Royal Shakespeare Company News

Tim Minchin, the internationally celebrated composer and comedian behind the music and lyrics of the sensational Broadway hit Matilda The Musical, will join 5th Avenue audiences for the next Spotlight Night, The 5th Avenue's behind-the-curtains look at upcoming productions. Hosted by Executive Producer and Artistic Director David Armstrong, this Spotlight Night will preview the theater's upcoming summer shows: the ever popular Grease, the final show of the 2014/15, season and Matilda The Musical, the smash hit that opens the 2015/16 season.

The Scottish Ballet performed A Streetcar Named Desire as a ballet at the Kennedy Center on Thursday, May 29th.  On its face, this is a ridiculous statement.  How could a foreign company perform the iconic American story by Tennessee Williams, much less translate it into pure movement?  However, the production was extremely well conceived and magnificently executed in libretto, design, and dance.

The world premiere of A Third by award-winning Chicago playwright Laura Jacqmin runs at the Finborough Theatre for twelve performances, on Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees, from Sunday, 28 June 2015 (Press Night: Monday 29 June 2015 at 7.30pm).

The First National Tour of Matilda the Musical, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Dodgers, launches tonight, May 29, with an official tour opening set for June 7, 2015 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

A major new and immersive contemporary ballet -- collaboratively imagined by choreographer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson, and award-winning producer/composer Jamie xx -- makes its U.S. premiere at Park Avenue Armory this September.

A major new and immersive contemporary ballet-collaboratively imagined by choreographer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson, and award-winning producer/composer Jamie xx-makes its U.S. premiere at Park Avenue Armory this September. Inspired by Jonathan Safran Foer's enigmatic and eponymous novel,Tree of Codes distorts conventional perceptions of space and time, through manipulation of light, reflection, sound, and movement. The work will be performed by a company of soloists and dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor.

The Daily Mail reports that Sinead Cusack will return to the Donmar Warehouse for Abi Morgan's SPLENDOUR, directed by Robert Hastie.

In this taut 2013 theatrical adaptation of Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's award winning-book, the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin and head of its death squad, Eugene de Kock (played by Matthew Marsh), sits opposite psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (played Noma Dumezweni) in Pretoria Central Prison in 1997. Gobodo-Madikizela is a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined to understand his actions. She questions de Kock, who is sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

The Almeida Theatre launches its new season: Almeida Greeks.

The first major revival of Ted Whitehead's Alpha Beta since 1972, directed by Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director Purni Morell, opens at the Finborough Theatre for a five week season on Thursday, 18 June, 2015 (Press Nights: Tuesday 23, June and Wednesday, 24 June at 7.30pm)

Award-winning actor Stephen Wight takes on the title role of Lee McQueen and Dianna Agron will play Dahlia in the world premiere of James Phillips's play McQUEEN directed by John Caird, which will run at St. James Theatre from 12 May to 27 June, with press nights on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 May.  The play will also star Tracy-Ann Oberman as Isabella Blow, Laura Rees as Arabella, and David Shaw-Parker as John Hitchcock, along with Sophie Apollonia, Amber Doyle, George Hill, Eloise Hymas, Jordan Kennedy, Rachel Louisa Maybank, James Revell and Carrie Willis.  Check out behind the scenes interviews and more!

On June 1 from 6-8 pm, The Shakespeare Society will host their third annual Playing Shakespeare Celebration at The Players (16 Gramercy Park South).

For Philadelphia-based actor Brian McCann, playing the title role in Hedgerow Theatre's production of Don Quixote, which runs through June 7, is the fulfillment of a long-held ambition to portray that character. The fact that he gets to live out that wish at the place where he started his career makes it even more special.

Robin Rayner, David Adkin and TREMers are pleased to announce the cast for their upcoming production of Tim Foley's brave dark comedy The Dogs of War, starring Richard Southgate (Skins, Young Dracula and Borgia). This new play is a volatile look at a group of people battling with the fear of change, isolation and separation.

BroadwayWorld has learned that Roger Rees is currently on leave from The Visit, and in his place, Tom Nelis is temporarily stepping in as Anton Schell. No word yet on the duration of the hiatus. Of note, the star has also been swapped out for Nelis on the show's official web site. According to audience member reports, Nelis is giving a stellar performance in the role opposite the legendary Chita Rivera. Keep checking BroadwayWorld as we learn more!

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the West Coast premiere of an exciting new American play, Rich Girl, by acclaimed playwright Victoria Stewart, continuing the Globe's 80th Anniversary festivities as part of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration. Rich Girl will be directed by James Vasquez (Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show), and will play May 23 - June 21, 2015, in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

This new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical comes from the producers of the highly successful tours of The King and I and Fiddler On The Roof.

The Juilliard School will confer honorary doctorates on five remarkable artists during its 110th Commencement Ceremony today, May 22, 2015 at 11 a.m. in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street, New York City). Suzanne Farrell, Nicholas Hytner (pictured, left), Murray Perahia, Dianne Reeves, and Peter Sellars will be honored at Juilliard's May 2015 Commencement Ceremony.

Robert Powell will take on the role of King Charles in the Almeida Theatre's Olivier Award-winning production of King Charles III, which will embark on a UK tour this autumn following sell-out runs at both the Almeida Theatre and in the West End.