BARNUM, THE PAJAMA GAME AND MORE: Chichester Festival Theatre Confirms 2013 Season!
By: Carrie Dunn Feb. 21, 2013
Theatre in the Park, a temporary state-of-the-art auditorium, will stage two productions at the heart of Chichester's Festival 2013. The brand new space will be erected in June while the
£22 million RENEW redevelopment of the Festival Theatre continues.
Mirroring the Festival Theatre's auditorium, the purpose-built temporary building will house
1,400 seats and a thrust stage. It will be just a few minutes' stroll across Oaklands Park from
the Festival Theatre site.
Theatre in the Park will be unveiled with a major revival of the musical Barnum presented
in association with Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Timothy Sheader, Artistic Director
of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, this production will star the versatile and consummate
Broadway entertainer Christopher Fitzgerald in the title role.
Angus Jackson directs Neville's Island, the second production to be staged in the Theatre in
the Park. Tim Firth's comedy about a disastrous outward bound expedition promises to be a
technically and visually ambitious staging.
Richard Eyre returns to Chichester to direct the musical The Pajama Game, which opens the
Festival season in the Minerva Theatre. Love is in the air at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory
but sparks fly when employees are refused a pay rise.
Other highlights of Festival 2013 include the return of the critically acclaimed production The
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, one of the undoubted hits of Festival 2012.
Directed by Chichester's Artistic Director, Jonathan Church, the production will once again
feature Henry Goodman reprising his award-winning performance in the title role. Set in
Chicago in the 1930s during the Great Depression, the play is a powerful and sharp-witted
parable of the rise of Hitler. Following the Chichester run, the play will transfer to the West
End's Duchess Theatre.
The second play to be directed by Angus Jackson during Festival 2013 will be the world
premiere of political drama If Only by David Edgar, which takes a witty and astute look at the
world of coalition government.
The season ends with Another Country, Julian Mitchell's sensitive exploration of sexuality
and politics, set against the backdrop of a public school. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, Another
Country is co-produced with Theatre Royal Bath Productions in association with Fiery Angel.
Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, directed by Dale Rooks, will present Roald Dahl's The
Witches in the Minerva Theatre over the Christmas period.
Since their appointment in 2006, Jonathan Church and Alan Finch have explored ways of
developing a younger audience. Chichester Festival Theatre was one of the most successful
participants in the Arts Council's A Night Less Ordinary scheme to give away tickets to
young people in 2009 - 10. During 2012 the Theatre also attracted a significant proportion
of younger audience members through its temporary pop-up auditorium, Theatre on the Fly,
which staged three critically acclaimed productions, Blue Remembered Hills, Playhouse
Creatures and Fred's Diner.
Chichester Festival Theatre remains committed to encouraging independent theatregoing
among younger people during Festival 2013 and this has led to the launch of a new scheme
for 18 - 25 year olds. A special allocation of tickets priced at just £8.50 for all performances
in both Theatres will be released one month before each production opens. Alongside
this initiative, the Theatre is revising its approach to ticket pricing by introducing a 'flexible'
system. This will fix ticket prices at an early-bird rate for a certain period. After this time,
the Theatre will have the option to vary prices in response to demand for the most popular
performances.
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THE PAJAMA GAME
22 April - 8 June, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Monday 29 April, 7.00pm)
Words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross
Book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell
Based on Bissell's novel 7?½ Cents
Director: Richard Eyre
Choreographer: Stephen Mear
Designer: Tim Hatley
Dance Arrangements, Musical Supervisor & Musical Director: Gareth Valentine
Lighting Designer: Howard Harrison
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Love is in the air at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory as handsome new Superintendent
Sid Sorokin falls head-over-heels for firebrand Union rep Babe Williams. But when the
employees are refused a seven-and-a-half cents an hour raise, sparks fly and the couple
find themselves deliciously at odds. Will love, eventually, conquer all? This delightful musical
confection includes the songs Hey There (You With The Stars In Your Eyes), Hernando's
Hideaway and Steam Heat.
