audiences. In this “memory play” the Wingfields, a disenchanted St. Louis family, depict an alternative reality to their dull, dispiriting lives. The son and narrator, Tom Wingfield (Marty Rea) escapes to a brighter envisioned future, his mother Amanda (Samantha Bond) reaches into her glorious past in an attempt to fashion a similar reality for her daughter, and his painfully shy sister Laura (Zara Devlin) reluctantly emerges from the blissful world of her glass menagerie to entertain the possibility of love. Jim O'Conner (Frank Blake), the gentleman caller, appears in Act 2 oblivious of the complex family dynamics.
Cinemalive Presents Charles Dickens' Classic Festive Tale A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Following three critically-acclaimed, sold-out seasons on stage in London's West End, Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love) brings Charles Dickens' beloved classic A Christmas Carol to the big screen in December 2018. On Tuesday 11 December the stage-to-film adaptation, reimagined especially for cinema, will be released in 444 cinemas across the UK and Ireland by leading event cinema distributors CinemaLive.
Simon Callow Will Star In His Critically Acclaimed One-Man Show A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The traditional Christmas staple of Charles Dickens' much loved A Christmas Carol, returns this festive season to the West End stage starring Simon Callow, running at the Arts Theatre for a strictly limited season from 8 December to 12 January.
VIDEO: Preview THE MET LIVE IN HD 2017-18 Season

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.
PBS Great Performances Returns 3/25 with Thomas Adès' THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

Season 12 of Great Performances at the Met continues on PBS on Sunday, March 25, at 12:00pm with the American premiere of Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel, a surreal fantasy about a dinner party from which the guests can't escape. The Exterminating Angel was inspired by the classic Luis Buñuel film of the same name, and stars John Tomlinson and Alice Coote. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is the host.
Peterborough Players To Present THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

Peterborough Players Present MET Opera's The Exterminating Angel. Following the rapturous response to his last opera, The Tempest, the Met presents the American premiere of Thomas Ad s's The Exterminating Angel, inspired by the classic Luis Bu uel film of the same name. The Exterminating Angel is a surreal fantasy about a dinner party from which the guests can't escape. Tom Cairns, who wrote the libretto, directs the new production, and Ad s conducts his own adventurous new opera. The production includes soprano Audrey Luna, who sings a high A in The Exterminating Angel, a note that has never been sung before in the history of the Met.
Simon Callow's Adaptation of A CHRISTMAS STORY to Be Released on Island Records

On December 1 2017, Island Records will mark the 175 anniversary of Charles Dickens' immortal classic 'A Christmas Carol' as celebrated actor Simon Callow and current national brass band champions The Brighouse and Rastrick Band join forces to release a very special album this Christmas.
BWW Review: EXTERMINATING ANGEL - Up Close and Personal with the Indiscreet Charms of the Upper Class at the Met

It's 'deja vu all over again' goes the quip attributed to the NY Yankees pitcher Yogi Berra. But that's the feeling I had with Thomas Ades's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, with libretto based on the Luis Bunuel film, 'El angel exterminador,' by Tom Cairns and the composer. (Cairns also directed.) Not that the opera looks or sounds like anything else recently produced on the Met's stage, except perhaps for Ades's own TEMPEST. Rather, it's because it seems like the operatic arm of France's Nouvelle Vague, the New Wave, of the late '50s and '60s.
Review Roundup: American Debut of THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL at The Metropolitan Opera

The Met Opera presents the American premiere of Thomas Ad s's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, and the critics are weighing in!
Warner Theatre's Met Opera Live in HD Season Continues with Adès's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

The Warner Theatre's Met Opera Live in HD Season continues in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre on Saturday, November 18 at 12:55 pm with the Met premiere of THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, conducted by composer Thomas Ad s. A complimentary 45 minute pre-opera lecture by Dr. Marguerite Mull e will be offered in the Studio Lobby two hours before the broadcast. The morning's special lecture topic will cover What Is Becoming of Opera?
Thomas Ades Conducts the Met Premiere of His Acclaimed Opera THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

Thomas Ad s conducts the Metropolitan Opera premiere of The Exterminating Angel with eight performances from October 26 to November 21, 2017. The critically acclaimed opera, staged by the librettist Tom Cairns, is a co-commission and co-production of the Metropolitan Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Royal Danish Theatre; and Salzburg Festival, where the production premiered in 2016.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel

Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel onMonday, October 16, 2017 at 7:30pm.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim Presents The Metropolitan Opera's 'The Exterminating Angel'

Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel onMonday, October 16, 2017 at 7:30pm.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim Announces Fall 2017 Season

Works & Process at the Guggenheim has just announced its fall 2017 season and opens the season with a commissioned performance made in and for the museum rotunda.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What awards has Tom Cairns been nominated for?

Outstanding Achievement in Opera (Olivier Awards) for King Priam and Best Costume Designer (Olivier Awards) for Sunday In The Park With George.

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