Richard Eyre News

An extension to booking has been announced for the Olivier award-winning production of Mary Poppins with tickets now on sale until 10 July 2022 at the Prince Edward Theatre. 

The Metropolitan Opera will present Mozart’s classic comedy Le Nozze di Figaro for six performances, January 8–28, 2022. Maestro Daniele Rustioni, currently conducting the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, takes the podium to lead the revival of Richard Eyre’s fast-paced production, which sets the action in 1930s Seville.

Adam Plachetka will sing Count Almaviva in the January performances of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, replacing Christian Gerhaher, who has withdrawn due to a non-Covid-related illness.

Sky Arts will broadcast a new documentary Cameron Mackintosh - The First 50 Years on Monday 27 December 2021 at 7pm, a two-hour programme featuring Mackintosh’s life as a producer told through his own eyes and those of his friends and colleagues including his most famous writer collaborators.

The Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professorship, attached to St Catherine's College, was inaugurated by Stephen Sondheim in 1990, followed by a distinguished list of professors including Arthur Miller, Diana Rigg, Richard Eyre, Phyllida Lloyd, Ian McKellen, Nick Hytner, Deborah Warner, Stephen Daldry and Tom Stoppard.

Today's top stories include the announcement of a film adaptation of Follies, which is 'in active development.' Plus, check out photos from the red carpet at the West Side Story film premiere, watch Broadway theatres dim their lights in honor of Stephen Sondheim, and more. 

Cameron Mackintosh and Disney's new award-winning London production of MARY POPPINS is now on sale for performances beginning 15 May 2022 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Joining the previously announced Kirsty Besterman (Constance Wicksteed), Jasper Britton (Arthur Wicksteed), Matthew Cottle (Canon Throbbing), Ria Jones (Mrs Swabb), Thomas Josling (Dennis Wicksteed), Caroline Langrishe (Lady Rumpers), Catherine Russell (Muriel Wicksteed) and Abdul Salis (Mr Shanks), are Katie Bernstein (Felicity Rumpers), Kelvin O'Mard (Mr Purdue) and Dan Starkey (Sir Percy).

The Peggy Ramsay Foundation with Film4 and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund are delighted to announce the six winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Awards which celebrate and support emerging British writing talent.  

Pioneering arts leader Paul Crewes, who has served since 2015 as the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' first Artistic Director, steps down from his position at the end of this year and transitions to a new role as Artistic Advisor for the balance of The Wallis' 2021-2022 Season, it was announced by Michael Nemeroff, Chairman of the Board.

Richard Eyre’s production of Noël Coward’s 1941 Blithe Spirit was just settling into its West End home last year when lockdown struck. Now revived with most of its original cast, it settles into the Harold Pinter theatre for an eight-week run, featuring a stage-stealing appearance by Jennifer Saunders.

The antics of the Wicksteed home are a darkly satirical merry-go-round in Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus.  Family, friends and the quest for sexual pleasures of the body (“corpus”) are the ruling passions in this farcical comedy of ill-manners. Through an escapade of mistaken identities and carnal encounters, one motto holds fast: “He whose lust lasts, lasts longest.”

Today the Royal Opera House is delighted to launch its 2021/22 international Cinema Season after sixteen months of closure, broadcasting the best of ballet and opera to more than 2,000 screens across the globe.   

The Royal Opera House is one week away from the start of its first full Season since 2019, opening its doors to the public every day from 12pm and premiering with The Royal Opera’s spectacular new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto on September 13 and, for The Royal Ballet, a sumptuous performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s much-loved production of Romeo and Juliet on 5 October.  

Award-winning actress Harriet Robinson returns to theatre with the debut of her one-person play, 'Here Comes Harriet!' written and performed by Ms. Robinson with direction by Emmy-Award winner Beth Bornstein Dunnington. Here Comes Harriet! premiered on United Solo's Theatre Festival's new streaming platform, United Solo Screen.

Jennifer Saunders, one of the UK's most popular comic actors, will revive her role as the preposterous clairvoyant Madame Arcati. She is joined by original cast members Geoffrey Streatfeild who will star as Charles Condomine, Lisa Dillon as Ruth Condomine, Simon Coates as Dr Bradman, Lucy Robinson as Mrs Bradman, and Rose Wardlaw as Edith.

Based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the original Walt Disney film, Cameron Mackintosh and Disney’s Olivier award-winning production of Mary Poppins resumed performances at the Prince Edward Theatre on 7 August 2021 and is currently booking to 13 February 2022.

The Olivier award-winning production of Disney's Mary Poppins will resume performances at the Prince Edward Theatre from 7 August 2021. The show's leads, Zizi Strallen and Charlie Stemp had their first photo shoot in costume this week!

Joining the previously announced Zizi Strallen as Mary Poppins and Charlie Stemp as Bert are Charlie Anson as George Banks, Amy Griffiths as Winifred Banks, Petula Clark as Bird Woman, Liz Robertson as Miss Andrew, Claire Machin as Mrs Brill, Jack North as Robertson Ay and Paul F. Monaghan as Admiral Boom and Bank Chairman.

Playwright and novelist Michael Frayn was today awarded  the Critics Circle Award for Services to the Arts, the Critics Circle’s highest honour. Every year since 1988, the Critics’ Circle has voted for a single leading artist to receive an engraved crystal rose bowl in recognition of their distinguished contribution to the arts.