Richard Eyre directed The Last Cigarette for Chichester. He was Artistic Director of the
National Theatre from 1988 - 97 where his productions included Guys and Dolls, Racing
Demon, Richard III, The Night of the Iguana and Skylight. He has recently directed Betty
Blue Eyes and Quartermaine's Terms. Film and television credits include Comedians,
Tumbledown, Iris, Henry IV Parts I and II and Notes on a Scandal.
Hadley Fraser plays Sid. West End theatre includes LES MISERABLES, The Far Pavilions and
The Fantasticks. Broadway theatre includes The Pirate Queen. Film includes The Phantom
of the Opera 25th Anniversary and LES MISERABLES.
Joanna Riding plays Babe. Her credits include My Fair Lady and Carousel, for which she
won an Olivier Award, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Billy Elliot, An Ideal Husband, Blithe
Spirit, The Witches of Eastwick and Guys and Dolls. Her television credits include the Sky
comedy Stella.
IF ONLY by David Edgar WORLD PREMIERE
14 June - 27 July, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 20 June, 7.00pm)
Director: Angus Jackson
It is April 2010, the day after the first prime ministerial debate. Stranded in Malaga Airport by
the Icelandic ash-cloud, a Labour special advisor, a Lib Dem staffer and a Tory candidate
consider their options. Can their parties survive without them? How will they get home? And
who'll end up in government?
Fast forward to August 2014. As the nation settles down to commemorate the outbreak of
the First World War, the three politicians meet again. One of them knows something that
could change the outcome of the 2015 election. Should they reveal it? And at what cost?
David Edgar's plays include Destiny, Pentecost and Written on the Heart for the RSC and
The Shape of the Table and Playing with Fire for The National Theatre. His multi award-
winning RSC adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby was revived by
Chichester in 2006, followed by his new version of Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder in
2010.
Angus Jackson is Associate Director at Chichester where he will also direct Neville's Island
during Festival 2013. Other Chichester credits include Goodnight Mister Tom (also West
End and tour), Canvas, The Browning Version, Wallenstein, Funny Girl, The Waltz of the
Toreadors, The Father and Carousel. His productions of Bingo and The Browning Version
both transferred to the West End in 2012. He has also directed Elmina's Kitchen, Fix Up,
Rocket to the Moon and The Power of Yes for The National Theatre.
Chichester Festival Theatre IN ASSOCIATION WITH Cameron Mackintosh
PRESENTS
BARNUM
Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by Michael Stewart
Book by Mark Bramble
In a Revised Version by Cameron Mackintosh and Mark Bramble
15 July - 31 August, Theatre in the Park (Press Night: Wednesday 24 July, 7.00pm)
Director: Timothy Sheader
Co-director and Choreographer: Liam Steel
Co-Choreographer: Andrew Wright
Set Designer: Scott Pask
Costume Designer: Paul Wills
Orchestrations: William David Brohn
Musical Supervisor: Stephen Brooker
Lighting Designer: Paule Constable
Sound Designer: Mick Potter
Circus Consultant: Vicki Amedume
This exhilarating Broadway musical follows the irrepressible imagination and dreams of
Phineas T Barnum, America's Greatest Showman. The story of his life and his marriage to
Chairy reveals a couple who looked at the world from opposite sides of the spectrum, and
also reveals that she was the practical one who made his dreams come true. We follow the
legendary showman's life as he lit up the world with the colour, warmth and excitement of his
imagination and finally teamed up with J A Bailey to create Barnum and Bailey's Circus - the
Greatest Show on Earth.
Cy Coleman's wonderfully exuberant score includes the hits Come Follow The Band, The
Colours Of My Life and There's A Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute.
Christopher Fitzgerald plays P T Barnum. A rising star on Broadway, he has garnered
great acclaim and awards for roles such as Boq in the original cast of Wicked, Igor inYoung
Frankenstein, Og in Finian's Rainbow and Launcelot Gobbo in Al Pacino's production of The
Merchant of Venice.
