UK Roundup - RSC, UB40, Blue Man Group & Bombings

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare will be performed during a year long festival by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. With more than 30 professional companies involved with performing the 37 plays, plus numerous sonnets and poems, the festival will cost around £3.6m to stage, with the RSC doing fifteen alone. From April 2006 – April 2007, presumably to tie in with Shakespeare's birthday on April 23rd, high profile names such as Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen set about performing a range of different Shakespearean interpretations; be it traditional productions, modern adaptations (by writers such as Roy Williams and Leo Butler) or musicals (Dench is to star in a Merry Wives of Windsor musical). Some of the world's leading Shakespearean companies will be involved; from home-grown talents such as The Propeller Company to WashingtonDC's Shakespeare Theatre. The scale of the festival is so large that three new temporary spaces will be built to accommodate the festival. Full details can be found at www.rsc.org.uk.

Reggae group UB40 are next in line to have their hit songs paraded as a 'musical', though this time coming from a successful subsidised theatre in the regions - the Birmingham Rep - whose productions regularly transfer to the West End. The announcement came just two days after their performance at Live 8, where they sang a medly of their hits including Food for Thought, Who You Fighting For, Reasons, Red Red Wine and Can't Help Falling in Love with You. It will be called Promises and Lies (the name of their 1993 album) and the writer is 28-year-old Jess Walters, who's already had two plays performed in the studio venue at the Rep. The story 'will look at the contrasts that exist in society between those in control and the ordinary people whose destinies lie in their hands'. Jonathan Church directs with casting expected to be announced later this year ahead of a March 2006 opening.

The cult New York hit the Blue Man Group have finally announced they're to bring their unique style of theatre to London's West End. It had been hoped they would open at the New London Theatre after Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ended earlier this year, but after the show extended by five months plans for the Blue Man Group were put back. They'll now open at the venue on 14th November. A trio of bald headed, blue men who play assorted strange instruments, Blue Man Group is very genre-defiant, but a popular hit with fans – it has played in major cities across the world and off-Broadway for over ten years. The auditorium includes a 'poncho section' where the audience are shielded from assorted materials being sprayed into the audience; foods and paints for example. The New London is, of course, best known for hosting the 21 year run of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. It has now returned to a normal proscenium arch venue.

The London bombings on Thursday last week brought the West End to a standstill, with almost all shows announcing cancelled performances - the only time since World War 2. Being a busy matinee day some shows initially announced they'd cancel their afternoon performances, but after it was advised that no-one travel into London (as the train and bus networks were out of use) all major shows decided against performing, with refunds offered or exchanges given where possible. A verbatim play called Talking to Terrorists had opened just three nights before at the RoyalCourtTheatre, with The Guardian hailing it as 'the most important new play we have seen this year'. It plays through to July 30th, its meaning now heightened by the reality of Thursday's attacks. Luckily the West End is currently in a strong position, with many popular, sold out shows, so tourism shouldn't falter too much. To any foreign readers: please do not cancel trips, London is definitely 'open for business' and we need your support more than ever.

The National Theatre has announced its Winter season. Vera Drake writer/director Mike Leigh finally presents his new play in the Cottesloe Theatre with a cast of eight, who've been devising it together since April. It is still untitled, with the description simply stating 'a new play by Mike Leigh (which will have a proper title by the first night)'. After the success of His Dark Materials another children's novel will appear on the Olivier stage over Christmas – perhaps something that could become a regular fixture at the National. Coram Boy, a book by JamilaGavin about orphans in the 18th Century, will be adapted by Helen Edmunson and directed by Melly Still. A new version of a rare Ibsen play (Pillars of the Community) plays in the Lyttleton whilst Edward Hall directs his third Olivier Theatre production, the 30s Broadway comedy Once in a Lifetime. The History Boys, currently being filmed, returns for 59 performances ahead of a world tour and physical theatre company DV8 also play 9 performances.