Marianka Swain - Page 38

Terror is the unique Lyric Hammersmith production which puts the power of the law in the audience's hands. But how did the cast fare when asked to play a game of You Be The Judge? Watch the video below!

Nikolai Foster's revival of Annie is currently playing at the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End. The production stars Miranda Hart as Miss Hannigan, Alex Bourne as Daddy Warbucks, Holly Dale Spencer as Grace Farrell, Jonny Fines as Rooster and Djalenga Scott as Lily.

Game of Thrones returns this weekend, but those hungry for political machinations and manipulations can also find a feast of them in Helen Edmundson's 2015 stealth thriller about a little-known 18th-century English monarch and her courtly advisors' jockeying for influence. With plenty of resonance for 2017, it's rich history with contemporary bite.

Playwright Jake Brunger and composer Pippa Cleary have been creating musicals together since they met at Bristol University in 2008. Their work includes Jet Set Go!, The Great British Soap Opera and an adaptation of Sue Townsend's beloved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 . The latter begins a London run at the Menier Chocolate Factory this week.

Enter Lucy Kerbel's eminently practical book All Change Please.

It's a brave new world for the RSC, collaborating with Intel and Andy Serkis's Imaginarium Studios on a notably high-tech Tempest. But, for all the computer-generated trickery, it's the human experience and rough magic of theatre that really impress in Gregory Doran's production, now playing at the Barbican.

Tony Kushner's multi-award-winning two-part play ANGELS IN AMERICA is an epic operation for the National Theatre. Go backstage to see what a two-show day entails in this behind-the-scenes peek - watch the video below!

Bath's Ustinov Studio has become something of a European hub. Visionary director Laurence Boswell and ever-skilful translator Christopher Hampton, who first introduced us to Florian Zeller, are currently championing Daniel Kehlmann - a bestselling writer in Germany, where he published the first of 10 books when he was still a student.

London is never short of theatre temptations, whether splashy West End shows, epic dramas or bold fringe offerings. From a Tennessee Williams revival and Bob Dylan-scored drama to royal politics and Adrian Mole, here are some of this month's most eye-catching openings. Don't forget to check back for BroadwayWorld's reviews…

James Graham's portrait of Seventies politics, This House, recently enjoyed a West End outing, and his latest epic venture into Britain's past may well follow suit. If slightly weighed down by detailed research, it's still a riveting depiction of the birth of The Sun as we know it, and the revolution it signalled in the way we tell our national story.

One American great inhabits another in this superior cabaret, as the Broadway legend Audra McDonald slips into the skin - and unforgettable voice - of jazz icon Billie Holiday. The emotional sensitivity makes it far more than just an immensely skilful impersonation, and makes McDonald's delayed West End debut well worth the wait.

Ashley Gilmour's previous work includes Link Larkin in Hairspray and the ensemble of the original revival cast of Miss Saigon. Now, he's graduated to playing Chris in the UK and Ireland tour of Boublil and Schonberg's legendary musical, which begins at Curve Leicester on 1 July.

American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins asserts that the nightmarish workplace depicted in Gloria bears little resemblance to his time at the New Yorker, but that tension between truth and imagination adds a nicely meta layer to this spiky portrait of the ways in which we appropriate, fictionalise and commercially repackage reality.

Sisters Grimm, a company founded by composer Ella Spira and choreographer Pietra Mello-Pittman, is following up hit show INALA with new dance musical Voices of the Amazon. Fusing ballet, contemporary and capoeira with a Brazilian score and narration by Jeremy Irons, it premieres this July at Sadler's Wells.

Following a sold-out Almeida run, Robert Icke's thoughtfully contemporary take on Shakespeare hits the West End, with its original cast mainly intact (Derbhle Crotty succeeds Juliet Stevenson as Gertrude on 4 July). The big draw, of course, is the superb Andrew Scott in the title role, but Icke's production is just as considered in every supporting part, resulting in a wonderfully rich experience.

Jon Brittain's Rotterdam, the 2017 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, has played at Theatre503, Trafalgar Studios and 59E59 Theaters in New York. The bittersweet comedy, which addresses gender, sexuality and identity, returns to the West End this month for a run at the Arts Theatre.

Sara Poyzer, whose previous work includes Billy Elliot, has been starring as Donna Sheridan on the Mamma Mia! tour and now takes the role in the West End production at the Novello Theatre.

Relative newcomers Andrew Polec and Christina Bennington were thrilled to land the lead roles in Jim Steinman's musical Bat Out of Hell. Several decades in the making, the show is now playing at the London Coliseum.

Killian Donnelly's stellar musical career includes Kinky Boots, Memphis, The Commitments, Billy Elliot and The Phantom of the Opera. From tonight, he becomes the new West End Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

'My mother says you're tragedy personified,' reports a precocious child to Carol, who recently attempted suicide. It's typical of Alice Birch's harrowing new play, which wrings blistering humour as well as despair from its accomplished portrait of women in pain and their disconnect from those around them.