The stellar creative team assembled for Barnum is led by Olivier Award-winning director
Timothy Sheader (Artistic Director Open Air Theatre Regent's Park, Crazy For You, Into
the Woods, Hello, Dolly!), Co-Director and Choreographer Liam Steel (Into the Woods
and the new movie of LES MISERABLES), Co-Choreographer Andrew Wright (Olivier Award
nominated for Chichester's Singin' in the Rain) and musical maestro Stephen Brooker (Les
Misérables stage and movie, Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon).
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI by Bertolt Brecht
In a translation by George Tabori revised by Alistair Beaton
15 August - 14 September, Minerva Theatre
Director: Jonathan Church
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell
Music: Matthew Scott
Sound Designer: Mike Walker
Chicago in the 1930s, the Great Depression - the perfect time for Arturo Ui and his mob of
gangsters to run protection rackets for both workers and businesses. Soon Ui's menacing
shadow looms large across the entire city as he strives to seize absolute power.
Written in 1941 just before the exiled Bertolt Brecht arrived in the USA, this violent, epic
parable of the rise of Hitler is one of his most accessible plays, shot through with razor-sharp
humour.
Brecht's work includes The Threepenny Opera (with Kurt Weill), The Life of Galileo, Mother
Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Henry Goodman reprises his TMA Award-winning performance as Arturo Ui, one of the
richest and most demanding male characters in the contemporary dramatic canon. He
is soon to feature in The Old Vic's production of The Winslow Boy. Other theatre credits
include Festival 2010's Yes, Prime Minister, Copenhagen, The Holy Rosenbergs, Duet
for One, Fiddler on the Roof, Performances, The Gondoliers, Feelgood, The Merchant
of Venice, Chicago and Richard III. Television credits include Yes, Prime Minister and
Playhouse Presents: Nixon's the One.
Jonathan Church is Chichester Festival Theatre's Artistic Director. His credits for
Chichester include Singin' in the Rain, which transferred to the West End in 2012 and
continues to play at the Palace Theatre, having received Olivier and Evening Standard
Award nominations and a Whatsonstage.com Award for Best Choreographer. His
Chichester credits also include The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Grapes of
Wrath, Pravda, Hobson's Choice, The Circle and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas
Nickleby. Other credits include the Olivier Award-nominated Of Mice and Men.
Design is by Simon Higlett, Associate Designer at Chichester. His previous Chichester
credits include Singin' in the Rain, currently playing in the West End, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern Are Dead, Yes, Prime Minister, Taking Sides and Collaboration (all of which
transferred to the West End), The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and The Life and
Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. Other theatre credits include West End productions of The
Rivals and When We Are Married, and Pygmalion (The Old Vic and Hong Kong Festival).
NEVILLE'S ISLAND by Tim Firth
11 - 28 September, Theatre in the Park (Press Night: Friday 20 September, 7.00pm)
Director: Angus Jackson
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting Designer: Howard Harrison
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Four out-of-condition, middle-aged businessmen, sent off on a team-building exercise,
succeed in becoming the first people ever to get shipwrecked on an island in the Lake
District. What should have been a bonding process turns into a muddy, bloody fight for
survival amidst a carnival of recrimination, French cricket and sausages.
Tim Firth's Calendar Girls for Festival 2008 transferred to the West End followed by several
regional tours. Other theatre credits include Our House, which won an Olivier Award for Best
New Musical, The Safari Party and Sign of the Times. Film credits include The Wedding
Video, Blackball and Kinky Boots. Television credits include The Flint Street Nativity, Preston
Front and Cruise of the Gods.
Angus Jackson will also direct If Only, the world premiere by David Edgar, during Festival
2013. He is Associate Director at Chichester where his credits include Goodnight Mister
Tom (also West End and tour), Canvas, The Browning Version, Wallenstein, Funny Girl,
The Waltz of The Toreadors, The Father and Carousel. His productions of Bingo and The
Browning Version both transferred to the West End in 2012. He has also directed Elmina's
Kitchen, Fix Up, Rocket to the Moon and The Power of Yes for The National Theatre.
ANOTHER COUNTRY BY Julian Mitchell
18 September - 19 October, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Tuesday 24 September, 7.00pm)
Director: Jeremy Herrin
Designer: Peter McKintosh
Sound: Fergus O'Hare
The 1930s: an English Public School.
