With ailing box office receipts, Jerry Springer the Opera was relying on their TV broadcast to pick up business, but sadly even the massive media attention (though somewhat negative publicity) could not save it. Jerry will close in the West End on February 19th. Winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, the show's success story is a long one. Originally a one-man show called How To Write An Opera About Jerry Springer, it was then developed at the Battersea Arts Centre before running at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There it was seen by Nicholas Hytner, director of The National Theatre, who snapped it up to run in his inaugural season. Following its run at the Cambridge Theatre it will embark on a UK tour in the autumn and - if all goes to plan - open on Broadway next year.
Sharon Osbourne, who shot to fame in the hit TV series The Osbournes, is to star in The Vagina Monologues for a six week West End season. Though famous for being followed by MTV's cameras, she has recently massively increased her profile by judging TV show The X Factor. Her time on the programme gained her great media support, especially in her criticisms of fellow judge Simon Cowell. At the Wyndham's Theatre she will present Eve Ensler's three-woman show - which reveals women's thoughts on female genitalia - from April 4th. Her co-stars are yet to be announced, but previous West End outings have attracted the likes of Edie Falco, Meera Syal, Jackie Clune and Jerry Hall amongst a host of many others.
The acclaimed British actor Jim Broadbent will return to The National Theatre this May in a theatrical adaptation of Theatre of Blood. The cult 1973 film - starring Diana Rigg and Vincent Price – is about an actor who is overlooked for a critics' acting award, despite producing a season of Shakespeare plays, and how he gets his revenge. Last year Broadbent received great acclaim for his performance in The Pillowman, and off stage he has appeared in films such as Moulin Rouge, Iris and can currently be seen in Vera Drake. Whether Broadbent will need to strike revenge on his critics will come apparent on May 19th, when it opens in rep at the Lyttleton Theatre.
Ahead of its tour beginning in March, the cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie has been announced. Taking the title role is Donna Steele, who - as first understudy in the West End - garnered a large following when lead actress Amanda Holden was ill. Lesley Joseph - best known for comedy series Birds of a Feather, but also a regular theatre performer - will play Mrs Meers, and singer Grace Kennedy plays the glamorous MuzzyVan Hossmere. On Broadway Millie won six Tony Awards and in the West End was nominated for four. It tells the tale of the bobbed-haired girl from Kansas, desperate to make a life in the Big Apple. Music and lyrics – featuring such songs as Not For The Life of Me, Forget About the Boy and Gimme Gimme - are by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan.
The Royal Shakespeare Company will be represented at a fourth West End venue - the intimate Arts Theatre - when they transfer Tynan, a one-man play with Corin Redgrave. Tynan is based on the diaries of the late drama critic Kenneth Tynan and received glowing reviews at the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon venue. Currently at the Arts Theatre is the hit comedy Fully Committed with Mark Setlock and Toby Young's autobiographical show How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. Young will depart this weekend and Tynan shares billing with Fully Committed from 17th February.
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
.png)
.png)
