Marianka Swain - Page 53

From today, there's a 48-hour priority sale for the new Old Vic season, including the 50th anniversary production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire (25 February-29 April 2017).

It's not just the title that's daunting in Tony Kushner's exhaustive three-and-a-half-hour epic, which tackles everything from socialist history, belief systems and family dysfunction to maternity strap-ons and meta jokes about cell phones at the theatre. It's such a barrage of polyphonic arguments and relentlessly destructive behaviour that one begins to develop a sneaking sympathy with the patriarch's desire for 'self-delivery' AKA suicide. But, under Michael Boyd's sure hand, a strong cast delivers the meat of this hefty piece - for those who can stick with it.

Clive Francis's varied stage and screen career includes A Clockwork Orange, Entertaining Mr Sloane, the original Poldark and upcoming Netflix drama The Crown. He's currently starring in Stephen Daldry's lauded revival of An Inspector Calls at Playhouse Theatre, which begins previews on 4 November.

This week, the cast of West End hit THE COMEDY ABOUT A BANK ROBBERY - which recently announced a booking extension until October 2017 - tackled new interactive game The Million Pound Heist. The Enigma Quests 'escape room' game challenges teams of players to break into the safehouse of London's most notorious criminal gang, analyse highly confidential information, navigate security and try to enter the vault. See cast members Gareth tempest, Dave Hearn, Greg Tannahill, Henry Shields and Ellie Morris in action below, photographed by Ana Maria Wiggins and Adam Bennett.

Since winning hearts during his stint on Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by Flavia Cacace, actor and astrologer Russell Grant has starred in Hairspray, Grease and The Wizard of Oz. He's now hosting The Golden Age of Dance, a celebration of great dance numbers from classic films like Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Swing Time and Shall We Dance, featuring a company of West End dancers and The Novello Orchestra. The show is at Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 13 November and Wales Millennium Centre on 15 November.

Jealousy stalks this seminal work by the late Peter Schaffer, making a triumphant return to the theatre where it debuted in 1979. Court composer Salieri is cursed with just enough musical appreciation to realise how mediocre his efforts are in comparison with Mozart - whose instinctive genius is yoked to an obscene child persona - a realisation that shakes his fundamental faith. If music is God's art, why isn't his virtue rewarded with a divine voice? Why does the Almighty choose instead, as his conduit, someone who Salieri deems so unworthy?

The Globe has announced that Emma Rice will be stepping down as Artistic Director in April 2018, two years after her tenure began. In a statement, CEO Neil Constable said: 'Emma's mould-breaking work has brought our theatre new and diverse audiences, won huge creative and critical acclaim, and achieved exceptionally strong box office returns. In breaking the mould, this latest season has generated productive debate concerning the purpose and theatrical practice of the Globe, in relation to the use of sound and lighting technology within our theatre spaces. Following much deliberation and discussion, the Globe Board has concluded that from April 2018, the theatre programming should be structured around 'shared light' productions without designed sound and light rigging, which characterised a large body of The Globe's work prior to Emma's appointment. 

Jim Steinman's epic rock and roll theatrical fantasy BAT OUT OF HELL THE MUSICAL, the inspiration for one of the most iconic and successful albums in history, is set to explode onto the London Coliseum stage in June 2017, and you can book tickets now via a special pre-sale.

Gillian Bevan has done everything from Holby City and Teachers on TV to RSC productions and extensive musical theatre, including Into the Woods, Billy Elliot and Grand Hotel. She's currently starring in the RSC's Cymbeline - the first woman to play the title role for the company. The production comes to the Barbican next week.

David Fynn's credits range from She Stoops to Conquer and Romeo and Juliet at the National Theatre to Sherlock and Game of Thrones. Now he's starring as rocker-turned-substitute teacher Dewey Finn in the UK premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Glenn Slater and Julian Fellowes' School of Rock, which begins previews at New London Theatre on 24 October.

Following her success on The Voice, singer and actress Lucy O'Byrne took on the iconic role of Maria Von Trapp in the UK tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's indelible The Sound of Music; she's since performed the show more than 250 times. Next week, it makes a London stop at New Wimbledon Theatre.

Renowned playwright Howard Brenton's work ranges from The Romans in Britain and Pravda to 55 Days and Drawing the Line. Now, his eerily resonant 1973 play Magnificence - featuring idealistic squatters, police brutality, slippery politicians and radicalisation - is being revived at Finborough Theatre, previewing from 25 October.

How do you make a musical about cancer? This latest work from Bryony Kimmings isn't just theatre, but metatheatre. Her voiceovers and the emails published in the programme detail the at times highly personal development process, and a gut punch of a last 15 minutes strip away the comfort of fictional distance. It could be self-indulgent; instead, it becomes an effective method for making us confront that other, bigger question: how do we talk about, prepare for and deal with illness?

Aged just 21, Jonah Hauer-King has appeared in Punk Rock at Lyric Belfast and is currently making his West End debut in the Kenneth Branagh-starring revival of The Entertainer at Garrick Theatre - all while juggling his university studies. The production plays until 12 November, and will be broadcast in cinemas on 27 October.

Lucie Jones rose to fame on The X Factor, and has since built up a strong list of theatre credits, including Les Miserables in the West End, American Psycho at the Almeida and Legally Blonde at Leicester Curve. She's now playing Maureen in the 20th anniversary UK tour of Jonathan Larson's Rent, which begins at Theatr Clywd on 21 October and plays at London's St James Theatre on 8 December-28 January, 2017.

Ben Forster became a household name when he won Andrew Lloyd Webber's Superstar TV competition and went on to lead the UK arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. His West End work includes Evita and Elf: The Musical, and he's currently starring as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

It was a dark and stormy night. Two couples are caught in a snowstorm on their way back from a party. Three of them arrive at a remote Connecticut farmhouse. One disappears. There's a definite pleasure in this familiar story, immaculately told in David Hare's adaptation of Georges Simenon's novel La Main. The noir thriller tropes are all in place, from femme fatales and gnawing jealousy to paranoia about what lies beneath.

You have to admire the grand scope of Ella Hickson's long-gestating new play, which grapples with urgent ideas about this vital but declining resource amidst audacious magic realist time travel. Stretching from 19th-century Cornwall to a dystopian future, it's DH Lawrence meets Black Mirror, by way of David Hare - anchored by insightful deconstruction of the mother/daughter relationship. If it becomes unwieldy in places, it's still a rich and absorbing piece of work, and an all-too-rare female odyssey.

Choreographer Drew McOnie's recent work includes Jekyll & Hyde at the Old Vic, Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Bugsy Malone at Lyric Hammersmith, and In the Heights at King's Cross Theatre, for which he won an Olivier Award. He's currently directing and choreographing the UK premiere of Strictly Ballroom The Musical, which begins previews at West Yorkshire Playhouse on 30 November.

'I shook up the world.' So says young gun and new heavyweight champion Cassius Clay (shortly to become Muhammad Ali) in those heady moments after his shock defeat of Sonny Liston in February 1964. But a meeting that same night with three African-American friends of equivalent status - superstar crooner Sam Cooke, NFL hero Jim Brown and controversial preacher Malcolm X - leads to soul-searching about the definition of success, and how best men like Clay can represent their community in a divided nation.