Bennett and Judd are both outsiders, one coming to terms with his homosexuality, the other
already a committed Marxist. But the Establishment has traditional ways of dealing with
rebels and when a scandal rooks the school, the young men must confront their beliefs and
make choices which will have a momentous impact on their lives.
This thought-provoking modern classic is a fictionalised account of the youth of such people
as the spy Guy Burgess and the Communist John Cornford, who died in the Spanish Civil
War.
Julian Mitchell is an English playwright, screenwriter and novelist whose theatre credits
include After Aida. His screenplays include Arabesque, Another Country, Wilde and Vincent
and Theo. Television credits include Consenting Adults and episodes of Inspector Morse.
Jeremy Herrin directed Uncle Vanya for Chichester during Festival 2012. He also directed
South Downs for Chichester's Festival 2011, which transferred to the West End in 2012. He
is Associate Director of The Royal Court Theatre where his credits include The Heretic and
That Face. Other credits include the critically acclaimed production of This House for the
National Theatre, Children's Children, Haunted Child, Absent Friends, Death and the Maiden
and Much Ado About Nothing, and the forthcoming Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies for the
RSC.
Another Country is co-produced with Theatre Royal Bath Productions in association with
Fiery Angel.
Chichester Festival Youth Theatre presents
THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl
Adapted by David Wood
7 December - 4 January, Minerva Theatre (Press Nights: Monday 9 and
Tuesday 10 December, 7.00pm)
Director: Dale Rooks
Designer: Simon Higlett
Music: Oli Jackson
Puppetry: Toby Olié
When our young hero goes to live with his fabulous Norwegian Grandmama, he discovers
the real truth about witches. They don't ride around on broomsticks, they don't even wear
black cloaks and hats. They are vile, cunning, detestable creatures who disguise themselves
as nice ordinary ladies. When the Grand High Witch conjures up a terrifying plan to rid
England of its children, it's up to a wise and wonderful Grandmama to prepare her darling
Boy for the most gruesome gathering of Witches ever assembled.
Roald Dahl remains one of England's best loved children's authors whose work includes
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Danny the Champion of the World, James and the Giant
Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda.
Adaptor David Wood has written over 70 plays for children, which have been performed all
over the world. His adaptation of Goodnight Mister Tom is currently touring the UK following
a critically acclaimed West End run in 2012. Wood's adaptations of Roald Dahl's classic
books including The BFG, The Witches, The Twits, James and the Giant Peach, Danny the
Champion of the World, Fantastic Mr Fox and George's Marvellous Medicine, as well as an
award-winning adaptation of Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden. He has also written
for film and TV and is the author of various children's books co-created with Richard Fowler.
Dale Rooks is Director of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. Her productions include Noah,
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Firework-Maker's Daughter, Peter Pan and Toad
of Toad Hall.
Chichester Festival Youth Theatre has produced enthralling Christmas productions in the
Festival Theatre for the past 10 years; now it takes to the Minerva Theatre to present one of
Roald Dahl's most deliciously revolting stories.
Age guideline 7+.
Priority booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre opens on Tuesday 26 February
for online and booking forms only. Telephone and in person bookings for Friends opens on
Tuesday 5 March.
To become a Friend of the Theatre and benefit from priority booking and discounted tickets,
please visit cft.org.uk/friends, or call the Box Office on 01243 781312.
General online booking opens on Thursday 7 March. Telephone and counter booking
opens for all on Monday 11 March.
Tickets £10 - £40, available online at cft.org.uk or contact the Box Office on 01243
781312.
Previews from just £10 for Theatre in the Park
Substantially reduced tickets for everyone are available for the first three performances of
Barnum on July 15, 16 and 17 at £10 and £30, and Neville's Island on September 11, 12
and 13, at £10 and £28.
Special Offer for 18 - 25s
An allocation of tickets priced at just £8.50 for all performances in both theatres will be
released one month before each production opens. These may be booked on 01243
781312, online at cft.org.uk or in person.
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