Casting Announced for North American Premiere of LEOPOLDSTADT
It will play a strictly limited engagement at the Princess of Wales Theatre, January 22 to March 13, 2022.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 06, 2021
David Mirvish has announced the cast of the North American premiere of Leopoldstadt, the newest play by Tom Stoppard, directed by Patrick Marber. This Sonia Friedman Production comes to Toronto after a much lauded and sold-out engagement at London's Wyndham's Theatre. It will play a strictly limited engagement at the Princess of Wales Theatre, January 22 to March 13, 2022. Tickets now available through mirvish.com and 1-800-461-3333.
"Toronto is lucky to be the first place in North America to have Tom Stoppard's latest play," says David Mirvish. "That alone is an enormous honour. But we will also get to see this remarkable work in its original London production".
"It's a lavish, epic production with a cast of over 30. Produced by Sonia Friedman, directed by Patrick Marber and featuring the work of many of the world's leading theatre artists, this is a production that completely captivated, dazzled and moved me when I saw it in January 2020. Even before the performance I saw had ended I knew I had to find a way to bring it to Toronto. I want to publicly thank Sonia Friedman, Tom Stoppard and Patrick Marber for making this happen.
"I hope my enthusiasm and love for this play are abundantly evident. I am not embarrassed to be gushing about a work as important as this one. I truly believe this is a major cultural coup for Toronto and I hope my fellow citizens will enjoy Leopoldstadt as much as I did."
About the Play
Vienna in 1900 was the most vibrant city in Europe, humming with artistic and intellectual excitement and a genius for enjoying life. A tenth of the population were Jews. A generation earlier they had been granted full civil rights by the Emperor, Franz Josef. Consequently, hundreds of thousands fled from the Pale and the pogroms in the East and many found sanctuary in the crowded tenements of the old Jewish quarter, Leopoldstadt.
Tom Stoppard's new play, directed by Patrick Marber, is an intimate drama with an epic sweep; the story of a family who made good. "My grandfather wore a caftan," says Hermann, a factory owner, "my father went to the opera in a top hat, and I have the singers to dinner." It was not to last. Over the next fifty years this family, like millions of others, was to re-discover what it meant to be Jewish in the first half of the 20th century. Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of love, endurance and loss. It is Stoppard's most humane and heart-breaking play.
The Cast
This cast includes Sebastian Armesto as Jacob/Nathan/Ludwig, Jenna Augen as Rosa, Rhys Bailey as Paul/Young Nathan, Cara Ballingall as Nellie, Faye Castelow as Gretl, Joe Coen as Zac/Policeman, Felicity Davidson as Hilde, Mark Edel-Hunt as Fritz/Nazi, Clara Francis as Wilma, Arty Froushan as Leo, Rebecca Gethings as Eva, Caroline Gruber as Emi, Natalie Law as Hanna, Avye Leventis as Sally, Jake Neads as Aaron/Police, Aaron Neil as Ernest, Alexander Newland as Kurt, Edie Newman as Jana, Andy Nyman as Hermann, Macy Nyman as Hermine, Noof Ousellam as Otto, Sadie Shimmin as Poldi, Griffin Stevens as Percy and Dan Wolff as Mohel. Children's casting will be announced at a later date.
The Creative Team
Leopoldstadt, the sixth collaboration between SFP and Tom Stoppard, reunites Stoppard, Marber and Friedman who last collaborated on Travesties in 2017.
Internationally award-winning writer Tom Stoppard's plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, Jumpers, New Found Land, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, Travesties, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (a play for actors and orchestra written with André Previn), Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia, Rock 'n' Roll and, most recently, The Hard Problem. His radio plays include Albert's Bridge, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died, If You're Glad I'll Be Frank, and most recently, his dramatic imagining of Pink Floyd's Darkside of the Moon, Darkside. As well as for the stage and radio, Stoppard is an award-winning writer for film and television.
Patrick Marber's directing credits of his own work include Dealer's Choice at The National Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre, After Miss Julie for BBC TV, Exit the King at The National Theatre, Closer at The National Theatre, Lyric and Music Box, New York, Howard Katz and Three Days in the Country also at The National Theatre and Don Juan in Soho at Wyndham's Theatre. His other directing credits include The Room as part of the Pinter at the Pinter Season, Venus In Fur at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Travesties at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Apollo Theatre and The American Airlines Theater, New York, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director, The Caretaker at the Comedy Theatre, Blue Remembered Hills at The National Theatre, 1953'at the Almeida and The Old Neighbourhood at The Royal Court Theatre. Marber's plays, which have received multiple awards both in the West End and on Broadway, include Dealer's Choice, After Miss Julie, Closer, Howard Katz, Three Days in the Country, The Red Lion and a version of Hedda Gabler. He is also an award-winning screenwriter and his film credits include Closer and Notes on a Scandal.
Set designs are by Richard Hudson, with costume designs by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting by Neil Austin, sound and original music by Adam Cork, and movement by EJ Boyle.
Sonia Friedman Productions is an international production company responsible for some of the most successful theatre productions of recent years. Since 1990, Sonia Friedman OBE and SFP have developed, initiated and produced 180+ new productions and won a combined 58 Oliviers, 34Tonys and 2 BAFTAs.
Current productions include: the UK premiere of The Book of Mormon, West End and UK & European Tour, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London, New York, Melbourne, San Francisco and Hamburg, Mean Girls US Tour, and The Shark is Broken at the Ambassador's Theatre, London.
Forthcoming productions include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in Toronto and Tokyo; Dreamgirls UK tour; To Kill a Mockingbird at the Gielgud Theatre, London; Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre, London; Oklahoma! at the Young Vic, Dr Semmelweis at the Bristol Old Vic, The Human Voice at the Harold Pinter theatre and Funny Girl on Broadway in 2022.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
The Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King Street West
January 22 - March 13, 2022
Media performance: 2:00 PM, Sunday January 30, 2022
Performance Schedule:
Tuesday - Saturday at 8:00 PM
Wednesday matinee at 1:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM
Tickets now available online at mirvish.com or 1-800-461-3333
Website: leopoldstadtplay.com
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