Clara Read

The Stage today announces the shortlist for its prestigious The Stage Debut Awards 2019, in association with Access Entertainment. Voting has also opened for The Joe Allen Best West End Debut Award 2019.

Last week, Matilda the Musical - that soaring celebration of storytelling - marked its fifth year in the West End. Appropriately enough, the show begins with a birthday party in the marvellously caustic "Miracle" (over 41,000 balloons have been used since the show opened at the Cambridge Theatre), and the audience was invited to join the party, treated to birthday cupcakes in the interval. No word on whether Bruce Bogtrotter made a play for them first…

Ahead of celebrations for its fifth birthday in the West End this autumn and Roald Dahl's centenary on 13 September, the Royal Shakespeare Company's multi award-winning production of Matilda The Musical has announced that Sara Sheen and Abbie Vena will join Zaris-Angel Hator and Clara Read in the title role from 13 September 2016. Tickets for the new booking period, which includes performances at the Cambridge theatre between 30 May and 15 October 2017, will go on sale on the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth, 13 September.

Now in its fifth year in London's West End, the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Matilda The Musical has announced that Zaris-Angel Hator, Clara Read and Emily-May Stephenson are to join Evie Hone in the title role from 15 March 2016.

ORESTEIA, in a modern reimagining by Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke, will be transferring to Trafalgar Studios late next month -- original company intact.

Casting is today announced for Oresteia, reimagined for the modern stage by Almeida Associate Director Robert Icke (The Fever, Mr Burns, 1984), in its first major London production in more than a decade.